Thanksgiving is my very favorite holiday so far. I got to lay around in my Poppa B's arms and nap all day long. Then I sat in my bumbo seat and played until I was tired again. Then my cousin Hannah held me for hours and let me lay there and sleep. Turkey is very tiring! Whew, What a day! Then we went to my Meme and Papa the Greats and I played more and got to wear those very fun glasses. I felt like a rockstar! Thanksgiving is the best day ever! Gobble, Gobble.

Thanksgiving Week and Iron Bowl

My first table food

ER Trip

I'm sick, YUCK!

Our perfectly happy and pleasant baby reared her ugly head today. Last night she woke up screaming bloody murder, scared me to death. Normally, crying means hungry. So we tried to feed her and she would have nothing of it. I tried to calm her down but nothing was working. Jeff doesn't handle her crying so he was upset and a little concerned. I thought that she was just having a bad day. Finally she fell asleep and I put her back in the crib. She woke us up again screaming her little red head off. This time I almost fell out of the bed because she had chosen last night to decide to roll over all by herself. She was faced against the bumper pad eating it. I ran into her room and grabbed her like she was on fire. I thought maybe her rolling over scared her and that was why she was upset. So we decided to put her in the bassinet and let her sleep with us. Her screaming continued until 8:00 am today. I called my sister and she came over to give us some rest. I had given her gas drops, Tylenol, etc. and nothing worked. We decided to take her temp. again. I had taken it in the ear because I refuse to take it rectally. It is scary. Kala, my sister, did it for me and 100.7 was what it read. I called the ped. who then told me to take her to the ER at children's. Hello, I was a little freaked out. We headed downtown, of course with my human food disposal next to me begging for food. Of course I would not let him stop. BTW, Children's has metal detectors and I find that odd. Anyway, the nurses took her temp again and it was now 101.9. Jeff finally got Burger King and we ate onion rings while we waited for the doc. The ped. who was so sweet and nice gave her a full exam and decided that in the end she had a nasty ear infection. Bless her heart! So that was another eventful day in motherhood. Ear Infections are hateful! I took some pics while we were there so capture the moment. So for all you future mommies....screaming + fever = Ear Infection/Children's ER

My favorite seat

Hello all...This is Miss Ashlyn Kay herself writing to you from my crib. Yes, I know what you are thinking. "How can this little girl already be able to write a blog post on her mommy's blog?" Well there is no logic to my abilities ( big word ), but I can do it, so just believe it! My mommy posted a video of me earlier of me sitting in my new purple bumbo seat. That was so nice of her. I love her! What she didn't do though is let me tell everyone how much I love my bumbo seat. My "meme the great" bought me this seat this weekend. I can sit in it and it makes me feel like a big girl. It lets me think I'm actually sitting up. I can watch tv with daddy and watch mommy fold my laundry. Yesterday when I was sitting in my bumbo seat, mommy let me play with one of my favorite toys. My ring of jingle jangly things. I love those jingle jangly things so much! I can't wait to be able to get out of this crib and sit in my favorite purple bumbo seat again tomorrow. yaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy! Good night. LOVE, AK

