Party Time!!

Whew! We are beat!! Two parties and overnighters! We had Kari's baby shower and Ashlyn's birthday, plus Mom, Eddie and Macy and Bailey over night.

We had Ashlyn's birthday party today. Her cousins were here, her Grandparents, great-grandparents, Aunt, Uncle and lots of friends. It was a little overwhelming for her to have that many people in her house. She wasn't too sure about the cake either. We definently did not get that Kodak moment, with the face in the cake. Oh well! Next year. She got lots of new clothes, toys and $25 in a new piggy bank for her college fund from Grandma and Grandpa Lenhardt. We missed having Jered's parents and my Dad and stepmom here. Steve and Patsy are in Canada and my Dad is in Arizona for work. Bummer! But we'll be seeing the Canadians soon. Aunt Kari is due with cousin Grace in March :)

Saturday Glady and I did Kari's babyshower in Woodburn. I think it all turned out great. She got a lot of good stuff. Cute, cute clothes and a few things off her registry too. Glady made up homemade cream puffs that we stuffed with sandwich spread, yummy!! Lots of yummy desserts too.

We had Ashlyn's 1 year appointment with her pediatrician last Wed. We got the go ahead to give her all gluten. Little scary for me but I'm going with it. We're also switching her over to whole milk. So far we've been mixing about half and half. Its going pretty good so far, she doesn't seem to mind it and has been drinking them like there was no change.

I ran into my good friend Brian at Safeway Sat. night. Brian and I were roommates when we first moved to LA on our extern from OIT. I hadn't seen him in a few years and it was totally out of the blue. I knew he and his wife had recently moved here but didn't realize they lived right around the corner from Jered and I! We talked for a few minutes and decided we'd definently have to get together for dinner soon to catch up. They just added to their family with the new addition of baby Isaiah, so it will most likely be after they get settled in.

Its back to work tomorrow. Neither Jered or I are looking forward to starting a new week. The weekend goes to fast! My day off this month is Tues, which is not my favorite. I prefer Wednesdays. But I am happy to only have to work 4 days a week! Next month is Mondays and I'm planning to go down and see my best friend and her new baby, Kenzee.

Ashlyn still isn't walking and that is prefectly ok with Jered and I. We are not in any rush for that milestone to happen. Turning 1 was hard enough! She is still talking (babbling) up a storm, crawling all over the place, getting into everything. She doesn't like to hear the word NO, but she hears it quite a bit anyway and definently know what it means. She is becoming a pickier eater, our pediatrician warned us this would happen. Yesterday morning, she ate all her scrambled egg. This morning she hardly touched it. We just keep putting stuff on her plate. She either eats it or she doesn't. The doctor says she'll eat if she's hungry, I'm guessing she's right!

Birthday party pics coming soon :)

Jan 22, 2010.....

For Ashlyn's birthday we took her out to sushi....she didn't eat much but her parents sure enjoyed it. :o) We went down to NW 23rd to our favorite place, Yuki. Too bad the gelato place across the street is remodeling because it was closed. After that we came home and Jered gave her a bath. Bath time is her favorite time of day! She gets so excited, as soon as she hears the water running, she crawls as fast as she can down the hallway.

Saturday night my mom and Eddie came to stay with Ashlyn so that Jered and I could go to his company party. We had way more fun than we expected. The night just flew by and before we knew it was 1230am and time to go home.

Sunday afternoon we headed down to Grandma and Grandpa's. We spent the whole afternoon and stayed for dinner too. We hadn't seen them since Christmas so it was nice to be there for a good visit and to watch the football game! Ashlyn had a lot of fun sitting at the little tea party table. She sat there like a big girl for a good 45 minutes eating her cereal. Then she kept crawling back in there. She loved it!

The week is already half over, I can't believe how time flies. We saw Ashlyn's pediatrician today and got the go ahead to switch to whole milk and gluten. The gluten part really worries me but she assures me that most babies don't have any reaction at all. They don't usually see a reaction in kids until they're 4 or 5 years old. I just know how I feel after and I really don't want her to have to go through that. She had her first milk bottle this afternoon after her nap. I mixed half formula and half milk. It didn't seem to bother her at all, she drank it all! She also got her MMR shot today and her second H1N1 as well. She's been pretty clingy and a little cranky this afternoon and evening. I can tell her leg is sore too. She doesn't want to be touched where they gave the injection.

Her birthday bash is this Sunday :o) and she'll be eating cake!! She's never had cake or any dessert except the pumpkin pie she had at Thanksgiving. She'll love it, all that sugary goodness!

I look good in Daddy's hat!!

Its my birthday, I can cry if I want too!!

