5 Months Old

Today Ashlyn is 5 months old! As usual I can not believe how fast they grow! She has really changed this month. My Mom has always said that this is her favorite age for babies. Now I know why. She is just so much fun! She is a really, really happy baby. She is always smiling at everyone. It is also really easy to get her laugh. She can be crying and all we have to do is make a funny face and she will stop and smile.

Ashlyn is doing really well developmentally. She continues to stand so well on her legs. I swear she will be walking at a fairly young age. She is also sitting up well. Today she was sitting up unsupported for about 15-20 seconds. I think she will be doing it really well in a couple of weeks. She "talks" and coos constantly. She is my little talker and she loves it when I talk back to her. She has become such an explorer. She has to touch and grab EVERYTHING! It is a little challenging at times because we have to be careful nothing dangerous is anywhere near her. She loves to pet animals. Anytime the dog or cat gets near her she reaches her hand out and pets them. It's really cute! She is also really good at taking her pacifier out and putting it back in. She is on the go and does not just want to be held and cuddled anymore. She still fights tummy time, but I am working on making her do it more and more. The problem is that she can now roll over from her stomach to her back. So, if I put her on her stomach and she does not like, she just rolls over. We will keep at it and hopefully she will be crawling in the near future.

We have gotten into a pretty good routine. Especially at bedtime. Some nights we do a bath before bed. Ashlyn continues to love baths. She now plays with toys in the bath. She has a great time! We always read a book before bed. She loves to look at the pictures. She always listens so intently. I think it is because I have been reading to her since the day she came home. We put her to bed between 7:30 and 8:00. She always cries a little before she falls asleep. Some nights are better than others. She does sleep in her crib in her own room. She usually wakes up between 5:00 and 6:00 a.m. I feed her and she sleeps with us until 7:30 or 8:00. We are all finally getting some good sleep! During the day we play and play. She takes a few short naps during the day.

We are going to start feeding Ashlyn cereal in two weeks. We are very excited to see how she likes it. We will do cereal for two weeks before we start vegetables. I will post pictures for everyone to see.

Everything else is really good here. It is still freezing here but we are hoping for some warm weather soon! We have lots of fun outdoor places we want to take Ashlyn. Joey loves his new job at T Rowe Price. I think its a great fit for him. His shift is from 12:00 p.m. -9:00 p.m. Ashlyn is asleep when he gets home, but he gets plenty of time with her before work. I am working on job applications and looking for teaching jobs next year.

Life is really good for us. We truly feel blessed by everything God has given us. We are loving every second with Ashlyn and everything she has in store for us!


The dreaded tummy time!

Showing how well she can stand.

Ashlyn and Mommy. Crazy hair as usual!

She loves playing in her excersaucer.

Ashlyn and her Daddy

Practicing sitting up

Still practicing

Her crazy bed head! Her hair still has a mind of it's own! I try everything and it never wants to lay flat!!!

Playing some more

Happy Easter!

Ashlyn and Mommy

A family picture

I wish Daddy did not always have to make funny faces!

Ashlyn and her Uncle Steven

Ashlyn had a very good first Easter. She spent most of it at her Gram and Papa's house. The Easter bunny brought Ashlyn lots of neat stuff! She got a sunhat, two Easter books, her first Easter bunny, her first Bible, some bath toys, a stuffed cat, and a movie! Her favorite thing that she got was a watering pot bath toy. Her eyes lit up when she saw it. She played with it for a long time. She was a lot more excited about her presents today than at Christmas. Ashlyn also got to put on her new Easter dress. It wasn't pink either! The dress will be making another appearance this week when we take her to get new pictures taken.
This week Ashlyn has been rolling over like crazy! She really likes to do it when she is in her crib. I put her on her back to sleep and I go back in there and she is on her stomach. I turn her back over and when I go back in she is back on her stomach again! It worries her Mom, but I have decided there is not much I can do. My Mom also watched her this week when I was subbing and she held her own bottle! She also slept nine hours three times this week! We are so proud of our girl!!!!


(Keep scrolling down for more pictures. I had to post three different posts to get all of the pictures on here. I can't figure out how to put more than 5 pictures on a post. If anyone knows how to please let me know!)

Happy Easter continued

Ashlyn's Easter basket

Holding her new Easter bunny

Her pretty Easter dress

Happy Easter! cont.

The Easter basket her Gram and Papa got for her

What cute bunny ears!

Trying on her new sun hat

Her watering can that she just loved!

What a cute bunny!

Sleep at last!!!!

