Its been a long time...

A really really long time! Like over 2 years ago :/ oops

Bradyn:

Everything about Bradyn can be found at http://extra-handsome.blogspot.com/

Corbin:

He is an amazing little guy. He was fully potty trained at 2 years old!!! Although he did have regression when Bradyn was born and started having accidents at daycare/preschool. He weighs 28 LBS and seems to be growing because of his recent appetite. He loves being outside playing Basketball or Soccer or playing with the neighbor kids. Corbin also goes to Preschool for 2-1/2 hours a day, 3 days a week. His favorite foods are pizza, hot dogs, candy, yogurt, and cheese. He loves to drink hot chocolate but drinks water without a fuss. Corbin loves his little brother. Including giving over prolonged hugs and kisses, and being 2 inches from Bradyn's face whenever he can. His favorite person in the world though is his Daddy. Corbin loves to wrestle tickle and play with him all the time. And even cries when I pick him up from preschool when he thought Daddy was going to pick him up. He is sweet, helpful, and happy (usually). I would not trade him for anything in this world!

Center: Day he was born
Left top: 6 months
Right top: 1 year
Right Bottom: 2 years
Left Bottom: 2-1/2 yrs

Garret:

Garret has had an amazingly exciting time recently. Two years ago he got accepted into OSU's Grad Program for Nuclear Engineering and had it completely paid for and got paid to be a research fellow. On August 29th Garret graduated with his Masters and on September 2nd he started his career as a Nuclear Test Engineer at NuScale Power. The next Sunday Bradyn was born and Garret had to take a week off of work because of Bradyn being in the hospital and then another 2 days off of work a week later because I ended up back in the hospital. Through this NuScale was amazing and let him work using a laptop while at the hospital and he also had already a week of vacation time. Garret really likes his new job and gets to work with many people he was already working with while in Grad School.

First Day at Nuscale

Last Day at OSU

Me:

When Corbin was 9 months old I went back to college. During this time I also started working out and ended up loosing about 50 lbs from the weight I was when I was pregnant with Corbin. I went back to college to finish my degree in American Sign Language Interpreting but that did not happen. After I finished my Jr. year I was talking to my adviser and I found out that requirements had been changed and that I would have to go to school for two more years to finish an ASL degree. At that time we did not know where we would be living after Garret finished his Masters.Also we had decided we wanted to home school our children so I would not need to finish my this particular degree but I felt I needed to get a degree since I only had one more year. That being said, I had to change my degree so that I would graduated at the same time Garret would graduate. I changed my degree to Interdisciplinary Studies with focuses in Special Education, Social Science, and Humanities and Graduated in June. The next few months I did not do much other than spend time with Corbin and Garret. Then in early September Bradyn surprised us all by coming 4-1/2 weeks early. And time has been flying by ever since.

Pregnant with Corbin
6 weeks postpartum
Dec. 2013

1 week before Bradyn was born

 

Fun with Corbin

Bradyn and I January 2014

Almost 6 months.......that is half a year!

I can not believe that in 21 days my baby boy will be 6 months old. The time has just flown by he now weighs  lbs  oz and is  inches long. He can now sit like a tripod (using his arms for balance) but you still have to watch for him tipping over and can roll from his back to his belly. It also seems like he will be an early crawler. As of right now he can push himself up in a on knees push up and turn himself just by using his arms and when he lays back down he will kick his legs. So all he needs to do now is put the two actions together. He laughs spontaneously and when you make funny faces or tickle him. He also is teething a lot now and his front bottom teeth are visible just under his gums and will probably pop through anytime now. Corbin has also started eating homemade baby foods. His favorites so far are Bananas, Prunes and Butternut Squash and he does not like Avocado, Carrots or Yams.

Corbin and Garret are starting to have their own time together each week now. I am taking 2 classes at WOU they are both from 4:30 to 7:15pm and one is on Wednesday and the other is on Thursday, but i have to leave by 4 to get there on time. The last few times Garret has tried Corbin has not been taking the bottle. We think it is because we mixed mommy milk and formula together and he has not had formula before. So hopefully he will take the bottles of only mommy milk.

