She Get It From Her Mamma!

So of course, Ava didnt like her first bath *at all*. No surprise there. But she didnt like her second bath either. Or the third... Well, I finally decided that maybe, just maybe, she would like it if I made her baths a little bit warmer. Pretty warm actually. And she absolutely loved it. I always take *really* hot baths and did for my whole pregnancy and I finally figured out that mommy just wasnt making her baths warm enough for her. What can I say? Just as the title says, "She get it from her mamma" :D

All Smiles

My big girl sure does smile a lot now. Its been a bit challenging to snap a picture fast enough to catch her smiling but I was able to yesterday. I swear she gets prettier and prettier everyday.

That last photo was taken last night. Amber and I picked up a couple of bean bag chairs for her to use in the front room for now until we get her room set up and complete with her bed and all. Amber made Ava comfy in the bean bag chair and I just had to get a photo of it. Too cute.

Gettin Close!

Although I'm still not quite back to my pre-pregnancy weight, I'm happy with where I'm at. I must have been pretty damn skinny before hand!

Now I just need to start working on toning things up. :)

Nothing-ness..

...Exactly what this post is. Not much of anything. I always wait too long to post and then when it comes down to it, I'm trying to rack my brain to even remember what all has gone on in the days that have past since my last post.

On Tuesday, my Dad kept Ava for me while I worked from 9:30-2. Work was good. I picked Ava up from my dads and came home just in time for Aaron to take her pics. Maybe I should back-track a bit and explain who Aaron is... OUR365 PORTRAITS is the company at the hospital who took Ava's pictures. They come out to your house and set up and take 12 different poses when the baby is about a month old. You get one free 8x10 but of course they have to take some kick-ass photos in order to get you to spend a bunch of money. The photos turned out SO good and I cant wait to see them all and get my order in. Which reminds me... I almost feel as though I am repeating myself.. maybe I already wrote about this in the last post? Maybe not? If so, sorry guys.

Moving on.

Wednesday my sister and I started moving some of her things from my moms house to mine as she is moving in with us. My mom is moving to College Station some time this summer and Amber wants to stay here. I also took her by her daddy's grave and got a few pictures as well.

Thursday I had my 6 week follow-up appointment after having Ava. Feels good to be able to be back to normal activity real soon ;) Amber, Johnny, Ava and I met up with Katie, Matt and Mason at Ponchos to eat and then I was off in search of a swimsuit for Ava. Of course I didn't plan on taking her in the water, or in the sun for that matter. But I still wanted a little swimsuit to put on her. :) I went to Carters and they didn't have any swimsuits smaller than 6-9 months. So needless to say, her bathing suit is big for her, but dammit she sure did look cute! :)

I got a call from my cousin Candace on Thursday morning which was odd, considering that her and I haven't talked in a really long time. I was surprised and happy to hear from her up until she told me she had some bad news... My really good friend Nick from Louisiana found his mom dead that morning. I could not believe it! I knew Mrs. Vicki pretty well as I stayed with them for a little while when I lived out there. Nick and I have been friends for a few years now and were really close for a long time. Her funeral was this morning at 10am. I tried to make plans to go out there to be there for him, but with a new baby, I am not able to just pick up and leave like I used too. I wish I could have been there for him. I cannot imagine losing one of my parents.

Friday Steph, Makenzie and Ashley met Katie, Mason, Ava and I at my house and we all headed out to the beach. Katie and I kept Mason and Ava in their car seats in the back due to the fact that their skin is still so sensitive and we sure didn't want them to burn. They pretty much slept the whole time. It was pretty relaxing.

Ava and Mason in their swimsuits.

Katie, Me, Steph and Ashley

Today Ava and I met Jess back out at the beach again for a little while. Ava must love the sound of the ocean cause she slept more in the 2 days we were at the beach then she ever does anymore. LOL
Tomorrow I will be working from noon to 6 or 6:30is and Ava will be spending the day with Daddy.

I think I pretty much caught up on things for now. I was going to post a few pictures but blogger isn't letting me upload tonight so I will add them later.

Me & My Angel

She has now almost outgrown her newborn clothes and is mostly wearing 0-3 month clothes. She gets bigger and bigger everyday! My little Muchkin!!! I just love her!

