Bumbo Fun

Last week sometime Zach was playing with Ansley and helping her sit up! She was doing great and was holding her head up all on her own! Such a big girl already! As I was watching him and the puke coming out of her mouth because of too much pressure on her big belly, I remembered I bought a Bumbo at a garage sale last summer for $7 originally $40 at walmart! (that's a deal and it looks brand new). She loved it! A few days later Mya and Landen were over here playing and were taking turns sitting in it! They looked pretty cute and they both fit with no problem. Here are the pics of all three of them enjoying Bumbo time!!

It's crazy how much she has grown!

Mya in her jammies! :)

Landen! Such a cutie!

This weekend Zach and I are having a date night. We are going to dinner and maybe a movie and of course going to do a little shopping. Ansley is suppose to stay the night with my parents, but I'm not sure we can stay away for the whole night, but were going to try! :)

Zach had a second interview today and we should know by tomorrow if he got the job. Wish him luck!

have a good weekend!

I'm not a BOY daddy!

I'm sure this is what she was thinking when her daddy put her in this camo outfit! I have to admit that she did look pretty darn cute and the orange head band really set it off! :) She looks like she's ready to go hunting with daddy!

Ansley has been fighting a cold for the past couple of days. It started Monday when she woke up from her evening nap. We took her to the doctor Tuesday morning and he said she had a cold and if it wasn't better in a few days to come back. Teresa went to walmart for us to get her some Vicks baby rub and a Vicks humidifier. Thanks grandma. She seems to be on the mend today and her nose isn't running as much! So lets hope she's better.

first rose from daddy! We both got flowers last week! I got some beautiful tulips!

enjoying her bath in soothing vapor rub! If you haven't tried this stuff you should its great for colds! just add it to the water!

Worries

I'm not sure where to start other than i go back to work in a week and I'm worried, scared, stressed and a little overwhelmed. As I sit here it is 11:15pm and I should be in bed fast asleep just like the rest of my family, but I'm too worried to sleep. I guess I'll start by making a list of everything that is bothering me:

• not sure if I'm going to be able to leave Ansley without crying
• have no babysitter to take Ansley to if Zach gets a job
• Zach may have a job interview next week then we are really screwed on a sitter
• not sure i trust anyone else with Ansley (hell i can barely leave her with our parents without calling/texting every 5min)
• want soooo desperately to be a stay at home mom, but financially isn't possible
• having to get up at 4am again just to make it to work by 6 with an hour drive plus have to feed Ansley before I leave
• worry that if Ansley does go to a babysitter than other kids will put their germs all over her
• Keep thinking my mom will quit her job and watch Ansley for me when I'm working
• not sure i want Zach to get a job right now because i want him to stay at home with Ansley since I can't. ( I know that's wrong to say, but she loves her daddy time)
• need a babysitter part time since i only work a few days during the week
• didn't think i would have this much trouble stressing over finding a babysitter and one that my mother-in-law approves of

I know there are many more things that I could list, but I'm already crying and should probably try to sleep before Ansley's 4am wake up call. Does anyone else stress this much over leaving their child with a babysitter??

Ouch!!

Today was the day that I have been dreading all week! Ansley got her shots for the first time. All 3!!! I think I was more anxious/hurt than she was. She did great and only cried for a few seconds and then her daddy cuddled with her and she was all smiles after that! The nurse even commented on how much she loved her daddy! I was a little afraid to watch so I stood behind Zach and peeked over his shoulder! (It's funny, I can start IV's on people all day long and never think twice about it but, when it comes to Ansley my heart breaks!). She had her first dose of Tylenol before we went and will continue every 4-6 hours until tomorrow. So far no fever! She seems to be in a good mood and is acting her normal self!

Her tonsillitis is gone and hopefully it never returns! She has been sleeping and eating great for the past several nights! Usually sleeping for 6-7 hours at night!

Birthdays!

• Over the past month we have had a few birthdays and a few parties that we have attended! I'm a little behind on blogging about these, but better late than never right? Anyway, my cousin Kristi's son Kane turned 1!! It was a great birthday party with lots of gifts, cake and good company! I know I've talked about how crafty my aunt Brenda is in the past, but she really out did herself on this birthday bash! The theme: Barnyard! I love this theme and love all the ideas they came up with! Take a look at the cake and cupcakes! Don't they look great!? I found a few different websites that had really cute ideas for the cupcakes! (sorry I didn't save the sites). Here are a few pics from his bday bash!

The table!

the cow cake and cupcakes she made! (Kristi and I helped with the cake and cupcakes, but she did most of the work)

The sheep! How cute are these!!

