iPhone Download, vol. 2

Playtime!



First trip to the mall:



We went on a family walk to a little nearby pond. I threw a stick for Sugar. I fell down. Instead of helping me, Lee laughed and snapped a picture. Then Sugar got out of the water and shook muddy pond water all over me. The end.



A house in our neighbor that is serious about Halloween:



Reese's Pieces peanut butter cookies. A perfect fall treat!



Sleeping puppy:



Pretty girl:



My naptime view:



After a walk:



And this week you get a video bonus (please excuse my crazy mom-voice):

Newborn Photo Shoot

I realized I forgot to show you the pictures from Ava's newborn photo shoot.

We had them done when she was a little over two weeks old. We waited a little longer than normal because I was waiting for the jaundice yellowness to subside. By that time, she was a little more alert and a little less of the sleepy-all-the-time newborn. I had visions in my head of one of the photo shoots where you mold a fast asleep baby any way you'd like but yeah, that didn't happen.

We didn't get many great pictures of Ava, but I'm happy with the pictures we got of Lee and I with her. I can take hundreds of pictures of her myself when she's a little more willing to cooperate, but not so much with the family shots, so I'm so happy we have them.











I did a little photo shoot of my own a few days later when she was nice and sleepy, hoping to get a picture to use for her birth announcement, which I did. Here are a few of the ones that didn't make the cut. I'll share her announcement with you a little later.







It's funny (or sad?) to look back at these and see how much she's grown and changed already!

Ava's First Trip to the River

Last weekend we headed down to the river with Ava for the first time. My parents had been vacationing down there all week and we thought it would be a nice getaway to join them for the last half of their trip. It was also Lee and I's 4th anniversary, so we thought it would be a nice way to celebrate.

Ava loved it there and we had a really nice time visiting with her grandparents and Aunt Erin.

(I'm just realizing that I never shared an update on the river house since it was destroyed in Hurricane Irene last summer. After lots of deliberation, our family decided to rebuild, this time on pilings to protect from flooding. We are so thankful for the new house and have been enjoying it all summer.)

And now for pictures!

With her grandpa:



Lee and the dogs on the (new) pier:



Mesmerized by the ceiling fan:



A little tummy time:



Loving Gram:



Sweet little burrito:



Trying to sit up like a big girl:



Tired dogs:



Bundled up for a stroll:



Sugar thought the rose bush made for a good bed:



Chilling with Daddy:



Lots of time spent on the swing:



Sugar, pier and house:



Celebrating 4 years with our two favorite girls!

iPhone download, vol. 1

Before Ava was born, I envisioned taking thousands of beautiful pictures of her -- setting up mini photo shoots and documenting every little event like crazy.

The reality? Not so much.

I'm lucky if I get my camera out at all, much less have time to transfer pics to the computer, edit them, upload to Photobucket and write a blog post.

But I do always have my phone with me, and therefore 90% of the pics I take are via iPhone.

AND I just figured out that I can blog from my phone and upload my iPhone pics directly without having to transfer them to the computer first. Seeing as I spend what seems like 10 hours a day under a nursing baby with just my phone to keep me company, this might a nice way for me to blog when I otherwise would not be able to find the time.

So I'm starting today with pics from the last few weeks, and hopefully will be able to do a quick photo dump every week or so. Here goes.

First bath, and not too happy about it:



Second bath, still not sure but not as bad:



Happy strawberry in her MamaRoo (and the first smile I was able to capture):



Whales!



Meeting Brevyn for the first time. Brev says "I like her."



Hooded towel!



Mushroom on one of our walks, which Lee said looked straight out of Super Mario Brothers:



Contemplating:



Baby wearing at its finest:



Next up, I'll share pics from our weekend at the river.

Ava: 1 Month

Ava is one month old!

Sometimes I can't believe it's already been a month and sometimes I can't believe it's only been a month. I have a feeling this whole child-rearing thing is going to bring new meaning to the phrase "the days were long but the years were short."

One thing is for sure though: we're head over heels for this little one.

Here's a bit about our sweet girl at one month:

Clothing: 0-3 and some 3 months. Almost all of her newborn clothes are too small now.

Eating: like a champ. She's exclusively breastfed and has been steadily gaining 2 oz a day (the norm is half an ounce to an ounce a day). Enter: those adorable chunky cheeks.

Sleep - Nighttime: it takes a few tries to get her down at night but once she's down she does pretty well, waking every 3-4 hours to eat. She's usually finally out around 10:00, then up twice during the night to eat, then we sleep in a bit until 8 or 9 (sometimes 10). 

