1 Month

Ally celebrated her one month birthday on Friday while we were visiting family and friends in Oshkosh. It has been a big adjustment for our family over the past month but it has gone by quickly. She is growing and changing every day, she now makes lots of faces and can focus on people and objects. Eating and sleeping is starting to become more routine and as of this week she has been sleeping in two three or four hour stretches at night which is great. We aren't so afraid to take her out in public and she has done pretty well with all of the places she has been. Karl and I are getting good at holding her with one hand and eating with the other. While in Oshkosh she met a lot of new people and spent a lot of time outside of the house. She did great on the drive and slept the whole way there and almost the whole way back. Ally loves her grandmas and was able to spend most of her time being rocked or held by someone. We even got sent away for dinner two of the nights so Ally could spend some more time with grandma and grandpa. Karl and Dew went to the purdue-wisconsin game on Saturday and the girls stayed home and visited with more friends and family. The game was so disappointing but at least we got to have grandmas delicious chili! Ally slept well in the pack and play while we were there and she didn't seem to mind all of the new surroundings and people. Thanks to everyone that stopped by to visit, especially Aunt Judy, Josh& Stef and Sara & Kevin for making the trip from Madison. We weren't sure how Ally would handle being away from home and the long drive, but the trip went very well and we are looking forward to her first airplane ride this weekend!

Places Ally went: Grandma Julie's house, Grandpa Joel's house, Great Grandma Sandy's house, the outlet mall, Robbins for bunch

People Ally met: Great Grandma Sandy, Great Grandpa Paul, Great Aunt Judy, Great Uncle Luke, Patty, Andrea, Robbie, Laura, Josh, Stefanie, Sara, Kevin, Shelli, Cathie.

Here are some of my favorites from our first month with Allyson:

Bath Time

Every family needs the commemorative first bath photos! Ally's umbilical cord stump came off when she turned 3 weeks so that meant it was time for a real bath. She usually really likes getting her hair washed but she wasn't so thrilled about being totally naked and wet this time. Another work in progress but at least she is clean....

3 Weeks Old

In some ways it feels like Allyson has always been a part of our family but in others it is hard to believe she is 3 weeks old already. It has been a very busy first few weeks full of visitors, doctors appointments, feeding, changing, adjusting to a new schedule, etc... Karl started his leave from work this week so its been a little easier to manage both Ella and Ally with an extra set of hands. We are getting used to a new sleep schedule and are still trying to figure out how to balance Ally's needs with ours. She is growing and changing like crazy and she now looks more like a baby rather than a newborn. At her doctors appointment last week she weighed 7 pounds 1 ounce and grew a quarter inch in length. She still only fits into her newborn size clothes but her cheeks are getting a little chubbier and she is starting to get some baby fat on her skinny little bones. We have been advised that Ally will hit her 3 week growth spurt this week that will include more crying, less sleep and more eating. Right now her appetite s crazy and she wants to eat almost every hour! She only takes one long nap in the afternoon but at night she sleeps in 3-4 hour stretches that get a little longer each day. I struggle with getting her back to sleep at night after she eats but its a work in progress. We hate to hear her cry but we aren't yet to the point where we know exactly what she needs at all times so its been trial and error for now. I have been bad about taking pictures so I really want to try hard to do a better job of documenting the things she does. We are starting to get a little more adventurous and have taken her a few places. We both have this fear of having her freak out in public so we have been pretty limited in our outings and try to do them when she is sleeping. Once we get a better handle on the feeding schedule, we hope to get out more while she is awake and alert.

Its definitely hard to find time to get the daily things done like laundry, dishes, check email, facebook, answer the phone, etc... so I apologize if you have tried to call or emailed and haven't gotten an answer. It seems like the phone only rings when I sit down to feed Ally and when she naps and I go to grab the phone, she wakes up right away. I will get better at this, I promise! We are taking Ally for her first road trip next week to visit family and friends in Oshkosh so lots more pictures to come. Thanks to everyone that has sent cards, clothes and gift cards for Ally! For someone that had zero clothes before she was born, we could now open our own Carter's store. Karl is thankful for the closet doors that hide the massive amounts of PINK from view! Ally is a lucky girl to have so many people that love her already.

