Ashur's 10 month check-up

Pictures by the wonderful Brittney Bauer

Our happy, content, social little smasher is 10 months old! He is growing a changing so fast. I cannot believe how fast the second baby time go by! I don't feel like I have taken enough pictures, he is just changing to quickly. Ashur is taking his first steps, he is up to about 6 steps at a time. He is learning to sign like a champ, he can sign more, please, milk and just today- thank you! He is talking alot more lately- I was alittle concerned about a month ago thinking Eli was talking more than him at this age...but he has caught up! He says mama, dada, hi and a version of Hello while he's on the phone. Thanks to Grandma Linda he came home with this adorable kkkk sound he makes for kitty and actually any furry animal he sees. He is working on a bark noise he says for dogs. She also taught him to point to himself every time she says "who does grandma love?" she did the same with Eli- sooo cute!!

Ashur's (9month)at 10 months check-up

21.9 lbs, 50th percentile in weight

28 3/4 Inches, 50th percentile in height

Eli is 3 years old

Wow I thought Eli turning 3 warranted a whole blog about him. He is an amazing little boy and I cannot believe three years have gone by! This is my chance to brag on my little guy. Eli is extremely smart, he has always been very advanced verbally and socially. If you have met the kid you know he is not afraid to walk up to anyone, say hello, ask them there name, and strike up a conversation. He cracks me up sometimes, he knows alot of the clerks at Fred Meyers by name! Eli loves to dress up as characters- I think his dress up box would put any little girls to shame. He does have a genre he sticks with, mainly military, construction, police, firemen, and lately garbage men. He has a love/hate relationship with garbage trucks- he runs as fast as he can to the windows to see them when they come, but cries at night going to bed asking "there's no garbage trucks coming to get me?" Daily he accessorizes with boots, belts, hats, gloves, and the latest suspenders! For months we had to tie things around his body to look like suspenders, but just the other day we found some at the mall. He was in HEAVEN! They were our most recent bribe to successfully finishes potty training. He does pretty good staying dry most days and naps, but night-time is a no go. Eli loves, loves, love the military and is such a character when it comes to his soldier attitude. He sings, loudly and proudly "The ballad of the green berets" all the time. He stands at attention and salutes anytime he hears a song that sounds "military" to him. This involved him standing and saluting at the movie theater when the Universal pictures song came on, and standing up at church and saluting when he heard the sound of a snare drum. Good lord, this kid is funny!! Eric cracks up because it is all ELI! No military push from him at all. He hasn't even really seen Eric in the Army- since he has been off active duty the last 2 years. Eli will get a kick out of real Army life in a few months.

Eli's stats 3 year check-up
34 lbs in the 70th percentile for weight
37 inches in the 50th percentile for height

Favorite quote:
Eli: singing...fighting soldiers from the sky...
Eric: nodding his head to the beat
Eli: "stop dad, this isn't a dance party!"
Eric: "oh sorry I was just nodding"
Eli: "soldiers don't nod dad!"

Birth Doula, Labor Doula, Portland Doula

I am a new Birth Doula! I finished my training in April and have been attending births towards my DONA(Doulas of North America) certification. I have to attend 3 births to be fully certified. I have one more mama due next week and I will be officially ready to send in my packet and be a full fledged Doula. I have taken on several moms this summer and fall, but am available for several more. If anyone knows someone who could use the support of a Doula in the birth- let me know! Here is a link to my website:


http://www.wix.com/meleabauer/Birth-Doula

Oh Mexico

Oh, down in Mexico
I never really been so I don't really know
Oh, Mexico
I guess I'll have to go


Our hotel had about 3 peacocks that roamed around. This one always stayed around the restaurant, and if you flirted good enough with him- he'd open up his feathers! He liked me ;)



















The Hotel was beautiful. Filled with gardens and several pools. It was heavenly.

Beautiful Rachel and I. Or as I call it Ebony and Ivory.














