Success!

Nestle Good Start formula it is! I did the 1/4 formula, 3/4 milk mixture for one of Ava's bottles yesterday...she didn't drink the whole thing but she did pretty good. Was a little gassy afterwards but didn't throw up or anything....and apparently it didn't bother her too badly, as I had her down at 10pm and it's now 9am and she's still asleep. Unfortunately, the Good Start--recommended by our pediatrician--is NOT one of the brands I had a million sample containers of. Oh well...obviously I don't mind spending the money on a formula that actually agrees with my kid's stomach! (If you are reading this and can use Similac Advance, Similac Advance Soy, or Enfamil Lipil, let me know....I have a bunch of all three!) Anyhow, we'll gradually move up to 1/2 milk, 1/2 formula and then stay there for awhile. When she's about 6 months old I'm going to stop pumping and give her just formula during the day, maybe continue milk in the mornings and evenings for a couple of months, and then that's it. Or at least, that's the plan for now: I've learned that as of January 8th, 2008, most plans I make are now tentative at best. ;o)

In other news, I went in to work yesterday for one of my teacher work days...spent a lot of time trying to reorganize things that needed reorganizing (I do not want to go there. If you want details, email me...let's just say I was not a happy camper...) and planning fourth quarter. I really have missed working. Of course, I say that now while the students aren't there...! ;o) Seriously though, I miss the majority of the kids as well, because I really do like my job. I'll be nice to get back into the swing of things...to have a routine, and occasional adult conversation! Fourth quarter is usually pretty good, it's getting nice outside so that improves everyone's mood; it's not a horribly long quarter so having the end in sight makes things more manageable (for us AND the kids!), and we have the traditional fun 7th grade end-of-year field trip. We take the kids to a nearby rec center and they ice skate, play soccer, and eat pizza. One of the other teachers and I always skate with the kids, unfortunately I had to sit out last year as I was about 8 weeks pregnant and sick as a dog. This year should be fun!

In one week...

...I'll officially be a working mom. I did work a few hours yesterday--planning my classes for next quarter--but next Friday is the official teacher workday before school starts again on April 7th. Ava will be spending the day with Daddy, how fun! I know they'll enjoy the daddy-daughter time. Craig is very good with her. This morning, she got up a few minutes before 6am to eat (was down for about 8 hours, less than normal for her, so I'd only gotten about 5 hours of sleep) so I fed her and put her down and then had to pump. Unfortunately, my milk supply was not being cooperative this morning so it took FOREVER and I didn't quite get the amount I was hoping for. Anyhow, as a result I had hardly crawled back into bed before she was fussing again. I asked Craig to get up with her for a few minutes....not only did he do that, but he took her downstairs and played with her AND gave her a bottle. I got to rest a little longer, which was wonderful. Now she's sitting next to me on her pod, smiling and occasionally making happy noises.

Wow...I totally got off topic here. About the working: I'm feeling much better about things. I'm sure I'll be sad that first week she's in day care, and I'm sure it'll be hard to balance all of my responsibilities at first, but I'm actually looking forward to working again.

This has nothing to do with anything.

It can be categorized under "random crap that annoys me." I know, that's a very big category. What is it this time? Television commercials and their blatant sexism. Oh, it goes both ways, I'm not just going all angry feminist or anything...for example, there's the recent Hair Club for Men commercial. Basically what that commercial boils down to is that if you are a man, you have to have a thick pelt of hair on your head or women won't come within ten miles of you. Yes, that's right, we are all a bunch of superficial hosebags who only care about appearances, and more specifically, hair. We couldn't *possibly* like a man for being funny, intelligent, or kind. And if you have pretty man-hair, we'll fawn all over you and cling to your arm when you are in a swimming pool. UGH!!! Then, there are the commercials that portray the women as all-knowing and perfect, and their husbands as a bunch of bumbling idiots. It's all about what MOMS know in commercials. Uhhhh....my husband knows how to cook and change diapers and could probably figure out how to wipe up a stain from the carpet or apply ointment to a cut (Yes, Neosporin commercial, I'M TALKING TO YOU!), and I'm pretty sure he's not the only man on the planet capable of such things. It's always the cute little stay-at-home moms with their khaki pants (or SKIRTS...!) and sweater sets and nice shoes. Let me tell you, after staying at home for nearly three months, I can say that no woman who spends her day caring for small children would be caught dead in those clothes unless there was some reason to look nice (lunch date, going to the doctor's office, etc. etc.)...it's all about comfy pants and shirts that can withstand spit-up. Don't get me wrong, you can still look cute, but wearing dressy clothing is just not happening when you are at home around small children all day...this isn't 1955, we women are capable of wearing clothes that make sense for the job we are doing: skirts and heels are for the office, comfy pants are for taking care of the kids. Duh.