Sleep - Naps: she usually takes a short morning snooze or two and then a longer lunchtime/afternoon nap. In the evening we can usually get a catnap from her while we're fixing dinner. But really, every day is different and she likes to keep us on our toes.

Activity: in the morning, we usually play on her play mat for a bit, do some tummy time, read a story, or look at black and white pattern flash cards. In the afternoon we try to get out of the house -- either meeting Lee for lunch, going to our breastfeeding support group or just taking a stroll around the neighborhood.

Crying: I'm not going to lie, she cries a lot (or at least it seems that way to me). I think we got lucky with the eating and sleeping, so maybe the crying is where we pay for it? Sometimes she's just cranky and nothing seems to soothe her. Sometimes she's fussy in the morning and she's almost always fussy at night. For a while there, it seemed like she was either eating, sleeping or crying. But in the past few days she's been rewarding us with more non-crying alert time. Which brings me to...

Milestones: imitating, coo'ing and smiling! She tries to copy whatever facial expression we're making or if we're sticking our tongues out she'll stick hers out too. And last week she "coo'ed" at me for the first time. It was clearly a coo and not one of the many grunts/cries she usually makes.  And we're seeing more and more smiles, although she's still a bit stingy with them. And they're usually at totally random times or when she's nodding off, not in relation do anything we've done that she's reacting to.

She had her one month check up today and the pediatrician said everything looked good. She's now 75th percentile for weight and 50th for length.

Here's a snapshot of Ava by the week:



She's definitely growing and changing every day. We can't wait to see what the next month has in store for us!

The First Two Weeks

Our hospital stay was fairly uneventful. Sure, we were sleep deprived and slightly overwhelmed, but I was recovering nicely and we were so thankful to have a healthy baby girl. We had lots of visitors who loved all over her.





This guy was pretty smitten with her from the start:





Things started to fall apart on the day we were discharged. We found out that her jaundice levels had increased significantly and she had lost more weight than they'd like. The pediatrician said we'd need to go home with a biliblanket to try and address the jaundice and I'd also need to start supplementing with formula (I had been solely breastfeeding but my milk still had not come in).

We were disappointed with these hurdles but just so relieved to be headed home.





Meeting Sugar for the first time:



To make a long story short, getting the biliblanket was a nightmare (it was to be delivered by a home health care company and they didn't get it to us until 9:00 that night). We went to the pediatrician the next day and when they checked her levels, it had gone up even more and to the point that she needed to be readmitted to the hospital for light therapy.

Of course, we were devastated. We hadn't even been home 24 hours (hadn't even unpacked yet) and now we had to repack and schlepp our 3 day old daughter back to the hospital (this time to WakeMed Raleigh because they have a pediatric department). She got settled in under the lights and we could only take her out to feed her.



Oh and did I mention that this was my birthday? Not exactly the way I wanted to ring in 27.

But she actually seemed to really like it. The warm lights made her so relaxed, she didn't even mind when the nurses had to prick her heel every 4 hours (although her mom and dad did). We said she looked like she was hanging out at the beach.







After about 24 hours under the lights, her levels were still really high, but had gone down enough that we could go home. Two more trips to the pediatrician with two more heel sticks (she had over ten heel sticks total) and we were finally in the clear (although it took a while for the yellow in her skin to go away and there's still a bit in the whites of her eyes that the pediatrician says should be gone around one month).

We also got to ditch the formula supplementing once we got home from the hospital because I finally had enough milk and she was gaining weight well. That was a relief because we were using this annoying "supplemental nursing system" that was basically a tube that went into her mouth while she was nursing and it was a nightmare.

Once we got over some initial rough patches, we got the hang of breastfeeding and it has been going pretty well. But then there was the day that she did.not.sleep for 24 hours straight. I think I nursed for 5 straight hours at one point and finally had a total meltdown at 5am. But we chalked it up to a growth spurt and she finally decided to sleep, usually going 3-4 hours at night between feedings.

Oh, and there was an eye infection thrown in somewhere in those first two weeks as well (likely picked up from all of our trips to the hospital and doctor's office). I think between the jaundice, eye infection and regular two week checkup we were at the pediatrician's office every other day of her first two weeks of life.

Ok, enough complaining. Even though we had our share of challenges I can't emphasize enough how incredibly thankful we are to have a perfectly healthy, beautiful baby girl. Being in the pediatric wing of a hospital and seeing all of those sick babies and kids will quickly make you grateful that all you're dealing with is a little (or a lot of) jaundice.

And now I'll leave you with some adorable pictures from weeks 1 and 2.



Out for a stroll:



Snoozing on Dad:



This pic is grainy but I love the snapshot of our exhausted napping family (Lee holding Ava, and Sugar on the floor):





Hanging out on her play mat: