Bobblehead

This video cracks me up. When we burp Ashton he endures some pretty solid, repetitive slaps (as taught by the hospital nurses) and he does not mind at all. He just sits there and in this particular instance he is like our own little bobblehead doll. Love him.

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Ashton's first beach days, pool time, and hurricane!

Well it's Sunday afternoon and we are housebound due to Hurricane Irene. It's actually not that bad out, the rain has been fairly constant with some big wind gusts, but we are lucky that nothing substantial has happened here. For the first time since I've lived in Boston, they shut down all public transportation and when we left Long Island yesterday, they were beginning evacuations. Speaking of Long Island, Ashton had some big firsts while we were there the past few days! We went to the beach on Thursday for an hour or so, it was really windy so we had to prop the umbrella in order to protect Ashton (who, incidentally, didn't leave his carseat or  even open his eyes to see the ocean, but no matter):

Friday was much better, we stayed all afternoon and Ashton was cozy in his travel bed, which was under a tent, which was under an umbrella. Quite the setup!

With me

The water was rough because of the impending storm but no match for Jason...

After the beach, Ashton changed into his bathing suit and went in the pool (where the temp = 85 degrees so it was nice and warm)

The pool actually did make him a little upset/fussy despite how warm it was. But we gave him his second bath last night in his little tub and he LOVED it. He was so calm and you could tell that having the warm water run on his body made him very relaxed and happy, it was really cute. He will learn to love the pool too ;)

Well the rain has stopped but it's still windy out, what to do with the rest of this hurricane afternoon...tbd!

ps I have not fully learned the best way to optimize getting pictures up on this blog (moving from the camera, to iPhoto, then exporting, then uploading...) but you can click or doubleclick on the photos and they will open to their full size and are much clearer. If you didn't already know, I just figured that out!

My three new favorite words and two boring videos (to everyone but me haha)

I've had a very busy couple of days and am completely exhausted! Yesterday I officially took my first "me time", without Jason, Tate or Ashton, and went and got my hair done downtown. At least now I don't look as tired as I feel! How funny though, I actually felt guilty for taking 3 hours off. I missed nothing (Ashton slept the whole time I was gone) but from the minute I left I was anxious to get back so it was hard to even enjoy being out. I'm sure I will learn. And then last night I took Tate and Ashton to Katie's house in Wellesley for dinner, which would have been lovely had it not been a complete d.i.s.a.s.t.e.r. Tate was barking, trying to lick the oven (while it was on! Pretty sure he burned his tongue), ate Norm's food, scratched at the couch, and in general was a nuisance. Ashton aired his first episode of "I have no idea what I want so I'm going to cry and fuss endlessly." I have been awaiting the premiere of this show and it finally arrived - the timing was excellent as it started pretty much five minutes after we got there. By the time I loaded everyone in the car to go home I was pretty much in tears. We all fell asleep, totally wiped, around 11:30 pm. Jason got home from work around 2 am, just as Ashton was beginning to fuss and wake up to be fed. I noticed his stirring first and before I could even lift my head off my pillow, Jason was there and said, "I'll get him." And those, dear readers, are my three new favorite words anytime between 12 am and 6 am. Even though I've heard them before, I have a whole new appreciation after such a difficult evening and am making it official ("I love you" still has the other 18 hours of the day). Jason gave him the bottle I had left, and I didn't have to get up until 5 am and the next feeding. Best thing ever, I love my husband.

So today is a much needed day at home to regroup and get ready to for our Long Island trip (we have an 8 pm ferry tonight and come back on Saturday morning). I'm praying for some nice beach weather, Ashton has a tent, a travel bed, and the cutest little bathing suit with a built in diaper so even if we make it there for 15 minutes I will consider it a success.

Back to today - Ashton is back to his usual cute self, just sitting up in his little chair, blinking and looking around. I put him on his playmat and he is finally starting to focus on the shapes, the noise, and the colors of all the dangling "treetop friends". Here is a video, in which absolutely nothing happens so you've been warned :) About half way through he sees me and starts to focus on that rather than the owl, etc. Looks like we might have a new ham in the family (which he most definitely gets from his dad!). 

And then I flipped him over for some tummy time to help him develop his neck muscles. It's truly amazing how much time I spent just watching him bob around and occasionally lift his head. So amazing, in fact, that I'm not going to tell you how much. 