Oh, man. The pool was wonderful. It was so nice to just have a vacation that was all about sunning, swimming, eating and alittle drinking ;)We did do one day trip into town, but otherwise no schedule at all! I also got 2 massages. I loved Mexico!















Rachel is a school teacher in Mexico City, my parents had planned on meeting up with her while they were in Mexico. They flew her over and asked me if I wouldn't mind coming to keep my buddy company. It was a hard decision, but I accepted. Eric was happy to keep the boys at home, which was sooo great of him. Thanks mom and dad for an awesome vacation!!!!

Oh, Mexico
It sounds so simple I just got to go
The sun's so hot I forgot to go home
Guess I'll have to go now

Army times

Most of you know Eric graduated this spring and had his Commissioning ceremony in March. We were so excited to be done with school, drill and ROTC! He had a great time the last couple of years, but was ready to be done. Here's some pictures from his Commissioning ceremony and ROTC dining out.

Eric got the USAA "Spirit Award" sounds very cheerleader to me!



















Us over looking the Columbia River at the Red Lion for ROTC Dining out



















My brother Jonathan got to come up to be Eric's First Salute














Eli, Darcy and I got to put Eric's new Lieutenant rank on

way,way,way behind Ashur's 6 month update

I actually wrote this a month ago- but didn't have my camara ready to upload some photos! I seem to have some spare time at the moment so alittle catch up... I haven't been as good as posting with Ashur as I was with Eli! Two pretty big reasons for this, I'm sure you understand! First is having 2 kiddos, and second, I posted mostly for Eric while he was deployed. Now we are just relaxing and enjoying life as a family for a change before we gear up for "normal" army life soon. Which will mean Eric gone for long days, maybe some months spent apart and most likely another deployment in our future. Its enevidable people, he's in the Army. We don't have a for sure date or anything, we are just preparing for it. Eric has 12 more years in the military and I'm sure we will see another seperation in that time. I don't know if that is within the next couple years, or in 10 years, but its possible. This is kinda how we live our life, always ready for something new to happen and change our plans completely on us. We have learned to totally and completely trust God in everything that happens. Its kinda this roller coaster we got on and are being taken for a ride. We don't know where its going up, down or spinning out of control! But we chose to get on it, and enjoy the good parts and pray in the hard parts. Its an amazing experience to fully lay your life out there, we are continually learning what life is about and I wouldn't trade my life with anyone.
uh hmm, well... What I had wanted to blog about was Ashur turning 6 months. haha. The little chunker weighed in at 19.6 lbs on April 21st. So by now he's a good 20 lbs I'm sure! He's doing good, rolling, crawling, sitting and going for everything around the room. His crawl in still an inch worm thing, but man can he get around that way! He is awesome, so happy! And to his Daddy's joy has started into the dadadada phase.

Easter Morning. yes, I was more than happy to put them in matching outfits!

6 months of no sleep!!!

The nights have been a struggle for us. Ashur started life great, nursing every 3-4 hours from the first week, and slowing started sleeping more and more at night. By only 3 weeks, he was sleeping through the night 9pm-8am! I was so proud of my little dream baby. Well...that didn't last long, around 2 months he started waking again in the night. No problem, 9pm-5am is a pretty good chunk of time too, but NO- some nights its midnight, 1am, 3:30am, 5am, 9am. He was all over the place waking up at different times every night. Eli was such a great sleeper and I think I kinda followed babywise method with him- but didn't need much, he just sorter did it on his own. So with Ashur, I still follow a schedule and put him to sleep awake and let him learn to fall asleep on his own, which worked great during the day and going to bed at night- but he just wouldn't STAY asleep. So we went through a trial of EVERYTHING I could think of. I tried each thing for about a week- babyfood and cereal, no change-moved him out of our room, no change-pumping at night to give him a bigger bottle before bed, no change- formula at night, no change-crying it out for at least an hour, the worst. Finally, finally, finally I thought... what is different from him and Eli? Eli slept great at my parents house at the same age. So I packed up the baby, kissed Eric and Eli goodbye and moved into my parents house in desperate need of a solid night sleep. And would you believe that the first night there- BOOM- he slept solid through the night!!! 9pm to bed and next thing I heard from him was cooing at 7:30am. I couldn't believe it! The only thing I can think is that its darker,warmer, quieter than the room he was in at our place??? And because it is warmer here I didn't put him in his polyester snuggly outfit- which they say to eliminate all polyester bedding to help a baby sleep? Really?! Well it worked, so at least we have reset his clock alittle and can now work on the right environment at our place. Or I may just stay here forever if it means sleep...precious sleep :)