My weight loss is going great! When I got pregnant I weighed 150 and I gained 45 lbs while pregnant with Corbin (my end result being 195 lbs). It took me 5 months and 1 day but I lost all the baby weight. Now I want to get to a healthy weight to be an example for Corbin in having a healthy lifestyle. I would like to get down to between 120 and 130. I have decided the "Ideal weight" measurements on the internet are CRAZY! They think I should be between 94 lbs and 128 lbs. 94 pounds! Are you Crazy!? I would die if I was that tiny! And all I would be is bones, I haven't been that skinny since I was in 8th grade. I think each person needs to decide what their own ideal body weight is for them self not what the internet says. Right now i am trying to workout 5 days a week in some fashion, usually running. I am trying to run a lot right now because on Oct. 14th I will be running in the Great Pumpkin Run here in Corvallis. At the start of November I think I might start the Insanity workout series. It is a program where you are supposed to workout everyday for 60 days. It will be really hard but I also think it would be fun.
Garret has also started working out too. He is not trying to lose weight but just get some more muscle. He gets up early 3 days a week to workout before school and work and then usually plays tag football with is friends about 2 days a week.

This summer we have gone on so many trips that I can't count. We went up to Washington countless times and had a lot of fun visiting friends and family and having them meet Corbin for the fist time. We also went on a trip to my Grandparents and Corbin loved them so much! We spent a day at my Grandma and Grandpa Green and the entire day Corbin sat on my Grandpa's lap and played and laughed with him. I think Grandpas are his favorite people in the world.

Well that is all for now I will hopefully update again soon

Love,
The Ascherls

Summer of the Baby!

We have had a great summer so far!

About a week after my last post Corbin started sleeping through the nigh. Now he goes to bed between 8:30 and 9pm wakes up at 6:30 or 7 am eats and goes back to sleep until between 10:30 and 11:30 usually. Then he takes at least onr 3hr nap and one 1hr nap every day. He is a great sleeper! He also has learned how to roll both ways from his tummy onto his back (left to back and right to back), and has started being able to hit toys on purpose and put toys in his mouth though he has not figured out how to grasp things with his hands yet.

Corbin got to meet a lot more family in July; recently he met his Aunt Brittney, cousin Kailyn, Uncle Scott, cousin Liam, his future Aunt Zu and many friends (including his girlfriend Abigail, jk).

This summer a lot of exciting things have happened. Our nephew Byron Joseph Gerard Boshart was  born on July 12 at 1:28am weighing 9lb 11oz and was 22" long. He is so adorable and looks just like his daddy, at least I think so. Also we got to go home twice in July, my newest friend Breanne is getting married on Saturday, our friends Gwen and Kody are getting married on September 1st, my friend Kelsey got engaged a week ago today and my sister got engaged on Tuesday! We have gone to a civil war reenactment, gone shooting, watched fireworks on 4th of July (and Corbin did great), went to Anton and Zu's Wedding Shower, Corbin turned 1/4 of a year old and he went and played in the water fountain at the water front in Corvallis for the first time, I cut off a lot a lot of my hair, garret taught himself to sew and I went to Breanne's bachelorette party. Its been a lot of excitement and fun and the summer isn't eve over yet!

Byron

reenactment

4th of July

shooting

hair cut



Anton and Zu's Wedding Shower

2 months and counting....

Where to begin......how about with Corbin of corse : )

Corbin turned two months old yesterday (June 24th). He is about 12lbs and 22 or 23 inches long, he has his two month appointment on wednesday and then we will know how big he is for sure. He is shurly becoming his own little person. He deffinitly has an attitude which he probably got from me and a scream (that he started doing at 8 weeks old) from his daddy hahaha. He is a very sweet little man and loves to cuddle but is also very active. At only 3 weeks old he rolled over from his tummy to his back (sorry not a clear video). At 5 weeks old he smiled for the first time now he is smiling constantly, unless i am trying to take a picture of him. At 7 weeks he started cooing and loves when we talk to him or coo back. And has tried laughing but hasnt quite got it yet. Also recently he has started playing and being able to be left alone while he intertains himslef. He still has not slept through the night and his sleeping seems to be getting worse. He was sleeping 7&1/2 hours straight a night, then woke up 3hrs later and now it is down to only 6 hours straight at max, then he wakes up 2 hrs later and then an hour after that, talk about annoying.

