Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

Well, after waking me up at least 3 times last night (I lost track), Avi woke up this morning as her usual happy self and we have had a wonderful Thanksgiving with all our family! I'm so glad she was feeing good today after last night!

My parents showed up at about 8am to help get things started. I had put Mom in charge of the turkey (after her insistent prodding that as the "hostess" I needed to delegate, delegate, DELEGATE! Okay fine, you get the turkey! HA! Lol), so she got busy with that while my dad set up a couple of coolers with drinks and got out the Johnny Cake he had made at home for our breakfast. That's a tradition I plan to keep going...Johnny Cake for breakfast on Thanksgiving morning while watching Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, all while turkey preparations are underway.

15 pound turkey, 13 pound baby, lol!

Me and my Monkey! 10 weeks old today!

Smiling at her Uncle Sam

Scott's family arrived around noon-ish with a bunch of pre-dinner snacks and the rest of the trimmings. My mom timed the turkey perfectly and it was finished right before 2:30 (which was her goal! GO MOM!!), and she, Brenda and Susan all helped me prepare the rest of the side dishes while Scott carved the turkey. We sat down to eat at about 3:30. I fed Avi right before dinner started, so she was passed out in her chair for most of it. :-) Grandpa and Letha came over for dinner also, and we all had a wonderful time! Sam stopped by after dinner for a little while to say hi...he was a traitor and had dinner with friends. :-P

I scored a cute outfit for Avi a few weeks ago at Babies R Us, and couldn't pass it up (It was on SALE! I can't help myself, lol!). It says "Thankful for Mommy and Daddy". It's perfect! Of course she had NO idea what the heck was going on today, but I love the outfit because we are so so so thankful for HER! As I mentioned previously, last Thanksgiving I wasn't feeling too cheery or thankful (even though I knew I still had LOTS to be thankful for...), and this year our prayers we answered and we have our precious child in our arms! She is our biggest reason to be thankful this year...and she's not that big. :::wink::: Hehe. :-) I wonder what NEXT Thanksgiving will bring?? Haha, I'm just kidding!! :-P Seriously, though, God has blessed us with way more than we ever could have asked or imagined, in every sense of the phrase. We have each other (I love you Scott!!), our precious daughter, our families and friends, our health, a wonderful house, jobs, and the list goes on...

The first song that comes to mind on thankfulness is the one in Veggie Tale's Madame Blueberry. Lol, go figure. Unfortunately youtube has failed me and there aren't any videos of The Thankfulness Song in its entirety, but here is a short clip. I love Veggie Tales! And thanks to my dad, Avi is accumulating quite the collection of Veggie Tales DVD's! Yaaaay! :-D

Poor Baby :-(

Avi had her 2 month appt today and got 2 shots. She got the shots at about 2pm and I got home around 3. She ate and then has been sleeping the rest of the afternoon/evening except to wake up and eat a couple times. I tried to feed her again before putting her to bed around 9:30, but instead she threw up a TON...like everything she had eaten at the previous feeding. She spits up a lot, but this was waaaay more than I've ever seen come out of her and it was forceful! Poor baby. :-( And she was not interested in eating anything afterwards either, which is weird. When she spits up a bunch she's ready to eat again right away, but this time she went right back to sleep and is still sleeping. I hope she feels better in the morning. :-(

We only got 2 shots today instead of the typical 4 + 1 oral. We got the DTaP and HIB, and she'll get the Pc shot and Rotavirus oral liquid in 3 weeks. We're spreading them out a little bit so her body doesn't have to process as many toxins all at once. Since I have 2 MTHFR mutations, chances are she has at least one if not both of the ones I have, and that reduces the efficiency with which the body processes and excretes toxins. It is not well researched (MTHFR in general is not well researched...), so we're taking the precautionary approach while still vaccinating. We'll be skipping the Hep B and Polio vaccines for now (and our pediatrician says those really aren't necessary at this point anyway, even though the AAP schedule gives them now). I was very happy to learn that the brands they use do not contain mercury, even their flu shot (which she's not old enough for this year) is mercury free. That is awesome, as mercury was my biggest concern. But they do still contain aluminium and other chemicals/preservatives.