The Boys

Ashur turned 5 months a week ago and I am way late getting some new pictures up on here! We are having a great time now with the two boys, they just love each other! Eli loves to play with his brother and Ashur watched Eli's every move. I can't wait till they can really play together. I am a little behind on Ashur's doctor visits so I'm not sure what he is up to in weight.. lets just say BIG! He is getting pretty good at rolling over and is sitting up on his own for a few seconds at a time. Our only problem lately has been his sleep schedule! He still has not been consistent with sleeping at night, some nights its 9pm-5am-9am, some nights its 9pm-midnight-4am-8am, last night it was 8pm-11pm-6am-9am and between 11pm and 12:30 SCREAMING bloody murder. blah. I am going to research some sleep methods online to try. And we might be considering moving him out of our room soon...like tonight!

Eli loves to hold his baby brother.

Eli lookin slick after his bath. Such a cute boy.

happy baby

updates on my boys

Our little Ashur dasher turned 4 months this week! He is really a wonderful baby and him and Eli get along wonderful! I could ask for anything better- except maybe a little more sleep lately. Ashur started life out on a great sleep schedule- I mean beyond amazing sleep schedule- 3 weeks sleeping from 9pm-8am! Well it didn't last forever :( End of Jan, beginning of Feb I had a breast infection and his sleep/eat schedule got alittle off, he started waking up at 5am for a feeding- no problem, this is pretty normal baby schedule. 9pm-5am nurse, back to sleep til 9am. That was fine until the last couple weeks of waking up at 1am, 3am, 5am, 8am. blah. Not so good for me or the cranky man in bed with us. Hope this doesn't last long, could just be a growth spurt. fingers crossed.

As for the cranky man, he is busy right now. He decided to graduate early and has to finish up the rest of his classes in the next 3 weeks, as well as finish up ROTC courses, drill 1 weekend a month and work 40 hours a week! On top of that play army with Eli, get snuggle time in with Ashur, kiss his wife and of course do the dishes. He's alittle stressed, but alot of that will go away when he graduates/Commissions in March. He will graduate with a Bachelors of Science in Liberal Studies from Portland State University and commission as a 2nd Lieutenant into the Army at the end of March.

So, thought I'd do alittle baby update of Ashur at 4months:

-Weighs 15.4 lbs

-24 inches long

-laughs and coos a lot

-trying to sit up and roll over. so close!

-pushes himself up off the ground

-loves to jump in his exersaucer

-can grab toys, and bring them to his mouth

-his days lately:

8/9am wake nurse

9-11 play with brother, tummy time

11 nap

1 wake-up, nurse

1-3 play with mommy while Eli is down

3 nap

5-9 awake, nurse, maybe 20 min nap. play. nurse a couple times between 7-10pm. Sleep.

And just so he doesn't get left out, This is what Eli is up to at 2 1/2:

Weight 33 lbs

Height 35 inches

-talks alot!! He's a smarty, he speaks very well and has a huge vocabulary!

-the kid loves all things Army, refers to himself as "a good soldier man" and replies to us with "sir yes sir"

-loves tractors, and construction equipment. Loves to go to grandma and grandpas to play with his digger. " I'm a 'truction man, and I drive a 'truction truck!"

-His favorite movies are Toy story, bob the builder, and Thomas the train.

- He loves dressing up. He has alittle soldier uniform he wheres EVERYDAY, a huge collection of hats. Loves gloves, helmets and shoes- his favorite are his rubber boots!

