my seven dwarfs in one

Yesterday I was talking to my Dad as he was driving home from work and, of course, we ended up chatting about Asher! I mentioned how grumpy Ash has been recently and Dad commented that he's a lot like the Seven Dwarfs -- grumpy, then happy in a matter of minutes.

I realized that he's totally right!

Let's review, there is:

Happy

Grumpy

Sleepy

Sneezy

Bashful

Doc, whom I'm replacing with Elvis

or Derek Zoolander

and Dopey

7 adorable characters in 1 little baby, who could want more!

6 weeks

Asher is 6 weeks old!

I can't believe how quickly the time is going by. I've read in my baby books that fussiness often peaks at 6 weeks old -- Asher is no exception. He's been more of a crab this week than any time previously.

I'm a little tired of looking at this face.

As I type this, however, he's resting peacefully in his bouncy chair. Yay, Asher!

Asher is still smiling a lot, which makes all those moments of crabiness seem less bad. I just love this little guy!

He's also been spitting up more often. I think that's a direct result of him gulping his dinner down all the time. Maybe he's going through a growth spurt because he has been eating like crazy recently!

Yesterday as I was trying to put him down for the night he spit up all down the front of me. Fortunately, the vomit took the path of least resistance directly between the girls and pooled in my bra, saving me from getting my PJ pants soaked as well.

If that's not looking at the glass half full, I don't know what is. :o)

tummy time

Ever since people realized that sleeping on their backs helps prevent babies from dying of SIDS newborns have needed parent supervised tummy time during the day.

And they hate it.

Tummy time is just what it sounds like. Short bursts {5 minutes or so at first} of time spent with the baby on his tummy. This helps him strengthen his neck and shoulder muscles to increase head control. Babies spend tons of time on their backs, so we have to be purposeful about giving their necks a workout.

Asher has been doing great! He usually screams when I put him on his belly, but just the other day he laid peacefully while cranning his neck to see what was happening {for a little while at least, the cries came eventually}.

He actually managed to turn his head from one side to the other, yay! Check it out - yes, that's me encouraging him like a moron in the background. Keep the volume low people, it's for your own good.

say uncle!

Asher is such a lucky baby in that he has lots of aunts and uncles! I grew up with a big extended family and it was awesome - I'm so glad that Asher will have that same opportunity!

This past weekend 2 of his Daddy's brothers came to visit and meet their newest nephew. Drew comes from a family of 4 boys, so these guys love having another boy in the family. In fact, I'm not totally convinced that Wilkinsons can produce females. It started with the original 4 brothers, then the 3 grandchildren that have come so far are all boys. Surely someone will have a girl someday, but I'll believe it when I see it.

Asher was thrilled to meet his Uncle Jared on Friday night. He came all the way from Maine to visit!

Then when Uncle Matt showed up on Saturday the fun leapt to a whole new level. Uncle Matt is the self-proclaimed "fun uncle" or "Funkle." Doesn't that pretty much say it all?

Since the uncles were here to give Daddy some back-up, I was able to go out for awhile! I had a great time having lunch with my girlfriends that I've hardly seen in the past 6 weeks.

While I was gone, the boys went out for lunch too. Daddy put Asher in the Beco since I had the stroller with me {oops}, but it sounds and looks like they made out ok. Poor Ash looks a little stuffed in there, but I'm assured he was fine.

I think the best part of the weekend came when Matt was called upon for a diaper change. Jared has twin boys, so he's a very experienced diaper changer. As a bachelor, Matt is not so much.

When Asher heard that Uncle Matt was on deck for the change he looked appropriately concerned.

How many men does it take to change a diaper? :o)

Thanks for visiting, Uncles! Asher can't wait for lots of fun with you all in the future.

say cheese!

Asher started smiling for Drew and I the other day!

It just melts my heart when I talk to him and he gives me a big grin. This morning he finished nursing and looked up at me and smiled so big I could see his milky tongue. Love it!

Catching the smiles on camera isn't too easy, but I did it the other day. What a cutie!!

favorite thing friday - newborn photos

How is it Friday again already?

I swear these weeks go by faster than any week ever did when I was working outside the house.

Of course, it wouldn't be Friday without a baby product that I love!

This week I have to sing the praises of my newborn photographer, Amber Campbell!

Long before Asher was born I knew that I wanted some adorable newborn photos taken of him. I started my research for a photographer in Cleveland and found Amber's website. After looking around her site and emailing a few times I knew she was perfect for what I wanted.