At 11 days old we get his pictue taken at Olan Mills and they gave us free baby pictures(they have a cupon on therir website that gives free pictures for babys upto 3 months old http://www.olanmills.com/coupons/11freecoupon.asp). We were so excited : D

We can deffinitly tell there are some simarities in our looks with Corbin. He has Garret's eyes my noes and ears. He is a perfect comination of the two of us.

FAMILY

Corbin has not met any of his cousins, 2 Aunts, 2 Uncles, and most of our friends in Washington. But we are planning sometime of get together for our friends in Washington. Also Corbin is going to have two more cousins by the end of 2012. Brittney just found out she is pregnant a few days after Corbin was born and her baby is due the end of December, and Monique is having a boy named Byron Joseph Boshart due July 17th (both Garret's sisters).

My Dad had to go back to long haul trucking after the Kirkland Signature paper products plant he was working for (through Swift) was shut down. He hates it and so does my Mom because she misses her husband.

GARRET

Garret is a natural to being a Daddy. He loves playing with Corbin, taking to him and just watching him sleep.Also he isvery helpful with Corbin too; he changes his diaper, burps him and gives him bottles of breastmilk when i need a break from the house.

Garret has also accomplished a lot recently. He graduated from OSU with a Batchlors in Nuclear Engineering as a Research Fellow. He also has been accepted into the Masters program for Nuclear Engineering. The rest of his schooling will all be payed for by the school because he got accepted to be a reaserch assistant which also pays $1550 a moth woot woot!

ME
So recovery for me was very easy. I was only sore for about 3 days and was fine after that. During pregnancy I gained about 45 lbs, my top weight being 195. Now at almost 9 weeks postnatle I have lost 33 lbs, so I now weigh 162 lbs. My goal is to get down to about 125 with working out and diet which is about 37 more pounds to lose, about half way there : )

6 days befor Corbin was born 4-18-12

Today 6-25-12

US

So 2 weeks after Corbin was bor we signed the lease for our new apartment. It is 940sqft with 2 bedrooms, 1 & 1/2 baths, brand new apliances, a dining room and a living room. We love it and have made it our home. Even though we had two great roommates its great to have our own place!

Our Little Family Begins (Corbin's birth story)

On the morning of April 23 I woke up kind of early and felt like my body was trying to clean its self out. I also had light contractions, that I have had since the 18th because I had been in "early stage labor" since then, contractions ever 5 to 10 min but not intense. But this time everything felt a little different, for instance I took a nap which I never do. The contractions started getting stronger but not enough to really bother me until after I made dinner. I ended up not being able to eat it because it did not look appetizing any more and my body was focused on getting Corbin out.

Around 7 pm the contractions kicked up even more and I started to feel like it was not going to stop and by the end we would have our baby boy in our arms very soon and Garret and I decided to go on a walk. At 9:10 pm I was leaning over the bed to get some relief to my back during a contraction. When the contraction stooped I sat down  on the floor and felt a big gush I went to the bathroom and my underwear were soaked. I changed my underwear and the on call midwife and explained the situation and she told me that it sounded like  my water had broken. She also told me to try to get some sleep if I could and to come in when my contractions were getting intense. Then I called my Mom to let her know that she should make her way to Corvallis (she was in Heppner, OR taking care of my Grandpa Wilson after having hip surgery). So Garret and I went to bed and tried to get some sleep. I would fall asleep and wake up with every contraction until around 12:30 and then I could not lay down anymore. For another hour I tried to let Garret get some sleep and deal with the contractions on my own. At about 1:30 am I woke up Garret and had him help me with the contractions. He would rub my back and help remind me to "blow away" the contraction while doing other things. At 2:30 I decided it was time we go to the hospital and I called my Mom to tell her to do the same. We arrived at the hospital at 3 am and my Mom pulled in right behind us. At that moment I told my Mom I wanted her in the delivery room, I had not told her earlier because I did not want her to hurry on her 5 hr drive and get a ticket or get in an accident. We went up to labor and delivery but the midwife who was on call at the time did not want to check me because she did not want to introduce bacteria since my water had already broken. I was then put on monitors for 20 minutes and then they let me do some laboring on the ball, where my mom rubbed my back, and in the tub.