Hurry up Dad, I'm ready for my bath!!

That's more like it :o)

You should join me, its fun!

I love this little ball. I can pick this out of the basket every time.

Having my first tea party

Being rocked to sleep by Grandma

One year ago today.....

One year ago today our little girl was born. Ashlyn Riane McGrath was born at 12:34 pm on Jan 22. She weighed 7lbs 13oz and was 19 3/4 inches long.

I got to pick my delivery date since she was breech and I was having a c-section. I picked Jan 22 because my day off was the day before and I wanted to make sure the house was clean and I had a day to rest. Plus Jan 20 was the inaugaration and I really wanted to make sure I didn't miss such a historic event. Dr Bauer offered to do my section on the Sunday before but I said no. I wasn't ready, still had things on my to do list. Plus I like to sticking to a plan.

Almost everything went exactly according to plan. Surgery was scheduled for 12noon. Dr Bauer asked us to be there a little early (she had a meeting at 1pm), so we showed up at 9am ready to go. They were real busy that morning so we got a little tiny pre-op room to wait in. The nurse tried to put in my IV in my arm and she blew out the vein. That had never happened to me before, I thought it would hurt, but I didn't feel a thing. So another nurse came in and tried it on my hand. Not sure what happened but it wasn't working. I was supposed to have one whole bag of saline before surgery and the first bag was barely dripping. It was probably because I was so darn swollen. Probably the worst part of being pregnant for me was the swelling. So for the third and final try the anesthesiologist came in and put it in the other hand and it worked like a charm. I had one bag in less than 20 minutes. There wasn't really much to do while we waited. I'd already pre-registered and they'd already asked me all the questions (done any drugs, illicit sex, need a paternity test...I'm not kidding!). So we waited and waited. Finally a little before noon, the anesthesiologist took me in to the operating room. I jumped up (more like waddled) onto the table and he put in the spinal, which wasn't as bad as I feared. My legs went almost immediately, totally weird! They lay me down and the nurses immediately prop my legs in the air and put in a catheter. Nobody but you cares that your almost completely naked. I've been one of the people walking around the room and we really don't care. When you're the one on the table, you seriously care that you're half naked! Not being able to feel anything just makes it more weird. Soon Dr Bauer came in the room with her backup and her trainee, then they let Jered in. He stood at the head of the bed with the video camera. I totally wanted to watch but she wouldn't drop the drape in front of me. After reminding that she had scalpels and lasers and would be cutting into, I gave up asking. She did her thing but Ashlyn's head was stuck. I have a funny shaped uterus, one of the reasons for the c-section and her head was stuck at the top. Jered said she was pushing pretty hard on my belly and finally at 12:34pm Ashlyn was born! We heard a little cry and it was the best sound ever! Everything seemed to be going so slow until she handed her to the nurses and then finally they gave her to Jered. After that I'm not sure what was happening, I assume she sewed me up because there isn't a big whole in my stomach. We just stared at her and kissed her and touched her! Before we knew it we were back in our room. After attempting to breast feed (which is whole other story) everyone came into our room and we showed off the most beautiful baby girl ever!

I was so tired, they put something into my spinal that made me really sleepy. There was no way I could sleep though! We were running on pure adrenaline. After everyone left we just held her and stared at her and touched her all night long. That's pretty much all we did the whole 4 days we were stuck in the hospital. It was nice the first two days but by the third day I was ready to go home! When the doctor on call came in to discharge us, he made the mistake of saying I could leave at 5pm. I quickly corrected him and told him Dr Bauer told me I could leave at 11am. We were out of there before noon!

One year later out little baby girl has turned into a little person. She has such personality! She loves music, loves to dance, she is constantly talking, one of her favorite games is peek-a-boo, she loves books and listening to mama read when she has her bedtime bottle. She is so curious about everything, always opening and closing drawers, cupboards. She is very cautious, she likes to observe and check things out before she tries it for the first time. She loves playing with the dogs and bathtime is her favorite time of the day. As soon as she hears the water running in the bathroom, she gets all excited and crawls as fast as she can down the hallway. She plays in the bath until the water starts to get cold, then she lets you know its time to get out. She has 8 teeth and she loves to eat! She's a pretty good little sleeper too. She lets Mama and Daddy sleep in most weekends as long as we get up and give her a bottle about 6am. We've had some rough patches when she's teething or going through a growth spurt. We've avoided any major sickness thank goodness! She did have one bilateral ear infection that didn't require any medicine. She always seems to have a stuffy nose and she's had a few coughs but nothing major.
We see the pediatrician next Wednesday and we'll be talking about gluten. The plan is to just feed her like normal for a few weeks and watch for any sort of reaction. Then after a few weeks do the blood test. If it comes back positive, she'll be gluten-free like her Mama. We won't be doing the biopsy like I did. I won't put her through that.