Here's the bday boy! Notice the bib Brenda made that too! Kane's bday Dec. 28th!

We also attended Luke's 30th Birthday Bash! His birthday is on the 23rd, but we celebrated it on Jan. 1. It was a great time and I believe he had a little too much fun! lol :) This is an old pic from our weekend trip to Manhattan a little over a year ago! All I have to say about that trip is stay away from Pabst Blue Ribbon! (its the devil and I puked for days!)

He looks much older! lol!!! jk

My mom also had a birthday! She turned 46 on New Year's day! She got a Coach purse!! I love it!

Happy Birthday Kane, Luke and mom!!

2 months

Already?! Time is really flying by and i only have a couple of weeks until i have to go back to work! Ansley seems to be feeling a lot better and is back to nursing!! This month she has really changed! When we went to the doctor on Tuesday she weighed 11lbs 10oz and was 23inches long! She has really grown from 7lbs 6oz and 20inches at birth. Here's what she's been up to in the last 4 weeks:

• has really discovered her hands and always has them in her mouth
• started grabbing the toys on her bouncer/play mat
• talks/coo's a lot
• smiles whenever we talk to her
• hates tummy time
• started losing her hair in the back from where she sleeps
• kicks her feet like crazy
• still eats every 2-3 hours
• isn't sleeping through the night, but hopefully after were feeling better she will
• has to wear a bib 24/7 because she pukes so much
• is wearing 0-3 month clothes and #1 diapers
  still loves her binkey
• had Tylenol for the first time this week
  

Next week we go in for her 8 week shots! were a week behind due to her being sick and mommy being scared :)

newborn

1 month

2 months

Tonsillitis!!!

Let me start off by saying, you know when you have days that you can't do anything to make your little one happy and you are so frustrated that you want to throw them out the window? (maybe not you, well that was me yesterday). It didn't seem like anything I did made her happy yesterday and starting at 7pm last night she stopped nursing!! She would scream bloody murder anytime I tired to nurse her, but we would give her a bottle and she drank it no problem! Finally, at 11pm we got Ansley to sleep, but still wouldn't nurse during the night and I had to pump and then give her my breast milk. Needless to say I am exhausted today and so is Zach. I thought maybe her thrush was back because she wasn't running a fever (i checked it twice rectally). So at 8:30 this morning I called the doctors office, but they couldn't get her in until 3:10. I was finally able to get her to nurse at 11:30 while she was sleeping and again at 2:15 sleeping. So after our 30min. visit at the doctors office (which isn't a long wait i might add) she has tonsillitis!! Really??? at 2 months old?! Poor baby and of course now I feel terrible for saying bad things about her yesterday knowing that she must of been in pain! :( poor baby. Now we are on antibiotics for 5 days! She is sound asleep now after a dose of Tylenol, so hopefully tomorrow she feels better.

On a better/ happier note here is Ansley and Ava together at my parents house on Sunday! Look how huge Ansley looks lol!!!

Ansley at 8 weeks and Ava at 6 days!

Justin, Miranda and Brad

What a way to spend your Saturday night! We had a great time at the Brad Paisley concert with Jamie and Luke! I was pretty proud of myself leaving Ansley for the evening and only checking on her like 5 times while we were gone! :) We left here around 4 and ate at SALS (a Japanese steakhouse that cooks in front of you). We love that place and it seems like whenever were in Wichita we try to eat there! After dinner we headed to the new arena. It was freezing outside and we gladly spent $10 for close parking. The concert was great and at midnight we finally arrived home! I missed Ansley so much while we were gone and not to mention 9 hours without nursing or pumping about killed me! I had a wonderful night with my husband and thanks to Zach's parents for watching Ansley for our first evening alone in 8 weeks!

off to tend to my crying chunky monkey

My daddy slept in that too!?!

