Monday, May 9, 2011

A weekend of birthday parties


When we started planning for Ashlyn's 1st birthday, we were going to have one big party with all of our friends and family.  As we started planning it was turning out to be quite a large event.  Chance had the idea to split it up into 2 smaller parties, one with friends and one with family.  So that is what we did.  I am not sure having 2 small parties was any easier than 1 big one, but it worked and Ashlyn had a great time (despite having a cold).  We started the festivities Saturday with "Custard and Cupcakes" at Wild About Harry's with our friends.  The birthday girl got to have her picture taken with the locally famous Harry of Wild About Harry's!  We enjoyed lots of sweet treats with our very good friends and some family (Kristin, Scott, Nenna and the boys were in town so they came) and Ashlyn got to open up her birthday gifts!  She loved watching all of the action from her new chair!  Thanks Aunt Nay Nay and Uncle John!  Her favorite "toy" was an empty water bottle.  Ozarka...you win!








































 


Our next celebration was a cookout at our house on Mother's Day with all of our family (except Teresa and Robert and the kids weren't able to make it and Ron was excused from the 6 hour round trip).  We grilled out burgers and dogs and ate lots of cake and ice cream!  Ashlyn was showered with birthday gifts and had fun opening them...well...had fun playing with the paper and boxes while we opened them!  She got a special gift from Aunt Sarah and Gma...a scrapbook full of memories from her first year!  It is amazing.  I will post pics of it later.  My Godparents Dave and Pat Estes took time out of their busy day to stop by and wish Ashlyn a happy birthday!  And Aunt Gayle (Chance's aunt) and cousin Michelle and her 4 kids stopped by too!  It was very nice to get to celebrate Mother's Day with all of our mothers and it was a wonderful 2nd mother's day for me too.  Not quite as exciting as my 1st, but I am not sure anything will top that!














































 And finally, we celebrated with just the 5 of us (yes, we count the dogs) on her actual birthday.  We opened the gifts that we got for her and sang happy birthday one more time and had one more cupcake!  We were all pretty worn out from the weekend so we just relaxed and enjoyed our sweet angel.









Happy 1st Birthday Ashlyn Mae!
We Love You!

1 year old!

Stats from our 12 month check-up

Height 29.5 inches (50%)
Weight 18 lbs 15.5 ounces (25%)
Head Circumference 48.5 cm (75%)

Ashlyn is tall and skinny with a big head...room for that big brain!  And those percentiles are on the scale used for full-term babies!  She is really catching up.  At first she was in the <4% category which is basically not even on the scale!  Woohoo...big girl!  Now for some other fun facts from our 1 year old.

Wears-12 month clothes and size 3-4 diapers (she can wear both, but the 3's are a little snug and the 4's are a little big).  She still has dainty feet and wears a size 1 or 2 shoe.

Eats-breakfast is usually oatmeal, fruit and yogurt washed down with a bottle.  She is now eating the school lunch which changes every day.  She does fairly well with it and if she doesn't eat what they are serving, they offer her baby food.  She has another bottle before her afternoon nap.  She has a snack after her nap and then dinner is bite sized pieces of table food.  She takes one more bottle before bed.  We are in the process of weaning from formula to whole milk and she seems to be liking it.  Once we get her on milk then we will start trying to wean the bottle.  Her doctor gave us until 15 months to get her completely off the bottle, which is a relief!  

Sleeps-12-13 hours at night. She usually goes to bed around 8 and wakes up between 8 and 9.  She still isn't the greatest napper and hasn't gotten into that "one long nap" stage I keep hearing about!  I partly blame her poor napping on our hectic schedule and her "don't want to miss a thing" personality.  The good news is that even without naps, she doesn't really get fussy.  I have been kind of worried about her not getting enough sleep, but her doctor reassured me that the normal range is anywhere from 11-15 hours a day and she is well within that range with her good night sleeping habits and her cat naps.  They are going to start transitioning her at school to get her ready to move up to the next classroom.  Part of that is napping on a cot.  I can't wait to hear how that goes!  I would love to be a fly on the wall when they lay her down on a cot on the floor and expect her to fall asleep.  I guess it will happen!

Medicine-theoretically we were supposed to be finished with the Propranolol taper by her 1st birthday.  She had a little re-growth of the hemangioma when we tapered down to 1 dose a day so we went back up to 2 times a day and are going to hang here for a while.  We met with the specialist and he agrees and has found this with other patients.  Hopefully in another 3 months we will be off it for good!  Her birthmark is looking great...even with the slight rebound growth we had.  She is also taking a probiotic daily for her urinary tract.  I will update on the urology procedures and appointments in another post, but all is looking good!  The probiotics will hopefully ward any bacteria that could cause another kidney infection.  