Her birthday party is going to be the 31st here at our house. Our good friend is making the cake. I can't wait to see it! She went to culinary school and she makes the best goodies! I told her to just make it all girlie and 1st bday-ish :) It'll be amazing. I also went to my cousin Angela's ceramic shop last week and painted a plate for Ashlyn. Its so cute and I can't wait to see how it turns out. I brought it home with me and I'm going to have everyone sign it, then we'll get it fired and glazed.

I love her more and more every day! She is the best thing that Jered and I ever decided to do. Its been hard for sure but all of those hard days and nights are totally worth it. I won't lie, the pregnancy was definently not my favorite part. The 4 month hang-over, the massive swelling, the weird groin pain, the strange weird fears and thoughts you have the entire 9 months, the 9 months of no drinking (well except for a few sips of wine, but seriously a sip, so not worth it!), the weird hormonal mood changes, the after pregnancy hormone weirdness (ugh!). So much to not love, but it was all worth it, for Ashlyn!

Going to the hospital!

Most beautiful baby ever....Ashlyn Riane McGrath, only a few hours old.

The first days at home.....couldn't put her down!

Up next......Birthday girl photo shoot :o)

Christmas Pictures....finally!!!

I know! I know! It took me long enough :) but here we are....tons of pictures from Christmas!


This is New Year's Day. My Grandpa got me this outfit. Too bad I wasn't better luck for those Ducks!

What's this???

It's mine?? Yay!!!!

This might be fun......

but this is more fun....I love to eat everything!

This is my new train that Mama and Daddy got me. Its fun!!

My friends Kassidy and Hailey got me this music box. I love to play all the songs!

This is my walker/car my Grandpa and Grandma got me. I can do whole laps of the house these days.

This was our first snow.....it looked real pretty but it wasn't very fun to drive home in. It took me and Mama 2 hours to drive home and that was after we waited 2 hours before we left work.

This was my Christmas picture and dress.

2010

Well the first week of the New Year is behind us and boy am I tired! I've been sick all week, I caught Ashlyn's daycare crud. Luckily Ashlyn is feeling much better than she was the weekend of Christmas. Right now Jered is pushing her around on the little car that my dad and stepmom got for her and she's loving it! She's loving all her new Christmas toys and plays with them all every night.

My mom and Eddie came up on Friday, New Years Day and we all watched the Rose Bowl. Unfortunately the Ducks didn't win, but Ashlyn wore her cheerleader outfit anyway. We had Christmas with my brother and nieces on Sunday. My mom did pretty good and didn't go too overboard. She did get Ashlyn quite a few new outfits though. We had a good fun, long weekend with everyone.

Then it was back to the real world and work on Monday. Ugh, its been a busy week for me at work and I've been sick so that doesn't help. I'm off tomorrow and so glad. Hopefully if Ashlyn lets me, I'm going to sleep in. Yay!

Ashlyn is doing so great. She has been changing so much lately. She really has a memory now. She remembers where things are and will go straight there to that particular drawer in the kitchen to pull all of the tupperware out. I pick up the tupperware at least 5 or 6 times a night. She'll also crawl into our bathroom and have my tampons emptied out of the box before we can catch her. She loves the tampons! She knows how certain toys work too and it doesn't take her long to figure it out. Our friends gave her this music box and she knows which button to push to play a whole song (which is her favorite, cause she loves to dance) and which ones will just play a note. She sleeps with her glow-warm that her Great-Grandma gave her. She squeezes it so it glows and plays a little song. She's talking up a storm too. She says Hi! over and over and over again. She still calls out Dadadadada and Mamamama all the time. Sometimes she throws out Da-dy just to mix it up. She's definently a daddy's girl already! She'll copy anything you say to her, well almost. We've been working on "I love you" and we've heard I and something that almost sounded like Love. She's shuffling along the coffee table and anything else she can hold onto to stand. She uses her new car that she can push and walk behind too. She loves music and will do her little shimmy and shake dance whenever she hears any. She doesn't seem to be too particular about any genre quite yet. She's still hanging out with me and my co-workers on lunches at work. She stares them down until they share their fries with her or anything that she can eat. Sometimes if I remember I throw a couple gluten free crackers in my bag before I leave for work. Usually I forget, but no worries she's not missing any meals and certainly doesn't look like it either!

I have tons of pictures to go through and post, I'll try to get to those this weekend. Everyone have a great weekend!!