We have had a few rough nights around here. I was beginning to wonder where that place was that you took your babies so you could sleep all night! lol. (maybe its called grandmas house). Things had been going really well at night, but since Friday night things have been BAD! I mean really bad! She wouldn't sleep or if she did it was on me or in her boppy in our bed! Yes, I know having her sleep with us is a horrible habit and I swore to myself, Brandy, Kim, Jamie and Zach that she would never sleep with us, but when its 2am and you haven't been to sleep you will do anything!! I would play her game of letting her sleep on me until she fell asleep then i would tip toe to the pack and play to lay her down, but as soon as I laid her down she woke up crying. I would do this several times until I was sooooo exhausted that I didn't care where she slept as long as she slept. I decided yesterday that I wanted a bassinet or a cradle so I could rock her and not have to get up. (The pack and play was just too big to sit beside our bed). After doing some searching on Craig's list and talking with Teresa and Zach's grandma Carolyn I discovered that Carolyn had a cradle that she used with all her kids and Teresa used it for Zach and Seth. I was excited to get to use it and glad she is letting us borrow it! After getting the cradle home I dusted it and made the bed, but i didn't have a bumper pad that would fit it, but my good friend Jamie did! We went to their house last night to have dinner and open xmas gifts from each other. It's a blue bumper pad, but its better than nothing and fits great! Thanks Jamie! I can't believe I'm going to say this and I feel like a terrible mom, but we gave Ansley cereal in her bottle last night for the first time! I know that your suppose to wait until they are 4 months old, but after talking to my mom and Zach's mom I thought I'd give it a try. I was really nervous and was reading out of my "What to expect the first year book" as Zach was feeding her saying she's too young and this is what the book says. (Zach is tired of me reading out of this book and I wouldn't be surprised if I come home from work and its gone because he threw it away!) Anyway, last night went a lot better she went to sleep at 10:45 was up and ate at 1:45 then went back to sleep until 5am! I have to say things went a lot better and I hope were onto something good! Wish us luck!

Ansley's new bed!!

Ansley checking out her new bed! :)

My daddy slept here too!?

These were taken before we got the bumper pad!

Wordless Wednesday

She's arrived!

Meet little miss Ava Violet Ast! Isn't she beautiful? She arrived at 11:02am yesterday and was 6lbs 10oz and 19inches long. Ava is my cousin Kristi Ast's newest arrival! Congrats to Kristi, Jeff, and big brother Kane!

Christmas, Christmas and more Christmas'

Yeap, we had several places to go this year like we do every year, but this year was extra special! Of course we have Ansley who had her first white Christmas and I was off work, for a change. (it has been a long time since I've had Christmas off and if it weren't for Ansley this year would have been no different (I hate my job sometimes). This year we spent Christmas eve with Zach's parents for a few hours and then headed to my parents to stay the night! I can't remember the last time all the kids were at home on Christmas eve and all of us were able to stay the night as well!! Christmas morning we were off for our busy day! 4 stops in one day with a newborn is exhausting! We were up at 5am which is Ansley's normal feeding time so we all woke up and started opening presents. We go one at a time and with 4 kids it takes a while and with a mom and dad that spoil us like crazy it takes even longer!! Ansley feel back to sleep at 5 and woke up at 7 ready for the day. We waited to open her presents until she woke up. (like she even had a clue what was going on, but we all had fun opening her presents for her). We left my parents around 9 and headed to Zach's parents. We had a great time there and of course got spoiled again. After opening gifts we started watching The Hangover! O my it is hilarious and if you haven't watched it you need to!! After leaving there we met up at a local school where Zach's extended family have a dinner every year. We were there a few hours and then left for my grandparents! It was a fun, busy, exhausting day, but a day filled with family! Can't wait until next year when Ansley can open her own presents (maybe).

This year we also got to visit Zach's aunt and uncle in Pittsburgh. It was a long 3 hour trip, but we made it with no problems and Ansley slept the entire way! We stayed 2 nights and had a great time visiting. Wish we could visit more often! Thanks Dave and Terri for letting us invade your house :).

We have had 2 more Christmas' this week and I think I can say that we are finally done celebrating! Thank you everyone for the great gifts and most of all the time we got to spend with everyone!

holding her own bottle on xmas eve! :)

Santa's coming to see me!!

Sleeping on aunt Alicia on xmas day after I opened my presents! Exhausting!!

present time

Christmas day with my cute bow aunt Brenda made! Enjoying her car seat!

I'l have to have Teresa send me some of her pics!

A WHAT!?

This is a wubbanub! a stuffed animal connected to a binkie!!!

Our baby Ansley Jane with her cousin Bryce Lowe Kalkwarf!!!

2 VERY proud Grandmas!!!

Thats exactly what i said when i heard Teresa talking about a Wubbanub! Have you ever heard of such a thing? All I can say is that Ansley now has her very own pink horse wubbanub. Its a pacifier that is conected to a stuffed animal. They are adorable and come in so many animals! Check out the different animals that they have here. Ansley's third cousin Bryce came over to visit the other day and he had a monkey wubbanub and after seeing his, Teresa and I decided Ansley needed one. We wanted either the lion or the frog, but they are only available online. Remember me talking about how much she hated her binkey, but since she started taking a bottle she loves her binkie!

Next post is our busy xmas.