April news

Things are going great here!  We are settling into somewhat of a routine, and we are very impressed that Ashlan has been such a great big sister to Aila.  I will use the restroom and put Aila in her swing...when I come out, I will see Ashlan sitting next to her gently pushing her and either trying to give her the binky (if she's fussing) or entertaining her.  Or if I have to run into the other room, I'll put Aila on her activity mat and when I return, Ashlan will be under it with Aila, talking to her.  It's so sweet.  She is always wanting to hold her, or kiss her head, and that just melts my heart.  She also plays with her one doll, calling her "Baby Aila".  We'll randomly find the doll in the swing, on the activity mat, in Aila's crib, etc.  Very cute.  :)  We haven't really seen any jealousy yet, and hope it stays that way!  She really seems to understand that the baby needs me more right now, and she has become much more patient in waiting for things that I can't get to immediately.  But then again, she has no choice, lol.  

I spend a lot of time wearing Aila so I can still do things with Ashlan.  At my two week checkup appointment a few days ago, I was cleared to start walking again, so we have been going to the park and for walks when possible.  For instance, yesterday I was wearing Aila so Ashlan and I could make cookies.  Old habits die hard, I guess , lol.  :)  Aila just slept through it all and I love that I can both hold Aila and be with Ashlan too.

We started Aila in her cloth diapers a few days ago.  They are super huge and look a little ridiculous on her, but I'm able to tighten the snaps so we haven't had any leaks, and definitely no blowouts.  That's why I love cloth!  :)  They look so cute on her!

Aila has been a dream baby so far, with the exception of a day or so when she had her two week growth spurt, lol.  She sleeps a ton more than Ashlan ever did as a baby, and usually only gets cranky when it comes to food.  I have a feeling she might be feisty though, because even though she's a super chill baby, once she gets to her breaking point (at least regarding food), she flys off the handle, lol.  But so far she has been a dream, and we feel so blessed.  We're very thankful we had Ashlan first though, because that would've been a rude awakening if we got her personality second, lol.  

Aila is very ticklish on her feet and doesn't need the binky near as much as Ashlan did.  She can actually fall asleep without it and sleep without it all night!  This means we're not getting up to put it back in her mouth.  ;)  She is usually very easy at night.  She goes down around 10ish and wakes around 6am.  She will feed once, usually around 2pm and I usually have to wake her up.  She mostly goes right back to sleep, so even though our sleep is broken a bit, we really can't complain.  She's so much easier than Ashlan so far!  

So Aila has more hair in the back than front.  I was holding Aila and Ashlan very seriously said, "Mommy, her hair is on backwards."  Dan and I both lost it, lol.  She's too funny.  But we're very proud of her and how mature she's handling having a new sister.  :)  And you can tell she's proud to be a big sister too.  She loves to wear her shirt that says big sister on it.

Also, Aila has rolled over three times already!  For those of you keeping track, she's not even three weeks yet.  I don't put her down very often or for long, but when I do, it seems she rolls over, lol.  She's usually only down for a few minutes when it happens.  I always put her on her stomach for tummy time and she doesn't like it at all, and gets mad, and then throws herself onto her back by the time I get back.  She's a strong little one!   She has cooed only a few times but Dan and I have managed to get a smile or two.  Maybe it was a fluke, but the smiles had appropriate timing, lol.

I forgot to mention, Ashlan is now able to jump in the pool in the deep end and swim to the shallow end without her swimmies on!  Granted she is doggy paddling, lol, but she can still do it.  She also doggy paddled the length and a half of the pool!  She'll be 3 1/2 in June.  We are so proud of her, and can't wait to see how she does in her swim lessons in May.  

Angel baby Aila

Kisses from big sister- we did not tell her to do this!

Ashlan playing with her dolls, on Aila's activity mat.  The one on the left is "baby Aila".  Lol

This is Aila at nine days old!!

Nana and Ashlan coloring eggs for Easter.

Ashlan entertaining Aila.

Ashlan smelling Aila's feet- wonder where she got that from, lol.  Check out Aila's eyes, haha.

Sweet baby in the carrier.

My carrier for Aila is getting tons of use!