We are finally getting some good sleep around here!! When we went to the doctor's last Friday, he said that Ashlyn should be sleeping through the night. As I mentioned, he gave us some tips as to how to do it. We started on Sunday night. He said the important thing was to get her out of our room and into her crib in her room. He also said that we essentially needed to train her to sleep by herself. We need to put her in her crib when she is still a little awake so she learns to self-soothe. He said to let her cry for five or ten minutes, go in and soothe her, and repeat until she fell asleep. Well, this past week has been difficult but I think we are learning more and more each night and I think I may have finally got it down! The first two nights she cried for about a hour until she finally fell asleep. She woke up around two each night. (We decided that we would start the night by putting her in her crib and if she woke up we would let her sleep with us. We are hoping each night she sleeps longer and longer in her own crib.) I think the problem was that I was trying to put her to sleep when she was not tired enough. Well, Tuesday night I made sure I did not let her nap past five o'clock. We played with her a lot before bedtime. When she started acting tired, we went upstairs and I fed her. As soon as her eyes closed I put her in her crib. She was out until 5:00 a.m.!!!! It was wonderful! That was the best sleep I have gotten in a long, long time! Last night kind of got messed up because I was gone at Bunco. Joey had to put her to sleep. I don't think she drinks as much milk when she drinks out of a bottle. She woke up around 2:00 a.m. Tonight, I repeated what I did Tuesday night. She just went right to sleep when I put her down. Now, I am just really hoping she sleeps till five or later again! I really hope she is learning how to self-soothe and sleep on her own. I would love for her to be sleeping through the night! I just hope we are well on our way!

She has been doing some new stuff this week. Ashlyn LOVES to stand on her legs. She is really good at it. She can stand amazingly well for a four month old. She will stand with me holding her arms forever with a huge smile on her face! She also loves to play in her excersaucer. I think she likes this because she can "stand" and look around at everything. I also have discovered how much she loves to be sung to. I have been singing her all the kid songs and she just smiles and laughs. She can be crying and I start singing and she stops right away and smiles. Tonight, during her bath she played with bath toys for the first time. I have put them in the bath before but she has not really been too interested. Tonight she was having a great time with them. This really is such a fun age!!!! Below are some new pictures for everyone. Enjoy!

A picture of Ashlyn on her four month "birthday"

This is when she was not happy to be in her crib!

A few minutes later

Playing with her excersaucer, her new favorite toy

Getting ready to go for a car ride

4 Months Old!

My sweet angel is four months old! My how the time flies! She is at such a fun age. Her personality is coming out more and more each day. She does something new just about everyday. It is so much fun to see what each day has in store with Ashyln.

Today we went to the doctor for her four month appointment. Ashlyn now weighs 12.9 pounds. She is on the skinny side. She is only in the 25 % now for weight. The doctor said that she is not underweight, just a skinny girl. She is now 24.5 inches. She is in the 50% for height. It is somewhat hard to dress her because things that are long enough for her are generally too big in the waist. Since they don't make belts for babies, it is difficult to find clothes that fit! The doctor said she looks great. She is hitting all of the milestones for her age. I just love her doctor! As I have mentioned before he is the same pediatrician that I saw as a child. Every time we see him he never seems to be in a rush. He usually spends twenty to thirty minutes talking with me. He always want to know any concerns I have. He is so good at discussing and explaining things in laymen terms. Today he also gave me some tips to get her to sleep through the night. I am definitely going to try them. She got four shots! As usual it was horrible to watch. She was smiling right before they stuck her and then she was screaming bloody murder. It was over quick and I held her and she was just fine again.

At four months Ashlyn is able to do a lot more. She loves to laugh and smile. She laughs really hard when you give her kisses on her stomach. It is really the cutest thing in the world! She is able to stand on her legs when you hold her up. She can roll over from her back to stomach. She holds her head really steady. She coos and "talks" like crazy! She bats at her toys and also holds them in her hands. She loves to watch anything that moves. The only thing she is not doing is sleeping through the night which I think may be partly her Mommy's fault.

She finally did it!!!!

Ashlyn rolled over a few weeks ago. I thought it was kind of a fluke thing since she has not done it since. Well today, three different times I laid her on her back and when I looked over at her next she was on her stomach! I am officially counting it as rolling over since she did it three times! I am so proud of her! She is really growing up! It's kind of scary she is rolling over because we have to keep a very careful eye on her! I am going to try my hardest to get some sequence pictures of her doing it.

Ashlyn turns 4 months on Thursday. She has her 4 month appointment on Friday. I will update on Friday with all of her stats, etc. I will also post some 4 month pictures. Below are some pictures I took today. We bought her the hat in Canton. It has a Texas sized bow! She wore it in Canton and everyone kept saying how adorable she looked! My Mom bought her the cute pink chair today for when she gets a little older. She wanted to try it out today! I also posted two other posts so make sure you keep reading after this one!




This is my favorite one!

I love her so much!!!