Please Pray

There was a shooting today at Northern Illinois University, as of this post there are four dead and eighteen injured. That is horrible in and of itself, but to make matters worse my youngest brother goes to school at NIU and the shooting happened out in front of his dorm and in the building across from it...luckily, he decided to detour today and go out to his car in the parking lot and was out of harm's way. I'm thanking God so much right now for keeping him safe, and praying for the victims and their families. :-(

In family news, not much happening--Ava's still a little mucus-y but getting better, she's back to getting good sleep at night and I'm starting to see a pattern in her fussy-awake-asleep schedule. Doesn't go very long between daytime feedings but that's okay! Her morning awake time is usually mellow enough that I can get myself ready for the day while she chills on my bed in her Boppy pod. We didn't do too much for Valentine's Day but I'm not big on the holiday, it just seems too forced--"YOU MUST BE ROMANTIC TODAY OR YOU ARE A BAD PERSON! BUY JEWELRY! BUY CANDY! BUY FLOWERS! BUY TEDDY BEARS!" ...BLEH. Ava got pink roses from Mommy and Daddy, and I made a nice dinner for Craig and me: salad, fillet mignon, baked potatoes, and his favorite dessert: homemade chocolate mousse. We do cards as well but that's about it. I'll post a picture or two of Ava in her Valentine onesie from Grandma Pat and her Valentine bib from Grandma Cathy...but it may be a few days!

All right--I gave the kid a bottle earlier so now it's time for me to hit the pump for awhile. Ugh.

Question: Goliath + Gozilla = ?

Answer: Ava.

We went to the pediatrician today for Ava's one month checkup and she is now a whopping 11 1/2 lbs. My child is in the 93rd percentile for weight...she's bigger than 93% of the other one month old babies in this country. How we managed to produce such a large baby, I have no idea. I know that doesn't mean she's going to be a large child or adult, but it's just funny. Ah well...she's healthy so that's what's important. Well, except for being congested since yesterday...poor kid is a little under the weather, which has thrown off her feeding and sleeping and made both of us pretty miserable, since I've barely been able to eat and sleep as a result of her fussing. Hopefully the humidifier and nasal drops I got for her today will help.

That's it...can't spend too much time on here because she's expecting to be fed again at any moment. :o)

Mom's Day Out!

Today Craig took over baby duty so I could go out for the afternoon...it was wonderful!! Went to lunch with MJ and then proceeded to spend the Ann Taylor gift certificates I've been hoarding since my birthday...got two very nice pairs of pants and three tops. Also went back to Motherhood (I just cannot escape that place) to get some nursing pajamas/tops. I also picked this up for Ava at Baby GAP:



Everything is just so cute when it's that tiny! I figured she could use in when we went to Myrtle Beach in March and if it's too cold for a swimsuit at that time, there's always this summer. :o)

Anyhow, she hasn't been going long between feedings the last few days, so that kind of stinks...she's out now and has been for awhile (will be waking ANY MOMENT) because she didn't take a good nap for Craig today...I fed her again when I got home even though she had eaten a little over an hour before and then she totally passed out. In that time, I've been able to make a good, homemade dinner, take a shower, paint my toenails, and we caught up on this week's episode of "Lost." It felt just like the pre-baby days, which is nice every now and then.

All right, kid is fussing. Later!

insomnia

Ava slept like a champ last night....fed her around 10:30pm, once down she didn't get up again until a little after 4am. Fed her again and put her down even though her eyes were wide open and she was looking around...she must be learning what "bedtime" means, because she went down with hardly a fuss and didn't get up until 8:30am. Mommy, however, did NOT sleep very well. Don't know why. Should've been a great night...the kid did her part. Don't know what was wrong with me...oh well. She usually crashes pretty good in the afternoon so I guess I'll be napping.