Her official two month stats are as follows:
Weight: 13 lbs 2 oz--90th percentile
Length: 23 inches--75th percentile
Head Circ: 15 3/4 inches--75th percentile

So in the past 14 days she's only gained 8 oz. That is still totally normal, but a lot slower than the previous 14 days, lol! We also are switching from Zantac to Prevacid to see if that is a bit more effective at controlling her acid reflux. The Zantac seemed to be hit or miss whether it would work for her or not. Some days the spitting didn't seem to bother her at all (and therefore the zantac was working...she'd still spit up but it wouldn't hurt her), and other days she would still cry before and after spitting up like it was bothering her. :-( Her pedi said it might just be colic, but we'll know for sure if the Prevacid doesn't make a dramatic difference. But with the timing of her fussiness and then spitting up, I really do think it's a reflux issue.

Okay, I'm off to bed. Big day tomorrow! Gobble-gobble!

Is it weird that I still think of things like: 10 weeks ago at this time I was just getting comfortable with my epidural. She would be born about 6 hours from now...
Sometimes I wish I could go back and relive it all so I can savor and take in every second. It all seems like such a blur!!

:::Sigh:::

Goodnight!

Time marches on...

I remember when September 19th seemed SO so far away. It seemed to approach at a snails pace. How the heck did it turn into November 19th??? Goodness. Today at Mom's Group Avi weighed 12 pounds 15.6 ounces...so just barely under 13 pounds! THEN she had two massively dirty diapers, which I'm convinced accounted for at LEAST an ounce...so I'm sticking with 12-15 for today's official weight, LOL! Speaking of massively dirty diapers...it was so bad I had to take her carseat apart and wash the padding. And her clothes. Twice. I'm so glad she was already in the carseat and we were on our way home when I heard the noise. That would not have been fun to deal with in a public restroom changing station! It wasn't fun at home, but at least we were HOME. Oh the joys! :-P

After Mom's Group I went up to my floor and printed off the December schedule. The one I'm on. As in, I go back to work in just over 3 weeks. :::sad face::: I also put in my requests for the January schedule. For now I'm trying to work two days together as much as possible, but I do have a couple single days in there too. We'll see how this goes. I did get some good news about some changes happening at work...but I won't spill the beans until they're for sure happening. It has nothing to do with me personally, just a few "process" type changes. But from the sounds of it it seems like I may have a little more quality/quantity time with my patients and also time to PUMP...which I was starting to stress out about because I will NEED to pump once I go back to work, it won't be an option anymore!

And on that front, I'm excited to say that Scott put Avi to bed tonight without any help from me...he did her bath, got her into her pj's, gave her a bottle and she was totally zonked out. She did wake up about 30 minutes later, but he went in and put her back to sleep. I stayed out of our room completely so she wouldn't know I was there. If she had seen or heard me she may have refused the bottle and may not have gone back to sleep. I'm SO glad it worked and I feel so much better already about having to leave her at night! I have no doubts about Scott being able to handle her, he is AWESOME with her. But that doesn't change the fact that she's not used to being away from me and especially at night. If we can do this a few more times successfully I will be much more confident about going back to work!

Actually, since she's been asleep for over 2 hours now I should probably go to bed. She has only been sleeping 4 to 5 hours for her first stretch of nighttime sleep and then wakes up every 2 to 3 hours after that. So much for 7, 8 or 9 hours straight like we were getting! That only lasted about 3 weeks...but it was SO nice while it did last! :-)

Goodnight!

