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:

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.

40 Weeks: Letter to Ava

Sweet Ava,

It's officially your due date, but instead of a 40 week post where I complain about how swollen my feet are or how impatient I'm getting that you're not here yet, I decided to take this opportunity to write you a little note and tell you how wanted you are and how loved you are already.

You see, towards the end of last year your dad and I decided that we wanted a baby. We were finally ready. And once I got ready, I was really ready. Impatiently so. One night back in December, I was sad and filled with longing for a baby. It just so happened that on that night the sky was filled with shooting stars. I sat out in the cold winter's night, just waiting for more stars, so I could make more wishes.

Seven shooting stars in all, and I wished for you on every single one.

And in due time, God granted those wishes. And now here I sit with a big belly, just days (hours?) away from the moment we get to see your sweet face. Don't keep us waiting too much longer, ok?

Love,
Your Mama

Pregnancy To Do List

In my day job, I am a Producer. This means I manage a project from start to finish, including the budget and schedule.

I can't help but have this bleed over into my personal life (truth be known, I've been the "Producer" type all of my life). And boy have I found myself "producing" this pregnancy.

There are spreadsheets (weekly weight gain chart, list of pediatricians/daycares/newborn photographers to choose from, baby gear, etc.), there are schedules, there are budgets (nursery budget, baby gear budget, maternity leave budget) and of course, To Do lists.

If you didn't know, there is a lot of stuff to get done during a pregnancy. Of course, can you manage to birth a baby and go on to live a perfectly happy life without getting a single one of these things done beforehand (except for maybe the car seat one)? Absolutely. But I thought I'd document here some of the To Do's we've crossed off our list during this pregnancy, and the few things we still have left.

Crossed Off:

• Tour daycares, make decision, put down deposit
• Research baby gear, set up registries
• Name brainstorming, make final decision
• Nursery planning, painting, buying, finishing
• Final dentist/eye doctor/haircut appointments before baby
• Complete maternity leave paperwork
• Buy baby-friendly car, sell old car
• Research and meet with pediatricians, make decision
• Have maternity pictures taken, schedule newborn photographer
• Labor & Childbirth class (even though we only completed 3 out of 5 sessions)
• Hospital tour and pre-register with hospital (we got these crossed off in an unexpected way at 33 weeks)
• Finalize birth plan
• Baby showers, put away gifts, make returns, write Thank You notes
• Wash and put away baby laundry
• Breastfeeding class
• Assemble all baby gear
• Pack hospital bags
• Install car seat
• Buy after-baby lounging clothes, nursing bras and tanks, etc.
• Research birth announcements, gather mailing addresses
• Stock up on: pantry staples, toilet paper, hand soap, laundry detergent, etc.

Still on the list:

• Have car seat inspected
• Finish "nesting" list -- I've already cleaned out all the kitchen and bathroom cabinets and drawers, the pantry and the refrigerator, still have to clean out bedroom closet and junk basket (Also, I'm pretty sure that nesting is supposed to be a spontaneous, natural urge that just comes over pregnant women. Me? I made a list.)
• Deep clean house
• Prepare and freeze a few meals to have on hand
• Finish reading baby care and breastfeeding books
• Watch Happiest Baby on the Block DVD
• Wash and vacuum car

So unless Baby Ava decides to go ahead and make her arrival, you know what we'll be doing during this long holiday weekend. 

39 Weeks

I don't have much to say in the way of a 39 week update.

We're still waiting for this baby to make her move. I'm feeling humongous and my feet and ankles are officially swollen. I'm a bundle of both nerves and excitement. I'm thankful we made it this far, yet growing increasingly impatient to see her face and know that she's ok.

You know, the normal stuff. Nothing and everything all at once.

P.S. - I have a few miscellaneous posts in the works to keep me occupied during the wait. So just know that if you see me posting about random things, it means the baby still isn't here and I'm just trying to get them written now or else they'll probably never happen.