My favorite seat

Tailgating

Life sure is different

Saturday morning, bright and early, Jeff, AK, and I set out for our 1st adventure in Auburn. Ashlyn Kay's first tailgating experience. How exciting! The ride to Auburn was pleasant. Sometimes she would get a little fussy and Jeff would have to read the latest headlines of the day to her. She liked it and made her fall right back asleep. It would have made me fall asleep too so I completely understand! We first dropped by the Beta Theta Pi house to see "MOM." We entered in to a very quite frat house. It was 9:00 am, what should I expect. We headed straight for mom's room. It is still strange going in there and actually talking to her when all I used to do was accidentally ram myself up against her door because I wasn't able to stand up very well. Oh, the days have changed. We sat with her and talked. It was nice. As we exited her room we all stood in the foyer of the frat house and talked for a bit more. The pledges all sat on the couch and just stared at us. 4 years ago I would have totally thought they were checking me out...no, no, they were wondering why at 9 am there was a baby, crying in their fraternity house. Birth control! We left, parked, and unloaded the massive amount of gear. We started with our rounds. BTW, Auburn is not very stroller and wheelchair friendly. I think this needs to be addressed. The Haley Center was booming and we stopped by. Again, we had to sit in the middle of the haley center and feed her. People, especially, older people are fascinated by a baby dressed in orange and blue. She was like a side show. We should have charged admission. We could have killed! Then we headed over to some more of Jeff's friends tailgates. Again people were shocked that Jeff had procreated and made such a cute baby. I was a little insulted by that. Do people think I honestly had nothing to do with it? Seriously! My girls tailgate was next. By this time it was hot, I was sweating, and smelling like maple syrup (another blog for that one), and getting a little tired. Everyone is just amazed that a baby exist in my life. They are shocked I have traded in my beautiful red and white Budweiser bottles for Avent, natural feeding bottles. Me too to be honest! My parents met up with us, thank goodness. I would like to give props to the people who provide the bathroom trailers. They have fabo. mother/baby changing rooms. It was sweet. Again something I never thought would concern me. The Beta tent was last. Everyone gathered around like we had an endangered species in the stroller. To some, Jeff having a cute baby girl, is sort of like an endangered species. They oohed, laughed, made jokes at Jeff's expense and then gave the old pat on the back and the ataboy! After trucking it back to the ends of the earth to our car we headed out of my beloved town. The day was definitely different, but at least Ashlyn Kay now can say, once she darkens the plains of auburn, that she has been coming their since birth, literally. Good times. I love you Auburn!

1st week of daycare

My 1st week at daycare

Photobucket Album

AK first week

Last week was AK's first week at Mrs. Shannon's house. It was pretty hard to go back to work and leave her for 8 hours. I missed her so much and thought about her all the time. I found myself talking about her to anyone that would listen. Luckily for me I have a wonderful lady who keeps her. She sends me pics all day long of my angel and lets me know how she is doing. It is really nice to have that. It is now Sunday and we have made it through the week without a nervous breakdown. I'm pretty proud of myself! AK actually really loves it there. She sleeps all the time and is eating well. Shannon says she never cries, not even once. I think it is going to work out wonderfully. I have posted some pics of her throughout the week while she was there.

Kristen has been sentanced.....

Judge Jeff has imposed a sentance of a life time ban to kristen moran from blogging after her latest flagrant posting of "To much info" This is a Class A felony and carries the stiffist of penalty's.

Lucky for her, she hired a good lawyer. Judge Jeff has suspended her sentance pending a probationary period of 6 months. If she violates her court ordered supervision postings, this blog is dead. If she passes w/good behaivor, the blog lives.

Court is ajorned.

ahhhhhhhhh...YUCK!

There is always something new and different everyday when there is a new baby around the house. We have dealt with all the good stuff and the gross stuff so far, but the incident that happened Sunday morning was uncalled for. My parents were in town and my mother and I were sitting on the couch feeding the baby. After she had finished woofing down her breakfast she started with her usual pooping face. That face is priceless by the way. She scrunches up, her face turns blood red, and she grunts. Entertaining to say the least. Back to the story. I get side tracked easily these days. My mother and I were sitting on the couch and heard her noises and well started smelling it too. After I thought she was done I picked her up to take her to the nursery to change her. I put my hand under her bottom and then that is when it happened. I heard another blow! I pulled my hand out and it was covered with yellow, yucky poop. Oh there was so much of it. It was so gross and horrible and I then screamed bloody murder. I screamed, screamed, and screamed. So loud that my father, who was in the shower, came out in a panic thinking something was wrong. There was something wrong! My infant child had laid a bomb on my hand that I used to eat with. My mother was no help either. She was laughing too loud. After I finally got done screaming we took the baby to the nursery to clean her up. It was so awful. It smelled so bad that not even the diaper genie could handle it. We had to take it outside and throw it away in the big trash can. How can such a precious little angel put out something so foul.

