Week 5

Asher celebrated his 5 week birthday with some visitors! His cousin Sam and Aunt Heather came to visit from Omaha! We all had a great time and went on many adventures from going to the grocery store, to eating out to swimming at pool! Asher and Sam became fast friends and Sam loved giving him kisses (although I think he was hoping for a little more of a playmate - regularly asking Asher to "stand up please!"). "Tucker-Peyton" even enjoyed the visit!

Happy Birthday - Week 4

So it's been a month! Wow four weeks have gone in the blink of any eye. And just like his one week birthday I was again able to celebrate with Asher at the actual time of his birth (4:42 a.m.!) It's amazing that no matter how many books you read or people you talk to nothing is going to teach you what your child needs but your child. Every day Heath and I wake up looking for any routine or pattern to Asher's needs - unfortunately, we've yet to find them but we're still hopeful!
In the above picture Asher is actually holding his rattle - another exciting milestone! He was even trying to shake it. I suppose he probably didn't know what he was doing but we can pretend!

While it still feels like we have a REALLY long way to go to knowing what Asher is trying to tell us and to getting a full night's sleep we have come a long way. We can now give him a bath in no time, we can get the diaper on to avoid leaks (almost every time) and we know some of his favorite positions to settle him from a meltdown!

Week 3

Today is Asher's 3 week birthday! Hard to believe 21 days have passed since his birth! We celebrated today with eating, sleeping and pooping (I suppose very similar to all the other days!) but we also enjoyed just a few minutes of tummy time on his playmat - he's even start to lift his head a little and some play time loving kicking his legs!

Every day is a new Milestone!

While I feel a little like every day is Groundhog's Day, I also feel like every day is a new milestone. We're cautiously optimistic that we're getting in to a routine. Eating every three hours (a little longer at night) and and one time in between feedings when Asher's awake the entire time and ready to play! He loves kicking his feet and is working on getting his hands in his mouth. We even had a few minutes of successful tummy time were he lifted and turned his head. Plus he was able to track one of his favorite toys.

But in addition to the regular feedings, burpings and diaper changes, Asher has had some pretty big accomplishments! He just lost his umbilical cord yesterday! He also is continuing to enjoy outings here and there and especially likes Neighbors! He even visited his daddy at work!

Perhaps one of the biggest and best milestones for his mom was his weight check today. While Heath laughed a little (because it's pretty clear he's gaining weight) over-anxious, crazy mom had to take him to get weighed. Asher was not overly excited about getting stripped down AGAIN (seems like he's always naked, that's mom's preferred method of feeding to keep him awake!) but mom was super excited to see that now at 18 days he weighs 7 lbs 12 oz - almost 2 lbs more than when he was born!

Grateful for Family

Over the last 18 days all four of Asher's grandparents have been able to meet him and love on him! Papa Ewing made it down for the weekend, Grandma Jane got to stay the whole week, Papaw Jim was here for two weeks and we were lucky enough to have NeeNee Ann here for 3 weeks (after a few tears and an unexpected plane ticket purchase).

Asher already loves his grandparents very much and feels blessed to have them. He loved snuggling up with all of them and even peed on Papaw Jim and loved reading with NeeNee.

We're excited that they are already planning their trips back to visit!

13 oz

If you'd asked us 10 days ago we would have said 10 onces was nothing, but today we considered it a huge milestone! Asher went for a weight check at the pediatrician's office and now weighs 7 lbs 12 oz! That's up 13 onces from last Thursday and from his birth weight. What a crazy feeling to know that things are going well and little Asher is gainging weight but to almost be a little sad to know that soon he'll be out of his newborn clothes and he'll never be that small again.

It seems like everyday for the last ten days we mark a milestone and in all the craziness it's really hard to document them all! Today we also went out to lunch. Asher did great and Heath, NeeNee, Papaw and I had a great lunch at Panera.

4:42 a.m.

Of course 4:42 a.m. will now be a time I'll never forget since it's when our little Asher came in to our life. Apparently, it's also going to be a time I'm never going to forget because I'm going to see it quite often!