That's all for today. I have a lot to pack up this afternoon and if there's one thing I have learned, it's to estimate how much time my to-do list will take and then multiply that by 1,000. I better get going!

p.s. do these videos look different than the other ones that were posted through YouTube? I'd love some feedback- better? worse?

Sunday Funday

Boy time flies... Today we had a couple of firsts for Ashton:
First bath!




Nice shot, looks like I'm cleaning a chicken ;)




Scrub-a-dub:




Huh, this feels nice:




Nice do: his hair dried into a blowout, which A doesn't seem to happy about




First trip down to the garden:
Yeah he borrowed my hat...
Ha! so little :)




Ki, Ash & Tater:




Full bloom tomato season!
Those tomatoes are bigger then his head:)




Our bounty:




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Happy Saturday Morning!

Our little family is having a somewhat lazy Saturday morning, despite that last night was probably the best we've had yet. Ashton wakes up every three hours, almost on the dot, to be fed and changed. After he is full and dry, we swaddle him and put him back to sleep in his bassinet next to our bed. It is usually a battle to get him to fall back asleep. He struggles against the blanket until he gets his arms out, and then he cries, we re-swaddle him and give him a pacifier. This buys about five minutes and the cycle repeats. Last night though he was a champ! He went right down all three times after being fed, no whining! It was really nice. Of course I don't expect that to be the new standard but at least now I know it CAN happen.

Also good news yesterday - we went to the pediatrician and A has cracked 8 pounds (8 pounds 3 oz to be exact). It had been 12 days since our last appointment and he weighed 7 lbs 6 oz, so the weight gain made me feel good because ALL I do is feed him! His little arms and legs are starting to bulk up - he has lots of tiny rolls and it's so cute.

Speaking of cute...here are some latest pics!

In his swing (his rabbit went for the ride as well as Ashton only takes up half the seat!)

Playing bocce with Dad

With Aunt Lizzie

In the most amazing stroller ever:

And yesterday, sound asleep on my shoulder :)

I think for me the funniest part is that Ashton has so many faces and expressions that he looks like a different baby in pretty much every picture. 

Off to start the day...Oh just one last quick note. My sister pointed out to me yesterday that in order to post on this blog, you have to hit Preview first and then hit Post. Not sure why that is, if anyone has had trouble posting - if you just hit Post, it will keep refreshing the page and nothing happens. So please try hitting Preview first and see if that works. 

Happy weekend! :) xo

Some new pictures

So Ashton is currently asleep, which is great for the Kristen who wants to get a few things done around the house, catch up on some correspondence, and take a shower. Not great for the Kristen about an hour from now who will be ready to go to bed and Ashton will be wide awake. I swear, when he's asleep I think he should be awake, and when he's awake I sometimes wish he was asleep. It's been a long two weeks, I feel like Ashton should be three months old by now.

Anyway, not much to report. We had a great trip to Long Island to visit Jason's parents. It was such a nice couple of days, I had a house full of people who couldn't wait to hold Ashton, change him, play with him...it was a welcome break for me and I was so appreciative.

As you can imagine I have no fewer than 2,339 new pictures and videos that I could post (and I will in the next couple days, as well as remind Jason it's his turn to make an entry!) so for everyone out there that reads this and checks in, stay tuned :)

5 times longer

I have always been a very punctual person. When I have somewhere to be I actually obsess about being on time and generally have a good sense as to how long most things will take me. With Ashton's arrival I am recalibrating everything I know as everything takes five times longer to do! Yesterday Jason left for work around 11:30 am and I planned to be right behind him to go out and do errands. It took me 90 minutes to get out of the house. Why? First I got dressed. Then Ashton fussed so I went over and pushed the little rocker chair he was in for a few minutes. Then I did my hair. Ashton fussed, more rocking. Then I did my makeup. Ashton fussed and after rocking him realized I didn't know where his pacifier went. Checked the kitchen, nursery, found Tate happily licking away at it in the living room. Sigh (it's the only one A likes). Put water on to boil it and kill germs. Ashton fussed again, time to feed him. 20 minutes later he is full and burped. Dropped the pacifier in the water. Checked my diaper bag and refilled supplies. See that Ashton has spit up, changed his outfit. Turned off burner, cooled pacifier and gave it to him. Gather up everything I need for errands, returns, etc. Take Tate out. Check Ashtons diaper, of course it is now dirty. Change him, fasten him into his carseat. Takes two trips to get everything downstairs to the car. Annnnnd I'm off, finally. 1:03 pm. Good thing I didn't have plans.

