Hi!

Just a quick post since it has been awhile. I don't have a lot of free time lately, due to reasons I won't get into. Ava is passed out on my bed right now. She is so funny. She will be so tired, her eyes will be droopy, she'll be falling asleep while she's eating, but she REFUSES to be put down for a nap. She will fall asleep while I'm feeding her, but as soon as I try to lay her down, her eyes pop wide open. She is an awesome baby at bed time though. She goes to bed so good, and she's been sleeping through the night this whole week. She goes to bed between 10 - 11pm, and doesn't wake up until 5:30 or 6am. That is pretty good for only 9 weeks old. She is making a lot of cute sounds too. She smiles a lot more, and you can see that she responds to things a lot better. She is learning to grab onto things like her pacifier, my clothes, my hair, etc. Fun times.



This is about as close to a smile as we can get a picture of. We have an older digital camera, and it takes a couple of seconds before it takes a picture. So by the time we get her to smile and take the picture, the smile is gone.



Please don't mind the demon eyes my child has in this picture, I don't know how to get rid of the red eye. My sister came down on Tuesday to hang out with me and Ava. I like it when that happens.

Vaccinations!

Ava had her first set of shots on Thursday. The whole day went really well, it was our best outing yet. Ava was in a really good mood, which only made what was about to happen to her worse. Our appointment was at 1:45pm but we drove up early to go to my parent's house for a bit. We don't get up there very much lately. Ava was really good there, not fussy or crabby at all. Then we went to the doctors. She was being so good! She didn't fuss at all while she was being weighed and measured. It turns out that she is very tall for her age, 23 inches, so she's grown almost a full 3 inches since birth. She is in the 90th percentile for height! She obviously gets that from Brent. She weighs 12 lbs, so she's gained almost 5 lbs since birth.

After they did all that, Ava and I waited for the doctor to come in. She was lying on the table and being such a happy baby. The doctor checked her out and said she looks great, everything is going good. Then came the bad part - the needles. She had to get 3 of them, and they were pretty big too. I felt so bad because she was in such a good mood, and had no idea what was about to happen to her. I stood over in the corner with my back to the room. I did not want to be anywhere near her when they gave her the shots. I know she will never remember this, but I don't want her to associate me with the pain. Anyway, I was standing in the corner and then all of a sudden Ava lets out this cry like I have never heard. She wailed! And she held her breath a long time too, and that was freaking me out. The nurse gave her the shots really quick, and then gave Ava to me. I had never heard Ava cry like that before. Tears were streaming down her face, and I felt so awful! As soon as she had started to cry, so did I. I just held her wrapped in her blanket and she was doing those pathetic little hiccup-cries. I felt so bad. As soon as I put her in her infant seat to go home, she fell asleep. I think she cried so hard that it wore her out.

When we got home I gave her some Tylenol and fed her, and she pretty much slept the rest of the afternoon. She didn't run a temperature, and it didn't really seem to bother her much after that. We gave her the Tylenol a couple more times though, just in case. In 2 months, we have to take her back for the exact same shots. I am dreading it, I don't even know if I will go. I might make Brent do it this time.

This is how we...

Torture the baby!
We take pictures of her non-stop and against her will:

Happy St. Patty's Day

These are for you, Jo-Jo:




Ava doesn't much like getting dressed up and getting her picture taken.

Isn't she so freakin cute?! I got that shirt at Old Navy and I thought it would be huge on her, but I washed it and it shrunk a bit. It is a 3 - 6 month shirt. Ava is 2 months old on Monday. We go to the doctor on the 23rd to get her first vaccinations. That should be fun.

I haven't posted in a while because nothing much is going on. Ava and I have been chilling out at home for the past couple of weeks. After the whole ordeal last time I took her out, I decided to give it a rest for a while. Although, today I decided I had to have McDonalds for breakfast and so we went to the drive through. She was great until we got there and the car stopped. Then she started screaming. I felt so embarrassed because the McDonalds lady at the drive through window could hear her, and it sounded like Ava was being tortured or something. I felt like a bad mother because she probably thought I was starving my baby just so I could get a Mcgriddle. Not the case. She just hates being strapped in her car seat.