Here's one commercial that I *do* like, simply because it is bizarre and amuses me and is completely devoid of sexist stereotypes:

update a few hours later

So, Ava went back down easy after that feeding and slept until 10am, giving me a couple more much needed hours of sleep! She's napping right now, I fed her and then Craig and I took turns holding her before I put her on the Baby Einstein mat, where she's now napping peacefully. And I forgot to mention--yesterday when I was trying to get her to take a nap, she DID doze off a couple of times, both in the car, but when I tried to transfer her to the crib she would wake up and smile at me. I tried to ignore the smile, thinking if I did that maybe she'd just doze back off, but she kept smiling and then she'd coo at me (still smiling) and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't help but laugh. Which of course made her smile and coo even more. I know that little stinker knew EXACTLY what she was doing, too! Ah well. Babies can get away with almost anything when they act so freaking cute... :o)

when it rains....

When things go wrong...they seem to go very, very wrong. Yesterday I decided it was time to start Ava on some formula, since there's no way I'll have time to pump enough when I go back to work to keep her entirely on breast milk. I combined one ounce of formula with three ounces of milk, and figured that would be good enough to start....she took 2.5 ounces of the mixture, which is about how much milk she would take at one time when we first started giving her bottles and she wasn't too sure about them (she'll take four ounces of milk from a bottle now). So that was at 6pm and everything was fine until 8pm when I got in the shower: Craig came into the bathroom to say that Ava spit up on her clothes and he was changing her. Okay. Five minutes later he comes in to tell me that she has full-on thrown up twice, so hard that she turned red....luckily he made it to the sink with her and that's where she threw up. Before I got out of the shower she threw up again, all over herself. After I got out, she did it again and this time it was a yellow color (stomach acid?)...that happened one more time and then she was done. I am so grateful Craig was home...I do not know what I would have done had I been by myself...probably freaked out really bad. I assume it was the formula since I gave her just milk when she was hungry again after the barfing episode, but what the heck? Why wouldn't she have thrown up immediately after eating if it didn't agree with her? And I don't understand the reaction, I expected a bad diaper and maybe some fussiness, not crazy throwing up. ANYHOW after she was done and rested a little while and was ready to eat again, I sat down to nurse her and the power went out. Just like that. No storms here or nothing....just out. Luckily we had the fireplace on but oh. my. goodness. It stayed out about an hour before going on-off-on-off-on-off and finally staying on again. Thankfully there were no throwing up episodes in the dark!

So, that's about it...guess I should call the doctor today to see what we should do about the formula situation. Ava also boycotted all naps yesterday (wouldn't even fall asleep in my arms on the couch, which I use as a last resort and has ALWAYS worked!) so hopefully today is better.

Easter pics

It's not even 7am but I've already been up with Ava and had to pump as well, so why not? We didn't do anything for Easter, unfortunately...it was in the 30s outside when Ava woke up in the morning--I was exhausted, she was fussy, so after her feeding we all just crashed in our bed. And we had corned beef and potatoes for dinner, more traditionally served on St. Patrick's Day but I was tired and it was easy, so that's what happened. :o) In other completely unrelated news, I've noticed lately that I am pretty much the only person I know who's given birth recently and had a big baby and a long labor/difficult delivery. Seriously...what is UP with that?! I know one person who had a baby a year before me (almost to the day....I was hoping Ava would be born on her birthday but she was a day too soon!) who had a 9+ lb. baby and was pushing forever before the doctors finally did a c-section, but that's it. And my kid is outweighing these other newborns by a good 1.5-2 lbs. It's just so weird! Why all these tiny babies? Are they tiny, or is that just normal and I'm a freak? Why such a huge one from me? Craig and I are not particularly large people, but I'm beginning to think one of us may have sumo wrestler ancestors or something!

