Monday, March 31, 2008

3 weeks old!





I just cant get enough of my little princess...

Mommy and Ava
March 29, 2008
Taken at Jessica Abshire's Wedding
*caught her in mid stretch/yawn... How cute is that!?*

And another...

March 30, 2008


She loves to sleep with her hands over her face.

March 30, 2008

My little Angel

March 30, 2008

Myspace Survey.

FAITH
1. What religion do you follow?
-I'm Baptist

2. What religion were you raised as?
-Baptist

3.Do you believe that forgiveness is a religious property, or a human property?
-Both.

4. Do you believe in magic?
-I believe in miracles.

5. What was the last promise you broke?
-I honestly don't know. I don't make promises that I cant keep. (although I'm sure I have broken a promise before.. I am human)

6. Do you believe that anyone could be perfect?
-No one is perfect.

HOPE
1.Did you get everything you wanted over the last holiday season?
-Indeed. To spend time with my loved ones and celebrate the real reason of the season.

2. Regarding your future, what is the best thing you could hope for?
-To raise my daughter to the best of my ability. For our children to grown up happy and healthy. For me to be happy. To remember how much I have been blessed and to thank the Lord everyday for that.

3. Do you let yourself get your hopes up for something even if you know that there is a large chance of failure?
-Yes, I do that quite often..

4.Have you ever bought a lottery ticket?
-Yes, but not many.

5. Do you gamble?
-Negative. Mike is itching to gamble though.

6. Have you ever had something called off on account of bad weather, but then gone ahead and done it anyway?
-Umm.. I don't know? Maybe?

FORTITUDE
1. What are you most afraid of?
-Losing my loved ones.
-Not being successful.
-That somewhere along the line I may fail as a mother to my daughter.
-Anything can happen at any time.. I think that's what scared me most right now.

2. What did you do today that was really brave?
-I'm not sure..

3. Who is your favorite super hero, and why?
-I don't know.

4. Would you put your life in danger to rescue someone?
-Yes

5. If you were to face the Wizard of Oz, would you want more courage, more brains, or more heart?
-More heart. It’s the most important of the three.

6. Have you ever gotten stage fright?
-No, I was in theater for about 6 years.

7. Do you consider yourself to be a leader or a follower?
-A little of both

JUSTICE
1. Have you ever been summoned for jury duty?
-No.

2. If they reinstituted the draft (for both genders), would you go, or would find some way out of it?
-I couldn't.

3. Do you support capital punishment (the death penalty)?
-Yes and No. I'm not real sure how I feel about it. Haven't really thought about it...

4. Which should be guaranteed legal: cocaine, marijuana, heroin?
-If I had to chose, weed. But I'm a mother now, I don't feel any of them should be legal. Ever.

5. Do you believe that Dubya is rightfully President of the USA?
-Uhhhh...?

6. What was your favorite media circus trial?
-I don't know.

1. Do you collect anything?
-Shot glasses

2. Are you addicted to anything?
-Not unless you call my daughter and addiction. :)

3. Have you ever put anything on layaway or used an installment plan?
-Installment plans, yes.

4. What’s your preferred method of paying for things?
-Debit card or cash. It's all the same to me.

5. Tell us one thing you wish you hadn’t let yourself do:
-I'm sure I could list a few things here...

6. Do you feel that you obsess over things?
-Some things, yes.

7. Who is the wisest person you know?
-Not sure.

8. Do you take advice when it’s given?
-Depends. I like getting advise. Sometimes I use it and sometimes I don't. Just depends on the situation and the advise given, I guess.

9. What area are you wisest in?
-I don't know.

10. What did you learn today?
-That there is, in fact, someone else that I can turn to who will be there for me no matter what. Not that I didn't already know that.. just was reminded of it again today. (Thanks Katie)

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Ava's first babysitter...

I know, I know!! You're probably thinking "You left her with a babysitter and shes not even 3 weeks old!!!" It wasn't easy, trust me! But it wasn't just anybody, it was my sister Amber. One of the VERY few people I trust to leave Ava with. As you all know, Michael's truck was obviously totalled out and I refuse to take Ava in the Mustang EVER AGAIN! Which really gave us no choice in the matter as we have to get new vehicles. Michael and I drove out to Baytown to see a friend of his that he has known for about 10 years. He works at a dealership and is trying to help us out in getting 2 new vehicles. So we had to do a little car shopping and let me tell you it was VERY hard leaving Ava for the 2 hours we were gone. I must have called and text my sister 20 times while we were gone. Little Ava slept the whole time! We looked at the Tahoe for me and the Silverado for Michael and I think that's what we decided on. We are in the middle of re-financing the house right now and are also waiting on our tax return check and the money from the wreck so we aren't able to do much at the moment but at least we got that part out of the way. So that way, when we are ready to buy in a couple of weeks, Michael can just go without me since we already have the vehicles chosen.

