Ashley and Jacob

As a precursor, I want to let you all know how and why I came to the conclusion that I needed to begin my blog again.

#1 Relief Society Session of Conference, Dieter F. Utchdorf's talk on Creating (See video HERE). I WANT to create. This blog will allow me to create memories for myself and others.

#2 I see your blogs and realize how much you inspire me to do so many wonderful things, and I want to be able to inspire others the same way that all of you inspire me.

#3 Remember. I want to remember the happy times, the sad times, the hard times, the easy times. I don't really write in a journal that often, so how am I supposed to pass my life memories on to my children if I don't write them somewhere.

#4 Change. I am ready for a change in my life. I need something that makes me want to be a better person, makes me want to make changes for the better, to become the person that I have always wanted to be and I feel that I just might be able to make some of those small changes through this blog.



Now that I have told all of you why I feel a need to return to the blog, there are many things that I need to update everyone on.

So the first thing is Jessica.

Jessica Lynn was born Saturday June 25, 2009. 8 lbs 3 oz, 21 in. long, somewhere around 2:45 in the afternoon (I was focusing on getting the baby out, not the time, and even though I have seen it written down a dozen times I still cannot remember). Her first night was a rough one, she would hardly sleep at all, and I was getting so tired. Finally around midnight we called in a nurse because I could not get her settled down. The nurse brought a bottle of formula. Jessica drank an ounce, and went right to sleep. :) My good little eater! The rest of the hospital stay was not very eventful.

We were able to come home on Monday afternoon, and again the first night was rough. Jessica in a bassinet next to my bed. She would fall asleep, and wake up half an hour later. I made it through about 2:00 a.m. and then could not take it any more. I needed some sleep. Jacob took over for a few hours while I got some shut eye, and then I took over again at 5 a.m. After a little sleep I realized that she might be cold since our house is colder than the hospital, so I put a hat on her (should have thought of that before!) and she went right to sleep for a few hours.

The next few weeks we were getting used to having the baby at home, nursing and the like. At six weeks Jessica started sleeping through the night. At first it was from about 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. and it gradually got longer and longer. Now she sleeps from 7:00 p.m to 6:oo a.m. She started smiling about a month old, laughing at 3 months, rolling from front to back at 4 months, back to front at 6 months, crawling at 8 months (2 weeks ago tomorrow!).

She babbles all the time, she can already say "all done" and I am pretty sure she knows what she means. Sometimes she will push the bottle away from her and say "dah dah" with the first 'dah' a high pitch, and lowering the pitch on the second 'dah'. It is the cutest thing. Jessica definitely plays hard to get. It is difficult to get her to laugh, she usually only laughs when she is tired, or when something random happens. For example, a couple weeks ago Cheryl (Jacob's mom) was having the Webelos in the ward work on their fitness badge, so we all walked down to the school and the boys were doing standing long jumps. Jessica started laughing a gut laugh when one of the boys jumped, so he kept doing it over and over to get her to laugh more.

Two of Jessica's FAVORITE toys are: my keys (probably typical of most little ones), and tissues. Yes, as in the ones that you blow your nose into. She loves to take them and tear them into a million little pieces. I will have to let her have at it sometime and take a picture of the end result. These can seriously keep her occupied for half an hour.

This is about all I can think of for the moment, but I will update you more as I REMEMBER things.


*** This has already been so therapeutic for me. I finally feel like I have something back that I have been missing for a long time. ***