Anyhow, here's the pictures. My mom sent a cute Easter outfit for Ava so I snapped off a few pictures quickly before I had to throw a sweater on her because it was so cold. UGH. Raleigh is really fighting off spring this year...we get a few "teaser" days in the 60s and 70s and then back to the 50s, dropping into the 30s at night. (I know you Illinois people are laughing at me with all of your snow! But, I'm laughing at you too so we're even... ;o)

BubbleShare: Share photos - Find great Clip Art Images.

my other "hero"....

...is MJ. Why? Because she suggested last week that I fasten hanging toys to the handle of Ava's carrier/car seat so that she has something to entertain her while we're out. The obvious solutions to her fussiness elude me, apparently. ANYHOW, now when we go out I just swipe a few toys from the Baby Einstein thing, hang them on the car seat, and Ava either stares at them until she dozes off or she looks at them and smiles like it's the most awesome thing she's ever seen. Babies can be a challenge, but sometimes they're so easy to please it's almost funny.

Yesterday we went out and looked at houses. We live in a nice house on nice land and really like the majority of our neighbors, but while we've taken care of our property, many other people have not. There's nothing more depressing than walking around our subdivision and realizing that about half of the people take absolutely no pride in their property: weedy, patchy lawns and cars parked on the grass. I know not everyone can afford an irrigation system (we installed one last year and it got our lawn into good shape) and I know we're in a bad drought right now so nobody's lawn is going to look that great, but you can at least keep it mowed and edged. And don't even get me started on the parking of cars on lawns...we even have an unused portion of land on our cul-de-sac that some people feel is an appropriate place to put their cars. It looks like a trailer park, for heaven's sake!!! So, because of these things and a couple of other situations we are not comfortable with, we are in the very early stages of looking elsewhere. We'll have to spend more than we'd like, but at least we can get something in a neighborhood where people take care of their things, and it will be more of an investment. We'll see...

"Aunt" Kathie comes for a visit!

This week, one of my closest friends--who I've known since freshman year of high school--came to visit Ava and me (Craig was out of town). Kathie isn't technically a relative but might as well be (which is why she'll be Aunt Kathie to Ava). Anyhow, we had a lot of fun, mostly just hanging out and watching movies and playing with Ava but we did manage to squeeze in a couple of lunches and a trip to the mall. We also played a good game of Trivial Pursuit, which I'm ashamed to say I won by answering a NASCAR question correctly--Kathie believes this puts my status as a Yankee into serious question. OH, the horror! :o) Unfortunately, our visit was cut short because there's a huge storm coming in to Chicago today and flights were already being canceled yesterday so Kathie had to get out last night instead of this afternoon....we had fun while it lasted though!

In other news, that bad night Ava had? She ended up sleeping 11 1/2 hours that night! Total fluke but it was cool. She had one more bad night where it took an hour for her to go down but has since reverted back to her usual sweet self with only the late afternoon/early evening fussy period. Also, I had a vibrating bouncy seat thing stuck up in the bonus room that I hadn't been using and Kathie suggested I actually try using it when Ava was fussing....score! I can get a good 20-30 min of peace while she's in that thing! Yesterday I put it next to me in the bathroom and bounced it with my foot to keep Ava occupied while I dried my hair and put on makeup. Good deal!

BubbleShare: Share photos - Powered by BubbleShare

this is rather unusual...