On another note, Ava attended her first wedding with me tonight! My brothers best friend Jessica got married at Butlers Courtyard tonight so I dressed Ava in her cute little 'going home' dress and we headed off to the wedding. Her dress was a little big when we brought her home from the hospital in it, but it fits her really well now. :) I think she will be wearing it to church in the morning too! We stayed for the wedding and part of the reception and then headed home, as Ava was starting to get hungry and I really didn't want to have to give her formula since she hasn't yet had anything other than breast milk since she's been home from the hospital and I'd like to keep it that way. (I think that was a run-on sentence...) Any who, the wedding was beautiful and the food was yummy!

Tomorrow will be our first time to take Ava to church with us too. :) Everyone will be happy to see her. I think tomorrows service will be an extra special one for me... I have really been thinking a lot lately about my life and my Christianity (if that makes sense). I know God and I pray, but I just feel like, maybe I haven't been walking with the Lord. The accident has really been an eye opener for me. Everything happens for a reason and I think that maybe that was Gods way of making me realize some things about my life. Due to some things in my past, I turned away from the Lord and just wasn't sure how I felt about him anymore. This last year or so I have started coming back around again and I feel more ready now than ever to bring the Lord back in my life. Not that he hasn't been here already, but I'm ready to give my all. I'm ready to make some changes in my life. I'm not very good at putting my thoughts and feeling into words and probably didn't explain myself very well, but you get the idea. I'm excited about service tomorrow morning and cant wait to make some changes in my life for the better. I try to better myself everyday and have really come a long way and look forward to becoming a better person every day with the help of God.

We will be going out tomorrow and buying the same exact car seat that we previously had. Right now we are using one that my Aunt picked up from Walmart the night of the accident just to get us home and I just haven't felt as comfortable with it. Not that its a bad car seat, but the one we had made it through that horrific accident and I definitely trust that one more.

I took some pictures of the wedding this evening and also got a couple of cute photos of Ava and I. Ill have to post those later. :)

And I STILL need to post about Labor and Delivery! I haven't forgotten.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!
Much Love

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Pictures of my lil peaches!

So I have a few pictures on my camera that I took a few days ago that I just have to post. :)Someone should probably hide my camera from me! I just cant stop taking pictures!


March 22, 2008

March 23, 2008

We are gonna have one heck of a time getting her off of that binkie! She LOVES it!

March 25, 2008

Ava and her Mee-Maw at her follow-up appointment after the accident

I just cant get enough of that cute little face!

Ava Update

Ava's follow up Dr. Appointment the other day went well. Dr. Poscsik said that everything seemed fine and she even called Texas Children's to see if they thought she needed a CAT scan or an MRI. They said that if she hasn't been acting any differently that there was no reason to put her through anything further. On the other hand... I've been starving my kid! She hadn't gained any weight in 5 days (was still 7lbs 9oz) I noticed on Monday that she was wanting to eat less than an hour after I had fed her and she just acted like she was starving all the time. Turns out that my milk wasn't coming in like it was in the beginning. (At first it took me 3 min to get 3 1/2 oz) So the doctor asked that I start pumping every 3 hours for a couple of days. I have been writing down every time I pump, for how long, how much I get and how much Ava is eating. The more I pumped the more I got each time. It took me a little over 10 minutes the 1st time and I was only able to get an ounce and a half on each side and now I get close to 5 oz each in about the same amount of time or less. On another note, I was really concerned that Ava hadn't had a bowel movement since the hospital the night of the accident (Sunday) as that was one of the things they had told me to watch for (a change in her bowel movements) as a sign of internal damage. She went 3 whole days without going, which I hear isn't too normal for a breast fed baby. We even tried stimulating her a few times by putting the thermometer up her bottom (which they had done at the doctor and hospital and it made her go) but it didn't work. So i called the doctor and they wanted us to come in this morning at 8am... Welp, she finally decided to poop at midnight last night. I was SO relieved! I know I was just psyching myself out and worrying too much but with the accident and all, I just couldn't help it. Dr. Pocsik said she is more concerned about Ava's weight than her bowel movements and she said that it was probably due to the fact that she wasn't getting much milk before hand and its just now catching up to her. She weighed 7lbs 11oz today meaning she gained 2 oz in the last 2 days which is great! I am now able to put her back on the boob! YA! I was feeling a bit down about having to pump and give her a bottle. I really like our bonding time and am glad to have it back! We will be going back in on Monday to check up on her weight again, but all is well. Thank the Lord... I feel much better now and think it'll be much easier to relax a little.