-He loves to sing songs, Itsy bitsy spider, Lords Army, The green baret song, twinkle twinkle and anything to the tune of Jingle bells.

-He is very very outgoing, will approach anyone and ask " whats your name?...oh...nice to meet you."

The kid is a ton of fun right now!!

Life lately

Lately life has been incredibly busy, yet incredibly boring at the same time. Its weird how this happens. The days are spent chasing a toddler, trying to potty train, nursing a baby, cleaning the house, changing diapers, and trying desperately to get my "Glorious 10 minute alone Mommy Escape" (what most people know as a shower). When Ashur was a couple weeks old, I thought how on earth do people have more than two kids, but now that thought isn't as scary as it was then. Life is slowly getting more manageable and we are establishing somewhat of a nice routine.
We are trying to work on potty training Eli, but the boy is a little stubborn, so it might be slow going. sigh. If he doesn't want to learn than he needs to get a job to buy his own diapers!
Ashur is growing and plumping up nice. He doesn't have nearly the cheeks his brother had, but they are growing at the same rate. He is about up to 14 lbs, and wearing 9 month! He smiles and laughs and squeals a lot. He is lifting his chest up off the floor when he's on his tummy really well, and will be rolling over pretty soon. He had his 3month birthday on the 21st.
My boys love each other. I hope they can grow up as close friends more than anything. Every morning Eli asks for Ashur to come in his bed. They lay there and talk and giggle. Eli wipes Ashurs drool and helps him put his binky back in his mouth. Its a joy to see.
I will be better at posting more blogs now that we have internet at our apartment. I need to catch up on Christmas and a Wedding!

cloth diapering

Several of my friends have asked for how I do my cloth diapering, and after writing the same e-mail several times, I thought I'd post a blog with pictures to explain it a little easier. Cloth diapering is not for the weak of heart, it takes extra time and you are touching poop sometimes. So get over it and wash your hands afterwards :) But it can save you money, saves trash, saves babies bums- my kids have had ZERO diaper rashes. So it works for us. Here is the routine.

First off my mom bought us 8 small size, and 8 medium size Fuzzi Bunz pocket diapers for a baby shower gift. And over Eli's first year my in-laws bought be some more for Christmas, and I found some sales online for more. They range from $12-18 a diaper, but last well onto the next children.

So these are the fuzzi bunz, I also like Bum genius and have tried g-diapers. Right now Ashur at 3 months goes through 4-5 diapers a day and at night we put him in a disposable. This works best for us because it keeps him dry all through the night. I did cloth through out the night with Eli and there were more leaks, or you had to change them during the night.

I keep a bucket in the bathroom that I fill just a quarter of the way with a soapy water solution. I use any free and clear clothes soap, and have also used baby oxi clean.

This is one of the most valuable tools to cloth diapering. Its a toilet sprayer that you can get at any c.d. website or store. It attaches to your water behind the toilet and sprays pretty powerfully to get all the poo off and into the toilet (instead of in your washer). It keeps diapers clean and white so they don't stain.
So everytime there is a poopy dipe, I drop the insert into the soapy bucket and spray off the diaper into the toilet. If it is just a pee diaper, I put the insert into the soapy solution and hang the diaper over the edge of the bucket.At the end of EVERY day, I dump this whole bucket into the washer machine and wash on a Hot/Cold, extra soiled cycle with a Free & Clear detergent. I personally don't wash anything else with my cloth diapers, sometimes I wash burp clothes in with them. I have never noticed a dramatic increase in our water bill. Its 1 extra wash a day on the small to medium load setting. If there is any staining when they come out of the wash I use a spray and wash and put them back into the wash the next load. Or during the summer I hang them outside and the sun bleaches them white.

I dry my inserts, because they are super absorbent, they would take forever to hang dry, but the diapers I hang over our dryer and are dry by the time I get up in the morning

7 weeks old

Just got back from our last midwife appointment :( It was Ashur and my final check-up. I have LOVED my care at Alma. Midwifery care is so amazing and getting to bring your baby into the world the way you want is indescribable. I hope to be able to find care like them wherever our next child is born. If its Europe, maybe I'll need to fly them over!

