Home

Just a quick post about how much I love being at home. I know that I have mentioned it before, but it has been SO nice going no where for the past few days. I know that will all come to an end next week when I leave for my Christmas travels. I am not looking forward to the traveling part, but I am going to enjoy seeing friends and family.
~Ashton

Emma

Today marks my first official day of taking care of little Emma Layne. She is the daughter of my good friend Shannon from church. Emma is about a month younger than Breyten, so it's kind of like having twins... which I had always wanted growing up. I guess this will give me good experience if we ever have twins. Anyway, today went very well! They both ate at different times but took naps at the same time. I was even able to do a quick exercise and take a quick shower during nap time. I know that won't happen all the time! I will be keeping her two and a half days a week. She's really cute and has a cute smile! Breyten is not so sure of this other baby yet who needs mommy's attention too, but he will adjust. 

~Ashton

Enfamil

Well, yesterday was a very emotional day for me. I came to the conclusion that I had to start supplementing formula on top of nursing Breyten. It really hurt my feelings that I was doing all that I could do, but I still was not producing enough milk to make Breyten satisfied after a feeding. Also, I think this is why he had not been sleeping well at nights, he was too hungry to sleep! So, yesterday, I tried (through the advice of my sister-in-law Kendal, thanks:) supplementing. He ate 6 ounces in about 10 minutes. He wasn't hungry until about 3 hours later (this is a major improvement from 1 to 2 hours during the day). Also, I gave him a bottle right before he went to bed and he slept from 9 pm to 5 am!! Praise the Lord!!! That is much better than the night before when he got up every 2 hours to eat like he was a newborn again. Also, he is taking better day naps so far. So, all in all, it was best for baby to do this, and I am definitely reaping rewards of better sleep at night and more time during the day!!!


ps, day 2 of exercising is going very well. Now, let's see if I can keep it up! I have to fit into a bridesmaid dress in March and I did order the dress a size smaller to keep me motivated!!!


~Ashton

December 5, 2010

Wow, I have waited a long time for this day to come. You see, my sister-in-law Kendal took a picture of my niece Karalyn exactly 1 year after she found out she was pregnant with her. She sent me the picture as I was pregnant the first time and had a miscarriage in April of 2009. I told myself that one day I would be able to take a picture of my baby one year after finding out I was pregnant with him or her.

Well today is the day!! Exactly one year ago today, I got a nice "pregnant" sign on my easy clear blue pregnancy test. Such a relief after all those stupid "not pregnant" signs I had gotten for months. I started immediately crying my eyes out. Trenten thought there was something really wrong with me (I don't cry very often). Then, I showed him the pregnancy test and he was so elated!! My next emotion was fear and then worry because I was wondering if this pregnancy would end like my last one. But, praise God, it didn't! And, now I have a beautiful baby boy! I took lots of pictures today :) Here are some of them:

Breyten William Long, 16 weeks old

Such chubby cheeks, very kissable!

I'm ready for cereal, why are you wasting time taking my picture?

You are too slow, Mom, I will do it myself.

~Ashton

New Treadmill

So, for Christmas this year, I decided to get a treadmill. I researched them for about 2 weeks and decided on what was needed for both my use and Trenten's use (he runs around 10 miles a day while on deployment). Well, I finally found one that was what we both needed/wanted and it was on sale with free shipping! I ordered it at the beginning of November through nordictrack.com. I was thinking it would be delivered before I left for my Thanksgiving travels, but it didn't. I had it delivered to a friend's house while I was away, and Tavis picked it up for me and brought into my garage yesterday.

It's very nice!

It has a touch screen, Ifit capabilites, and other things I have yet to learn!

Step 1: move treadmill pieces from garage into back red room. Remember, don't do this people like I did it!  I could have called for help, but wanted to see if I could do it, and I can :)

Step 1b: make the 200 pound piece of equipment fit through a too small door frame. Let's just say I got really creative and used a lot of leverage. (Body mechanics as an RN came in really handy!)

Step 1c: After propping treadmill onto side, pull/push treadmill into house and into red room. I knew that I had only one shot at doing this. Once this thing went back flat on the ground, I knew I couldn't get it on the side again to move it...

SUCCESS! All pieces in the red room.

 Step 2: Assemble the treadmill. This whole entire process took about 8 hours due to having to take breaks to feed, bath, and put Breyten to sleep (more than once) and to just rest for myself. All in all, this thing had better be worth it! 

He was no help!

~Ashton

Worst Blow Out EVER!!!

This is not for the weak stomachs~


Breyten needed a diaper change; so, I picked him up and took him from the living room to his room. When I placed him on his changing table, I noticed poop on both of his socks. This means a blowout down both sides! This is one of those times you just don't know where to start. I decided to undress him first. I got him all clean with fresh clothes. I thought it was over. Well, I looked down and saw it all over my robe and pants. I looked down at the floor and noticed we had made a poop trail from the living room to his room. Good thing I had just bought some resolve! Well, I decided to use the mop bucket to ring out my rag after scrubbing each spot. Well, I got all done with that and was getting up to rinse out the mop bucket when I spilled poop water all over the clean floor... so, I had to rescrub the floor. During all of that, Breyten was screaming because he was hungry, he had nothing left in him! All the clothes and rags are washing on the sanitation cycle... bet your glad you didn't have to clean all that!
What a morning,
~Ashton

Home Sweet Home

It is so good being home! Being away for a few weeks really makes you appreciate it. I'm sure that when Trenten comes home in May 2011, he will feel that way and then some! I missed my husband and brother over the Thanksgiving holiday, as I will over the Christmas holiday. However, I am thankful for their sacrifices for us. 

Over my travels, I started Breyten on rice cereal. I was really hoping that he would sleep through the night. Well, that was wishful thinking! Last night, he got up every 2 hours! On our first night back of our last trip, he slept the whole night! I'm hoping tomorrow is better. 

I was able to get a nice box from Trenten while I was away. On a trip to Greece, he got me a cookbook and some olive oil. I can't wait to use it! Also, he enclosed a DVD that has him reading children's books for Breyten. It's called the United Through Reading Program, and it's really sweet. 

Here is a picture of Breyten that I think looks just like Trenten:

Trenten a long time ago...

Trenten William Long 

I'm so thankful for my two guys!! I love them and am so proud of them.

~Ashton