2 Month Checkup, Christmas, Smiley Baby

Ok, so I am a week behind.....but Ashlyn had her two week checkup last Monday. Here is where she is at:

Weight: 11 Pounds 14 Ounces (78%)

Height: 23 Inches (76%) - I thought this was not accurate so I remeasured her myself - I get 25 Inches!

Head: 16 Inches (90%)



2 Weeks Stats:

Weight: 8 Pounds 13 Ounces (89%)

Height: 22 Inches (99%)

Head: 15 Inches (97%)



Christmas was lots of fun - Ashlyn slept through most of it - but she got lots of presents! I forgot my camera (I know - BAD MOM!), but I did take some pictures with my Mom's camera. So I will have to get those from her and post them.....it could be awhile!



I finally caught a smile on camera! So cute! Not the best angle, but you take what you can get!

2 Months Old!

Ashlyn is two months old today! Wow time flies and she is growing like a weed. I tried taking some pictures on her tummy time leaf and in her bumbo chair. She was getting a little crabby so we will have to try some more later.

Ashlyn at two months is......
-Starting to smile "socially" - usually it is just a half smile (we haven't caught one on camera yet, but will keep trying)
-Starting to "talk" quite a bit
-Sleeping pretty well - although every third or fourth night she decides she wants to stay up from 2am - 4am

Work is going good so far, I am getting pretty tired, thank goodness it is Friday tomorrow!

Ashlyn goes for her two month checkup and shots on Monday, so hopefully that goes well.



Happily "plugged-in"....

"Hey! Where did my plug go?????"

A quick picture after Daddy pulled the plug...

Tummy time blanket - Wasn't happy with tummy

time, so we flipped over for a picture.

Hopefully we can get some better pictures later, that is if I can stay awake longer than her!

Back to Work....

Well, I go back to work tomorrow....I am not looking forward to getting up and being ready that early in the morning. I have gotten used to bumming around until about 9-10 o'clock each day. I am also going to miss 'Las Vegas' - the show I have become addicted to since I have been home. Maybe it plays at a different time? Otherwise, I will have to figure out how to work my VCR - wow, I haven't used one of those in awhile. Someday we will join the world of DVR's, but not until we move!

I am not too worried about leaving Ashlyn while I am at work. She will be in good hands with her Daddy. I am not so sure about the first day I have to leave her at Daycare, at least I have three more weeks before that happens.

I don't have any recent pictures (I know, bad mommy!) to post, but I will be sure to get some! Ashlyn will be two months old soon! Technically she was 8 weeks on Saturday - but December 18th will be her 2 month 'birthday'. I did take some pictures on Saturday with Ashlyn and Taylor, but they are on Amy's camera - so I will have to wait for her to e-mail them to me.

Only 10 more days to go until Christmas! Yeah, I am excited. I love Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Some picutres from yesterday....

Taylor helping Grandma feed Ashlyn

Our attempt at getting a picture of all four girls....

Didn't last long - Abbie is outa here and Ashlyn is over it. Maddie and Taylor look cute though!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

We have been pretty busy this last week, so I will try to catch up for the last few days.

Wednesday we went back to Austin to hang out with Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Amy. On the way we stopped in to visit everyone at Mediacom. Ashlyn even stayed awake the whole time we were there! Too bad she slept pretty much the whole time at Grandma and Grandpa's. Grandpa even babysat for a little bit so I could go out with Mikayla.

Thursday we met Janet, Mikayla, Melissa, Aidan and Amy for lunch at Perkins. It was the first time I got to see baby Aidan, he is so cute! Ashlyn looks HUGE compared to him and he is a week older! We went over to Melissa's later that day to take some pictures of the two.

They are holding hands......kind of.

Aidan is kind of scrunched up, but you can still
tell Ashlyn is quite a bit bigger than him.


So precious!

Friday the nurse from Nicollet County came over to visit with us and weighed Ashlyn - she is 10 pounds, 2 ounces! I can't believe she has already gained two pounds! No wonder she looks so big!

Saturday we went to the Coldwell Banker Christmas Party, Ashlyn got passed around quite a bit, but she did not seem to mind!

Cute picture of Ashlyn in her towel that our neighbor Peggy made her. She looks kind of like cousin Taylor.

One Month Old!

Ashlyn is one month old already! The last month sure flew by.

