Ashlyn Deane: One Month

Happy 1 month Birthday, sweet girl!!! 

May 28, 2013

We're enjoying you so much and you only get more fun! 

Ashlyn has had quite a few significant "firsts" in this first month:  

Meeting her doggies for the very first time

Meeting all her cousins for the very first time

Adjusting.

Everyone says everything changes forever when you have a baby.

Daddy's girl.

Mommy's world.

And I believe it.

Family photo on my first Mother's Day (2 weeks)

But its not  quite as much change as I expected.  Here's why:

• I started being a "stay-at-home-mom" at about 20 weeks, so by now I'm used to staying at home, doing house chores, and hanging out with the dogs. No anti-social shock.  

Ashlyn's first cuddles with the doggies

• Ashlyn has been a relatively good eater.  She usually goes about 3 hours before she wants to eat again, so I do feel like I can get out and go run errands or do something around the house.  (Except in the late afternoon, she just wants to hang out and eat and be held, aka, take a nap on Mommy...this may become my blogging time!)

Wiggle-time on the couch!

• I wake up less times at night to feed Ashlyn than I was getting up to go to the bathroom during pregnancy.  Win.  Too bad it takes so long to feed her.  

Ashlyn after her first bath (5 days).

• I feel bored because I made so many freezer meals.  I've been being really consistent at meal planning and grocery shopping only once a week, that now my Mondays seem empty and we just keep eating leftovers! I'd rather just make dinner.  

Cuddles with Mommy

• I'm back to walking the dogs (who are out of practice at leash-walking, grrr).  

Family walk with the rest of the Paulsens out
in Montana de Oro

• Ashlyn sleeps in her own room at night, there isn't a big Pac'n'Play clogging up our room. She sleeps in her room because she's noisy, and we don't want to listen to her little grunts and squeaks all night long, and then I can change her and feed her in the middle of the night without totally waking Tim up (we have decided this is best for us due to the nature of his job).  

One of Tim's favorite pictures of me and Ashlyn

Sweet girl at 2 weeks

Ashlyn Deane: A Birth Story

Ashlyn Deane Paulsen

April 28, 2013 at 6:23am

7lbs, 6oz; 20in

Some people call their birth stories, "labor stories".  This is definitely not that.  It's a birth story.  

Ashlyn after her first bath

Tim has been working a lot, meaning, all his Fridays off, most Saturdays, and he was supposed to work Sunday.  We had been looking forward to Miracle Miles for Kids on April 27th for a while (hoping we would have our baby by then, but also so that Tim and Drew could go kayaking).  Tim found out he had to work, and I decided to go up to Cayucos for Miracle Miles for Kids with the dogs anyways as a way to be distracted and not sit at home by myself all day.  

At 12:30am (Sunday now), I woke up with cramps and started watching the clock to see about how far apart they were, and at around 1:30am I woke up Tim when they were about 5 to 6 minutes apart with, "I don't think you're going to work today!" We started using an app on my phone to time the cramping, and got up to have something to eat, thinking we were in for a long day.  I ate some greek yogurt, and Tim made a fried egg, and sat down to write an email to people at work detailing what he was currently working on.  The doggies woke up (thinking it was morning) and wanted breakfast, and Tim actually did give them a snack (and gave Cole his morning dose of antibiotics for his ears).  Tim put the last of the things like phone chargers and the dog bed in the car.  

Around 3:30 we called Megan because although my contractions were only 30-45 seconds long and not too intense, they were 3 minutes apart.  Megan said I probably wasn't in active labor yet, because I could still mostly talk through the contractions, so to try and stay home and relax as long as I could, but to get to the hospital before I was in transition, because she's heard going through transition in the car is terrible.  

It is.