1 month old

We made it! Ashlyn Kay is 1 month old yesterday. So it is true...it is very hard to kill them. I can't believe I have survived a whole month of being a mommy and taking care of a newborn baby. I'm pretty lucky though since she is so good. Still I'm pretty freaking proud of myself. I have to give credit to her daddy too. He's doing a great job. I didn't think we would make. So now we just have like a million years left. YAY! At least we have reached one milestone. Its better than nothing.
Update on our life:
The baby has developed acid reflux like what seems to be every other American baby. BTW..I asked her pediatrician why so many babies have reflux. He told me that what doctors categorized as colic now know that it is actually reflux. colic is bogus! So now they are finding that babies do produce acid and have problems with digestion especially in the early weeks and months. Ashlyn's will probably disappear around 4-5 months or so he thinks. Good news though, he put her on prevacid and told me to put rice cereal in her bottles. I thought I would cry with joy when he gave me the go ahead about the rice cereal. We have only done it for 1 day but I feel like she is sleeping a little better. Last night she slept from 10:00-3:45. I woke up in a panic because I hadn't heard her cry at her normal time of 12:30. It was great! She slept soundly. Today she has been fussy though. We put her in the bouncer, the bassinet, the crib and rocked her all day long. We finally drug out her travel swing which actually swings back and forth. She went right to sleep. So now every time it stops Jeff and I about bust our tails trying to get to the swing to turn it back on. I don't want it to ever stop. It's a miracle. Thank you boppy!
I added some new pics of her taking a bath and swinging in her swing today and the other day. Enjoy!

OMG! How I have missed blogging. We have been down a computer so I haven't been able to write. So much has gone on since I last wrote. I am full on mommy now. I eat, sleep, and breathe mommyhood. It is actually great! We wake, we eat, we sleep, and then start all over again. Ashlyn Kay is such a good baby. She actually almost sleeps through the night. We have had several days of not sleeping so much and many poop diapers but nothing to hang myself about. She is starting to become more aware of her surroundings. She knows the sound of our voices. I know this because when I put her down in her crib to sleep and she screams, loudly, I can walk in to the room talking and she stops crying. She loves to be held and bumped as I call it. The doctors say when she smiles that it is just gas, but I refuse to believe it. I think she is cracking up about something. Some of the fun moments have been when she explodes and I mean explodes in to her diaper. It leaks out all over the place and then once we are all cleaned up she decides to tee tee on whatever. Including me! That was a great time. Last night we let her sleep in her crib. We have one of those video monitors. So you know I had a sharp eye on it all night long. I felt like I was watching reality tv. It worked out well though. I hope tonight goes as well as last night did. I am really dreading going back to work because I am having a great time being a mom and enjoying her every waking and sleeping moments. Now that we have a computer again I promise to keep everyone up to date on our little lives.

Labor & Delivery

So by now everyone knows we had the baby. It was a very eventful couple of days. Monday night we were admitted into Labor & Delivery at St. Vincent's hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. Things pretty much went quick. They got my registered and gave me a sleeping pill and cervadil to try to get something started. My nurse was so sweet. Jeff and I were both really tired so we went to bed fairly early. The nurse said she would wake me up @ 4:00 am so that I could get showered. I, of course, needed to make sure I looked pretty for Ashlyn-Kay's debut. I showered and the doctor came in and broke my water. It wasn't bad at all, but the afterwards was well....just icky. So our timeline so far. Pitocin drip was started at 5:15 am, doc broke water @ 6:30 am. The family all started to arrive around 7 or 8. Once my water was broken I could feel some contractions but they didn't really hurt that bad. The doctor dropped by and I had dilated to 3 centimeters. Right before that I decided to go ahead and have a little pain medicine. All the people were starting to get on my nerves and I thought that would help. Which it completely did! I actually fell asleep. Once I had made it to 3 centimeters the doctor and nurse suggested I go ahead and take the epidural. I didn't really want it yet, but they sort of made me. The guy with the good stuff came in and gave me the epidural. It didn't hurt at all. There were some things that happened that I will spare everyone but it was a little icky again. I made it though! So I took another short little nap, posed for a couple of pics, and then it happened. The nurse sent everyone out and she checked. She told Jeff and I that it was time. I had dilated to 10 centimeters in about 3 hours, maybe not even that long. It was only 10:30 am. Everyone was shocked. My family gave me hugs and kisses. My mother told me I had to wake up and start to push. So we did. It was so weird though because I couldn't feel my legs and or anything below my waist for that fact so pushing was a little difficult. They had to put an oxygen mask on me because her cord was wrapped around her neck and couldn't breathe when I would contract. Jeff and the nurse would watch the monitor and then tell me to go. The first time I just made some blowing noises and the nurse told me that wasn't going to cut it. I tried again, successful this time. The doctor finally showed up and then we were really cooking. 10 pushes later, 26 minutes, here she was. They pulled her out, put her on my stomach, and I just stared! I couldn't believe that she was out and that she was what Jeff and I had made. I just looked so hard at her. I didn't know how to react. I also couldn't keep my eyes open. I was still really doped up and didn't really grasp what was going on. Here she was. Weighing in at 6 pounds 7 ounces and 20.5 inches. Strawberry blond hair and blue eyes. Of course those blue eyes probably won't stay. I was so excited about the hair, I think it was the 1st question I asked.
It was a box of emotions! My family came in and she was wrapped up in their arms for hours. The pregnancy was easy, the delivery was easier, and now we will see about the baby raising! More to come later. Sorry it took so long to get back to things.

