Avery Updates and Father's Day

I can't believe Avery is almost 3 months old! She is growing so fast, and we notice new developments everyday. She's been laughing more this week, and her Aunt Haley discovered that she's quite ticklish. She holds her head up so well and her legs are amazingly strong - they never stop moving and she stands up when I sling her now.

She graduated to the big girl tub, no longer using the infant hammock in her baby bathtub.

She talks to the bumblebee hanging off of her play gym all of the time, and she carries on conversations with me while I'm nursing. She'll stop eating for a few minutes to tell me a long story, and then she'll resume eating. So funny!

We also celebrated Father's Day this weekend; we grilled steaks and chicken at his parents' house Sunday afternoon, and then we met my family for dinner Sunday evening. I was bad about taking pictures, but here are a couple from dinner.

Glamour Girl

Avery is such a stylish young lady these days. Her fabulous Great-Great Aunt Mary (doubly great!) brought her a pink feather boa, plus a princess wand and a pretty pink headband for dress-up. We wrapped her in the boa and she instantly smiled - I think she liked the way it tickled her face.

Her rockin' new sunglasses

And a new hairdo

The wig is supposed to be an Elvis wig, for Luke's brothers wedding (we are the Presley family, after all). We all sported them for a dance to Bluesuede Shoes at the reception - I'm hoping to get pictures from someone of us all wearing them. Avery was a hit!

Fun Giveaway

There is this cute blog that I read...I've had the link up for it on my site for months now...Sweetie
Pie Pumpkin Noodle. The gal who publishes this blog always finds such fun design inspiration on the web, plus she's a fellow lover of Etsy. Periodically she'll have some giveaways, and this one up now has to be my favorite. It's for a fashion inspiration board from another fabulous lady, which I am in desperate need of after having a baby - I don't know what to wear on my new mom body. Nothing I own fits, and I don't know how to shop for pieces that will work now and later, when I'm not nursing anymore. Plus, I've never known how to accessorize an outfit. Sigh. I'm hoping that I win this giveaway, because I've fallen in this rut. Go check it out!

***Edit: I won the giveaway! I'll post the end result soon.

101 in 1001

The list is up. See the left side of the page.

The Many Faces of Avery

so cute, right?

but

every once in awhile you get photos like this:

Hey Big Spender...

...you're out the door!

Luke and I have never been big spenders, but we like to eat out and that adds up. We've always tried to be as frugal as possible, but New York did not serve us well in regards to our savings account, so we're developing new ways to save.

• Cloth diapers - diapering would be our biggest expense if we were doing disposable, but we were gifted with all of the cloth diapers we need for Avery, so the only thing we have to purchase is detergent (which lasts FOREVER since we only need to use half the amount the bottle recommends per load) and diaper wipes. We're even considering switching to cloth wipes, since we're doing laundry anyways. We've been drying them in the dryer, but I'm switching to sun-drying them.
  
• No eating out - ok, honestly, minimal eating out. Living in the country makes it difficult to just stop and pick something up on the way home, so I'm having to carefully plan my grocery trips and I'm cooking every night, unless we have a leftover night.
• Start a garden - maybe?
• Ditching the expensive dish sponges and switching to dishcloths.
  

Our biggest change is moving back to Houston. This is partly for financial reasons, so I won't have to put Avery in daycare if I go back to work (and I don't want to put her there, even if it were affordable), and partly just to be near family again.

Settling In

We're settled in Houston, or far-north-rural-past-the-suburbs-of-Houston. Which means...pics to come of Avery's room. Cute!

Country life is hard - too many plants. ALLERGIES.

This move was the hardest, as packing with an infant presented many challenges. It took me forever.

Unpacking was a breeze - we've been here just a few days and the house is in order already. Except for pictures on the wall. Never feels like home until pictures are up.

Bucket List

For awhile now I've thought of starting a list of things I want to do, mentioned to me by my friend Kathryn. Not necessarily a true "bucket list", of things to do before I kick the bucket, but a modification of sorts. It came to me again after reading the blog of a gal I went to college with, who apparently had the same idea, and reminded me that I need to get started on it. 101 in 1001; this gives me roughly 2.5 years to do all of the things on the list, with my hubby and baby girl of course.

We'll work on the list and post it in the next few weeks.

I Love This Girl

6 Weeks!

The past month and a half has absolutely flown by. Everyone says that the first 6 weeks is simply about surviving - we've survived, and I think we've done quite well.