Not to leave Heath out - we both were up and taking care of Asher to celebrate the exact moment of Asher's one week birthday!

For those of you who know me well you know that I am NOT a late night person and the idea of being up at 2, 3, or 4 in the morning is about the last thing I'd want to be doing. But over the last nine days there have been several late nights. And while some have been more stressful than others and there have been some tears shed by both Asher and mommy they are moments I'll never forget and always treasure.

Of course, I must admit I'd never make it through them without all of the love and support from Heath, my parents, in-laws and family and friends. Thanks for all of the help!!!

Where to start?

Nine days after after Asher's birthday the Ewing family seems to be doing OK! At some moments we feel like he was born yesterday - many of the days seem to be the same: eat, sleep, poop. Other times it seems like the little guy has been with us forever and of course as crazy at is sounds it's hard to even remember what our life was like with out him.

We've had a lot of milestones over the last nine days and already taken hundreds of pictures. Asher had a little jaundice so we had two doctor appointments his first few days home. He passed with flying colors he even made it back to his birth way by the Thursday after his birth. His weight is still in the 10-25% for his height but we're working on that awfully hard!

Asher also had a two hour photo shoot for his newborn pictures and he was quite the trooper! Aside from a little pee and poop that is going to have to be photoshopped out of the pictures he did great.

Another milestone was Asher's first trip to Target and his first lunch out at Montana Plains!

JUNE 30th!!

So pretty much for the last nine months Heath and I have been repeating the date "June 30th" over and over again! While I think the statistic is something like only 5% of babies are born on their due date, after hearing a particular day over and over again you can help but think that's going to be the big day! Well . . . . here we are.

It's a bit surreal figuring out how you want to spend the last few days as a "couple" leading up to your child's birth day and beginning of a whole new family life. Heath decided to even start nesting himself. Over the last two days he has done a lot of work to our basement and our bathroom (luckily what was going to be a project that inhibited the use of our shower for two days turned into no access to the shower for just one evening!). He also baked one of his amazing homemade carrot cakes because I was craving it, and finally today he decided to get in one more round of golf with a good friend.

In an effort to save as many sick days as possible, I decided to come to work. I suppose there is also a little pride in being able to say I worked truly up until my due date. I'm also going to enjoy lunch with a good friend. Prior to this "big day" I've spent a ton of time cleaning and vacuuming, getting the baby's room ready (perhaps a little early to have the baby monitors set up but it makes me feel better!) and stocking up on toilet paper. Oh, and walking, walking, walking. Unfortunately, I'm beginning to think walking to induce labor is just an old wives tale!

Whether today's the big day or not there's no denying how excited we are ( and our family, I'm getting use to the nightly phone calls!) Half jokingly, half serious a good friend made a comment that if he's anything like his dad he'll be late and probably come on the 4th of July just to make a statement! Oh goodness, I hope he's here before then :)

"My Heart Belongs to My Mommy"

It turns out our doctor wanted to do one more ultrasound on little Baby E before his big arrival. There wasn't really a big scare but just a few things she wanted to check out. And, as predicted, everything seems to be perfectly normal. Surprisingly he seems to be measuring at 7.6 lbs although she said that could be off.

Heath and I both know that while we can feel as prepared as possible neither one of us truly have any idea what it's like to be a parent until the little guy gets here. But I think we both felt a little taste of that with the anxiety of thinking something might not be just quite 100% perfect with our baby prior to his birth. Being completely responsible for this little guy is quite an awesome task.

The other thing I think I learned from this ultrasound is how hard ultrasounds are to read! I chalked our initial ultrasounds at 7, 10, and 22 weeks up to the fact that the baby was so tiny. Now, I'm not quite sure what the excuse is. Our ultrasound tech kept trying to figure out which nose our baby had - I was just trying to figure out where his nose was!!! In case you need some help the picture above is of his tiny little heart!

The picture above is of his little hearbeat (just in case you needed a little help like me!)

EVERYONE knows something is up?!?!