2 Months

Already! Yes, I'm going to be saying that a lot. It just doesn't seem like two months have passed since she was placed in our arms!! We are so so thankful to have our sweet girl with us and thank God every day for this opportunity and blessing of being her parents! One year ago this Thursday I had an appointment with my Dr, which was one of many appointments last fall, but at that particular appt I left with a paper in my hand with several referral options for a Reproductive Endocrinologist. Thankfully it was only another 3 months before I was back in Dr. A's office 10 weeks pregnant. But we didn't know that was going to happen, and I remember leaving that day feeling so down and depressed because the prior three months of Clomid therapy had failed, and the paper in my hand was just one more reminder that my body was broken. One thing I often do when I feel that way is tell myself to imagine that day one year in the future. So I did. I had no idea if we'd be holding a sweet baby in our arms or not, but I made myself believe we'd be at least one step closer.

And look where we are. :-)

11/15/10

This was yesterday...trying out the Bumbo seat! Haha, that expression is too funny..."Um, Mom? What the heck is this thing? Do I like it??"

Love her!!! I wish you could hear the sound effects... "Did that sound come out of ME?" 11/16/10
Happy 2 months sweet girl!! (Same outfit as her 1 month photo...except this time with babylegs leg warmers...it was kinda chilly in the house this morning!)

Love love love this chubby little face!!!

Miss Aveline is 2 months old today, and starting to show off her bubbly little personality! She babbles and coos almost non-stop when she's awake and happy. This past week she has started to chew on her hands...mostly just trying to shove her whole fist in her mouth all at once, lol. She hasn't found her thumb yet, and I don't know that she will. She isn't a pacifier baby...we've tried a few different kinds and it stays in her mouth for less time than it takes to get her to take it in the first place! She's also started smiling a LOT more...and I've even gotten a few little giggles out of her! The best thing in the whole world is when she hasn't seen me for a little while and then all of a sudden realizes I'm there and gives me the biggest grin ever. ::::heart melting!:::: She's done that a few times in the morning when I go to pick her up out of the swing (still sleeping in the swing due to reflux...although we don't have it swinging anymore, it's just so she can sleep inclined). That's the best way to start the day! :-)

Oh yes, and I did see Dr. A again today to follow up on my blood pressure. I've been taking it at home twice a day these past two weeks, and while it is still borderline, I don't need to be on medication. YAY! I forgot to ask about whether she thought my pre-hypertensive pressures are PCOS related or not, but I'm going to assume they are seems how it is part of the syndrome. By the way, a pretty "normal" pressure for me is 120's and 130's over 70's and 80's. Sometimes they'll be in the one-teens over sixties, but not often. They used to consider 120/80 to be the "textbook" blood pressure, but now it is considered pre-hypertensive. At least that's what we were told in nursing school...

I have to go back to work in just 27 days. :-( :-( :-( I am actually looking forward to working again in the sense that I miss my co-workers...they are a huge part of my social life and I love them all!!...and I do love my job. Oh, and there's the money part...getting paid 2/3 my normal pay isn't much fun. I also feel like I can be so much more helpful to the new mommies I will take care of now that I've actually experienced first hand what they are and will be experiencing! But I'm dreading the schedule change back to night shifts again, and of course I'm dreading leaving my little Avi girl at home! I know she'll be with Daddy or one of her grandmas whenever I'm gone, but it's still hard knowing I won't be there when I have been there for her 24/7 for the past YEAR! (Minus a few hours for the couple times Scott and I went out without her and the times I've gone to the store while Daddy watched her...) I won't be there to nurse her to sleep at night, or to do her 4am feeding (or any other time she wakes up in the middle of the night...usually it's once but sometimes it's two or three times!). And then if I have to go back to work the next night I will be coming home and sleeping so I won't be there during the day either! UGH!! At least that will only be about 1 day a week. If I'm NOT going back to work the next night I plan to just come home and try to take a nap with her in the morning. But man, I'm totally dreading this schedule...will I ever sleep again?? And is she going to scream all night if she has to take a bottle at bedtime and 4am instead of Mommy?? Trust me, we're practicing now, but it's not going so well yet. We've crashed and burned the two or three times we've tried giving her a bottle at bedtime instead. :-( :-(

I guess there is a reason you don't remember anything before about 3 years of age. If she screams all night until she figures out that the bottle is the only way she's going to get food that night, it won't kill her. I'm not sure about Daddy though...I feel bad for him! Hopefully she gets the hang of this bottle thing sooner rather than later...