Currently waiting at the New London ferry and heading to Long Island til Tuesday. First time our entire family of four has traveled together (Tate stayed home when we went to VT), Ashton and Tate are curled up in the back seat and sleeping on this rainy Sunday morning. With jasons help we were only five minutes late leaving this morning. Life is good :)


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Mac Daddy

Hi I'm Ashton and I sleep like the Mac Daddy :)



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Baby sneezes

Sorry for posting this but to me this is the cutest thing ever. I know photos and videos don't do Ashton justice because you can't actually tell how tiny he is, but still - couldn't resist.

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One week down...

We celebrated Ashton's one week birthday yesterday - already!! I am happy to report that things have settled a little around here, I have not cried in two days and little A seems to be adjusting to the big world :)  Traveling to Vermont was a huge success, we were only there one night but it helped my spirit so much to be out and about. We are headed to Long Island on Sunday for a few days as well. I think as long as I keep things on the calendar I won't feel so overwhelmed. Jason has had the past 2.5 days off and will be leaving in about 3 hours to go into work - I hope this passes without incident for me. It's of course so much easier to have him home, for the help and the companionship (Ashton and Tate are both cute but not exactly conversationalists).

In other good news, Ashton slept in his bassinet last night and woke up twice to be fed. Both times I rocked him and put him back down and he fell back asleep. This is completely amazing (and I hope not a one-time thing) as up until last night he has been in our bed (or slept on jason's chest) at least once a night because he was fussing. Regardless of whether it's a faulty sense, I feel like I am beginning to get it and that alone makes me feel more and more like myself again. Don't get me wrong, I still haven't straightened my hair in a week and I pretty much have zero clothes that fit, but the "I feel like a mess" factor goes down a little every day. For today and at this moment, I am good :)

Jason's due to post here pretty soon too, he's taken about 6,334 pictures and videos so I'm sure he'll have some good stuff to share.

Love to everyone
xo
KN

Road Trip!

Tuesday morning, off to Vermont so Ashton can meet my dad for the first time. The past couple days have been the hardest of my life I think, it feels really good to have Jason off for the next couple days and be out of the house! Just need to breathe a little. A is being quiet as a mouse in his carseat :)

So we have had some requests for more videos pictures etc, here are some of my favorites so far:














And yesterday, after trying his bouncer, his bassinet, his carseat, his rocker, and he still wouldnt stop fussing, I tried the swing. He's a little too small for it but it bought me four or five peaceful minutes.

xo
Kristen

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I found my thumb

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First whole weekend

Hi everyone,

As can be expected, it has been a really crazy few days/weekend as we have all adjusted to our new life together. I apologize to anyone that has sent me a text, email, facebook message or left me a voicemail that has gone unanswered- I have felt so overwhelmed by all the congratulatory messages, words of wisdom, and general love and support. It's been truly wonderful and I feel badly that I haven't been able to come close in keeping up with my responses. They say that having a baby completely consumes your life and let me tell you, there hasn't been time for one thing since we brought him home. Ashton has my constant attention at all hours of the day (yes, we are working off very little sleep and I've had a couple meltdowns) and I take everything a minute at a time.

Jason has been amazing, he does more than what I can even think of to ask. I don't know what i would do without him. Ashton of course is the cutest thing, I could spend hours just staring at him. He gets the hiccups, sneezes, and has about a zillion different faces. It's hard for pictures to even do him justice, everything about him is so small and cute, we are just completely in love with him.

Not sure where we will take this blog or if we will continue it - I think its purpose has been served but Jason might feel differently. Can't believe it has only existed for a week and how much has changed since the first post!! Thank you all for reading and being there for us, it has given us so much joy to be able to share everything with you.

xoxo
Kristen

Good morning!

I love my new vibrating chair from auntie kari :) pediatrician today, big outing!!



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Home!

Wow!! It's almost 6 pm on a beautiful summer day and we are home from the hospital!! Where do I even begin. I guess I'll tell the whole story...