Hospital-Labor

I'm Home

And we are off....

Today was our final appointment. Praise Jesus! Speaking of Jesus. I spoke with a man today at Direct TV, because my satellite went out, named (Heyzus), spelled Jesus. He was horrible. He could not speak one stinking word of English. Why, is that? I tried to ask him calmly then not so calmly to please connect with an American. He wouldn't. What was his deal. I mean literally he was speaking half spanish/english and nothing made sense. Then he tried to tell me that I needed to listen. Well how the heck can I listen if I don't understand. I had to yell at him and explain to him that I was having a baby tomorrow and a technician could not come to my house then. Did he not get it! He hung up on me of course and I had to call back which I then was directed to Tracy. Who was American and very easy to understand. Our conversation was much better. Oh..so sorry..I got off on another subject there. Back to the baby.
We went today. They did another strip test which was fine and check my progress again. I had not made any more progress than what I had last Thursday. Which was a little disappointing. She then decided that we would come in to the hospital tonight around 8:00 p.m. They are going to give me something to get me going and something sleep. Maybe pain meds if I need them. I'm sure I will, I'm such a sissy. Tomorrow morning around 5:00 am the doctor will come by to break my water and then off we go to the races of having a baby. She seems to think labor will progress well and not take all day, but most of the day. So everyone be on standby to hear the exciting news sometime tomorrow afternoon. Jeff will try to get a pic up as soon as he can. This should all be very interesting and you better bet I will blog about it! Who would want to miss Jeff's reaction to everything that he will experience tomorrow.

Still waiting...

Jeff, my mother, and I went to another appointment today. Of course the office was packed and we should have packed a lunch. It took forever! Oh well though, that is expected. I had another ultrasound to measure the babies amniotic fluid. The sweet tech. decided to check her little face out in 4-D. She looked so squished and fat. Like a sumo baby. I was so excited to see her face again. It was great! The amniotic fluid looked great, which was really good news. They didn't measure her though. Since it had only been 4 days since we last did that. The doctor did another exam and yes, no dilation. We aren't surprised at all. Jeff did find a hidden talent of playing the drums on my head with swab cultures. It was very exciting and now we now how we can make some extra money for the upcoming baby. He hasn't come up with a name for his swab culture band though if anyone has any suggestions, we are listening.
So the doctor decided to send us for another strip test. No nipple stimulation this time. Thank Goodness! The game plan was if all looked well we would see her back on Thursday and do another ultrasound and strip test. If nothing had changed she would admit me Thursday and induce Friday morning. She is really hoping that I either go in to labor before that time or dilate. She is trying very hard to avoid a section.
After they admitted us in to labor and delivery things went well but slow. She wasn't acting appropriately and so I had to drink some caff. and eat some peanut butter. Then she perked up and they sent us home. We went in at 11 and left @ 2:30. I was starving!
We will wait for Thursday, bags packed, and hope we have a baby on Friday sometime.
I will definitely keep everyone updated.