EDIT: Today I feel a little less guilty about returning to work: this staying at home thing is going to eventually drive me batty, I think. Who knows? Some days it's wonderful and I feel like I could do it permanently, sometimes it just feels tedious. I could change my mind again and feel completely different tomorrow...there are pros and cons on both sides for sure.

guilt trip

Lately I've been feeling kind of guilty about going back to work in April--I know Ava will be a little bigger so she won't be such a helpless little thing but still. (Not to mention, I'm totally anal and a control freak so leaving her with other people is going to be a thousand times worse than leaving my classroom with another person.) I've considered talking to Craig about trying to swing me staying home for a year or so, but the financial burden isn't what worries me--we could do it--the problem is that I'd never be able to get back into the awesome school I currently teach at. So, I'd be out a good job and stuck going back to a regular public school, and my kids wouldn't stand a chance of getting into the aforementioned awesome place where I teach. (Plus I'd have a hard time not earning my own money...I know that in a marriage it's not really MY money or HIS money, and when one parent gives up their career to raise the kids the working parent should share his or her salary with the at-home parent, but it's hard for me. I wouldn't have a problem buying food and paying bills but what if I wanted to go out to lunch with a friend or buy new clothes? I think that a stay-at-home parent should have that right but it would be very hard for me to do it with money I didn't make at a job away from home.) So, that's that. Guilt or no guilt, ready or not, I'll be re-entering the work force in another nine weeks.

On an entirely different subject, a few people have mentioned wanting actual copies for themselves of pictures I've posted in slideshows. If you want one, all you have to do is right click on the picture, then click "open image in new window." When the picture appears in a new window, right click on it and then click "save image as." You can save it and print it or whatever. :o) Enjoy!

IT'S ALL GOOD!

There is no reflux in Ava's kidneys, thank God! The mild dilation should go away on its own but in the meantime it's not going to give her any problems. And she did awesome for the procedure--she cried when they put in the catheter but then mellowed out and just layed there quietly until they were done...she screamed more when I put her in her car seat than she did for the cystogram! I have to say, I was ridiculously proud. (I think she part of the reason she did well was because she pooped on the exam table three times, so she was probably thinking, "Fine, you want to stick a tube in me? Go ahead! Take THAT! And THAT! And take THAT...all over your table! HA HA! I win!" She IS, after all, my daughter so being slightly evil is in her genes... ;0)

Now I'm off to stuff some lunch in my face while she's still sleeping quietly in her carrier....

it goes by so fast...

I can't believe Ava is almost four weeks old...it's gone by so quickly...for almost four weeks our entire lives have revolved around this baby and, more specifically, her feeding schedule. Anyhow, last night I fed her at 12:45am, put her down at 1:30am, and she slept until 5:45am! That was five hours between feedings, which means I got about four straight hours of sleep! SCORE! She might have gone longer but I kind of panicked when I woke up and heard no sounds from the baby monitor...I went into her room but couldn't hear if she was breathing because the stupid heater is so loud so I touched her hand, and she woke up. Tonight I will know better.

Anyhow, Craig is home almost all week so that will be good! We survived our first night without my mom and are actually doing quite well (yeah, it's only been less than two days, but still...) so I'm feeling a lot more confident at this point. On Tuesday we have Ava's voiding cystogram to settle once and for all what is going on with her kidneys, so pray that everything goes well! Not only with the procedure itself, but that both Ava and mommy can keep it together...I'd rather get a hundred shots (and I HATE SHOTS) than see my baby get poked with needles or have tubes stuck in her. :-(

That's about all I have time for...I'm going to post the three week pictures and see if I can squeeze in a shower before the next feeding! We're currently watching the Super Bowl (hate the Patriots, so we're cheering for the Giants by default...I really only watched the darn thing for the Tom Petty halftime show....AWESOME. I have to miss the Bon Jovi concert in March but I am NOT missing Tom Petty in July! There are some things one just does not sacrifice when one becomes a mother, and Tom Petty concerts are one of them.... ;o)

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