Year: 2011

Hooray!! This blog is officially resurrected! Two things have occurred: 1) a surprising number of people told me they missed it and 2) Ashton is 14 weeks old and finally giving me some blogging material other than eating, sleeping and pooping. I do repeat my words of caution: some things that show up here (read: most things) are going to be way more exciting for me than for you, which is a more positive way of saying…you might be bored at times. But, here goes…

Ashton’s latest adventure has been eczema. It has been steadily getting worse over the past few weeks until finally I took him into the pediatrician last Saturday. She told me it was likely an allergy to something that was coming through my breastmilk and instructed me to cut out all dairy (including eggs), soy, tree nuts and shellfish until the results of his allergy tests came back (he had his blood drawn on Monday and we get the results tomorrow). So I am now a vegan. More specifically, a soy-less, nut-less (ha ha that sounds funny) vegan. It’s a much faster to list what I CAN eat vs. what I can’t. We’ll see. We also went to the pediatric dermatologist at Childrens Hospital downtown yesterday and they confirmed he has a pretty bad case of eczema, which is caused by many things. It could be the allergy (and they encouraged me to pursue the results) or it could be a lack of filaggrin, which is a skin protein essential to creating a strong barrier between our bodies and our environments. Without it, skin cannot hold onto water or protect against irritants, resulting in eczema. He could grow out of it, but likely it’s something we will have to learn to manage for a long time. Most immediately though, our night time routine is as follows: 1) 10 minute soak in chlorox bleach bath in his baby tub, 2) application of 3 prescription creams: Cream 1 for his body, Cream 2 for his face, and then Cream 3 over Cream 1 and Cream 2. Cream 1 can only be used for 3-5 days as it’s a steroid and can actually change the skin pigmentation, so after Cream 1 we have Cream 4 which is used more long-term. Get all that? and then 3) the wet wrap. This is me soaking a pair of his pajamas and wringing out the excess water, dressing him first in the damp clothes, then in a dry pair, then swaddling him for sleep. I have to admit I was pretty upset at the thought of putting my baby to bed in wet clothes, but he slept for longer than he has slept in weeks last night and is already doing it again tonight. It’s clear being in the damp cloth gives his itchy dry skin some relief and holds in moisture overnight as well. He was less red today and I expect will be even better tomorrow too! His skin is still very sandpapery feeling and he looks like a bit of a mess but as long as he feels good, nothing else matters.

So here is his recent picture as of about 5 hours ago.

His hair has thinned and what’s left is really long, wispy and sticks straight up. It’s hard to see in this picture but let’s just say Jason calls him Don King. I don’t know if it’s thinning because babies sometimes lose the hair they were born with or because I’ve taken a lot of it out while battling his cradle cap (a whole other adventure) but nonetheless, this is our baby boy 🙂 Hard to get a clear picture because he’s always moving. Oh I should mention, he rolled over three times today on his own! Of course I missed it because for the first time in almost 3 months I decided I would finally go get my hair done. Isn’t that just the way things go. But that was very exciting and hopefully we will have prize-winning video footage of that soon haha 😉 He also loves to try and shove both fists into his mouth at once, success with that one WOULD be prize-winning video footage!!  I mean, he tries and tries. I’ve attempted to tell him they won’t ever fit…

Lastly, his favorite book so far seems to be “This Farm is a Mess” and his favorite song alternates between “Baby” by Justin Bieber and “Super Bass” by Nicki Minaj. At least, these are what I sing to him and he stares right at me the whole time, could be because my voice is terrible and he doesn’t know how to tell me, but I’m choosing to believe it’s because he likes it. Anyway, he smiles all the time now and that is enough for me 🙂

xo

Dear Readers,
This is the end of the road for me with this blog. What is the point of having one if you never update it? I always feel guilty that I don’t pay attention to it and I imagine I’ve lost most of my readership by this point anyway due to my negligence! If you are ever hungry for Ashton news or just want to say hi, everyone knows my email address! It does take me a day or two at times to reply but I am finally hitting my stride with this whole mom thing and getting more efficient by the day 🙂 Love to everyone who has been reading about this adventure since August 1. Talk to you soon!
xoxox
Kristen

I am the worst blogger, I know. Hopefully I’ll have time to post a big update today but for now here is the latest up-to-the-minute photo!

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Just a quick Sunday night post – Jason’s beloved Gmen did not have their best game tonight, but it didn’t stop our whole family from showing our team spirit. We were all wearing our Giants attire and special thanks to Katie who stopped by and happened to capture our newest family photos.

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.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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!

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.

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:

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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!)