Laboring on the ball (there were three, one for each of us)

Around 7 am they had a shift change for the on call midwife and now I had Katie Robins as my midwife. At 8 am Katie decided she wanted to check me to see if I had made any progress. She checked and said I was only 4 to 5 cm dilated and his head was  stationed at a -3 (I say only because I had been at 3 cm since the 18th), I was very disappointed.. She also said that it seemed that my water had broken up high and there was still a pocket of amniotic fluid between the baby's head and my cervix. She asked if I would like her to break it but warned me that it would make the contractions longer and stronger, and that I would have to stay on the monitors for 20 minutes again. I told her right away that I wanted it broken. Right away I felt the difference in the contractions they were much much stronger and I hated being in the bed. After 20 minutes they took the monitors off and asked me to walk the length of the hall 3 times, I only made it one and a half times with stopping and "dancing" with Garret and then decided there was no way I could walk any more. We went back in the room and I felt like I needed to have a bowl movement (biggest sign that you are ready to push) but the nurse just told me that I would most likely not be able to go and brushed it off like it was nothing. I got in the tub where I labored for about an hour. At the end of that hour I could not handle the pain any more and told Garret that I needed to get something for the pain. He said ok and went and get the nurse and she told me my options were either a drug called Fentanyl or an epidural. I said I wanted the Fentanyl. The nurse said that was fine but I would have to get on the bed to be checked, then would be given the drug and then be monitored for another 20 minutes. I said that was fine and Garret helped me get out of the tub and onto the bed.
At this time it was about 9:30 am Katie (the midwife) came in to check me and we were all surprised when she said I was fully dilated, 100% effaced and his head was stationed at 0.

It was time to push!!!!

At around 9:40 am I started to push on a birthing stool, to me everything seemed to be going great. But what I was not hearing was that the baby's heart rate would drop to about 60 bpm every time I would push. So they ended up putting an internal monitor on his head to get a better reading and make sure it was not my heart rate the monitor was reading. Once they got the internal monitor put on the told me that I could push again, but his heart rate still was dropping every time I pushed. So they decided I needed to get on the bed and push from there. (moving from the birthing stool to the bed was one of the worst parts of labor) When I got on the bed I was really ready to push our baby out. They had me lay on my left side (Garret holding my right leg and my Mom holding my left) at first and tried pushing that way, but his heart rate was still not good so they gave me an oxygen mask and asked me to stop pushing a few times which I did not realize the reason why at the time. His heart rate still did not get better so they decided to have me move to my right side and push from there, Garret and my mom changed sides too. When I got on my right side I started pushing and could feel his head coming out, again trying to distract me from pushing they had me reach down and feel his head. Only a few pushes later and our baby was born!

Corbin Gabriel Ascherl was born at 10:24 am on Tuesday April 24, 2012. Weighing 6 pounds and 12 ounces!!!!!

Over all I would say labor for me was not that difficult and did not get difficult until I felt like I should be pushing and I was no pushing. And it was 100% drug free, including recovery! I would do it again in a heartbeat to get the cutest little boy I could ever dream of!

Our Little Family has Begun

Garret cutting the cord

Garret holding Corbin for the first time

 

Holding daddy's hand

Proud Nana and Proud Mommy

Holding mommy's hand

Our cute little boy

"Where go my Preggo?" Creation of Corbin Gabriel Ascherl

During the summer of 2011 Garret and I decided we would try using the method that I call "Catholic birth control." It is where you use a calender to determine when you are fertile and try to not get busy on those days, unless you want a baby. In early July 2011 I thought I had missed my period. I took a home pregnancy test and it was negative so I waited longer, still no period. So I went to a great nonprofit organization called Pregnancy Options Resource Center in Corvallis, that I was told about by my friend Michelle who volunteered there. I took their pregnancy test and it was negative.Another week later I had my period.

The next month the same thing happened, so I decided just to wait two weeks and still no period. I did an at home pregnancy test and the first one was negative. The next day I woke up and I just had a feeling like something was different, I took another pregnancy test (there were three in the box) and it was positive. I couldn't believe it so I took the third one and it was also positive. I went back into our bedroom and woke up Garret and said "We are pregnant!" he responded "I knew it." He had said a few days before that he thought that I was pregnant. I made another appointment with the Pregnancy Options Resource Center and took their pregnancy test and theirs came back positive also. At that point they wanted to have us have an ultrasound to find out how far along I was. I was 6 weeks along.

