Ashtyn's 4th month baby check-up!

Ashtyn had her 4 month Well-baby check up today.

Her stats are:

Height: 24 inches @ 41%

Weight: 13 lbs, 8 oz @ 46%

Head Circumference 40.1cm @ 26%

Peter & I were shocked about the head circumference percentage. We think her head looks "big", but apparently, that is not the case. I'm interested to see the differences (if any) at her 6 month visit.

We also found out that the "bruise" I thought I kept seeing on her right shoulder blade is not a bruise at all, but a birthmark. A "Mongolian spot" Dr. Stephens called it. These particular birthmarks are common in Asians and in Native Americans. Funny...Ashtyn is both!

From Wikipedia: "Mongolian spots are most prevalent among Mongols, and other Asian groups, such as the Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans. Nearly all East Asian infants are born with one or more Mongolian spots. It is also common if only one of the parents is East Asian. They also occur in 90-95% and 85-90% of East African and Native American infants, respectively."

The most common color is blue which is why we thought she had a tiny bruise. Her spot is about the size of a "bb", like from a "bb gun". Honestly, I thought she may have a bruise b/c she is somewhat spoiled & we pick her up so often! Silly me! The doctor did warn us though that some may mistake these birthmarks for bruises and therefore...you guessed it..."child abuse"! So...we will let our friends, family, & day care workers know about this so no one will be alarmed. Even funnier...she may also have a tiny one in her tiny little "crack" so to speak! Shh! Don't tell anyone!

On another note, Ashtyn has now tried the baby food version of rice cereal, sweet potatoes, and green beans...in that order. I say this b/c today Peter and I were informed by her pediatrician that we were to start GREENS (green beans, peas), then ORANGES (carrots, sweet potatoes), then YELLOWS (squash), then later move onto fruits! I don't know...something about how rice cereal is like Frontier City... great unless you've been to other places...like Six Flags (vegetables), then finally Disney Land (fruits)!!! Okay??? So, we'll try the "order" as he prescribed, but Ashtyn doesn't seem to mind. So far, she'll eat anything!

Hug & kiss your little ones today...I won't (& quite frankly CANNOT discuss w/o crying) the reasons why I suggest this.

Peace to you and yours!

Bethany

Ashtyn-2 months

Ashtyn's 2 month doctor appointment was today. Peter went to the appointment with us to help out. Ashtyn weighed in at 10 lbs, 8 oz which is the 42 percentile and measured 22 1/2 inches which is the 58th percentile. All is well there, however, we received a bit of a lecture from Dr. Stephens about how it is time for Ashtyn to sleep all night in her OWN bed. All night to Dr. Stephens means 10 hours (8 p.m. to 6 a.m.). Admittedly, I was shocked! I really thought she would require feedings in the middle of the night..."at least one" I asked? "No!" he said.

Hmm...He told us to let her cry it out for 2 nights...NO MATTER WHAT... even if she vomits in her crib from crying! He said if we open her bedroom door, even once, we are "history". We'll have to start all over again. I mean really? We are going to give it a go starting this weekend, but I am certain that Mommy will be crying by the end of it. Possibly Daddy will cry as well. It will be tough but Dr. Stephens insists, "What starts at an effort to keep the peace end up in irresponsible submission to a deified baby". Okay. We'll try this. I would really hate for Ashtyn to end up like her mother. I ran into my parent's bedroom for YEARS in the middle of the night. So, the spoiling ends this weekend. (I hope). He told us we could wait a few days since she had her vaccinations today and will be fussy and need consoling. Wish us luck. Here's to a happy baby and happy family!

A White 1st Christmas

Christmas Eve 2009 and we are "snowed in". Ashtyn's first Christmas is a white one! A beautiful snowfall today. Some of the largest snowflakes I have ever seen. Normally, I refer to snow as "the white death" but admittedly, snow is nice at Christmas. However, due to the LARGE amount of snow we are unable to travel or leave the house to be with our family. We were supposed to be at Peter's uncle's house this evening and then head north to Tulsa to visit my family for a few days Christmas morning. Instead, we find ourselves snuggling with Ashtyn and playing our new Wii Fit Plus. We should probably be organizing closets, picture albums, etc. while we have the time, but hey...it's Chirstmas! So, we have opted to just relax with our newborn daughter and have fun together. Now...only if I had some hot chocolate! Oh...and a snow shovel. Note in the picture above, Peter is using a rake to try to clear the snow bank by our garage door.