Now, I'm warning you - if you're hungry or you just ate, don't read this next part.

Somehow, I am always the lucky one who gets peed or pooped on during diaper changes. I've had many bad experiences like that with Ava. Yesterday morning was the worst. We had been given a lot of diapers when I was pregnant, and one pack of them was some generic store brand. Well, we decided to use them, and you could tell they probably weren't going to be good, but I gave them a try. I picked her up out of her crib in the morning, and her sleeper was wet. Okay, that was pretty yucky. I put her on the changing table and undo the buttons to her sleeper. First thing I see is poop dried on her leg. She had pooped in the night and it leaked out of the diaper! So as I'm taking the gross diaper off and trying to wipe the poop off of her leg and keep her butt off of the table, she starts peeing everywhere! So, beside the gross icky poop, there is now pee all over her and the changing table, and a little on me. I ended up having to give her a bath in the bath tub to clean her and myself up. Good times.

Ava's Photo Shoot

This was the day we went to the doctor. I got her in another dress, then we propped her up on the couch and started taking pictures until she got tired of us. The doctor's appointment went well. She slept through most of it. And everything is fine with me.

Yesterday I was not so lucky. I decided to take Ava with me to run some errands, just the 2 of us. I don't think I'll be doing that again for a while. The thing is that she hates being strapped in her infant seat. She doesn't mind it as long as she's not strapped in. When I take her for walks and stuff I don't strap her in and she's fine, but of course when we are going in the car I have to do the straps. The material of the seat makes her hot too. Well, she cried and fussed for much of the trip, and I got about half of my errands done. Next time I will bring someone with me so that in case she starts fussing they can hold her or take her outside. Otherwise I will have to keep our trips pretty short.

Right now she is sleeping on our bed, and she looks so cute. I don't know why she's so tired today. She didn't want to nap yesterday, so last night she was very tired. She fell asleep while I was feeding her at 10pm. She woke up once at 3am and drank a whole bottle, and then she woke up this morning at 6:30am. She fell asleep again while I was feeding her, and she's been asleep ever since. I tried to lay with her and get some more sleep too, but it is hard to sleep with her. She squirms and makes little noises in her sleep.

Speaking of sleep, Ava slept through the night on Monday! From about 11:45pm until 6am! Brent and I were so excited. I don't expect her to do that every night, but we are headed in the right direction. She is getting so big. She is starting to smile at us, and make more noises that sound like baby talk. I am thinking about taking her to Walmart or Sears to get her pictures takes soon.

I am going to go eat breakfast before she wakes up!

Hold your head up...

Ava loves tummy time, and she is getting so good at holding her body up. I put her on her belly for a little bit everyday. I think she's going to accomplish a roll-over pretty soon. She tries so hard at it.

Last night Brent and I went to his neice's birthday party and we had my parents come down to our house to babysit. It was the first time that we left Ava alone. Even though we were only going 5 minutes away, it was still a little hard. I knew it was time, though. My parents said she was really good while we were gone. We were only gone for a couple of hours but I missed her.

Tomorrow should be fun. By fun, I mean not fun at all. I have a doctor appointment in the morning for my 6 week post-partum check up, and I am bringing Ava with me. I am hoping it will go smoothly. Getting out of the house to be somehere on time is a hard thing. I have to make sure she eats right before we leave so that she's happy for a couple of hours. And I hope that we get in and out at the doctor's. I would feel better if someone was coming with me in case she starts throwing a fit, they could take her outside. Oh well, it should be interesting. I am debating about whether or not I want to stop in to my work too. I know they want to see her, but it would really suck if she threw a fit there.

Ava's first time in a dress





Ava is modeling a cute Old Navy dress that Angie sent her. She didn't appreciate me putting it on her, since she is used to just being in onesies and sleepers. She really prefers not to be dressed at all. However, she has so many cute clothes that I'm afraid she's going to outgrow before she even gets to wear them, so she is going to have to put up with me playing dress up.