:::sigh:::

Man, I wanted to end on a happy note!

Oh yeah...MY BABY GIRL IS TWO MONTHS OLD!!! I love her. SO so much.

And I like this song...

GER

And I don't mean "GRRR!" Although sometimes I feel like saying that!! GER stands for Gastro-Esophageal Reflux. Avi has it. I knew she spit-up a lot, and I didn't think it was normal but the pediatrician told me it was at her 2 week appt. Well, in the past week or two it has gotten worse and she's also been much more fussy, especially in the mornings and evenings, and she'd cry before and after spitting up. Where'd my happy baby go? :-( I almost called the pedi about this a couple times last week, and finally did this morning because I could not make her happy. She would spit, cry, spit, cry, spit, cry. She seemed miserable! They got us in this afternoon, and he agreed with my suspicians and gave us an Rx for Zantac. She got her first dose this evening, and right now is sleeping like a log. Yay! So hopefully this is the quick and easy answer and it's not something more complicated. We'll go back in 2 weeks for her normal 2-month well visit as well as to evaluate whether the Zantac is working or not. If it's not, we can try Prevacid instead.

Despite all this, it certainly isn't affecting her weight. She weighed 12-10 this afternoon. She was 12-2 five days ago and 11-5 twelve days ago. We have a chunker! :-P

And now some pictures (of course!). :-)

11/9/10

(I wish this wasn't so blurry!) 11/10/10

7 Weeks

Already?? :::sniff-sniff::: Where'd my tiny newborn go?? Okay, okay, so she was never the definition of tiny, but seriously--she's getting so big!! It seems like she's doing something new almost every day, to which I make a mental note that "I need to blog about that!" but then someone, and I won't name names, seems to keep me super busy and I find myself days and weeks later without having blogged about much at all!! *sigh* Where does the time go??

Last week at Mommy's Group she weighed 11 lbs 5 oz, so only a 5 oz gain that week, which is quite normal but less than what she had been gaining. I will be weighing her again tomorrow. I don't do it out of concern, she's gaining wonderfully, just out of curiosity. :-) I am, however, getting more concerned about her spitting up issue. Maybe concerned isn't the right word, cause I'm not real worried about it, but I do wonder if she has a reflux problem and not just "spitting up". She spits up after almost every feeding, and at least half the time it's a pretty decent amount...we're talking an ounce or two, sometimes more. It's not projectile, but it's also more forceful than just a dribble. Once in awhile she acts uncomfortable, but mostly it's just messy. I can deal with the messy part, but I don't like how much she's spitting up. I'll ask the pediatrician about it again at her 2 month appt on the 17th. I mentioned it at her 2 week appt and he wasn't concerned, but that may be different now that I have more info and it's been going on this whole time. We'll see! But she's certainly thriving despite this issue, as evidenced by her growing fat rolls, lol!

One big milestone she just reached is rolling from her tummy to her back. I caught her doing it Tuesday morning so I immediately put her back on her tummy and she did it again! Later that afternoon I pulled out the video camera, but didn't really expect her to do it again, but she did! I was shocked! And of course proud. :-D She did it again today, so it's not just a fluke! :-P If I can figure out how to upload the video I will...