With our due date less than a week away, Heath and I are admittedly getting anxious. We've started getting the phone calls and the e-mails asking when our little guy is going to get here and believe us we're just as ready to know as all of our family and friends! The car seat is in the car and the hospital bag is packed.

For the last nine months we feel like all we've been doing is preparing for Baby E to arrive. I think we've neglected that our pets have also been very aware that something is changing too. Peyton loves going in to the nursery when we're in there and camps out on the rug in the middle of the room. And if all the baby's toys aren't put up, Peyton is quick to bring them to us. He has already received his "welcome home" baby present -a new indestructable toy- and Papaw Jim has been put on Peyton Patrol when he gets here. If I can just figure out how to push a stroller and walk a 93 lb dog at the same time I don't think we'll have any problems!

Peanut, our first baby, we believe is also getting the sense that life is never going to be the same. Heath surprised me with Peanut five years ago shortly after we moved to VA and to help us make our family feel complete. Unfortunately, "Peanut" is probably not the most fitting name for him (lets hope we do a better job matching our baby and his name!) and he's never been too in to being petted and loved on. He has, however, been very interested in trying out the crib and the pack-and-play. I'm not sure he's fully recovered from us bringing home our montrosity of a dog so who knows what he's going to think about Baby E?! During the summer he loves to wait by the door and try to escape -we're hopoing it's just to get outside and enjoy the weather not because he wants to run away from home.

37.5 weeks

It's only when I post these pictures that I realize just how big I've gotten! With gradually getting bigger each day and having not used a zipper or button for probably five months it's easy to not even notice the circumference of my belly! I suppose next week I need to put a side by side picture up from 10 weeks to 39 weeks. Our doctor's appointments are now weekly, because I suppose anything could happen at any moment. On Wednesday, I'll technically be full term and baby Ewing has the green light! Although at out last doctor's appointment there didn't seem to be a lot of progress, so I have a feeling he's just going to stay nice and cozy as long as he can.
Back in October when were first found out we were pregnant I couldn't even imagine how I would be feeling at this moment (physically or mentally!). Now, with the bassenet sitting by our bed and the baby monitors already plugged in, I can start to picture what it'll be like to watch our baby sleeping - and hear him crying in the middle of the night! And while testing out the glider reading Brown Bear and feeling our little guy move I get more and more excited about getting to hold him while he hears the story. We have been so blessed to have a relatively easy pregnancy and so many family and friends supporting us.

More visitors!

This weekend Heath's mom and nephew came to town! We had a great time and Heath and Austin tried out SnowFlex while we went for a round of indoor putt-putt. Funny how Heath was both the scorekeeper and the winner? And hmm . . . either this pregnany is making me shorter or Heath has hit a very late-in-life growth spurt?

Out-of-Town Guests

Recently we've had a lot of "out-of-town" guests checking up on us to make sure we're ready for the arrival of Baby E. During my parents visit we tried to stay cool while checking out some of the local favorites. As you can see, Peyton has become quite the water dog. We even had a great drive along the Blue Ridge Mountains and lunch at Peaks of Otter. Of course we got some very helpful "baby errands" run as well with picking up a baby book and some nursing necessities!

A Productive Memorial Day Weekend!

Unfortunately, Heath has to work on Memorial Day but we certainly made the most of the weekend. Lots of projects around the house got done and today we took the day to spoil Peyton! He got to go swimming in the lake and for a nice long walk!And Heath and I realized that maybe the reason we've been having such a hard time picking a new name for our little boy is because we weren't making it a family decision. So . . . we decided to get Peyton involved and wrote our two favorite names on tennis balls and we decided which ever one Peyton brought back to us was the right name (I'm not quite sure how I'm going to explain to our son that our dog picked his name but hopefully he'll understand)! We decided to do best two out of three and Peyton did his best to keep it equal making it 1 to 1. And on the third throw he thought and thought and finally worked SO hard to bring back BOTH tennis balls!! (not sure you can see them both in his mouth from this picture but they're there!) He finally did break the tie but you'll have to wait until the little guy is here to learn what his name is going to be!!!