Our Lovely Day at the Park

Michael picked Elise up from daycare on Friday and took her by Melanie's to take her meds. While he was doing that, Ava and I headed over to my moms to pick up Harley and Evan to come stay the night as well. I was talking to Mike on speaker phone after he picked Elise up, and she asked if she could talk to Ava. It was so cute. Her and Daddy were waiting for us in the front yard when we pulled up. She is always so excited to see her baby sister. The kids played while I cooked dinner and then we got them all ready for bed. Saturday afternoon, I put together a nice little picnic bag for us including some fresh cut strawberries to enjoy as well. We picked up Tyler and headed off to the park for our picnic and to feed the ducks. I was such a pretty day outside and we had a really good time as did the kids. Here are some pictures of our lovely day :)

We had a great weekend with the kiddos, as always :)

Baby Ava stayed home with Daddy today while I went to work. And my dad is gonna keep her for me on Tuesday so I can go in to work then as well.

I went by Babies R Us and picked up some Enfamil for babies who spit up... I have given it to her once so far and she has only spit up one time, a very small amount. So we shall see if maybe this formula will work better for her. I have breast milk for the next feeding as I am gonna try to start pumping more and giving her less formula. Hopefully she will continue to poop though!

I Am Now The Step-Mother of a Teenager.

Thats right. A teenager. Lord, help us! :) (just kidding)

Tyler turned 13 today!

Happy Birthday Tyler!

We had a really good weekend.

Took the kids to the park today. It was a very pretty day. But Ill have to save that for another post. Because, of course, I have photos to load as well and its already 11. Ive gotta work tomorrow so I think Ava and I will be calling it a night. (the hubby has already passed out on the couch. LOL)

Hope everyone has enjoyed their weekend so far.

Olan Mills

Katie and I had coupons for some free pictures at Olan Mills, so we took the babies up there today. With our package, we got 1 8x10, 2 5x7, 8 wallets, and 6 birth announcements for free. That was only including the first pose, which was fine with me because I didn't care much for the others anyways. There were 2 others that I liked but I only bought one of them. We don't get them until May 1st so I cant post them yet, but I was happy with the ones I got. What can I say? They were free! :)

After pictures me, Katie and the babies stopped in at Casa Ole for some lunch and then came back to the house and hung out for a bit.

Ava is getting bigger and bigger everyday! I am happy to say that she is now pooping on a regular basis! YA! So the formula has obviously worked, but she has been throwing up a lot more now so I may try another formula, but at least now I know what to use if we have this problem again. I wont be using much formula once I get back in the routine of pumping though. I have continued to feed her breast milk at least once a day, but did back off a lot until we figured out what to do about her bowl movements. I plan on trying to get her back on mostly breast milk again, only supplementing formula when needed.

Anyways, that tis all for now.

Ava's One Month Doctors Appointment

Ava and I went to her doctors appointment this morning which I have been looking forward to as I was curious to know how much she has grown since her last appointment as well as to find out what the deal is with her not having regular bowel movements. She now weighs 8lbs 11oz and is 20 3/4inches long. I expressed my concerns *again* with Ava going a full week or so before being able to have a bowel movement. She is very squirmy and fussy and its quite obvious that she is uncomfortable and in pain. The doctor gave me some formula (I have been pumping once a day or so and supplementing formula the rest of the time because she is wanting to eat more than what I am able to get) that should help her go. It is Nutramigen with Lipil. Her doctor said that she thinks that will help but if not, we could then do a Barium Enema X Ray to see if she has Hirschsprung's Disease. She said that in her 15 years, she has had only 2 patients that had this disease as it is very uncommon. Hirschsprung's Disease is a disease of the large intestine (colon). People with HD do not have certain nerve cells that push the stool through which results in constipation or even the inability for them to have a bowel movement at all. HD is only treated with surgery.


If you are interested in reading more about Hirschsprung's Disease, here is the link that I referred to for my information.

http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/hirschsprungs_ez/

I did give Ava the new formula for her last feeding and she did end up having a bowel movement though it was a very small amount. I'm really praying that she does not have HD. I cant imagine her going through a surgery, she's just my little baby girl. It breaks my heart to even think about it. Please keep her in your prayers and hopefully this new formula will help.

I Believe This is One of My Favorites...

She cracks me up!

Such a cutie!