Christmas & Friendship

This Christmas Peter & I are thankful for the safe arrival of our brand new baby girl. We are also thankful for great friends who have been there for us along the way. So many wonderful people kept me entertained while I was on bed rest. I do owe a special thank you though to Abbey Richards & Jenn McEvoy who stopped by on multiple occasions, bringing me lunch, smiles, understanding, & a lot of great advice!

We are blessed to have many great friends and luckily some of them have recently had children that will be Ashtyn's playmates. We look forward to spending time with these wonderful families now & in the future.

The pictures above show Ashtyn with Nate Hopper & with Maggie Richards...enjoy!

Here Comes Santa Claus

Ashtyn meets Santa! We did it! I had been worried that we wouldn't make it for Ashtyn's first Santa picture this year due to her young age and my "first-time mom fears", but we had success today at Penn Square Mall. Since it was a Tuesday afternoon there was absolutely NO LINE and we were in and out in minutes! Thankfully, Peter was able to take off work this afternoon so I still have never taken Ashtyn anywhere in the car or stroller alone. We even spent an hour or so shopping and had lunch in the food court. Ahh...it felt so good to re-enter society today and now...a cute picture with Santa!

Ashtyn's 1st photo shoot

Ashtyn is only 9 days old and today she had her 1st photo shoot. The photographer we used, Beth Jansen, specializes in children's photography and likes for the newborn pictures to feature babies less than 10 days old. Ashtyn did great except for one tiny tinkle on the photographers blanket. Other than that, we put her in what I refer to as a "milk coma" just before the photographer arrived. She also brought a mini heater to make the area where she was photographing cozy warm so Ashtyn would be less likely to wake up. It worked well, she slept the entire two hours the photographer was here.

The "turtle" is actually a Mexican flowerpot that was on my back patio and Beth loved the color. In fact, most of her work is full of vibrant colors and is just beautiful. Check out her website at bethjansenphotography.com.

Here is a preview of Beth's work with more to come!

Ashtyn's Arrival

We are thrilled to announce the arrival of our lovely daughter, Ashtyn Barlow Nguyen! She arrived at 8:12 a.m. by scheduled C-section on 11/11/09, weighing 6 lbs, 6 oz and measuring 19 3/4 inches long. Peter and I are so in love with her and were able to video her immediately after her delivery in the operating room at OU Women's & Children's hospital.

During her brief hospital stay she developed jaundice, however she was able to be discharged to home on 11/13/09 with the help of home health nursing care once a day to check her lab values by a blood "heel stick" and a bilirubin light blanket for use during the day and night. She did well although we were exhausted with the every 2-3 hr feeding schedule. The doctor allowed us to discontinue treatment on 11/17/09. It was difficult to feed Ashtyn b/c she was so sleepy she stopped breast feeding on her own, so I would have to spend 20-40 minutes pumping before we could feed her breast milk by a bottle. Calculate that time with the 20 minutes or so it took to wake her up (apparently elevated bilirubin levels make one extremely sleepy) and then also to change her and get her back to sleep and we were up about every hour or so to begin the entire process again. Luckily, my mom has been staying with us to help but she is going back to home to Tulsa this morning.

Her lowest recorded weight with treatment was an even 6 lbs. Yesterday, she weighed 6 lbs, 2 oz so she is still not quite at her birth weight. We are scheduled for her first "new baby" appointment with her pediatrician, Kelly Stephens, M.D. , tomorrow morning.

Ashtyn has not had many visitors yet due to the H1N1 virus scare (the hospital had strict visitation restrictions) and also due to her being "under the lights" for her jaundice. We are hoping to begin having a few visitors this week. We are however, keeping her somewhat isolated from the public due to the H1N1 virus. Peter stood in the cold for 3 hrs the other day in order to receive the vaccination and my parents plan on receiving their vaccination on Wednesday.

It is a busy time, but we are so thankful for every moment we have with her!