Baby's First Snow

Love this sweet snow baby!

Ava: 5 Months

Ava is 5 months old! (Well, she was last Thursday.) No official check-up this month, but from my best guess this little chunker is weighing in right at 18 lbs. No clue on length.

Clothing: A mixture of 6m, 9m and 6-12m. And we moved up to size 3 diapers this month.

Eating: I upped two of her daycare bottles, so now she's taking two 5-oz. bottles and a 4-oz. bottle, plus nursing in the morning, evening and usually once overnight. And, we started solids this month! We started out with rice cereal mixed with breastmilk and she did ok, although we're still getting the hang of it (I have to be careful to make sure she's not tired, too full or too hungry or it doesn't go so well). We made a batch of homemade sweet potatoes this weekend and she seemed to like those. She's just getting one meal a day at this point (in the evening) and it's hard to say exactly how much she's actually eating, but probably only a tablespoon or two.

Sleep: Still working on it, but it's gotten much better. We started sleep training at 4.5 months and while it was ROUGH at first, we saw results really quickly. She was pretty consistently sleeping 7p - 6:30a with one dream feed around 9:30 and an overnight feed at 1:30. I think a little bit of a cold has thrown her off though, because the past week or so hasn't been as consistent, with some 3 or 4am wake-ups thrown in there. Naps are still all over the place. An hour here, 30 minutes there, with no real predictable pattern.

Illness: She's had an occasional stuffy/runny nose here and there, but thankfully nothing else to report! (Spoiler alert: we've already started out month 6 not being so lucky.)

Activity: She's still liking her jumperoo, playmat, and good ol' laying on the floor with toys. She found her feet this month and loves playing with them. Grabbing her feet has allowed her to start rolling over onto her side, but she hasn't rolled completely from back to belly yet. (I think homegirl is just not a fan of rolling in general and may just skip that phase.) Still doesn't like tummy time, but is doing really well at it and will tolerate it for pretty long spans of time (especially when she's being entertained by mommy dancing, being silly or blow-drying her hair). We also put her in her high chair a lot with some toys on her tray so she can watch us make dinner or clean the kitchen. We've started using the big stroller for walks now and I think she likes facing out and being able to see everything. She's not a big talker/babbler at this point. She'll give us some oohs and ahhs, but not too many consonant sounds yet. And she went through a phase where all she wanted to do was growl. It was cute and somewhat disturbing at the same time!

Milestones: Just in the past week, she's started being able to sit up. Not for long and of course she needs close supervision, but she's getting pretty good at the "tripod" position. And I swear she's waved a couple of times. Could be total coincidence, but when I walk into the room and she raises her little hand, I have to assume she's waving at me, right?! She's also started reaching up and touching my face, while I'm nursing, rocking or holding her. That little hand on my cheek is the sweetest. thing. ever.

She really is a sweet baby -- happy, smiley, and content. Daycare always comments on how good of a baby she is.

And now, some pics and videos from month 5.

Baby laugh montage! (Please try to tune out my weird 'heh heh' sounds. That's the only way I can get her to laugh for the camera.)



First forays into solids. This happy/unsure/unhappy rotation is generally how it goes:









Tummy time:



Play time in the high chair. She hates when I put these wrist rattles on her, but I love watching her figure out how to get them off!



In the big stroller:



Sitting like a big girl:





Love this lump of sugar!

Ava: 4 Months

We had Ava's 4 month checkup yesterday. She's 76th percentile for weight and 70th for height. She's got a bit of a cold right now, but the doctor said she looks great and seems to be right on track.

Clothing: I feel like different brands and different pieces of clothing vary so much that it's kind of all over the place. Still mostly 6m and 3-6m (although most of her pants at this size are too small now). She got some 6-9m clothes for Christmas that she can already wear and we even put her in a 9m onesie and it fit pretty good.

Eating: nothing has changed here from last month. Still getting three 4-oz bottles at daycare and eating once in the morning and twice in the evenings. But we have been having some major sleep issues, so she has been eating more at night than before.

Sleep - Nighttime: oh boy. Not good. She was doing so well, usually waking up only once (sometimes twice) at night and giving us an 8 or 9 hour stretch. I'm not sure if it was her being sick or the "4 month wakefuls" or a combination of both, but we've had some major sleep regression. Some nights she's waking up every three or four hours, and we've had a few nights of waking up every two hours (she didn't even do that as a newborn). We got the ok from the pediatrician to start sleep training, so we get to dive into that fun world. While I'm not looking forward to hearing her "cry it out," I'm desperate to teach her how to self-soothe and get some better sleep for all of us. He also cautioned me against feeding her too much during the night, which is a bad habit I've gotten into, so we need to work on that. One positive this month: she's sleeping in her crib full time. The transition from bassinet to crib was surprisingly easy, probably because she'd been taking naps in her crib from almost the beginning. Also, we have a good bedtime routine and she goes down pretty easily, usually by 7:00. Now if we can just get her to STAY asleep!