Theres lots to catch up on, but I just dont have the time right now. Hopefully tomorrow. We have Ava's one month check-up tomorrow morning and Im curious to see how much my little munchkin has grown already. Updates soon to come. XOXO!

Happy One Month

Today is the 10th of April, which would make it a month (if going by the date) since Ava was born. Happy one month princess!

Something To Think About

I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when there right, you believe lies so that you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes things fall apart so that better things can fall together.

-Marilyn Monroe

It's Been 4 Weeks Already!?

I CAN. NOT. BELIEVE. that my baby girl is 4 weeks old today! It just does not seem like it has been a month since giving birth to her. I can still remember seeing and holding her for the very first time. I hope I always remember, because it was. By far. The BEST feeling in the whole entire world! This last month has been amazing. The love I have for her, I never could have imagined having for another person. It is beyond words. She is my everything and I look forward to watching her grow. To experience all the many joys of motherhood. Here are a few pictures I took of her today. If you go by the date she was born (March 10th, a Monday) then it would actually be Thursday that she would be a month old, but technically today marks 4 weeks since I had her.

Ava and I went over to my Aunt Tami's house so that I could do the second part of my training. My dads girlfriend has a business doing pharmaceutical recruiting and they are bringing me on as a researcher. I will be able to do all of my work from home, which is great! After spending the afternoon at Tami's, Michael kept Ava for me so that Jessica and I could go do a little shopping. It was nice to get a few new clothes now that I have lost all (well, almost all) of my baby weight. Thanks hunny!

I just talked to the on-call pediatrician about Ava not having any bowel movements for the last 5 days. I have been putting Karo syrup in her bottles and even tried stimulating her with the thermometer and nothing has worked since Thursday. So we will be going in for another check up. It just doesn't seem right. She is very uncomfortable, fussy, and squirmy. She has lots of gas but even the gas drops have not helped. She has also been throwing up quite a bit lately. I'm really concerned and have completely stressed myself out over it. I will not take "don't worry about it" as an answer anymore. I don't want my baby to be in pain or uncomfortable. Hopefully we can get to the bottom of this and find out what the heck is going on. Poor baby :(

Our Beautiful Girls

Saturday morning I was in the bathroom getting ready and Michael came in there to talk to me for a second. When he walked back out into the living room, this is what he found...
He came and got me and we peeked in on the girls. Elise was laying next to Ava and had put her baby doll on her. It was just the cutest thing. Of course, it wasn't long before Elise noticed us watching her, but Michael still got a couple of cute pictures.

After getting ready, Elise and I headed up to the hospital to see Katie, Matt and baby Mason for a while. I was only able to bring either Ava or Elise so Ava stayed home with Daddy so that I could spend a little time with our pumpkin Elise. Here are a few photos from our visit with Katie, Matt and Mason. Elise covered Mason in her blankies too. She is such a sweet girl!

After visiting for a while, Elise and I went by my moms house and picked up Harley to come over and play for a little while. She has been bugging me to see Elise and they always enjoy playing together. We came home and spent a little time with Daddy and Ava (we didn't have Tyler this weekend) and then Harley, Elise and I went for a walk around the neighborhood, pushing Ava in her stroller for the first time. We stopped by the swings and let the girls swing for a bit while Ava was sound asleep in her stroller. Of course I had to get a couple of photos of Ava's first walk with me and the girls...

Elise was blinking in that last one, but I still thought it was cute. She was giving Ava her pacifier. :) After picking Elise up on Friday, we went grocery shopping and then came home and I made fajitas for dinner. This was our first time to have Elise overnight since Ava was born and I was pretty proud of myself! Between the dog barking and needing to be fed and taken out, cooking dinner, feeding Ava, getting Elise fed, cleaning the kitchen up, bathing Elise and blow drying her hair, giving Elise her meds, brushing teeth, getting her ready for bed and doing story time and prayers, getting Ava ready for bed and so forth (you get the idea) I think I did a pretty kick-ass job! :) (with help from the hubby of course) Things get crazy and hectic but I wouldn't trade it for the world. I love our weekends with the kids and wish we had even more time with them. And I love being a mommy! Its tiring, and a little frustrating at times as I am still dealing with the hormones and such, but I think I'm doing a pretty damn good job, considering. :) Love to you all! Goodnight