What's new this month-Ashlyn is crawling all over the place! And she is getting much faster.  She can pull up onto her knees easily, but still needs a little help to get standing.  She really isn't interested in standing much and I attribute that to her new found mobility with crawling.  She is no longer doing the Chinese splits to go from her tummy to sitting up.  She is so limber!  She babbles all of the time with her favorite words being Mama, Dada, and Dog (in no particular order ;).  She has figured out cabinets and drawers and loves to pull everything out in the kitchen.  She loves the dog's water and food bowls.  I started putting them up on the counter so she couldn't get to them, but decided I really don't want to have to do that forever so I have tried a little discipline saying "no" and redirecting.  I'm so tough :).  She has started to develop an opinion about things and her personality is really starting to come out.  She is pretty easy going, but occasionally will show signs of having a little temper, usually when she is getting tired.  She loves riding around in her new car.    She really does not like being strapped into her carseat.  And she is starting to make diaper changing a little more difficult.  She really dislikes having her nose suctioned and using saline.  We pick our battles!  She has also started making it a little more challenging to get her medicine down.  She still loves her dogs, baths, puffs, keys, phones, remotes, putting everything in her mouth and yogurt!  She has found her tongue and she is constantly sticking it out and licking her lips.  It is pretty cute.

We have absolutely loved every second of this first year and look forward to continuing to watch her grow!  Stay tuned for pics from her 12 month photo shoot.  They turned out SO cute!  Meanwhile, here are her monthly crib shots.  We love you Ashlyn Mae!





Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Renal ultrasound and VCUG under sedation

Ashlyn had a renal ultrasound and a voiding cystourethrogram (VCUG) under gas sedation today.  Her urologist wanted to rule out reflux as a cause for the kidney infection she had a month or so ago.  The procedures were scheduled for 8:00 am which was nice because she wasn't allowed to have anything to eat or drink prior.  We had our choice between 2 locations that do these procedures and opted for the one in Plano because the Anesthesiologist there was the first to do the VCUG under sedation.  He has done thousands so that was very reassuring.  Some places do the procedure while the child is completely awake and it can be somewhat traumatic (for everyone involved).  She had a renal ultrasound first to get a good picture of her kidneys looking for symmetry, scarring or hydronephrosis.



After the sonogram, we met with the nurse who asked lots of questions and took Ashlyn's vitals.  Then we headed in for the VCUG.  Ashlyn got to put on a cute gown and I was growing quite nervous.


The anesthesiologist came in and described the procedure.  He would put a mask over her mouth and nose and we got to help by holding her hands (for security and so he could keep the mask in place).  She would be asleep in less than 20 seconds.  Once she was asleep, they would start the procedure.  The nurses inserted a catheter to fill her bladder up with contrast.  The radiologist was right there taking pictures using x-ray and flouroscopy.  What they are looking for is when the bladder contracts in order for her to pee, that no urine (contrast) goes back up the ureters to the kidneys.  We were right there watching the entire procedure with the doctors describing everything to us.  I freaked out a little bit at first when she "fell asleep" because she looked so helpless and lifeless.  The entire process lasted less than 10 minutes.  








Once it was over, he took the mask off of her and when she started waking up, he let me hold her.  They watched her for a couple of minutes and then took us back to a recovery room where they let her completely wake up.  Once she was awake, she got to have a bottle with daddy.  


We got the preliminary results immediately...NO REFLUX!  They send all of the films and images to the urologist for him to review as well...but the radiologist was confident there was no reflux.  Praise God!  One more thing we can check off our worry list.  She will continue taking probiotics for a healthy urinary tract and hopefully that one infection was just a fluke.  We will keep a close eye on her for signs of another infection but are very excited she doesn't have reflux!   


Sunday, May 1, 2011

Grandma Sally turns 85

An octogenarian and a half!  We celebrated Grandma Sally's 85 birthday today!  Chance and I went over on Monday (her actual birthday) and had dinner and dessert, but we had her real birthday party today.  Pete (my uncle) flew in from Michigan and we all met at her apartment this morning.  We opened gifts, had bloody marys and took lots of family pictures.  Then we went down to the dining room and had brunch and dessert...her favorite...cream puffs!  It was a wonderful celebration of a wonderful lady!  We love you very much Grandma Sally.  Happy Birthday!



























Scary Pumpkin Man made an appearance :)
That is a long story for another post!


Where's Ashlyn?

I decided to go through Ashlyn's toys yesterday to put away the baby stuff and sort through the rest of it.  She has so many toys (mostly thanks to Aunt Kristin and ALL of the hand-me-down toys...they are awesome!) that we decided to put up about 2/3's of them and then rotate them out.  As I was in the middle of this process...it always looks worse before it looks better...I decided to snap a picture because I could hardly see Ashlyn among all of the toys!  She was just grabbing one after the other...not really playing with anything because there were so many!  Anyway...this is a funny picture.  Her nursery is a mess in this shot, but it is all organized now!