It took three tries to get the kid to sleep tonight...usually she only pulls that when it's naptime, but tonight I had a heck of a time getting her to go down. (Of course she waits until Daddy is out of town and Mommy is on her own to do this...!) She fell asleep while I was feeding her so I put her down...she woke up five minutes later. I didn't let her cry because I thought maybe she hadn't gotten enough to eat, so I fed her some more and put her down. She started to fuss and then scream, I let her cry it out for fifteen minutes and then I picked her up and cradled her in my arms and swayed her back and forth for about three minutes...put her back and she fussed for about five minutes and now seems to be asleep: that was over 45 minutes ago. I have a 30 minute rule with her: if she's down for thirty minutes, she's almost always down for the night and it's safe for me to then shower and go to bed.

Anyhow, I have a friend coming in from out of town tomorrow to hang out for a few days and meet the spawn, so that will be fun! I'm sure we'll have plenty of pictures by the end of the week. :o)

Last of all, I just have to say this--I am absolutely, ridiculously, indescribably in love with this kid. Obviously I thought I'd like being a parent or I wouldn't have reproduced, but oh my goodness! LOOK AT ME! LOOK HOW SAPPY AND MUSHY I'VE GOTTEN!! There is nothing in this world that has ever made me feel the way Ava does when she looks at me and smiles and makes happy "ooooh-ing" noises. I cannot get over how crazy I am about her! It's so weird to love someone as much as I love Craig but in such a different way. This must be why some people have so many kids....on Ava's good days, I feel like I could have six of them and it wouldn't be enough. (However, in reality, we will be sticking with two ;o)

I had it coming....

Ava was sooo off today. Since she was so good on our trip and then did great even after her vaccinations this week, I should've seen it coming a mile away. She got up initially at 6am, went down again until about 10am, and after feeding her and playing for a few minutes we headed up to Michael's craft store (more on that later). She did fine in the car, fine in the store...fell asleep on the way home so I put her in bed, she woke and would not go down. Ended up just hanging out with her until her next feeding, she ate, and would not go down. I FINALLY got her to take an afternoon nap, but then she was very fussy for the rest of the day: I tried to give her a bottle for her early evening feeding and she took about an ounce and then screamed and screamed until I nursed her--not good because she's got to get used to bottles before day care starts. My mom said sometimes babies won't take bottles from their moms because they're used to being nursed, so I'm going to have Craig give her a bottle every time he's home, and I'm going to continue trying it myself. Hopefully she'll get better about it because shortly thereafter I need to introduce her to formula, I won't be able to pump enough for her while I'm at work. Anyhow, she finally did go down about 45 minutes ago and appears to be down for the night (knock on wood). So...start again tomorrow, I guess.

So, Michael's--I spent a small fortune on scrapbooking supplies today. I've never been good at getting those types of projects started, but I am determined to have a better record of Ava's childhood than just a bunch of pictures on the computer! I didn't get babyish stuff....the album is more feminine and vintage looking, the same as the paper I got to decorate it with. I did get some baby-themed stickers though...the album is going to cover the pregnancy, baby showers, and Ava's life for as long as I can go before I run out of pages and have to start a new album. :o) I also went to Walmart.com and had 216 pictures printed...only nine cents each to order them and have them delivered to the house!!! Cost of delivery was about $8. (Why didn't I have the pictures printed to the store? Because then they would've been nineteen cents each, which would've cost me about twenty bucks more.) So, as soon as I get the pictures I'll begin my project...it's going to take forever but it'll be worth it!



"Hey Mom? Next time can we go to the beach when it's WARM out??"



On the beach! Not very exciting for Ava...she's bundled up and sleeping in the stroller



Passed out after a walk on the beach




Home sweet home!

Two Month Checkup

Ava had her two month checkup today and all is well! She's now 13 lbs, 11.5 oz. and 24.25 inches (both 97th percentile)...the nurse said she must've had a growth spurt but if that's the case, I think she's been having a growth spurt since the second trimester, since she's always been measuring in on the bigger end of things. She did great at her appointment too...she was all smiles and happy noises until she got her vaccinations: an oral one for the rotavirus (the first dose she threw up all over me along with her breakfast) and four shots...she screamed for maybe ten seconds and that's all. I can't get over how well she did--my infant daughter is tougher than I am!!!! She did give us (Craig was there too) the saddest little betrayed look and she had the lower lip going, which about killed us; but no more crying than the initial reaction. I do have to schedule an appointment with yet another specialist, something about her legs, I didn't quite catch exactly what...gotta go through the paperwork from the pediatrician to see if I can figure it out. It's another one of those "probably nothing but need to take a look" things, like her kidneys and the ultrasound on her tailbone. Oh well.