Places we went: mom/dad's work, Tippecanoe Mall, Purdue vs Iowa volleyball game, Nine Irish Brothers
People Ally met: Mom's work friends, Dad's work friends, Great Aunt Kelly, Great Uncle Mark, Great Aunt Chris, Cousin Grady, Lauren Coros

Week 1 With Ally

It's hard to believe that Allyson is already a week old! We got home from the hospital on Friday evening and have been getting used to life with a baby. Ella hasn't really seemed all that interested in her yet but we are sure that will change once the visitors clear out and she gets back to a normal routine. We have had so much support from friends and family and Ally has hardly been put down! My mom was here for a full week, followed by my grandparents and of course Karl's parents have been over to help with everything from cooking and cleaning to holding their granddaughter so I can take a quick nap or shower. This weekend we will have more visitors from Oshkosh to meet Ally. I am so happy that so many people can adjust their schedules to make the trip here- we are so lucky! Ally has been a great baby so far and is showing us new things every day. It was a busy start to the week with doctors appointments for both of us. She met her pediatrician, Dr. Ho and checked out great and I had my staples removed and checked out great as well. She wasn't really a big fan of nursing and was having a really hard time so on Tuesday we met with the nurse at the hospital to get some help there. Now she is nursing like a champ, eating as much as often as she can. Ally is very strong and already moves her head all over the place and has very active hands. She loves to sleep and is very happy to be snuggled up tight with a blanket. Nights are still a work in progress but now that the nursing is improving, she is getting into a good routine. We are looking forward to more firsts and many more visitors over the next several weeks. Below are some photos that we have taken so far of Allyson!

Places we went: Great Aunt Sue's house, Scotty's Brewhouse, Doctors Office

People that Ally met: Grandma Julie, Uncle Corey, Grandpa Joel, Grandpa Dew, Grandma Sharon, Grandpa Henry, Great Aunt Sue, Great Grandma Marilyn, Great Grandpa Jack, Dr. Ho, Katie, Nick Paige and Alexis Conner

Allyson Jeanne is Here

Allyson Jeanne was born at 12:55am on Wednesday, September 30, 2009. I began to feel contractions every hour or so starting on Sunday evening and after the long weekend of events, I was super tired and didn't go in to work on Monday. I stayed home and slept most of the day- a few contractions here and there but nothing really consistent or measurable. We went to Scotty's for dinner and came back home and laid around some more just watching football. At about 12:30 I felt a few strong enough to make me look at the clock and take notice so I started paying closer attention and they were getting closer and definitely stronger. By 4 am I was having a hard time laying in bed so I started moving around and semi-freaking out. I woke Karl up and told him I was pretty sure this was it and was going to call when they doctor had said, 5 minutes apart for an hour which by this point meant just waiting the hour. I called a little after 5am and they told us to come in to the hospital and get checked in. Karl and I showered, finished up the bag, fed the dog and headed in. I was set up in a room by 6:15 and was having contractions about every 2-3 minutes. Not a whole lot of progress but we knew it was real and going to happen today (or we thought).

Everything was pretty consistent and moving along and I asked for the epidural once Dr. Penman, my favorite of the three docs, said he was going to break my water. I knew the contractions would come faster and harder then so I got the epidural at 11:30 and he broke my water by 12:30. I was feeling great then! My mom arrived shortly after and thought I already had the baby because I looked so relaxed. Karl was in and out as were his parents and my mom, staring at me laying in a bed really could not have been very exciting but at around 5 I started to feel the contractions. Not only did the epi somehow come out but we learned that baby was turned sideways and causing back labor. I thought I was going to die for a few hours until they were able to get the epi redone, also not fun at all but way better than the back labor that drove me to tears so I'm not going to complain. By this point, I was stuck at 6-7cm and Dr. Penman thought she would have already been here by this time. The hospital was really busy with lots of c-sections and deliveries so at 10:30pm he decided to try some pitocin to see if that would help and if she would turn on her own. An hour later- nothing and still not quite right so we decided together that a c-section would be best. The decision was made at around 11:15 and by 12:15 I was on my way. Karl's parents and my mom waited in the waiting room and I was wheeled off to surgery. It wasn't an emergency so it was actually relaxed and very upbeat with all the nurses and doctors giving their last guesses on gender and weight before they started. We now for sure knew she wasn't sharing a birthday with grandma Sharon anymore but with great grandma Marilyn and when they got her out, it was so exciting to hear everyone tell us it was a girl! Karl was able to go with her right away and take all the good pictures while I froze to death and got stitched up. I was alert and kept informed of what was going on at all times, it was all very surreal and exciting. She checked out perfectly and didn't really fuss or cry too much at all. We had a few names chosen and when she was all wrapped up we asked her which she liked, happily squawking at Allyson so that's what stuck. We wanted an original first name but the middle name to be a family name so Jeanne comes from Karl's grandma Jeanne Leffler. She and Karl went to meet the family while I went into recovery and we met up in a new room about an hour later. Ally was so happy and wide awake so we took some more photos and finally put her to rest in the nursery at about 5:30am. It was a very, very long day but so worth it!