Our baby at 6 weeks along, the diamond on the ring

I was scared (Garret was just excited from day one), Garret and I had just decided that we would want to get pregnant around May or June of the next year and instead we were having a baby at that time. We went to Washington for a visit and told our parents the news. Everyone was a little concerned with us both being in school. Also I found out that my insurance did not cover being pregnant. That scared me even more. I ended up applying for Oregon Health Plan and they pay for everything form appointments to ultrasounds and more. After the insurance situation was solved I started getting more excited and less scared.

The next time we saw our baby was 3 weeks later. I was so surprised by how much the baby had grown and changed. The baby went from a little dot to a little person with a head, torso, arms and legs. We decided to call the baby "Little" until we found out the baby's sex, which we did not decide on if we wanted to know until 24 weeks. We decided if the baby was a girl her name would be Austen and if the baby was a boy his name would be Corbin.

Our baby at 20 weeks

We did not get to  see our "Little" again until the 20 week ultrasound. They asked if we would like to know the sex of the baby and we said no, but then the ultrasound tech asked if we would like him to write it down, put it in a sealed envelope and we could open it if we changed our minds. The baby was beautiful and we were so excited to see "Little" again. The next week was Christmas and we decided to go up to Washington and spend time with our families. The day after Christmas, I thought it was weird that I had never felt the baby kick from the outside so I drank a lot of water and sat with my hand on my tummy and I felt our baby move! That same day a few hours later Garret also got to feel our baby move for the first time. I twas a great day. After that I decided that when we got home we would have to see if we were having a boy or a girl because I couldn't wait any longer. We got home and opened the envelope and it said it bold hand writing "IT'S A BOY!" I really wanted a boy and I couldn't contain myself and started jumping up and down, Garret was really happy too but he wanted a girl but he was no where near disappointed. He was just happy that we had a healthy baby.

"Its a Boy!!!"

A week after we got home from Christmas break I got a call from my doctor saying that our baby had a spot on his heart in the ultrasound. It was called a echogenic focus, and it can sometimes be a sign that your baby has downs syndrome. Because we chose to not do any genetic testing we would need to do another ultrasound to look for other signs of downs syndrome and if the spot was still there. So at 26 weeks along I went to a specialist in Salem to check if there was any other signs. There weren't any other signs of downs syndrome but I did have a lot of extra unexplained amniotic fluid. So they decided to have me come back and have another ultrasound at 33 weeks.

Corbin with his foot on his face at 26 weeks

At 28 weeks along I thought my water broke. I was really scared and so was Garret. We called the midwife and she told us to go to the hospital right away. We went there and they did a few tests and decided from that, that my water had broken which was likely because of the high amount of amniotic fluid I had. They said if the baby was born they would not be able to take care of him very well there so they sent me to a different hospital in Springfield. Garret and I decided that he would drive down while I was taken in the ambulance, so we would have a way to get home. They had us stay over night in the hospital and the next morning retook all the same tests and did an ultrasound. From their tests they concluded that my water did not break and the tests were not done correctly the first time.

Corbin's face at 28 weeks

At 33 weeks I went back for another check with the specialist to look to see if the spot on the heart was still there and to check the amniotic fluid levels. They determined that the spot was gone and the amniotic fluid levels were back to the normal level. So there was nothing to worry about. I was so excited to hear it that I called Garret and my mom right away with the great news.

Corbin's profile at 33 weeks

Sense then everything was going great. Then at my 38 week appointment they took my blood pressure and it was high, I also had let them know that I was up for 2 hrs the night before throwing up. They were concerned and decided to send me over to the hospital, next door, to be monitored. After monitoring me for an hour they decided i could go home but I have to be on modified bed rest (only getting up for showers, bathroom, and making food) and I had another appointment on that Friday (April 20th). The appointment was an stress test and them taking my blood pressure. They determined that I am developing preeclampsia and need to stay on modified bed rest until Corbin is born. But I also have another appointment on Tuesday and they might induce me if things are not looking any better.

BTW "where go my preggo?" is a phrase Garret came up with and loves to use.