Ashlan rocking out to the Wiggles.  :)

Love my two girls!

<3

Aila's cloth diapers.  A little big but I'm able to tighten them.  They don't look near as bad with the onesie on, lol.

Baby smiles, she was sleeping.  <3

Our second angel is here!!

We have wonderful news to share!  We welcomed our second baby girl, Aila Sophia (pronounced Eye-la), to the family on Friday, 4/4/14.  She was born at 10:12am and was 19.25 in long and 7 lbs, 12 oz.  Mommy and baby spent 48 hours in the hospital and were discharged on Sunday and home by the afternoon, where we were welcomed by a sign that Ashlan colored/decorated, flowers, and balloons.  Ashlan has been a great big sister so far!  She is so loving and gentle with her.  I do worry that she's not getting enough attention from me right now but thankfully Nana and Papa were/are here to make the transition as smooth as possible and have helped tremendously.  As demanding as Ashlan was, Aila is the complete opposite so far!  You can definitely see the resemblance between the two though.  It looks like Aila will get Ashlan's blue eyes, and she has other very similar facial features, but Aila has brown hair, while Ashlan has blonde.  I find myself calling Aila by her sisters name now and again because they look so alike.  Ashlan saw a few baby pictures of herself and even she mentioned that "that's Baby Aila".  So cute that she thinks that's her sister when it's her!

Aila and I have just been lying low since we got home.  We did go to Aila's two-day appt and Ashlan's gymnastics lesson yesterday, but other than that, we have been staying home recovering.  Nana and Papa have taken Ashlan out a bunch of times and they've also gone swimming a few times since the weather has been cooperative.  Today they went to the zoo and out to lunch, and they all had lots of fun.  Ashlan is taking the change very well from my perspective.  She is very loving towards Aila, and always wants to help with her, like burp her or give her a bath.  On the rare times that Aila cries, she will help distract her by shaking a rattle near her face (without us prompting or showing her ) and Aila is completely mesmerized by her.  I love to see them interact.  

Aila has been a very good sleeper so far, which is light years apart from Ashlan, lol.  Ashlan has never seemed to require a lot of sleep and has always been on the low end of required sleep for her age.  This one seems to be the complete opposite. Aila is a back sleeper, and Ashlan had such bad reflux, that sleeping on her back was impossible without loads of crying, so she slept for 3 months or so basically at an angle.  Aila loves to be swaddled, while Ashlan hated to have her arms tied down.  Aila doesn't care if she's rocked, whereas Ashlan had to be rocked/danced around before we gently put her down, and she would often wake up, so Dan and I spent a lot of time doing that (which we don't regret at all, just showing their differences).  There are some similarities though- they're both very strong, at least from what I can tell already from Aila.  And both girls' personalities are very sweet.  We are so blessed!

Onto the pics...since I have a billion so far, I figured I better do a blog sooner rather than later!

First pic!

Ashlan's first time meeting her baby sister!  <3  Of course she had to wear her Belle dress that Aila "got" her.  

Daddy and his princesses.

Ashlan was a little upset that Aila was getting upset when the baby nurse was checking her, so she held her hand.

Snuggle time.

Helping Daddy burp Aila.

And helping Daddy by distracting her when changing Aila's diaper.  :)

Love <3

Comparison shot- Ashlan on left, Aila on right.

And back to the usual grind on Sunday afternoon.  :)

Snow White dress while playing with play dough.  

Papa time.

Sisterly love.

Zoo time with Nana and Papa.

Little peanut.

Ashlan asked to hold "her baby".  :)

March news

We signed Ashlan up for swimming lessons in May a few weeks ago.  I tried to sign her up for March, but apparently a man got there a minute ahead of me and took the last spot for his daughter.  They asked me if I wanted to do lessons for her in April, but I thought that would be too much with a newborn.  As of now, we're just planning on having her in lessons for two weeks in May, and maybe June lessons too, depending on how she does in May.  She is still in gymnastics, which she does every Tuesday afternoon and really loves it.  We were thinking of starting her for dance lessons instead on Wednesdays (bc it's way closer and even cheaper) but we'll have to see if she enjoys that more than gymnastics.  The dance lessons would also be held at her new school, so that would give her familiarity to the place before she starts school.