5 Generations

My mom and I have been talking about taking our 5 generation pictures since before Ava was even born. So while we were in College Station for Easter we decided to take them then. I would really like to go get them professionally done when Ava gets a little bit older but for now I think these turned out good enough :)


(starting from top right)
Nanny Louis, Grandma Rhonda, Mamma Angela, Me and Ava


Nanny, Grandma, Mom, Me and Ava

(Louis, Rhonda, Angela, Ashley and Ava)

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Easter Weekend

This post is a little overdue, but I haven't had much time to sit down and upload pictures. Michael picked Elise up Saturday morning and when she arrived at our house she came running inside yelling "My baby sister is here!" and even ran up to Cookie and told her the same thing. It was SO cute! She told me that she is really happy to be a big sister! After spending some quality time together as a family which I got some cute pictures of.. one being of Elise putting her crock's on Ava (that was just TOO cute!) we then dyed our Easter eggs. Tyler's mom picked him up right when we were starting to dye our eggs so unfortunately he wasn't with us for that part, but I did get some really cute pictures of Elise and Ava. After dying out eggs, Daddy hid them in the front yard for Elise to hunt. She enjoyed that for a little while and then was ready to eat them! LOL Although we didn't get much time with the kids for Easter, we sure did enjoy the time we did have with them. Hope everyone else enjoyed their Easter as well.

Ava and her Easter Bunny
It's as big as she is!

Elise holding her baby sister

Our beautiful little girls, Elise and Ava

Elise put her crocks on Ava. Too Cute!

Elise giving Ava her pacifier. She was such a big help!

Elise and Ava- Happy Easter!


Elise sharing her stickers with Ava

Look at all the stickers Elise put on her leg! LOL So sweet

Elise getting ready to dye her Easter Eggs


Daddy and Elise... She loves hard boiled eggs!

Ava with bunny ears on, her Easter egg and her Easter bunny! :)

Elise and her Bunny Ears

Some of our dyed Easter eggs

Elise and her Easter basket

Elise hunting her Easter eggs

Such a cutie pie!

Pictures of the Accident...










The vehicle that hit us. It caught fire.

Monday, March 24, 2008

2 weeks

Thats how old my little angel is today. I cannot believe 2 weeks have already passed! We are going to see her pediatrician tomorrow to get a follow up check-up on her from the accident and make sure all is well. Cant wait to see how much she has grown already. Time sure does fly...