We went to the beach on Tuesday as I think Jason has already mentioned. I pretty much had contractions the whole day, on the car ride up, on the beach and on the way home. I even had downloaded a contraction timer for my Iphone and I knew they were getting pretty close together. We got home and around 4:30 pm I called the OB's office, she asked me some questions and concluded that it sounded like I was ready to come in. So I hung up, told Jason that we could get on our way and we started to get our stuff together. (This is about the time when I got in the shower and when I got out, he had piled every toiletry this house has ever had into one spot so I could pick what to bring, and he was frantically disinfecting the kitchen countertops; he cleans when he is nervous.) Anyway, during the course of gathering everything up, my contractions of course STOPPED. Annoying. So then I got dressed to go to Jason's softball game (he had long since planned not to play) but I was like, we have to do SOMETHING and I'm not sitting around the house waiting for the contractions to start up again. It then started to pour, the game got cancelled and after the rain stopped we took Tate around the block a few times. My contractions started again and quickly were five minutes apart and pretty strong. My biggest fear was going to the hospital and being sent home for not being far enough along, but finally at around 8 pm we got in the car and drove over.

8:45 pm has me in the antenatal room and the nurse tells me that despite my contractions I am only 1.5 cm dilated. I said, You CANT send me home, my contractions are so strong...She said, go walk around for a couple hours. Which is exactly what we did. The first floor of the hospital can be walked in a big loop/square and Jason and I must have walked it over a dozen times, stopping every time I had a contraction so I could basically grip the railing on the wall and swear. I was in so much pain I thought I was going to explode with each one.

10:45 pm and the nurse tells me I'm STILL only 1.5 cm dilated. I gave her a look like she better figure something out because again, I'm not leaving. She measured my cervix again and with a little slight of her hand - magic! I was 3 cm and she was welcoming me to the delivery unit ;)

The next 90 minutes is a blur. My contractions were so bad that I just didn't know what to do with myself and the time it took them to move me to the delivery room, get the anesthesiologist, do the paperwork, questionnaire, and get the epidural seemed to take forever. Once I did get it, wow. Just so unbelievably good. I did not feel a thing and I think I was in and out of sleep for awhile.

2:30 am and the OB comes in. She had plans to rupture my water and all I saw was this long rod before I felt a super sharp pain. I pretty much shrieked and she gave me a puzzled look like I should not have felt that. Long story short, another anesthesiologist came in and I got more pain meds even though I couldn't feel any contractions with the initial epidural.

3:00 am and I think I posted to this blog about feeling great and just waiting until it was time to push. The OB came back in around 3:45 am, successfully broke my water and then for the next 90 minutes, although I didn't feel any contractions, with each one I felt more and more pressure as the baby descended.

5:15 am, time to push! I was fully dilated and scared to death. I was shaking pretty much uncontrollably as they got everything set up. So nervous, didn't know if pushing was going to hurt even more (turns out it feels much better to push than try not to), how long it would take, etc.

6:00 am, the OB is paged because he is right there, so close to being born. He needed to be turned as he was coming out, which ended up in the cord wrapping around his neck so Jason did not get to cut it. Pretty sure he was fine with that, although I know he watched everything else happen and was in general my biggest cheerleader (love you babe). He was amazing. When the baby came out at 6:15 am they put him immediately on my chest, suctioned his nose and mouth and wiped/hit his back to get him to start breathing and crying. I remember counting his ten fingers before they took him over to the warmer and did all their other "brand new baby" procedures.

After that, a big mix of emotions of course. We stayed together in the delivery room for awhile before being moved to the post-natal area, where we then slept, ate, etc. before all our visitors started to arrive. And then from that time on, the hospital experience was nothing but fantastic. Friends, family, wonderful nurses and staff, and of course the best part, Ashton. This morning Jason left to come home and check on tate, take a shower, etc. and I finally sent A to the nursery so I could shower and put myself together a little. I could not get back there fast enough to get him, for the 45 minutes he was gone I missed him like crazy and couldn't wait to get him back.

As of right now my favorite thing to do is stare at him. I love his little noises, his sneezes, yawns, fingernails, tiny shoulders and funny feet.

Most people know my nightly routine is to take Tate to the park so he can get some exercise and I can get some fresh air.  Tonight is not any different except we have a little nugget that is coming with us :) It's a beautiful summer evening and our new family is home. Can't imagine being more grateful for everything I have been blessed with.

Going Home!

8/4 - 3pm - Just over a day old Ashton passes all his tests with flying colors, Ki per usual is doing amazing & the envy of every other mother in the place (seriously I think for the morale of the other women the Hospital asked her to leave, ha! ;)

In the car headed home:





What a welcome, thanks to our friends Chera, Eric, Owen & Lexi:




Chillin' in my new crib:




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Who's your daddy?

Lots of people told me that first time you hold your child, life as you know it changes... This was Ashton in my arms for the first time early this morning.