We also had a baby shower this weekend given by my Aunts. It was a lot of fun and Ashlyn got a lot of clothes, blankets and other stuff. I didn't take many pictures, just these of Auntie Amy, Cousin Maddie and Ashlyn. I will have to get pictures from my Aunts to post, since they took a bunch.

Maddie was holding Ashlyn's hand, so cute!

New Swing!

We got a new swing today from everyone at Coldwell Banker. I think Ashlyn likes it, and Chad and I are really going to like it - considering it puts her right to sleep!

Grandma and Grandpa Luscomb came over yesterday to watch the Vikings game and Grandpa finally got to hold Ashlyn...

Ashlyn & Taylor

Ashlyn and Taylor all dressed up for the Vikings. We need to find Ashlyn some pink Vikings gear.....

2 Week Checkup

Ashlyn had her two week well baby checkup today. She is perfect! The nurse said that and of course we agree..... She weighed in at 8 pounds 13 ounces - 89 percentile, her head measures 15 - 97 percentile and her height is 22" - 99 percentile. They did not measure her height again, they just went with her birth height.

Her next appointment will be her 2 month checkup in December - she gets yucky shots at that one!

Well, I am off to go hang out with the dart team tonight. I am not playing until next week, but I thought I would give Daddy a chance to have some alone time and I need some time with the girls.

Pictures.....

Some cute pictures from today.....(except the Halloween one!).....

Snug as a bug.....

Buddy likes the Boppy too....

Happy Halloween!

Go Vikings!

My Little Peapod

We tried on our Halloween costume today, it is a little big, but cute!

Mom's Surgery

My Mom's surgery seems to have went well, it took a lot longer than they had planned due to some other issues they found while they were in there fixing the things they were aware of. We are not sure when they will release her from the hospital, she had some issues last night and has fluid in her lungs.

So we may be taking our second trip to Rochester today, this time we will be able to see my Mom for a little longer. She was pretty tired and drugged up after she got back to her room last night.

Sleepy Baby......

I am already starting to get bored being at home all day. Ashlyn is such a good little sleeper that I don't even need to nap during the day. She started sleeping in her crib instead of the bassinet and she seems to like it much better. She gets up about every 3-4 hours to eat and then back to sleep!

There isn't really anything else exciting going on. We will be making our first road trip tomorrow, my Mom has her surgery at Mayo in Rochester, so Ashlyn and I will be heading over there with Lisa and Taylor. They say it can take from 4-10 hours to complete the surgery, so we are hoping that it will only take 4 or so. It is a pretty routine surgery it sounds like, they complete at least 3 surgeries of this kind per day. So as long as all goes well, she should be in and out the next day.

Ashlyn Kristine Luscomb 10-18-08

Our baby girl is one week old today! I have not had the chance to get on since then, so here is the short story.....

My water broke about 3AM Saturday morning, shortly after Chad got home from work. We called Labor & Delivery and they told us to come in. We got to the hospital about 4AM and I was admitted. It was a long day, and she was finally born at 5:45PM on Saturday, October 18th. I was completely surprised that it was a girl, we were all so convinced that I was having a boy. Even the nurses thought so - based on the heartbeat. Chad decided it was going to be a girl a couple of hours before she was born, because the nurse was commenting on the amount of hair she had and his Mom brought in a little blue teddy bear right as I was starting to push. I won't go into any detail on the whole labor process - thankfully it is all worth it once you hear that first cry and they put your baby on your chest.

She came in at 8 pounds, 2.8 ounces and 22 inches long - I don't know how she ever fit in my belly! She also has a full head of dark hair......

Pictures from her birth day.....

Cute little feet!

A picture from today - one week old......

That is all I have for now, hopefully I will be better at keeping this updated now!

38 Weeks 5 Days

Well, I went to the doctor today and there has been no change since last week. She did offer to try stripping my membranes to see if that would work, but I decided not to do that. If it did work then I would probably go into labor within 36 hours. Which means, my doctor would be gone, my Mom would be gone and Chad would be working at Big Dog. So, I go back in on Monday and we will schedule a time to be induced on Wednesday. So unless I go into labor before then, I only have one more week to go! I can handle that. I feel better just knowing that I won't go past my due date.