Tuesday morning I had my postpartum doctor's visit. I took Avi with me and she was mostly good. I fed her really well right before we left, and she fell asleep in the car, but then woke up again once we got there (she sleeps well if she's in motion, lol!). Once we were in the room, the MA took my blood pressure and it was through the roof...literally. 178/100. Say WHAT??? So onto my left side I went. And Avi, since she was getting sick of her carseat by this point (she'd been in it for an hour and honestly had been very happy/patient the whole time), went out to the desk with the MA (she offered). When Dr. A rechecked my BP it was still 140/80, but even that is much better than the initial one! Good grief! I know my BP has been borderline off and on the past few years, but it has never been as high as that first one. Three years ago, on Thanksgiving actually, it was 150/100 one day at work. I remember feeling weird...and feeling like my heart was about ready to beat out of my chest as I was at work and was shocked to see my BP that high. I attributed it to my birth control and stopped taking it a couple months later. My heart rate and BP settled down considerably. Well, this time I don't FEEL like it's high, but apparently it is. I'm taking it at home for the next 2 weeks and then will go back to see Dr. A again for a re-check and possible med discussion. I wonder if the borderline high BP is related to my PCOS. I know it's one of the symptoms. Ugh.

Picture time!!

10/24/10
Yep, totally looks like Daddy. :-D

10/30/10 I caught her mid-grin! :-) Grandma with the little kitty! First halloween (the costume lasted about 10 minutes...then she got fussy and ended up in the Moby wrap, haha)
10/31/10

11/4/10--7 weeks exactly

Sleep

:::knocks on wood:::

Just thought I should get that out of the way early so I don't jinx anything by writing what I'm about to write. LOL!

Avi is a really good night-time sleeper. Her first two weeks she slept in 3-4hr chunks at night, rarely she would wake up after only 2 hrs from her last feeding. At about 2 weeks old it increased to 4-6hr stretches. And since she was 3 weeks old she's been sleeping 7-8hrs in a row at night, wakes up for a quick feeding, and then sleeps another 3hrs! We're starting to get a little routine down now, too. She typically cluster feeds in the evening, and then we give her a bath around 9pm, lotion, jammies and feed her again and then she's out by 10 or 10:30 until 5 or 6am!! I know this isn't typical for newborns, so I consider us very lucky! I also know she could mix it up on us at any point, so it might not last...

She's been kinda cranky the past few nights starting around 6pm, so tonight I decided to try putting her to bed earlier. I fed her at 7pm, bath at 7:30 followed by lotion and jammies and then fed her again and she zonked out and was in her swing by 8pm (she's been a swing sleeper since we brought her home...it's working for now so we're not messing with it for a couple more weeks!). I'm thinking she may have just been over-tired the past few nights (thus the fussy evenings) and needs the extra few hours of sleep, but I guess we'll see how tonight goes! She hasn't been sleeping/napping well during the day unless I'm out running errands. Driving puts her to sleep. :-)

All in all, we've been very lucky with her sleep patterns, and I've been getting about 8hrs a night...I sleep about 6hrs during her first stretch and then another couple hours when she goes back to sleep. And I haven't needed any naps during the day. I don't know what I'm going to do when I go back to work, though! I'll probably just be a zombie, lol! December 13th just needs to stay FAR far away...

Speaking of sleep, it's almost 9:30pm so I'd better go to bed in case she decides to wake up early because I put her to bed early.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Chunky Monkey!

At Mommy's group today (that's what I'm gonna call the breastfeeding support group from now on...) I weighed Monkey and she was 11 pounds exactly! That means she's gained 20 ounces in the past 14 days...holy cow! She's going to be at least 12 pounds by her 2 month appt...probably closer to 13 (her appt is on Nov. 17th). She has officially outgrown her newborn clothes, except for one outfit which is particularly large, lol. And most of the 0-3 month stuff fits perfectly now, although some is still huge on her. It's amazing how much clothing size differs based on brand. Newborn clothes typically fit through 8.5 pounds, but she was able to wear hers two pounds past that. And some stuff that's supposed to fit from 8 to 12 pounds is still HUGE on her, and she's 11 pounds! Weird. I am very happy we got 5 weeks worth of wear out of her newborn clothes, though! That's one thing I'll do differently next time is have a few more newborn outfits, because at the very beginning the 0-3 stuff was WAY too big and we didn't have much newborn stuff because we thought she was going to be too big! And technically, based on the tags, she WAS too big...but whatever! I have to say, the First Moments brand from Kohls is one of the biggest...also Circo brand from Target. Both run HUGE. Carters is pretty much right on, and Gerber runs about a whole size smaller than the tag claims. Ha, there's my 5 weeks worth of baby clothes experience, lol!