About a week ago I signed her up for preschool starting in September.  For now, it's two days a week from 8 to 1 PM.  We will see how she does with two days to see if we want to add the third day, but we still plan on going to Disney once a month for three-day weekends during Dan's weekend off and she will still have gymnastics or dance once a week too.  We think that's plenty for a three-year-old to handle right now, as she won't turn four until December.  When I told her that I had signed her up for preschool, she looked up at the ceiling, closed her eyes, raised her arms, and said, "YES!"  Dan and I burst out laughing.  We're glad she's really excited!  

A lot has happened with my pregnancy in the last few weeks.  About three or four weeks ago I randomly coughed (I didn't have a cold or anything) and I think I pulled an ab muscle.  I had called the doctors office who said keep an eye on it, but it got worse throughout the next week.  I called the doctors office back again a week later bc I was in tears to stand (I really couldn't stand past a minute or two without being in excruciating pain), and after deciding it was more of a 'me' problem than a problem with the baby (thankfully I had no bleeding), they told me bedrest for a week.  Well, for the next two weeks I did not get any better, despite me resting as much as possible.  I've seen the doctor twice since this happened and they said I must have torn an ab muscle but that they were going to check for a hernia if I ended up having a repeat C-section since I was still in pain.  It has actually been much better the last few days, and I was able to stand for about 20 minutes cooking dinner the other night without too much pain.  

Another issue is that my blood pressure has increased in the last few weeks, and along with slightly elevated protein in my urine and a little bit of swelling, they thought it may eventually turn into preeclampsia if I didn't take it easy.  So even though at the last two appointments those symptoms have been rising, it hasn't been bad enough to classify me as having preeclampsia, thankfully.  I have also been having a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions with this pregnancy too.  I never even had one contraction with Ashlan before induction, and even when I was induced they weren't bad at all because I never progressed past one cm.  I've gotten up to 8 to 10 contractions in one day, but nothing regular or time-able.  I am interested to see if this baby will make it to my scheduled c/s date, which is two weeks from today (4/4/14).  My parents will be here in the next week to help out with Ashlan, so the baby is free to come anytime after that, lol.  

We are 100% ready for this baby girl to get here.  We have absolutely everything we need, and I'm so glad I did not procrastinate on anything considering I haven't been able to do much in the past month.  Ashlan has really been an angel with me not being able to do much.  She has been entertaining herself for the most part, but I am so thankful that we got the iPad because that has helped tremendously.  

A few weeks ago we went to see if the car seats were installed correctly.  I am happy to say that both of them were installed perfectly and the lady checking them actually asked me twice if I wanted to be a car seat installer, lol.  I told her I was just good at it because we would always take Dan's car down to Disney, and since we only had one car seat, I had to keep installing the car seat between the two cars at least once a month.  We will not be doing that with two, I can tell you that right now, lol.  Way too much work!!

Craft day in the Denning household.

She loves them, but I do not like glitter glue sticks, lol.

Valentine's Day art project for daddy.  

And mommy and Ashlan's hand.

She decorated the penguin that I made, LOL.

I found some free Disney Princess coloring pages from Pinterest, so she wanted to color those too. We were crafting for hours that day.

And then she got tired...lol.

She doesn't take off these princess dresses very often.  I think she's had one on every day the last month!

My little Rapunzel playing ABC mouse.

New toy for mommy, a double stroller.  Cannot wait to use this at Disney and Ashlan loves it too.

And of course she has to play with the box.  Sometimes she prefers boxes over toys still, lol. 

This apple was huge, and she ate the whole thing!

Kicking the soccer ball in her little mermaid dress.  She wasn't old enough for us to sign her up for soccer this year, but she will definitely be doing it next year.  She can kick a ball really well and even asked us to sign her up (when we thought they had a 3 y/o league and asked her if she wanted to do that, whoops).

Still loves dancing to music!

She dressed herself this day, obviously.

More dancing.

I have been using this desk when I'm laying on the couch lately.  She was so excited to use it too.  :)