Oh, I took this picture about a month ago on my phone and FINALLY remembered to download it. SO. CUTE.

Myrtle Beach!

Craig loves the beach year round. I, on the other hand, am not very fond of the beach when it's too cold to actually enjoy it. (By "enjoy," I mean it has to be at least in the 70s, no wind or only a light warm breeze, and sunny.) Guess what it is right now? Yep...too cold to enjoy it, and hard enough wind to knock the stroller over if we're not careful. Even nature enjoys taunting me. Same thing happened last year when I went down to south Florida for a week in March, it's usually 70s-80s and when I was there it was 60s and windy. ANYHOW we do have a really nice suite that overlooks the water so even if we can't enjoy the beach itself, we can at least enjoy the beautiful view from our room! Ava has done good so far on her first trip--she was mellow on the way down, napped good yesterday and only got up once during the night (didn't really expect her to do a full night away from home like this), did fine when we've been out to eat, and only melted down really bad when we were on our way home from the outlet mall this afternoon...took forever to settle her down for her nap but she's finally out. What a good kid.

I'm going to go sit on the couch and enjoy the cable TV and the spectacular view while the rest of my family naps....adios!

BubbleShare: Share photos - Find great Clip Art Images.

So what?

Okay I just had to post this really quick....apparently on the show The View (yes, I'm very ashamed to have it on right now! Mom, I know you are laughing at me!) today they're talking to Molly Shannon and during the intro the announcer person was like, "Molly Shannon--did she REALLY email Megan Mulally while she was in labor???"

Big deal. I emailed the other 7th grade teachers, a few friends, called some people while I was still being stitched up, and blogged a mere hour or two after Ava's birth. ;o) Beat THAT, Molly!

:o)

Well, we didn't get much good sleep yesterday during the day--the morning nap didn't last and I had to go get Ava twice before she took her afternoon nap (we're trying to let her cry it out, but not very much at this point since she's still really little....depending on how hard she's crying I currently give her about 5-10 minutes before I pick her up, pat her for a few minutes, and put her down again), and by the time she finally crashed I didn't have the heart to wake her to keep her on schedule. I think I'm going to have to rework the 10-2-6 schedule that we were trying to do--when she's been sleeping at night, she sleeps for a long time and it throws off that schedule. Last night she slept for ten hours!!! Of course a few hours into it, at almost 1:00am, she let out a bloodcurdling shriek that scared the heck out of Craig and I....and apparently I've developed some strange, baby-scream-triggered reflex because the scream wasn't even over and I was already halfway down the hall to her room. I'm not kidding, it was like someone shot me out of a cannon. Craig was laughing, however, I wasn't quite as amused. (I've had dreams about cockroaches and spiders in which I've flown from the bed--in my sleep--in much the same way. When I had the spider dream, I stood up in bed and yelled about the spiders. When Craig reached out his hand to comfort me I was convinced it was not a hand but a giant spider and I leaped off the end of the bed, caught my food on the end of it, and crash landed on the floor.) ANYHOW she was fine, she does cry out in her sleep sometimes and this was just a particularly loud one I guess! She slept solidly the rest of the night (rediscovered her thumb, which she apparently couldn't locate to soothe herself the night before) and I had to get up to pump before finally waking her a little after 8am. I'm really going to miss leisurely morning feedings with her, eventually it'll be all business when I go back to work but right now she's so incredibly sweet in the morning! When I pick her up, she's all smiles and cooing, and she's like that throughout the feeding as well. (I ignored the schedule and let her sleep today because I wanted to see how long she'd go, and I will base the revised schedule off of that.) She's sleeping now in the swing--I played with her until she got that sleepy look and started doing her tired cry--and I'll have to get her up shortly to eat before we go meet a friend and her baby for lunch. Tomorrow we head to Myrtle Beach so that should be interesting! That's part of the reason I'm not too worried about screwing up the schedule, we're going to pretty much screw it up with our trip anyhow.