Okay, I'm seriously rambling. Sorry for being a bore! HAHA! :-P

Weight Chart for my own memory (haha!):

Birth 9/16: 8-14
Night of 9/17: 8-5
1st appt 9/20: 8-7
2wk appt 9/30: 9-0
Mom group 10/8: 9-12
Mom group 10/22: 11-0

Sorry, no pictures this time!

One Month Old!

Geez time sure is flying. How come it seemed sooooo sloooooow while I was pregnant, but now it's just zooming by in a blur?? So not inducive to savoring the tiny-baby stage!!

Anyway, here is our little Avi girl on 10/15/10...yes I know it's one day early, but I was in Colorado (another blog post...) and knew I wouldn't get a good opportunity on the 16th because we'd be in the car driving all day.

10/15/10

Her eyes look really blue in this picture. They were a REALLY deep/dark blue when she was born, and have been lightening up over the past month. They're still a medium-darkish blue, and oh so pretty!! Of course we're wondering if they'll stay blue...time will tell (and I'm okay with that time slowing down a bit!!!)! Daddy's eyes are brown (there is blue in his family though...), so who knows!

Oh, and on her REAL one-month birthday she started giving me the biggest purposeful smiles!! I was so excited!! She still isn't smiling a ton or consistantly, but a couple times a day she'll just give us the biggest grin! Melts my heart! Hopefully I'll catch one of her purposeful smiles on camera one of these days, but here are a few random smiles I did catch from her first month...

9/21--5 days old

9/27--Dream Smiles :-)
10/4--This one may have been intentional!
10/6--Half smirk/smile, too cute!!

Happy one month Baby Girl!! We love you SO much!

Tummy Time

I started doing tummy time with Avi when she was about three weeks old. I don't know why I waited, one day it just occurred to me that I should throw a blanket on the floor and play with her instead of holding her constantly, hehe. Plus, the first 2-3 weeks of life pretty much entailed sleep, wake up for diaper change, eat, spit up and eat some more (lol), back to sleep, repeat. I started to notice longer alert and awake periods at about 3 weeks. So anyway, I pulled out a blanket and onto her tummy she went. I started snapping pictures, and this is what happened...

"Oh look! Fuzz!"

"I wonder what it tastes like?"

:::nom nom nom:::

"Ewww."

So tummy time lasted all of about five minutes before I had to rescue the apparently starving baby and feed her. :-P Here's another picture of her later that morning:

10/6/10--20 days old

Remember how I said she sleeps, eats, spits up and eats some more? Yeah, I wasn't kidding...she's quite the spitter!! Thus the clothing change. Sometimes several times a day...good thing we have lots of outfits!! But we did get smart and started putting bibs on her most of the time. And we always have a burp cloth (or two or ten) nearby. She rarely burps for us, but she sure does spit!! She's gaining weight really well despite the spitting issue, though. At her two-week check up on Sept 30th she weighed exactly 9 pounds...although I don't know how accurate it was because it wasn't a digital scale, it was one of those kinds where you have to slide the little piece until the bar levels out...and then on Oct 8th at our Breastfeeding Support Group she was 9-12!! That was almost two weeks ago (already!) and I will be weighing her again on the 22nd. I have a feeling she's over 11 pounds now...we shall see!