Sleep - Naps: still multiple short naps. Mostly 30-45 minutes. Sometimes at daycare she'll only take two naps (I guess there's too many exciting things going on) but at home on the weekends she'll usually take three or four.

Illness: I'm sad to have to add this category, but it is something I want to keep track of. First, the RSV, which she had for about 10 days. Now she's battling (what we hope is) a cold again. Runny nose, coughing, congestion, watery eyes. She spiked a bit of a fever last night (her first), but I'm hoping it was from the 4-month immunizations she got yesterday morning and not whatever she's fighting off.

Activity: she got a jumperoo for Christmas and she likes standing in it (she doesn't really "jump" in it yet) and she surprised me with how good she is at manipulating the toys and activities on it.  She's been in the Bumbo seat this month too, which she seems to like since she can look around. When she's on her playmat, she's more grabby and interactive than ever before. She got lots of toys for Christmas that she's curious about, the favorite being Sophie the Giraffe, which she loves to hold and chew. She's definitely getting better at tummy time and will hold her head up much longer now, although she still doesn't like it and we still need to increase the amount of time she gets each day.

Milestones: she laughs! She makes us work for it, but it's the sweetest, sweetest sound. Her daddy was the first one to make her laugh and still has better luck getting her to laugh. And she gave her Aunt Erin some really good laughs over Christmas. She also rolled over, but only once so far, from belly to back. I put her down on the carpet (not on a blanket) in only her diaper and she plonked right on over. She was a little surprised with herself! She's also discovering the power of her hands more and more every day. If she's awake, she's playing with her hands, looking at her hands, putting them in her mouth or grabbing at something.

Happy 4 months Ava Pearce! You are just the sweetest thing and that smile of yours is my favorite thing in the whole world!

Ava: 3 Months

This kid. Really? I simply cannot get enough of her.

There's no scheduled checkup for 3 months, so we had to take her weight ourselves. We used to put her in a huge metal bowl and weigh her on our digital kitchen scale (yes, it is as hilarious looking as it sounds), but last night when we put her on there we got an error message. She's officially too big! So we did the hop-on-the-scale-with-and-without-the-baby trick. So she's approximately 14.6 lbs.

Clothing: still in Carter's 6 month and mostly 3-6 months in other brands. She's been in Size 2 diapers for a while now.

Eating: still exclusively breastfed, although she gets about half of that via bottle now at daycare during the week. I send 4 4-oz bottles and she usually only drinks 3 of them (and then I send the leftover bottle again the next day). I feed her once in the morning, twice before bed and usually only once during the night, for about 7 feedings total.

Sleep - Nighttime: daycare has made such a big difference in bedtime. She was going down around 9 and then waking several times before she was finally out around 10 or 10:30. Now, she's getting sleepy and fussy by 6 or 6:30, we do bath and nurse and she's down by 7 or 7:30, usually for good. She usually wakes up once around 3 or 4 (although occasionally she'll wake up at 1:00 and then again at 4:00) and then we're up for the day at 7:00. Still in the bassinet in our room, although now that she's at the 3 month mark I think I'm officially ready to try transitioning her to her crib!

Sleep - Naps: still catnapping. Mostly 30 or 45 minutes. At home, she naps in her crib, although daycare is still trying to work on getting her to nap in her crib there. She'll fall asleep in the swing, and as soon as they move her to the crib she wakes up. Although she did take two longer crib naps at daycare yesterday so maybe there's hope!

Activity: at daycare, I think she spends her awake time rotating between the swing, bouncy seats, play mat and tummy time. At home, she's usually either on her play mat, laying on a blanket on the floor, or she's sitting up in our laps looking around. She absolutely despises tummy time, and it's causing me lots of stress. She'll hold her head up for about 5 seconds and then bury her face in the blanket (because she knows I will immediately pick her up to rescue her from suffocating). I'm starting to worry she'll never roll over or crawl. Although, our pediatrician warned me at her 3-month appointment that because she's so "healthy" (aka chunky) it will likely take her a bit longer to roll over, sit up, crawl, etc. and not to worry (me, not worry? yeah right). I've started to try out some different tummy time tactics though, like walking around while holding her "airplane style" on her tummy, putting her on the exercise ball on her tummy, or propping her up with the boppy or a towel under her chest. It seems to be helping some, so we'll keep working at it. And now that she's 3 months (and has always had good neck control) I'm eager to try her out in the Bumbo seat and then jumperoo or exersaucer (which she's getting for Christmas).

Milestones: no major milestones this month, but every day I seem to notice some small new thing that she's started doing. Like trying to pull her head forward when she's reclined, grabbing the washcloth and putting it in her mouth while she's taking a bath, folding her hands together, rubbing her eyes when she's tired, grasping a toy in her hand, and wanting to "stand up" when you're holding her.

Happy 3 months baby girl! We can't wait to celebrate your first Christmas :)

Birth Announcement

I thought you might like to see Ava's birth announcement.