Asher was photographed when he was 8 days old. He spent the first half completely asleep and the second half wide awake. It's a good thing we didn't fool around at the beginning because there was no way he was going back to sleep after those first 30 minutes or so. If you ask me it worked out really well -- Amber was able to capture both adorable sleepy and awake baby shots!

The thing I loved best about working with Amber is that she sells the digital images, so I am able to print as many of each shot as I like. I can also post the photos here and use them in a birth announcement. In fact, I finally got the announcement ordered yesterday, so if you're a friend in real life you can look forward to seeing some of these photos in your mailbox soon!

Enough talk -- check out my beautiful baby boy :o)

pregnancy: epilogue

Asher was due to be born on December 19, 2009.

Now, I know that most babies aren't born on their due dates, so when I spoke to my doctor at my 36 week appointment and we decided to schedule an induction for December 16th I was great with that.

I just assumed the 16th would be the big day since {from what I'd read and heard} most 1st babies are born after their due dates when left to their own devices. I honestly never expected Asher to come before my induction was started.

Because of this assumption I planned out the week accordingly. Starting with my last day of work {1 week before the 16th}, I had things scheduled each day leading up to the time I'd go pick my Mom up from the airport on December 15th.

Then, on the evening of December 12th, my water broke. I was completely shocked. You'd think someone who was 39 weeks pregnant would be prepared for this possibility, but I really wasn't. I was convinced that there was some alternative explanation for all of this fluid. Even once we got to the hospital and I was checked into triage whenever someone would ask what brought me in I'd say that I thought my water broke. Finally {after the 3rd time I said this} Drew spoke up and said, "Em, it's ok to admit it. Just tell them that your water broke. We're pretty sure by now!"

Oh, ok. Of course, he was completely right.

Things moved pretty fast from there and a scant 17 hours later Asher was born.

I was thrilled to meet my baby {finally!}, but here's the thing. I loved being pregnant! Sure there were times in the first trimester when I was feeling too sick to get off the couch. And there were times in the third trimester when my back would ache and I couldn't wait to sleep on my stomach again. But, for the most part, I had a really easy, really enjoyable pregnancy.

I loved feeling Asher kick around in there! I loved having him with me all the time. I felt like I had a secret that other people could see, but no one else truly knew. What a special, wonderful time of life.

And that's why I'm writing this. When my baby was born on December 13th, I wasn't mentally prepared. I thought Asher and I would have 3 more days together and although those 3 days don't seem like much, I needed them to say goodbye and finish our time together in that way.

So, here's my goodbye. For 39 weeks and 1 day, I carried my sweet baby inside me. He grew from little microscopic bits of nothing into a beautiful boy that I love dearly. To carry him and experience a healthy pregnancy is such an amazing gift to have been given.

I will always remember the day {April 20, 2009} that I first discovered I was pregnant.

I will always remember the first time I heard Asher's heart beating.

I will always remember seeing him on the ultrasound and learning that he was a boy.

This was our beginning. I can't wait to live the rest of the journey with you.

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.

Jeremiah 1:5

our adventure

It's amazing how your definition of certain things change when you have a baby.

For instance, before Asher was born I considered a good night's sleep to be 8-9 hours straight. Now if I get 5 hours it's a huge victory!

Before I became a Mom, "do I have time to go to the bathroom before the baby wakes up?" isn't a question I ever asked myself.

In the years before Asher came along Drew and I took lots of adventures.

We traveled to Japan

Check me out stopping for a bathroom break any old time I wanted!

We visited Italy

Drew and I headed into NYC on the day before New Year's Eve to visit friends last year.

Yesterday Asher and I took an adventure together...

no, it didn't involve a stamp in my passport.

no, we didn't visit a city of several million.

We went to the Old Navy clearance sale.

That's right, I put Asher in his carseat, drove him BY MYSELF to the store, got out the stroller, shopped for 20 minutes, and drove back home.

Check out the great hat Asher found.

We were gone for an hour and a half and I couldn't have been more proud!

One small step for Mommy, one giant leap towards Motherhood.

5 weeks old

Asher is 5 weeks old!

This little boy is changing so much every day. When I look back at photos from his first week I can't believe it's the same baby. I love being home to catch every minute of his growth.

But I also love it when Daddy comes home and I get to shower. :o)

Asher is starting to respond to me more and more. The other day I saw his first smile! I was so shocked and excited I didn't grab the camera. There will be plenty of smiles to record - that one was just for me.

At 5 weeks, Asher:

* is starting to smile

* makes noises besides crying

* wears 0-3 month clothes

* wears size 1 diapers

* eats every 3 hours during the day

* drinks 4.5 oz of breastmilk from a bottle at 10-11pm, then sleeps 6 hrs!

* sleeps in his crib at night

* will ONLY sleep in my arms during the day

* loves baths

* loves the carseat

* hates diaper changes less than he did last week!

* is a complete cuddle bug

Love you buddy bear!

daddy dressed me

and I look adorable! Even my socks match!

I'm so grateful for all that Drew does when he's home on the weekend. Not only does he work hard all week so I can have the opportunity to stay home with Asher, he also takes really good care of us on his days off.

This weekend Drew got Asher changed and dressed while I got up to feed him, then cared for him for a couple hours so I could go back to sleep! Once I finally got myself up Drew took off to do our grocery shopping and make a Babies 'R Us run.

It's a special guy who will go buy nursing bra pads. :o)

He made sure I had lunch, then vacuumed the whole first floor while I nursed Asher {again...can you tell what takes up the majority of my time?}.

Drew, there's no way I could do this without you. You're an amazing partner and Daddy. Thanks for loving us in such a practical and abundant way.

Thanks for loving us like Jesus does.

We love you!

definitely jinxing myself

I know that I shouldn't post this because it will totally jinx me, but here it is anyway...

Asher is getting amazing sleep at night!

For the first 4 weeks he had a major wide-awake time from 10pm-1am. Not good for Mommy since I'm pretty exhausted from the day by then. Just this week I noticed that Asher was starting to fall asleep after his 10pm feeding. I jumped on that band wagon and tried putting him down for the night then rather than after the 1am feeding.

We're having some success. I start feeding him a bottle of expressed milk around 10. Between burping and a diaper change it takes him about 45 minutes to get 4 ounces down, but he happily drinks it all! I have no clue how much he gets while nursing, so I hope 4 oz isn't too much. I figure he'll spit it back at me if he's too full.

After his bottle he ALWAYS wants to nurse for 3-5 minutes. I'm convinced this is purely for comfort. He doesn't need to eat more, but won't sleep without it. Oh, mama's boy!

However, after THAT he goes to sleep for 5.5-6 hours! And has done so for the past 3 days!

Keep it up little guy -- mommy needs her rest.

This is what we like to see.

Anybody know any anti-jinx chants?

favorite thing friday

If there's one thing I knew I would be doing frequently as a new Mom it's changing diapers. Newborns often go through 8-12 diapers a day and I'm changing almost all of them!

Since Asher was born in December I thought that having a wipes warmer would be a great idea. I can't imagine having cold wipes on my warm bottom in the middle of the night -- why would an infant enjoy that?

I got a lot of slack from people about this purchase. Everyone seemed to think it was over the top and not something we would use very much.

They were totally wrong. I love it and can't imagine not having one!

The warmer is easy to use, keeps the wipes warm and moist, and doesn't make them turn brown. We have the Prince Lionheart Wipes Warmer -- it has a small nightlight on the front and is great for night changes.

Some might say that Asher is spoiled for having his wipes pre-warmed, but if it leads to a happy baby then I'm all for it!!

knockers for nutrition

As anyone who reads this blog knows, I had a baby a little over a month ago.

What you might not know is that I'm also breastfeeding and have a little to say about it! Before Asher was born I had lots of ideas {and fears} about what breastfeeding would be like. It's both what I expected and tremendously different than what I expected at the same time. While I was pregnant, I really appreciated other moms who wrote about their experiences on blogs, so I want to do the same.

It all started in the hospital.

Before the birth, I took a breastfeeding information class. In that class they recommended that babies remain on their mother's chest and start nursing within an hour of being born. This was my goal! I talked to my doctor about it and she agreed to play it this way with me, even though it wasn't how they normally did things.

Then reality intervened.

Asher got stuck on my pubic bone and I ended up pushing for 3 hours after being up all night in labor. When he finally emerged he was having some trouble breathing, so they wisked him right over to the warmer. To be honest, after going through the whole birth process I was pretty out of it and didn't even think twice about my birth plan. I was way more concerned with him being ok than anything else.

Once he was given the all-clear we had some limited bonding time, but then we got transferred to recovery and, well, things got busy. It was definitely over an hour before I first got to nurse him, but you know what...things are ok! Missing that initial time didn't hurt his ability to breastfeed AT ALL.

I do have some advice for new moms who are trying to learn how to breastfeed in the hospital.

1) make sure your bed is very upright. The more you can make it "like a chair" the better. It's hard to position a newborn when you're leaning back at all.

2) also make sure you have plenty of pillows or blankets to prop the baby up. Trying to lean over your baby will just make your back sore.

3) definitely ask to see the lactation consultant! They are super flattered to be summoned and have lots of great advice!!

Things started out well in the hospital for us. Asher seemed to be getting the hang of things and we were all set to keep breastfeeding at home.

Unfortunately, the timing worked out such that our arrival home {away from the nurses and lactation consultants} coincided perfectly with the arrival of my milk! This sounds like a good thing. Well, it is and it isn't.

Not having milk can be a big problem - just not my problem. I was extremely engorged and sore. It was like having really huge implants. Poor Ash couldn't get latched on properly and when he did was, well, overwhelmed, with so much milk that he started choking.

We struggled for awhile and he got hungrier and hungrier. Even been around a hungry newborn? It's not fun.

In fact, it's torture. Here was my brand new baby who was starving and I couldn't figure out how to feed him. All of the books say to avoid bottles for the first few weeks, so I was afraid to go that route.

What I ended up doing was calling the lactation consultant who promptly told me to forget the books, pump some milk and give him a bottle. Praise God! That worked perfectly and Asher was thrilled.

I still have some engorgement at certain times of day, but for the most part things have regulated and we don't have any lingering latch problems.

I've also continued pumping once a day {for 10 minutes only} to have milk in the freezer and give Asher 1 bottle a day. He is amazing at going back and forth from breast to bottle. Yay! It's great to know that I can go out and leave Drew with a bottle.

One of my big fears while I was pregnant was that breastfeeding would be painful. Let me say plainly that it's not! There was a little tenderness at first, but Lanolin is awesome and the girls have been happy ever since the first week was over!

Overall I'm so glad that I started down this path. Being able to provide all of the food my baby needs is amazing. Plus, since it takes 500+ calories a day to make milk it's like having a baby liposuction machine on me 8 times a day. Goodbye baby weight!

This turned into a really long post {and took me 2 days in 10 minute increments to write...hello newborn} but if anyone has any questions send them along! Breastfeeding is extremely demanding, but also hugely rewarding. My goal is to last a year...stay tuned. :o)

welcoming asher

I put together a slide show video of photos to remember my pregnancy and Asher's first month with us. It was so easy to do and I love having all these photos in one place!

There's music too, so turn on your sound!

one month old

Asher is officially one month old today. I still can't believe that on December 13, 2009 the baby I had been carrying and growing for all those months came out to meet us.

Like I mentioned yesterday, this first month has been greatly eased by all the help I've received from my parents, in-laws, siblings and friends. I really don't think I could have done it without them. To everyone who changed a diaper, put Asher to sleep, brought us a meal, or cleaned my house - thank you!

Know that when your babies come along Drew and I will be there to help you as well!

That being said, Ash and I are just starting our first full day of alone time. So far, so good...he's still sleeping.

Over the past month Asher has changed in huge ways!

 

At 4 weeks old, he is:

• wearing 0-3 month clothing
• wearing Size 1 diapers
• focusing on my face
• following me {and toys} with his eyes
• eating every 3 hours during the day
• eating every 3-4 hours at night
• nursing like a champ!
• holding his head up {briefly} and throwing it around
• rolling himself from shoulder to shoulder -- please don't start moving yet!
• loves getting a bath {until we take him out}
• hates to get his diaper changed

In general, Asher is an extremely mellow and peaceful guy. Sure, he cries, but there's usually a good reason. Like...he's resting on your left arm and would really prefer to be on the right arm. Once we {the dumb parents} figure it out he's good to go.

To my sweet boy,
I love you more than I thought I ever could. When you were still inside me I thought that things couldn't get better or more special. Now, to see you look in my direction when I talk -- my heart just melts. Just wait until you get a little bigger Asher...oh, the adventures we'll have with Daddy! For now we'll just snuggle on the couch and enjoy this time while you're so little. I know it won't last long.
You are loved, oh, how you are loved.

this is it

No, it's not my very belated Michael Jackson tribute {sorry}.

Today is the day that Asher and I go solo.

 
Since he was born I've been extremely spoiled blessed by having his grandparents staying with us and helping out.

First, my parents were here for 2 weeks, then Drew was home full-time for a week, then Drew's parents came for a week. Today they go home and I'm on my own.

We're ready.

We can do it.

I hope.

I may only eat granola bars for lunch and wear my PJs all day, but that's ok. Before long I know that Asher and I will get a routine down.

There's no way to start but to jump right in.

Wish us luck.