Car Accident

I don't have much time to write, as there is much to do around here, including washing everything due to being drenched in diesel but I just wanted to let everyone know that we are (Thank the Lord!) all ok. As some of you already know, Michael, Ava and I were involved in a pretty bad car accident yesterday evening. We went to College Station to have Easter with my family and were on our way back home. There were 2 black girls in a small SUV (looked to be about my age) that were driving erratically for about 10 miles prior to the accident. They were cutting in and out of traffic and passing people on the shoulder including us. We were doing the speed limit which was 70 so they had to have been doing about 80. They ended up getting stuck at a light so we thought we had lost them when to our surprise they came hauling ass up the shoulder again to pass us. They ended up going off road and we knew they were about to lose control of they're vehicle. Michael moved over into the left lane and slowed down in hopes of avoiding they're car that was now headed straight at us. They hit my side of the truck which pushed us in the direction of oncoming traffic. Michael tried turning the wheel to the right in order to keep us away from the oncoming traffic which then sent us sliding. The front passenger side tire got caught up on something which caused it to basically fold under the truck causing us to roll at least 2 times that we know of, possibly 3. After the wreck I looked at Mike to see his head hanging down, blood on his face and his right leg twitching uncontrollably. I thought he was having a seizure or unconscious or something. I called out his name and had no response and immediately turned to the back where my baby girl was to see if she was ok. I think my heart stopped for a split second. My little angel was still sound asleep and looked to be ok. When I turned back to Michael he was awake and asking about Ava and I. Next thing I know, a gentleman opened my door asking if we were all ok and all I said was "My baby! Please get my baby!" Things are pretty hazy after that. My mom and step dad were about 10 minutes behind us so she is the first and only person I called. They rushed out to us. We were all checked out in the ambulance and rode to the hospital to get Ava checked out. They did x-rays of my head, neck and wrist and everything was ok besides a little whip-lash. Ava had glass all in her car seat and her seat and clothes were covered in diesel as well as everything else. I am just SO very thankful that everyone was ok. I don't know what I would have done had something happened to my baby girl or my husband. The good Lord was with us for sure and kept us all safe. It's amazing that we walked away from this. The other 2 girls seemed to be ok with complaints of a broken wrist. One of the girls had the nerve to ask me if we were ok! I said absolutely nothing to her! Thank god I was still so out of it and I have pretty much grown out of my "confrontational" stages or my ass would have been hauled off to jail for assault. I could have beat the living crap out of her for endangering my family. But at the time, I was just so very thankful that we were all ok. The other vehicle didn't have near as much damage and did not flip, but did catch on fire. Anyways, just wanted to let you all know what happened and that we are all ok, other then a few little scrapes, bumps and bruises. I hope I never have to feel like I did yesterday again. I was so terrified to look back at my baby girl for fear of what I would find. It was such a HUGE relief to see her sound asleep. Thank you all for your prayers and kind words. Love you all.

Ill post pictures soon

Friday, March 21, 2008

Oh Poop!

Ava woke up to eat at about 8:30 this morning and she stayed awake up until about 3:30 this afternoon with the exception of a short 10 minute nap right before we reached the easter bunny! This is big news in our house, as Ava has pretty much been sleeping ALL day and staying awake at night. She doesnt cry or anything but I just cant fall asleep knowing that she is laying in her bassinet wide awake. It makes me nervous I guess. Anywho, Im gonna skip around a bit in order to explain the title of this post.... After we arrived home from our little trip to the mall, I decided it was bath time for the little one. She has pretty much started this little routine when I change her diaper. She poops... and poops.. and poops. So I pretty much wipe her and wait for the poop to come because if not, as soon as I get the clean diaper under her little butt here comes the poop! Anywho, I got her diaper off and got her all ready for the bath tub and as I had her in my arms and was lowering her down into her little bath tub... bet you can take a wild guess as to what happened next! Yep, then came the poop. All in her tub. Nice. Oh the joys of motherhood! All I could do was laugh. And then clean it up of course.



So my little angel and I took a trip to the mall to get her picture taken with the Easter Bunny. Katie met us up there and waited in line with us. Everyone thought Ava was just the cutest thing! :) We waited in line for about an hour which actually went by pretty fast since Katie was with us and we just chat-chatted the whole time. Ava fell asleep right before we reached the bunny (of course!) and was wide awake right after! LOL She looks like a little dot in her picture compared to the Bunny and I. ( I was a little nervous about the bunny holding her so I tookt he picture with them) Here's our picture from today!



Well, that's all for now. It's time for Ava's feeding!

Ava's 2nd Doctors Appointment...

...was today... and I cried. Yes, I cried. Not like hysterically bawling kinda cry, but I probably would have if Michael hadn't comforted me and told me not to cry. LOL I told the doctor that she was a little fussy and squirmy yesterday and didn't poop all day like her normal routine of about 5 poops right when your about to put a fresh new diaper on her. So I thought maybe she was a little constipated or had a tummy ache or something because she didn't burp well after I fed her the last time. Anyways, the doctors answer to this was, "No problem, we can do a rectal stimulation" Needless to say I wasn't quite sure what she meant by this besides the obvious. I have NEVER (in the 10 days since she was born) seen Ava cry... no SCREAM like she did today! She couldn't even catch her breath because she was crying so hard. It took me a while to calm her down too and it just plain broke my damn heart! Poor baby girl! Then they had to prick her heel after that and she cried a little for that but I was actually holding her and talked to her and got her to calm down pretty quickly. Thank god, because I'm not sure how much more I could have handled before just plain breaking down myself! On a lighter note, Ava is now 7lbs 9 oz. She was 7lbs 3 oz at birth and had dropped to 6lbs 14 oz when we brought her home 2 days later. She went to her first doctors appointment on Friday (the 14th) and her weight was 7lbs 1 oz. So she has put on about 8oz in the last 6 days :) My little piglet!