Attitude

Yesterday I reached a new low in pregnancy world. I had seen on the television the new blizzard from Dairy Queen. The girl scout thin mint blizzard. I honestly was salivating and couldn't wait to get one. So after our meal on Saturday night my family and I drove to the DQ in Pelham. I was so excited! Which is pretty shameful in it self. Oh well who cares at this point, I'm a fatty and I love ice cream. We waited in line and then it was our turn, finally. My father was driving and I was in the back seat so he ordered for me. The unexpecting lady came over the intercom after we requested our blizzard. Then the words I didn't want to hear, "Maam, we are out of thin mints." With no thinking involved, rolled down the back window and proceeded to reprimand the DQ lady. I told her that I had waited for this blizzard all day long and was very pregnant on top of that. She calmly told me that there was another Dairy Queen in Alabaster and maybe I should check there. I was furious! If I had been inside I probably would have dove over the counter and took someone out. Belly and all. Thank goodness I was confined to the car. So my family and I drove all the way to Alabaster. I anxiously awaited the chipper guy on the other end of the intercom to reply after we ordered the blizzard for the 2nd time. He said, yes we have one. THANK GOODNESS! Crisis averted. The blizzard was so good by the way and well worth it. I have officially lost it. I need to have this baby before poor innocent people begin to lose their heads.

UPDATE!!!!

Just another day at the doctor's office, well sort of. As I suspected there was no progress with my cervix. I'm sure you all care to know about my cervix anyway. Everything else was good. The doctor suggessted that they do an ultrasound to measure the weight of the baby and the amniotic fluid. The baby only measure to weight 6 pounds and 1 ounce. Tiny little girl. This was all very normal. The doctor explained to us that she likes babies at this point to be above the 10th percentile. Ashlyn Kay is in the 11th which isn't very much above that. So they decided today to do a CST. This is a test where you have induce contractions and monitor how the baby reacts. She suspected it would turn out normal but wanted to try to eliminate the reasons for why Ashlyn isn't getting any bigger. She has been around 6 pounds for several weeks now. I am also not gaining anymore weight. I had lost 1/2 today. Oh yea and my weight to date is 28 pounds. I was shocked! Oh well hopefully it won't be hard to shed once I've had her. Hello breastfeeding.

Jeff and I were sent to labor and delivery to do the CST. Although Dr. Christine said she felt there was not need for us to worry I was, naturally. So they admitted me into a room. I got to wear one of those fancy and fashionable hospital gowns with my rear hanging out the back. I was super excited! They strapped the fetal monitors on me and off we went. The nurse explained that they would first check to see if I was having any contractions on my own. Which I knew I wasn't. The next step to start contractions would be a little process called "nipple stimulation." Yes you all read this correctly, nipple stimulation. I thought I would fall off the table. As the nurse awkwardly demonstrated how I would need to do this I tried not to giggle like a 5th grader. Jeff was trying so hard to hold it in. I thought he would have to be restrained. We both acted very serious and professional then lost it after the nurse left the room. So the nurse leaves and I commence nipple rubbing. I had to do it for 2 minutes then stop for 5 and repeat. It was so strange. As I sat there and did this very uncomfortable act my husband, so mature, took unexposed pictures and giggled to himself. He decided at this point that pregnancy was the best thing in the whole world and this moment was well worth it all. If any of you know my husband you will know exactly how he was acting. He did show me today that he is going to be amazing during labor. He was very attentive today and was trying to make me comfortable. It was really nice of him. The nurse finally came in and said that the test turned out well and we could leave. We see Dr. Christine back on Monday, baring I don't have the baby this weekend. Which would be ideal for everyone involved. If I am not dilated on Monday we will return to her office again on Friday for more options and to measure the baby again. We hope she has grown.

So to recap our little adventure today....

Visit at doc-good

Visit at doc-not as good

Labor and Delivery aka hospital gown-rockin

Nipple stimulation-strange and something I was not warned about in my preparing for parenthood class. Sort of felt a little wrong. Maybe I should pray and ask for forgiveness.