And they were all right, I already would do anything for this little guy :)

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The morning after

Snug as a bug in a rug :)



Both Kristen & Ashton are exhausted from the big night!


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He's here!

Ashton Christopher Nill, 7 lbs 10 oz born august 3rd at 6:15 am.







More to come!

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No turning back now

5am - fully dilated & ready to push, come on ki you can do it!


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3 am

Wow it's 3am. While my body feels like a warm cooked noodle, so relaxed (thanks epidural!) I am wide awake. They just came to check me, I'm 6 cm and progressing well, the OB broke my water and said it looked like i would deliver on her shift, which ends at 8 am. It's been an adventure so far, LOTS of pain (who does this naturally?!?!), shaking, etc... After all is over I will post the story beginning to end but for now, in a dark hospital room listening to our baby's heartbeat, soft radio, and waiting (in a good way) to meet our baby boy. I still have a couple hours of pushing coming my way of course, just wanted to say hi (and tell Jason sorry for proposing to the anesthesiologist, that epidural did change my life!)

xo


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It's go time

We arrived at the hospital around 9, they said to come in at 730 but we all know Ki - had to take tater tot for a walk around the block first.

11pm - dilated, effaced, in labor & admitted - uh, lots of pain - my poor wifey :(

12am 8/2 drugs on board - ki is smiling again - AMAZING! Who would turn an epidural down??




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Ahh, the waiting game...

Have you ever been asked the same question repeatedly over & over again for an entire day?? Poor Kristen must have heard me ask her "are you having another one?" a hundred times today. On a positive note in between all those contractions we enjoyed a great day at singing beach!! My trooper of a wife packed up the lunch and waddled down to the beach for the day. At the beach & in my element was about the only thing that kept my mind off of what is to come...

Fast Forward to 430pm... As Kristen is on the phone with the hospital... I am frantically throwing every toiletry and lady product in our house into our "unpacked hospital bag" that was supposed to be packed & ready two months ago.

Relax... it was just a close call. Apparently Ki's hour long battle with the pain has subsided long enough for me to bite my nails, put up a quick post & disinfect the kitchen countertops?!? (yeah i know right? - insert your joke here)

Last Photo of Ki at the beach - possibly hours before delivery :)

Tuesday and a note about names

I am fast learning that if I fail to respond to texts or emails, or show up five minutes late for something, people of course think i am in labor! But... Tuesday morning, still pregnant. The last day I have definitely felt lots of contractions and in general it seems as though Fred is getting ready, but not enough is happening to prevent me from heading off to the beach this morning :)

We also get lots of questions on whether we have thought of names. I am proud to announce that we have three, although none of them fit all of my criteria (to be more than one syllable, not in the top 50 most popular names and ending in a letter other than "n"). There doesn't seem to be a perfect fit? I think we just need to meet him and the answer will present itself. Until then, Fred.

Ok my beach chair calls!

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Jason's First Post

What an exciting time, we have "our very own" blog… & oh yeah a baby coming all the same week :)

I'm not going to lie it has been a pretty long nine months since Kristen & I found out the big news. "It's Official - Your Boys Can Swim!!!" Kristen's doctor excitedly yelled to us in December (well maybe not in those exact words - but as my new life flashed in front of my eyes thats what I heard…)

The next few months were filled with late sleepless nights, strange cravings & an overall transformation. Kristen "on the other hand" was a champion, i couldn't have asked for a better partner & mom to be. Never sick once, no obscure food requests & in general life as usual. Except now I had an on call DD for when ever we ventured out :)

As the weeks flew by we talked about how/what we were going to do to document the whole event & this is what we came up with… I'll apologize now, since its my first blog - I don't know exactly what to say/not say in the posts to come. With the ability to post from my iPhone certain privileges/ability to sensor have been taken away from the "Editor in Chief." ~ a risky move.

Thanks again for taking the time/interest & i'll do my best to keep you in the loop!

Jason

Nursery

After many requests I am happy to post a few pictures of our nursery! We went with a fish/whale theme as you can see. Jason put the crib together and I helped hang the wallpaper border. As of right now the dresser is filled with onesies, blankets, etc. all washed and waiting for Fred to get here.

Speaking of Fred getting here, I was awake last night from 5-7 am with contractions but as soon as I got up, they disappeared. False alarm, although at the time I decided I wasn't ready and started to get nervous. Now that they are gone, of course I wish they would come back and be the real thing. The waiting is the worst part...