Some of her milestones:
Avery started smiling at 3 1/2 weeks, but only at her Granddaddy.
At 4 weeks, she was smiling at the rest of us.
On Mother's Day, she tracked people for the first time, turning her head to follow them when they walked past her.
She's starting to coo and talk to us in the past week.

Our milestones as parents:
We've mastered cloth diapering, and it's really not that much extra work.
We're faster at diapering, getting them on before she pees everywhere.
I've mastered advanced nursing holds, where I can get up and answer the door (only did that for my mother, not the mailman!) or answer the phone while keeping her latched on. Hurray!
We successfully made a 2 hour car trip to Houston, twice, with Avery, without hyperventilating (okay, I might have a little bit the first time, but those drivers out there are reckless!)
We're functioning on tiny bits of sleep - perhaps we aren't always presentable in dress or smell, but we're up and moving.

Some new favorite photos from the past few weeks:

Her first week at home - how precious is that grin?

Me, Gramma, Avery, Mom

This is what having a newborn does to new dads - allows them to sleep anywhere, even on hardwood floors.

My friend Kathryn flew down from Chicago to meet her.

Luke was sick last week, so he was minimizing contact with Avery. I have a video below of this. He was trying to put her paci back in her mouth.

First tummy time

This is how she looked after the ordeal of our car getting towed, lugging her around in 90 degrees trying to find a bus to get home, then finally being rescued by a friend. She never woke up.

This morning - she's getting so big!

Mothering

(pic from Easter Sunday)

I celebrated my first Mother's Day this year. I look back over the past 6 weeks and see how much I have changed and adapted to this new role I play. I have gone without sleep. I have eaten many a cold meal by myself because Avery wanted to eat then too. I have rocked and nursed and talked and cuddled and cried my daughter to sleep, praying she'd stop crying, wishing I could make it better for her. I have sat by myself nursing while the rest of the extended family enjoys visiting in the next room. I have rejoiced over her first smile, how strong she is and how well she holds her head up already. I have marveled at her newfound ability to track objects. My heart melts when I look at her sweet face when she's sleeping. I love to cuddle with her in the early mornings when she comes to bed with me. Her squeaks and grunts and sighs make me laugh.

My mother celebrated her 25th Mother's Day this year. She dealt with the stress that three babies can bring. She has become a pro at all things newborn. She has taken us to soccer games, orchestra rehearsals, school trips, girl scout meetings, youth group. She sacrificed her time so that we could have a fun childhood. She put her own desires aside to make sure that we never wanted for anything. She worked full time and went to school to finish her degree while raising three girls on her own. My mother sat up at night when we were in high school, to make sure we made it home okay. She risked making us hate her forever by not letting us go to that party or out with that boy. She challenged us, making us think through our actions; she made us work for what we wanted, rather than just giving it to us. And now she is my role model for what a mother should be. I hope that I can be as great of a mom to Avery as my mom is to me.

Meeting More Family

We traveled to Houston this weekend so more family could meet Avery. I was a nervous wreck on the road - it was raining and there were so many bad drivers (or perhaps I was just more paranoid). But, we made it there safely and had a great time!

When the grandparents are around, Avery spends very little time alone and a lot of time in someone's arms. She's giving huge smiles to Grandpa, but he's the only one who gets them. Luke and I are still trying. I just wish I had a picture of that!
Aunt Lela was a saint, and rocked her at 3 in the morning when we failed to get her to go back to sleep.
Mam-ma (Great-Mam-ma?) was a huge hit with Avery, and pretty soon she'll tell Avery the story of Foot, Foot Foot, and Foot Foot Foot. I can't remember how this goes for the life of me, but it was a favorite of mine apparently during diaper changes.

meeting my dad

Avery and Great-Aunt JoLynn

cousin Emily didn't want to let go of her

Cousin Peyton

inspecting Avery's feet

Great-Grandpa sang to her and calmed her down

4 Generations


And, after a long weekend of visiting relatives, there is nothing better than cuddling with Daddy.

Avery's Photo Shoot

An old friend of mine took some professional photos of Avery last weekend - we had a blast and the photos are amazing. Here are a few for you to enjoy:

Avery, Weeks 1 and 2, at Home

Here are some highlights from the past week - it's hard to believe she'll be 2 weeks old on Thursday and that we've been home for over a week now!!

She is the sweetest baby and Luke and I are loving our time with her. There are definitely moments where we wonder, "What in the world are we doing?", and Luke has walked in to see both Avery and I crying. We're still trying to get the hang of nursing, but overall that's going well. She loves bathtime, relaxing completely when I wash her hair.

She spends much of the day nestled in the corner of the couch napping, but today she spent some time in the swing and loved it!

One of my favorite pictures - I love how her little hand is tucked under her chin. It's also the only way her mouth stays shut.

Her hat was too big, and slipped down over her eyes during her nap. Ha!

I was so thankful for this, because I'm trying to keep her alert and happy during the day in hopes of better sleep at night, but when I hold her she wants to eat or sleep. I'm also thankful for help from the grammas the past 2 weeks. They have saved my sanity and been such a huge help!

Grandmommie and Avery, first week at home
Nana and Avery, yesterday

She has Daddy's cowlick.

A visit from our sweet friend Raine and her hubby Matthew (that's his arm), who brought us a delicious home-cooked meal.

Avery's Photo Shoot

A friend of mine took some pics of Avery yesterday, and the sneak preview pics are great! I can't wait to see the rest of them.

PureWonder Photography

We had such a good time, but poor little Avery just couldn't hold her liquids (or solids) in, leaving quite a mess. This was our first outing, apart from a trip to the doctor's office, so it was a big deal for the both of us - she slept all the way there and back in the car (yay!), which meant she wasn't quite sleepy enough for the shoot, but overall she did such a great job. I'm definitely not ready to venture out on my own though - it was a blessing to have Mom with me, to make sure I don't forget anything, or the baby!

Introducing Avery Jane

The long wait to meet our daughter is finally over - she was born last Thursday, April 2, at 4:24 pm. Avery was 8 lbs 2 oz of pure cuteness, with a full head of dark hair and huge blue eyes. At first she seemed to resemble Luke the most, but over the past few days she looks more and more like me, despite her coloring. Or at least more like my baby pics.

The birth story:
I went to the doctor Wednesday morning, fully expecting to set up an appointment to induce the following week. However, my blood pressure had spiked pretty high, so my doctor said it was time to bring her on out! They admitted me to the hospital Wednesday night to do a procedure to ripen my cervix for inducement the following morning. My parents and Luke's sister drove in Thursday afternoon, and we all went out for a last supper at Kerbey Lane before heading to the hospital to check in. Luke's parents arrived later that evening, so there was a whole crew of people in my L&D room - I think we overwhelmed the nurse at first.

The procedure went so well Wednesday night that I started having contractions on my own, and they delayed giving me Pitocin the following morning. The pain got to be too much - I thought I'd brave it and push through the pain, a supermom, doing it all naturally, but I quickly gave that idea up and had the nice anesthesiologist numb me up. I felt so much better after that, but in hopes of pushing later in the day, I didn't max out on the meds for fear of not feeling anything during pushing. Dumb idea as I later learned.

Lunch time came and went and still no baby - not to be unexpected, but I wasn't progressing fast enough because they couldn't get the dosage right on my Pitocin, and I kept coupling contractions, rather than having very regular ones. This also put stress on the baby, and with each contraction later in the day, her heart rate would drop by almost half. For a brief period of time there was a flurry of activity in my room as they tried to adjust me and roll me and get her heart rate back up. I finally made it to full dilation, but for a tiny little spot, which they decided to let me try and push through. After about 30 minutes of pushing, the baby was getting worse, and my doctor broke the news that my pelvis just wasn't wide enough for her to fit through, and that she simply didn't have the energy reserves to last through another couple hours of pushing. There wasn't even a guarantee that she'd come out at all this way. So, I was rushed off to the operating room for a c-section, crying and panicking because I hate needles and knives.

They upped my epidural dosage and tested my abdomen for numbness...only my left side went numb, while I still felt everything on my right. More bad news - they had to put me under general anesthesia in order to perform the operation, so that meant Luke was no longer allowed in the room with me. I went under not knowing if anyone had told him what was going on.

I woke up an hour later in a strange room, asking if she was out of me yet. I had NO idea what had just happened. Luke showed up a minute later pushing our daughter in her bassinet, handed her to me, and she smiled up at me, the second she was put in my arms. It was probably just gas, but I like to think that she knew who I was. They wheeled me down to my post-partum room where the entire family was waiting (this time the room was smaller, which probably overwhelmed the staff even more). I had the shakes so badly that I couldn't hold Avery, so I spent the first few hours watching her from a distance. Before the delivery, I had dreams of holding her right away, nursing her, loving on her. Instead, I was drugged up and in pain. But, in the end it was all worth it, knowing that she was her safely and that she was healthy. God was gracious.

We're home now finally, after a very long stay at the hospital where I still battled blood pressure problems. I was up and moving the morning after though, and on solid foods, so I healed fairly quickly, although now that I'm home, I'm still moving slowly and wishing that I would just be better already.