Hope I'm not too boring with all the baby stuff but you know, that's really all that's going on in my world at the moment! I did finish the James Patterson book last night--woohoo!

Good while it lasted....

Last night, Ava reverted back to fussing and not sleeping very well. Ate at 9pm, 1am, 6am, with lots of fussing and restlessness in between. I'm neither frustrated nor discouraged because I fully expected it: I really didn't think she'd all of the sudden start sleeping and everything would be perfect from then on. I have nights I don't sleep so it's only natural that she'll be off on occasion as well...eventually the good nights will outnumber the bad. However, I'm working hard to keep her on her schedule during the day--right now she's down for her morning nap and she didn't go very easily but that's okay, with last night's and this morning's restlessness and the good stretch of playtime we had this morning, I think she'll be tired enough to get some good sleep in before too long.


I don't want my picture taken!!!!

This Just In!

At the risk of jinxing everything, I just have to post this: Last night the kid slept from about 9pm-6am!!!! Woke up a few times and fussed very briefly but then went back to sleep every time--I got her up to feed her at six or she probably would've slept longer! I'm trying to get her on a 6-10-2 feeding schedule and she seems to be falling into it nicely so that's good. Oh, and she was pretty much angelic while I got my hair cut today. :o) (I know--she could turn into the Demon Spawn tomorrow, but right now she's being awesome.)

That's all!

56 Days

Tomorrow, Ava will be exactly eight weeks old: that means she's been with us on the outside for exactly 56 days--sometimes it seems like it's gone by quickly and sometimes it feels like she's been with us forever. More often than not it's been a challenge (to put it mildly!) but I would not change it for anything in the world. Sometimes I miss the freedom that we had before and I definitely miss sleeping for ten hours a night on the weekends, but it's been worth it: especially in the past week or two, because she's been responding to her surroundings and to us more and more each day. A few times now I've been nursing her and she's stopped eating, and when I've looked down at her she's just been staring up at me and smiling. Sappy mommy that I have become, that totally melts me. When we talk to her, she "talks" back, making "ooooooohhh"-ing noises. We probably look like idiots, saying, "Hellooooo, Ava!" and cooing at her over and over again, but there's just nothing like seeing her smile and imitate the sounds we make. People told us that every stage of Ava's development would make some things easier and also present new challenges--right now, she's sleeping better but needs to be entertained more (not THAT big of a challenge, since right now she's satisfied to lay on her Baby Einstein mat and stare at the objects dangling from it, or to have us shake toys in front of her face).

ANYHOW--today was a good day for my sanity because I got a rather nice and unexpected break when Ava discovered her thumb! She woke a couple of times during her afternoon nap but soothed herself back to sleep by sucking her thumb...we're crossing our fingers that this becomes a nighttime thing as well...not that I'm complaining since she already does pretty well, but it couldn't hurt! So anyways, I got to read a good chunk of the new James Patterson book (maybe not that new, but I haven't done much reading for the past few months) and lounge around on the porch, enjoying the 70 degree weather we had today. (After I finished things around the house of course.) She slept from 12:30 until almost 4pm--her best nap yet.

Also--I don't feel too bad about putting Ava in day care anymore. There was some big thing on the news around here about a nanny mistreating the babies she was taking care of, and that kind of scared me. It also made me think: even if a baby-sitter didn't mistreat her, would she give her the attention and interaction she needs or just stick her in a play pen and ignore her? At least at a day care, there are parents coming and going and numerous teachers, all certified, and all accountable to one another. Not to mention, they have all the necessary baby crap: cribs, tummy time mats, swings, etc. and they follow a routine so the kids aren't just penned up and ignored. It'll give Ava a chance to interact with other people besides me and hopefully make her a more social and independent child.

Finally, here are a TON of pictures for your enjoyment! My parents stopped by for a few days on their way home from Florida and we all went a little camera crazy. :o)

BubbleShare: Share photos - Safe Baby Toys