What Work Looks Like

These pictures are just too funny to not put up.  Normally Asher is a little less obvious about being the king of the nap castle...

 

Asher and I hard at work (one of us is hard at work, one of us is fast asleep)

 

 

 "Ahhh!!  The light!!  Turn it off!"

Fun Fun Fun

Well, I had hoped (perhaps foolishly?) that Asher's growth spurt being over meant we would sleep again... but it would appear we have a new challenge on our hands.

 

Asher went to bed peacefully after dozing in my arms, and he stayed asleep for about 5 hours.  But at 1:30 a.m. I woke up to him rustling, and waited, ready to walk over to the crib to pop in a pacifier and rub his belly if he had trouble falling back asleep.  But he had no intention of going back to sleep...Asher had other plans.  I could hear him kick his legs around, then give a big grunt, squeal in delight, and then start whimpering.  What is he doing?  I thought.  When I got up to investigate I found that he had rolled over onto his belly but was not able to free his left arm (hence the whimpering, which progressively turned into an angry cry for help).  I rolled Asher onto his back, gave him his pacifier, and crawled back into bed, looking forward to more sleep.  Yeah. Right.  About twenty minutes later I heard *rustle-stomp-squeal-whimper* ...and up I got to free the trapped arm and flip the frustrated baby.  Problem number one: while Asher loves rolling over, he hates being on his belly.  So once he gets there, he doesn't fall asleep, he gets mad.  Problem number two: Asher did this whole rolling thing backwards, instead of learning how to roll from his belly to his back, he went back to belly.  So once he gets on his stomach, he is officially stuck.  We spent about an hour in this holding pattern of Asher getting trapped and me rescuing him before I brought him into bed with us, wedged him in my armpit (I had to immobilize him somehow), and we all went back to sleep.  So this should be fun :)

 

 

"I MAKE THIS DIAPER LOOK AH-MAZING!"

 

Another new play development, Asher now enjoys his crazy animal spinny seat thing!

 

Okay, so we are kind of cheating...

 

 

"What does that guy do?"

 

"Oh he makes a delightful noise!!"

(One of my favorite pictures of Asher, he loves that elephant)

 

 

"Oooohhh, hello friend..."

 

 

ASHER ROLLS OVER!!

So many great things to share today!

Thing 1: Asher slept for two 5 1/2 hours stretches last night.  This is the first time I have gotten REM sleep in 22 days.  There was a noticeable difference in who I was as a person today.  So much so that Ben welcomed me back and told me he had missed me :)  Ben is also much more well-rested, we feel like new people! We are hoping this is the end of Asher's 3 week long growth spurt, and based on the fact that he has crashed  hard, napping all but 3 hours of the day, we think we might be right.

Thing 2: Asher has been working hard to roll over for the last few days, and today... SUCCESS!!!

Once on his belly, he starts grabbing the blanket to pull himself forward. 

Kind of cheating his way to a crawl :)

Supportive puppy brother.

I wish I could say that was a look of concentration, 

but really he is just still enjoying chewing his bottom lip all day long.

 This was right after his first roll over-- so happy :)  

He promptly started crying and wanted to be held while he napped for 2 hours after his accomplishment.

He now tries to roll off of everything... a little terrifying.

Close...but no cigar...

Success!!

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy 4th of July!

 

Ours started off a little rough.  Asher only slept for 3 hours last night, so Ben and I woke up exhausted and looking forward to a day of long naps.  Unfortunately, by 11, Asher had not cooperated with his sleep-deprived parents and was still wide awake so we decided to go out to lunch.  He fell asleep about 30 minutes in, and then we took him to urgent care afterwards (we knew they weren't open until 2 because of the holiday).  Asher has a rash on his leg where he got his shots, and after seeing our pediatrician this afternoon we know we need to be very careful with his next round in two months.  But he is feeling better and we have had a good day of napping, so we are hopeful we will all get some sleep tonight.

 

Wide awake baby and yes, I look like a crazy person.  That's how moms look when they have not slept in about 3 weeks.

 

And then, boom, Asher's asleep.  When he passes out he passes out hard.

 

In the waiting room at urgent care, I swear he knew where he was.  Look at those accusing eyes.

 

Also in the news- Ben's diploma finally arrived!  He is officially a doctor!



 

 We decided to show off Asher's adorable gifts from Carly and Auntie Jean-- how cute are these booties and this sweater?



Grandma Karen & Aunt Allie's Visit

 

Grandma Karen and Aunt Allie visited us this week!  Allie had just learned about infant development in her PT class, so Asher was extensively tested to make sure he is meeting his motor/strength milestones and Allie gave us some awesome tips on how to encourage his interest in crawling and sitting.  The weather finally cooled off, so we spent a lot of time on the patio passing Asher around and talking about Allie and Caleb's wedding :)

 

Hanging out with Aunt Allie

 

 

 Grandma Karen and Baby Asher

Falling into a crawling position

 

 

Asher had his 4 month visit on Monday.  The great news here....I LOVED his doctor (Ben also approved).  She was incredibly attentive and had the perfect balance of adorable, goofy pediatrician that is great with your child and intelligent, thorough professional that mommy and daddy can trust.  Asher did well getting the shots, but as I'll talk more about in the next post, he reacted to the vaccines as time went on.  Don't worry public health cohort... I'm not about to become someone who doesn't immunize their child.  Even though I will admit the thought crossed my mind for half a second before I remembered that I am not a crazy person.

 

Ticklish baby...

 

Herbert

 

 

Not knowing Ben is behind him...

"Hey mom! Whatcha doin'?  Oh, watching me?  Great!"



"Look what I can do!"

 

"What the hiccup!  Did I just hear my dad?"

 

"Ahh!  Dad!"

 

Funniest. Poop. Ever.

We were shopping for Allie's rehearsal dinner dress (she found two BEAUTIFUL choices) when I noticed Asher making a funny face.  I peeked in his diaper to see what was going on and well, everything fell apart (or fell out, depending on how much information you want).  Luckily, the women at White House Black Market were amazing and let me use their break room to clean up a verrrrry messy baby.

 

 

 

And once he had finished his business he passed out on me in the middle of a very loud, crowded lunch spot.  Atta boy.