I took the photo myself after we didn't get the sleepy-newborn shot I was going for during her newborn photo shoot (more from both sessions here).

I ordered the announcements from Etsy seller Palm Papers. I liked that she offered printing instead of just a digital proof that you have to have printed yourself like most Etsy sellers these days. The digital route is definitely less expensive, but as a mom with a newborn I definitely did not have the time or energy to arrange printing on my own.

Plus, the quality of the cards was so much better than what I could have gotten at Kinko's or Staples. The cards are nice and thick, with a slight texture, and they also have the pink gingham printed on the back as well which is a little detail that I really love.

Funny story: when my grandma got the announcement in the mail, she didn't think it was Ava. She's so much chunkier now, I can actually kind of see why. (Although it would be weird to put a picture of someone else's baby on my birth announcement, right?)

These went out in October, and I'm now working on our Christmas cards, so I'll share that with you once they've been delivered. You're going to be amazed at how much she's changed in the (less than) 10 weeks between when the two photos were taken!

Ava: 2 Months

It's already been two whole months since I gave birth to this munchkin. Can you believe it?

At her two month checkup yesterday our big girl was 80th percentile for weight and 70th for height. She also had to get 5 immunizations :( She was a champ though, crying for just a few minutes and then passing out in her car seat for 2 and a half hours!

Clothing: this 2 month old is already outgrowing her 3 month clothing. Carter's 3 mo is officially too small and she's moved up to 6 mo. In other brands, she mostly in the 3-6 mo size. Still wearing a size 1 diaper, but we'll be moving up any day now (hoping I can use up all of the size 1's I have left before she's officially too big for them).

Eating: great (see above). While she's a breastfeeding champ though, we did have a panic moment earlier in the month when we tried to give her a bottle a few times and she WAS NOT having it. Cue the panicked mama thinking she's going to starve once she has to go to day care. We gave it a break for a week or so though and I've since been able to get her to take a few bottles successfully. We still have work to do, but I'm much less stressed about it now.

Sleep - Nighttime: it still takes several tries to get her down for good, and her bedtime is much later than I'd like. She usually goes down for good somewhere between 9:30 and 10:30. But once she's down, she usually gives me a 6 hour stretch (we've had a few 7 hour nights and even an 8 hour night!), followed by a 3 hour stretch and then catnaps in the early morning (usually on my chest) until she's up for the day. She's still sleeping in the bassinet in our room for now.

Sleep - Naps: still no real schedule with her naps. And they usually only last 30 minutes or so, so I'd like to get to the point where she's taking fewer, longer naps instead of lots of short catnaps. When we're home though, she's napping in her crib, so hopefully that will make the transition to her crib at night easier once we're ready for that. When we're out and about, she takes lots of car and stroller catnaps.

Activity: walks around the neighborhood when the weather cooperates (we listen to TSwift's new CD), time on the play mat or in the Mamaroo, and she also loves just laying on the floor on a blanket and kicking her feet and moving her arms (Lee calls it "dancing"). We're still going to our breastfeeding support group on Mondays and now also a "play group" on Wednesdays put on by one of the moms in the group. Plus lots of errands, trips to Target, etc.

Crying: her crying seemed to peak around 6 or 7 weeks. This was also around the time she started taking the pacifier (PTL!). The past couple of weeks seem to have brought us a much happier baby. She still has her occasional bouts of fussiness (usually when she's overtired) but there's so much smiling and cooing now. It's just adorable. I could eat this kid up.

Milestones: again, lots of smiling and "talking." There's nothing like making your kid break out into a huge grin when she sees you. Nothing. And again, lots of kicking and moving her arms. Just in the past few days, she seem to have "found her hands" and seems to have made the association that she can use her arms to swat at the toys on her play mat and she's actually the one making them move. It's so awesome to watch her figure it out. She's always had really good head control, and it's getting better and better (even though she's not a fan of tummy time).



I have less than three weeks of maternity leave left, so I'll be trying to soak up every moment between now and then. At her next monthly check-in, she'll be in day care, I'll be back at work, we'll be getting ready for her first Christmas(!), and I'm sure she'll have a plethora of new tricks. And we'll continue to fall deeper in love every day.

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: 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!

Introducing

Ava Pearce Wade

Born Friday, September 7th at 2:50am

8 lbs even, 20 inches

I'm so sorry it has taken me almost two weeks to get this post up. But y'all? This motherhood thing is no joke. Time for taking, uploading and sorting pictures and blogging is pretty much nonexistent. But I'll try, I promise.

It will be a while before I'm ready to get my thoughts together to share her birth story, but just know for now that everything went really well and I'm so proud of all of us (me, Lee and Ava). We did great!

These first two weeks have not been easy for us, but I'll get into those details later. 

For now, just know that we are completely and absolutely in love. She's just perfect and is already the apple of her daddy's eye. We can't stop staring at her and marveling at the fact that she's ours.