I am pretty positive it is going to be a boy. They hooked me up to a monitor for 20 minutes to monitor the baby's heart rate and movement and the highest it got was the 160's while he/she was moving. The nurse thought that it seemed like a boy's heart rate too, although that is not always accurate with all babies. They had to use a buzzer to wake the baby up at first, but after that the heart rate and everything looked good.

Congrats Chad & Mel!

Congratulations to Chad and Mel on the arrival of their baby boy Aidan Micheal yesterday! Oh yeah, and her due date was one day before mine, so when is it going to be my turn?????

38 Weeks - No baby yet!

With only 14 days until my due date I am getting awfully impatient. I am feeling much better this week compared to last week. My feet are still huge and my back has been constantly hurting so hopefully this little one decides to come soon! I am getting nervous that this baby is going to be huge!

I went to the doctor on Tuesday, my blood pressure is back to pretty much normal. I am dilated to a 3 and 70% effaced. So pretty much I am not ready yet and I will go back to the doctor on Tuesday again.

My Mom informed me last night I have to have the baby by this weekend because she has to be gone for work next week. I would love to have a baby before the weekend, but I don't think that is going to happen!

37 Weeks

Big Belly and Swollen Feet!

36 Weeks

Well it has been awhile since I last posted. We have had a lot going on. So I will try to do a quick catch up for now.

My Grandma passed away on September 16th, so we have been busy with her funeral and cleaning out her house and things like that.

Tanya and Keir got married on September 20th - Congratulations!!!!! Chad and I did not stay very long. It was hot and I did not feel very well. It was a nice wedding and Tanya looked beautiful.

I had my first baby shower on September 21st - Thanks to Mikayla and Melissa. It was fun and I got all kinds of things I will need very soon.

We are in the process of putting up the crib - or at least Chad is. Those things come in a million pieces! Once he is finished I will try to post a picture of the baby's room. It is pretty boring at this point because I don't want to pick out bedding and stuff until after so it is gender specific.

We had our 36 week appointment yesterday. It went good, but it sounds like I will be having this baby in about 2 1/2 weeks. My doctor thinks he/she is getting a little big. I am also very uncomfortable with my massively swollen feet and the baby is sitting right on my sciatic nerve so I have a pain shooting down my right side and my leg likes to go numb. I also had my first "exam" and this is what I found out:
-Dialated a little over 1 cm-60% Effaced
-Belly measures 37 cm
-The baby weighs around 6 pounds
-The heartbeat was in the 120's
So the heartbeat theory must not work - the heartbeat has always been in the 140-150's and now this time it is in the 120's. So what do they say....140's is a girl and 120's is a boy? So I guess that means I still have a 50/50 chance.

I will try to post some pictures later.....

Childbirth Preparation Classes

We had our first Childbirth Preparation class last night. Actually my Mom attended with me, since Chad was "busy". It was pretty interesting, they talked about the last trimester emotions, aches and pains. I realized that I am not crazy, I can be this tired and not be able to sleep! That will only get worse before it gets better!

I have the baby's room pretty much ready to go, well as much as I can without being able to decorate anything. My Mom and I picked up the crib mattress last night and will be getting the crib in a couple of weeks. We have a bassinet all set up and ready to go to use right away.

We have an appointment on Wednesday to tour the hospital and get pre-registered and I also have my 34 week appointment on Wednesday. It will be interesting to see what my blood pressure will be this time. I don't think my hands and feet can get any bigger! It is a good thing I can wear flip flops because that is all I can fit into!

Belly Pics - 31 Weeks

31 Weeks - 9 To Go!!!!

I think we finally have the daycare issue solved! We have a appointment with an infants only daycare center in Mankato. We toured it once already a while back, so we are going to take a look again and get registered. Thankfully they have an opening for January.

Update on Grandma: She is in a nursing home in Blooming Prairie now and seems to be doing better. She still has not gotten her speech back from the stroke, but she is able to move her arms and legs again and eat semi-solid food. The doctors say it can take months for her speech to come back - if it does, so we are still hoping she will improve in that area too.
I am going to try and have Kandi take some belly pictures for me tonight - so those will be posted today or tomorrow.

Also, Congratulations to Steph & Chris on their first baby due in March and Janet & Arik on their third baby due in April! Baby Luscomb will have lots of new playmates!

30 Weeks, 1 Day

I had my 30 week doctor's appointment today. Nothing too exciting, we listened to the heartbeat and it is in the 150's. I was told I had to cut down on the amount of glucose I take in. My glucose level from the gestational diabetes screening was 137 and 140 is abnormal, so I am pretty high. But it is nothing to get too worried about. This was also my last 4 week appointment, now I am on the 2 week appointments.

We are having a daycare delimma, we still haven't found a for sure place yet. We thought we had it all settled, but it turns out the place we were planning on is not going to work out. We looked at another place today that I thought for sure would be the one, but now after seeing it I am not sure. I think my expectations are just a little too high for these daycare centers. So I am not sure what we are going to do. We may just have a spot held at the center we looked at today and then in January check out some home daycares that have openings. It is a good thing Chad is able to stay home until we find something - that way we can be a little more picky. Hopefully at that point we will be settled in a new house in Mankato too!

I will have to try and remember to put some belly pics on tonight. It is getting pretty big! I am already worrying about getting rid of it as fast as I can once the baby is born. I think I am going to have a lot of work to do!

29 years (for me) and almost 29 weeks (for baby)!

I am not very good at keeping up with this! I am really trying to remember to keep at it, but things have been crazy! I thought since it is my birthday, I will make an effort today. Happy Birthday to me! I just got some pretty flowers from my wonderful husband (that thought today was the 31st this morning). They even have mini snickers in the vase - just what I need!

Lisa's wedding reception is tomorrow night, so I am heading back to Austin this afternoon to help get that all set up. It should be fun! I am hoping it is not really hot and humid. The heat is torture on me and especially my feet and ankles. At least my feet and ankle swelling goes down if I go in the A/C for awhile.

I got a letter from the clinic saying I passed my gestational diabetes test and my hemoglobin test, so all is going well so far. This baby is definitely growing and kicking and moving like crazy. I have my next appointment on August 13th and after that I start going in every two weeks. I think at 36 weeks I start going every week. Eleven or so more weeks and we will find out what the little one is! Then I can FINALLY go shopping for all those cute little outfits.

My Grandma is back in the hospital again. She was able to live at the Cedars for 4 days and was pretty happy about it. She had a stroke Tuesday morning and so far has not regained her speech or movement on her left side. So far she has not really showed any improvement, but she has not really gotten any worse either. The doctors told my Mom and Dad that she could still snap out of it, so I guess we will wait and see.

Trying to catch up.....

Well, I haven't been very good at updating this, it just slips my mind all of the time! But after a few reminders from Mikayla, I am updating it today.

We got back a week ago from Reno, NV, it was a good time and the wedding was perfect. Lisa and Taylor looked so pretty in their matching dresses. Taylor had some issues with the sand in her shoes, so she stopped midway down the "aisle" to try to clean them out and then realized she had sand on her hands too. Lisa and Dad ended up going around her to keep the ceremony going. They did break the record with a 4 1/2 minute ceremony! The pictures turned out really good, now they have the fun part of deciding what to order.

It is a good thing there is little humidity in Reno, because I don't think I could have handled the 100+ degree temperatures if it was Minnesota! The sky was a little smoky from the fires in California and a couple of the days it smelled like a campfire every time you went outside, but the day of the wedding it seemed to be a little clearer out than the other days.

I had another Dr appointment last week and had to drink the yummy orange mixture to test for gestational diabetes (Yuck!), seems the test must have come back ok because I haven't heard anything yet. The baby is growing just fine and I have gained another 4 pounds. I should be gaining about a pound a week for the rest of the pregnancy - yikes! That is another 12-13 pounds!

We celebrated my Dad's birthday last night. He is officially a senior citizen! Grandma Snider took us all out for pizza at Steve's. Grandma did not get moved into the Cedars this weekend as planned, but it sounds like she should be able to move shortly. I think she is in pretty good spirits about it, considering she is getting out of St. Mark's, which she hates.

I also found out a week or two ago that my friend Sarah is expecting her second baby in February. Congratulations Sarah and Steve!

One more picture of Lisa and Brian. I have more I will try to put on sometime today or tomorrow.

Lisa's Bachelorette Party

We celebrated Lisa's last night out on Saturday night in Austin. We all had a great time and everyone had a safe and sober ride home (yeah, that was me!). I made it all night with them, although I did have my pregnant side-kick Mel to keep me company towards the end.

So they all survived a night a drinking with the girls and I survived a night of hanging out with a bunch of drunk girls!

Kelly & Amy - Our TP Dress Models

Runaway Brides.....

The drinking part of the wedding party...

You might be a redneck if......

You choose to "hunt" fish with a bow and arrow instead of a fishing pole. I just had to share this picture of Chad on one of his fishing excursions. This would be one reason to hope for a girl, although he could probably convert her to a redneck fisherman too!

So I came up with another girl name because Chad decided he didn't really like Ashlyn. I like Alexa or Alexis. My cousin Tony has a little girl named Lexi and my cousin Matt has a son named Alex (technically that is his middle name, but that is what they are going by). So I don't know if it would be too confusing to add another similar name to the bunch. I guess I have plenty of time to decide though!

20 days to go for Lisa's wedding! I can't wait for the vacation time and the wedding!

22 Weeks, 1 Day

Well, we had another ultrasound on Monday. The baby is doing good and measuring a little bit big (Already?), but my due date is still October 23rd. We did not find out if the little one is a boy or girl. I guess you have to let Daddy have his way once in a while. So I guess we wait until October to find out if the name will be Carter or Ashlyn. I keep dreaming that it is a boy, but they say you usually have the opposite, so will Maddie, Taylor and Abbie have another little girl to play with?

I also had an appointment with my Doctor on Monday and found out I gained A LOT of weight. She said it was ok, unless I gain the same this month. So I am up a total of 15 pounds - with hopefully only 10-15 to go. They say the baby will almost double in size the next few weeks, so lets hope that is the only weight I gain! Otherwise I guess it is diet time! Boo!

20 Weeks, 1 Day

Time is flying! I can't believe I am already half-way there, yet I still have so much left! So my belly is growing, I feel huge. I think this picture was taken at a bad angle - because I look huge! My wonderful husband is out fishing, again, so I had to take the picture myself.

The baby weighs about a pound and is measures about 8 inches. My ultrasound is scheduled for June 16th, so we should be able to get a good look at the baby. We are still going to wait until birth to find out what we will be naming the baby......unless Chad changes his mind by then.

I can feel the baby move quite a bit now, especially when I go to bed. I hope that is not a sign for what will come once the baby is here!

One year later....

We survived our first year of marriage. They say that the first year is the hardest, so we should have it pretty good from now on! :) Chad also did a good job on sending me a huge bouquet of flowers to work today, they are so pretty!

Now I wish I could go on another honeymoon! I am ready for another vacation, but I will just have to wait for Lisa's wedding. We leave for Reno, NV in 37 days!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all you Mommies out there! I hope you had a great day.

16 weeks 2 days

I attended my first prenatal yoga class last night. It was very interesting. They teach you techniques to help keep you relaxed during labor (if that is possible!), they also teach you some stretching and strengthening of the abdominal, thigh and back muscles to help support the baby weight. I also learned that I am not very good at relaxing! It is harder than you think! They spend the last 15 minutes of class "coaching" you to relax. I started to get the concept towards the end, but then it was time to go.

I have released my first "belly" shot per Janet's request. It still looks like I have just been over-indulging in the cookies, M & M's and ice cream.

Happy May Day!

We put our house on the market yesterday! Thankfully we didn't have too much work to do to get it ready. It is kind of sad, but I am ready to move! We looked at three houses in North Mankato and really like one of them. So now we just wait and see what happens. This will cut about 10-15 minutes off of my drive time, it seems small, but every little bit helps!

10 months? I don't think so...

A friend told me a while back that you are actually pregnant for 10 months. I thought no way, that can't be right and forgot about it. Yesterday I was reading a blog written by a friend of my Sisters and she too was told 10 months. So here it goes girls - it is not 10 months. Most people make the mistake of looking at the 40 weeks as 10 months, because 40 divided by 4 is 10. This would be true IF each month only had 28 days! So to make things easy, take the average number of days per month - 30.4. The 40 weeks of pregnancy is 280 days. 280 days divided by 30.4 is 9.21. So you are actually pregnant for approximately 9 months and 6 days.

Now that that is cleared up - is it ever going to be Spring or Summer?

New Beginnings!

We had our first doctor's appointment on 04/21/08. It was pretty exciting - we were able to see the baby and hear the heartbeat. It seems so much more real now! We go again on 05/19/08. We are still debating on finding out the gender of the baby - Chad doesn't want to and I can't wait that long! So I guess we will probably be finding out soon!