The latest

Not a whole lot to update on, but wanted to write about the latest happenings....

With Christmas being a month away, we will be traveling up north to visit with family and friends, and I am also in my friend Cortney's wedding a few days later, so my goal is to be done with breastfeeding by then. So a couple of days ago I cut out a feeding. Ashley is down to one time first thing in the morning, and then before bed. Midday she is drinking breast milk from a sippy cup. No more bottles. My plan is to let my body adjust to this for the next week or so, then cut out the morning feeding (replace with milk in sippy cup). I think we are both ready. When Ashley was younger, it was a wonderful bonding time. We still have our tender moments, but for the most part Ashley is wanting to play and is distracted, and I am just feeling ready myself. But I am so glad we had this time, and I am sure one day I will miss it.

Also now that Ashley is getting older her naps are changing. Up until recently, Ashley would wake up and eat around 7 (give or take a half hour), then she'd go back down for another couple of hours until about 9. She'd then be up for about 3 hours and then back down, then a very short nap 3 hours later, then going to bed between 8/8:30. I have to say, it was wonderful (especially being able to "sleep in" with a baby. It was also nice because Matt would have 2-3 hours with her after coming home from work before she had to go to bed. We are lucky it has lasted as long as it did. Now Ashley is wanting to be up more, and sadly I have to do away with the morning nap. She stays up and plays in crib for about an hour (she is very happy and content in her crib), then naps for about a half hour, if that. I am thinking I'm going to just cut it out and keep her up, then just do two--one late morning, then one mid afternoon and then earlier bedtime around 7/7:30.

Another thing that is changing is diaper changes/getting dressed. That is one thing I miss. It sounds strange but that used to be one of my favorite bonding times. We'd play and laugh and have so much fun. Now this time is probably the most exhausting part of my day because Ashley wants to play, crawl and explore and is trying to turn and crawl away the whole time, and gets upset when she can't. I try to have her hold things or help which sometimes helps her to lay still for a few minutes. But she is a girl on the move!! :)

Ashley started grinding her teeth lately, which apparently can be a sign that her back molars are coming in. I guess the grinding side to side is a way to try to alleviate some of the pain and pressure. She also has moments where she's fussy, which is not like Ashley at all. Overall she's still the happy and sweet little girl though. She's also been waking up whimpering/crying throughout the night (but quickly puts herself back to sleep), which also makes me suspect it. I hope it's a quick and relatively painless process for her.

Other than that not much has changed. Ashley is still having a blast exploring her world.

I recently was working on our Christmas cards, and I chose one that allowed multiple pictures so I picked some from the entire year. It's amazing to see how much she's grown and changed, and to see the person she's blossomed into. BEST YEAR OF MY LIFE.

Here are some recent pics--A couple are candid shots I took while Ashley was watching her show--the second one was when she noticed I was taking pics. The other two are some great shots that daddy took of us.