Breastfeeding is going well and I'm so very happy about that. It really is our "bonding time" like most mothers have told me before. I'm glad she is getting the good stuff too! You know, when she was born, her Apgar or whatever it was called (?) was a 9.9!!!! Pretty much as healthy as can be!

Tomorrow morning we will be taking a short (hopefully!) trip to the mall to get her picture taken with the Easter bunny. I debated on whether or not I should take her or not, but it's her first Easter... of course I have to take her!

Time to snuggle up next to my love and get some shut eye before the little one is ready to eat again.

Here's an upclose picture or my angel from the other day.
She looks just like her Daddy! :)

Monday, March 17, 2008

One week old!

I cant believe my little girl is already a week old! It seems to have gone by so fast. I know I still haven't posted about the delivery but I will eventually, I promise. I just wanted to share a couple more pictures of Ava, one week old.


One week old!
One week and one day old

I am actually posting this a day late as I just didn't have the time to sit down and do it yesterday. Michael and I are really enjoying having our little princess at home with us. Michael has been so good about helping me out and even gets up with me in the middle of the night to help. He picks up around the house and best of all.. he loves to hold and spend time with his little pumpkin. I was able to capture this picture of having with a tight grip on daddy's finger. I though it was the cutest thing. Look how big his hand is next to hers!

I love seeing how much she changes everyday. At first all she did was sleep. Then she started waking up for short periods of time, only this was happening at night and not during the day. LOL But every night she does better and better. Last night she ate at 10pm and didn't wake up to eat again until 4:45am!!! That's the longest she has gone without eating and I was really surprised as my princess is a little piglet! ;) After her 5 o'clock feeding she slept until almost 10am and stayed awake for most of the morning.

On another note... time to talk about the boobs! A blogger friend of mine (Cloggsy) has a post about her problems with breast feeding and I had some of the same problems as well. Ava did really well a couple of times in the hospital and latched on for a good 30 minutes each time but this only happened 2 or 3 times. I would spend an hour-hour and a half off and on, just trying to get her to latch on. I was determined to breast feed and did not want to give up for anything. I ended up having to supplement a few times and then decided to pump. If I wasn't able to breast feed then I could at least pump so that she was still getting my breast milk. Then I discovered the rubber nipple! (thanks to Steph) It goes over your nipple and I guess to a baby it almost seems as though they are drinking from a bottle. Ava loves it and I am now able to nurse her. I am SO happy to have figured out a way to get her to take 'the boob'! Anyways, moving on..

I went to the doctor yesterday due to some uncomfortable cramping that made me a little nervous about having some sort of infection. I know what infections can lead to if they get too bad and I have definitely been really worried about that. I wouldn't want anything to happen that could lessen my chances of conceiving again in the future. The doctor checked me and said that everything looked good and that my stitches have healed very well (I had 10 stitches from the episiotomy) She went ahead and gave me a prescription of antibiotics to start taking incase of infection and also took some blood to test. I got a call back from the doctor today that confirmed that I did indeed have an infection. My white blood count is elevated as well as my platelets so I have to take the antibiotics and iron pills. My doctor told me that I have been doing way too much and I need to take it easy. :(

Anyways, that's all for now.

She's finally here!

I have really been slacking on my blog lately. But I think that's excusable, considering. :)

Don't have much time right now... Bout to watch a movie with my little sister Harley and my Aunt Tami but just wanted to post a couple pictures of my little peaches (that's my nickname for her now.. Her doctor said she has really pretty, peachy skin) Labor couldn't have gone more smoothly and I'm so thankful for that. Things are going wonderfully and my husband and I are really enjoying having our new little bundle of joy around.



I promise to update you all as soon as I can with details of delivery and our first week home.


But for now.. here are a couple pictures to hold you over


The best feeling in the whole world. Seeing my angel for the first time.


The proud parents


Ava and Mommy


Daddy, Mommy and Ava


Our happy family


Miss Ava Renee

Mommy and Ava headed to her first doctors appointment. She's 2 days old.

Sleeping on Daddy. 6 days old.

I love how she folds her arms like that!

Goodnight loves. Hope all is well. More later. *hugs*