Going home, baby ok-great and priceless!

For more details on "nipple stimulation" please call. Demonstrations and facial expressions are definitely needed to experience it all. Kidding!

Why does 38 weeks pregnant feel like 102?

Here we are on week 38. What a milestone. Last November I never thought I would see this week come. Now that it is here I'm feeling a little anxious and also very excited. Everything is done and prepared, just waiting on the little one to arrive. She's taking her sweet time. I didn't get the chance to go "power" walking last night, but I'm not making that mistake again tonight.
The baby shower in Montgomery went great! Ashlyn Kay received so many cute presents. She is the luckiest little girl on the planet. Dresses, blankets, hats, etc.. She has more than me! It's so nice to have good friends though. No one seemed to have thought that I had gotten extremely large, but who would say that to your face. Maybe I would say it to someones face but I'm a little outspoken. Just a bit. We will see how everyone feels about my body once this belly is gone and I'm left with this horrible blubber on my arms and thighs. What a pain this is going to be getting it all off. Those blogs should be very entertaining. I will definitely be sweating to the oldies! So, my mother came to Birmingham with us on Sunday. She is being amazing! She has cleaned, cooked, and shopped for me. I feel so Hollywood, like Tori Spelling or something. If only I had a tv show. Jeff and I would entertain the masses with the way it goes around our household. I could definitely get used to having a personal assistant. It's grand.
So Jeff & I go Thursday morning @ 8:45 to find out if anything has changed. Which it hasn't I'm sure of it. Again I will get a crappy report and be sad. I think I might cry this time if she says nothing has happened. I wouldn't be so concerned if I could bend over without having to grunt like a farm animal, but since that isn't the case, the grunting is getting old. I think it scares Lola! Ahhhh...
Really nothing else is going on in the Moran household besides baby preparation. I feel like I'm swinging in to full fledged mommy hood. This is going to be very interesting. More info. to come Thursday...I'm sure everyone is on pins and needles. Ha!

Just another day of pregnancy

Today Jeff and I made our weekly appearance at my OBGYN office. I'm 37 weeks, yesterday. I felt confident that something had happened and that I would get an exciting report. Nope, not one thing. How disappointing. I haven't dilated 1 single centimeter. The doctor of course reassured me that this is normal and that it could happen at anytime. Anytime....well I'm wanting to know what time! I'm so impatient. So again we will go back next Thursday and see if something has changed. I am praying that something will change. I have definitely started to become the angry, bitter pregnant lady! All those people sitting in the waiting area looking so happy and excited about there next upcoming 9 months. Crap! They have no idea. We will see what there expressions show when they are 37 weeks pregnant in late June. I bet they aren't so perky then. See, I'm so bitter. At least I have a little happy coming soon, a baby shower! YAY! That will lift my spirits and help time to go by a little quicker. Thursday will be here before I know it.

1st Day

Yay! I'm so excited! This is my first blog ever. I normally don't even read blogs that much but I decided, what the heck, join the crowd. Especially now that we will be welcoming our new baby girl, Ashlyn Kay, into our family soon.
Jeff and I met at Auburn in 2003 and married November 6, 2004. War Eagle! We lived in Birmingham then Wetumpka (my hometown) then Montgomery then now back to Birmingham, Alabama where we plan to stay. Jeff is originally from here. I love it here and have made some great friends in the past 2 years.
We are so excited about our new addition which hopefully will be arriving in the next 3 weeks. I'm due July 16 but feel confident that she will not make it. Maybe that is just wishful thinking. At least that is what Jeff says. He would like her to stay inside until she was 20 years old so he doesn't really count. Her name is going to be Ashlyn Kay Moran (my mother's name is Kay). She is completely spoiled already by her 3 sets of grandparents and 1 set of great-grandparents. Oh yea and her Aunt Kala.
Jeff works as a special investigator for claims at Progressive Car Insurance and I am a catch all at an Ear, Nose, and Throat Group. Jeff works really hard and is very good at his job. He can catch a criminal in a minute!
We have loved our past so far and are very excited about our future. Who knows what will happen next.....