Our little Ashur is growing great, up to 11.7 lbs and 24 1/2 inches long! It calms my mommy nerves alittle knowing he is gaining plenty of weight with his sleeping through the night so early. He is up to sleeping from 8pm till 7am some nights! That's too much, isn't it?! Oh well, he's doing good and I love my sleep.

We are pretty much all settled into our new apartment. Let me just say this, shower, washer, dryer, dishwasher. ahhhhhhhhhh. I'm in heaven. Now I just need to start decorating for Christmas! I am alittle late this year getting started!

1 month

Whoa its been a month! Ashur is really an awesome baby! The second time around has been so much calmer. Nursing is easier, holding him, changing him, sleep is better. There has been no crying in the middle of the night- by me or baby :) Life is going pretty smooth right now. We have stumbled onto an awesome schedule! I know it may not last forever, but I am loving it while it lasts! This is the schedule since 3 weeks old, I know I'm lucky and counting my blessings!

8am nurse

12 nurse

12-4 nap

4 nurse

8 nurse

9-4 SLEEPING THE WHOLE TIME!!!!!

8am start all over again.

My boys start going every 4 hours between feedings pretty young, so I gently encourage the schedule, but excepting that the middle of the night has no rules. Eli didn't get onto this schedule till he was like 4 months old, and Ashur has been doing it like clockwork every night. Anyways, I love it and am starting to feel semi normal again!

We had our 4week check-up with the midwife and we both and checking out fine. Ashur is up to 10.3 lbs- can't wait to see what he is at 6 weeks, cause I think he is chunking up!

What were we thinking???

I don't know what we are thinking, but we are going to move. We have been living downtown Portland for a year now and love it, but with the new baby and a list of problems we are embarking on the adventure of moving in less than a week. Here is the list of reasons and you tell me whether we are making the right choice?
-We live on the 5th floor, thats 64 steps to be exact, 8 flights, with no elevator.
-We have to park our car in a garage that is the equivalent to about 3-4 blocks away
-Our building is about 100 years old and is feeling it.
-I am allergic to something in the building, mold, dust, just plan oldness?
-I wake up with a splitting headache everyday and have had repeat sinus infections.
-There is constant construction in the area, the most recent is a tunnel system nearby that causes little tremor quakes through the building every 5 minutes from 8am-5pm. Old building shaking??? freaks me out!
-Not to mention no dishwasher, no laundry, and no shower! Yep, we have to sit in a bathtub on a step stool and pour a bucket of water over our head to bathe.
I know people deal with worse, but we don't have to. So we are going to do what will make us alot happier and move. Don't get me wrong, we have LOVED our time downtown, but with the new little one, it has made things alittle harder.

oh no she didn't...the birth photos

For those who requested it, here are pics from the birth. If you don't want to see this or if your offended I would post this, then don't scroll down. These are very raw and not the most flattering to me, but they are what they are. By the way, I tried to avoid as much nudity as I could.

I was probably around 7 cen. here when I had to really start relaxing and getting more serious. At this point my dad put on some nice music from his ipod and they started the bath.

Eric was an amazing coach and support person. He never left my side and helped me through ever contraction. He is the greatest.

I am actually pushing at this point. My back and hips were on fire.

ok, baby is not coming in the water, as planned. After an hour in the water, we moved to the bed.Sorry, this is one of the most vivid of my pictures on here (trust me, there were worse ones I chose not to post :) I WANTED THE BABY OUT!!!

Finally! Our baby boy is born after 1 1/2 hard hours of pushing. I was alittle overwhelmed. I actually remember looking down and seeing him come out and realizing, oh yeah, I am having a baby! I got so caught up in the "work" that I forgot I was actually getting something at the end of it all!Happy daddy got to deliver his baby and cut the cord, 2 things he missed out doing with Elijah.
Eli got to come meet his baby within a couple hours of the birth, he loved him!