One Month!!

Ava was a month old on Thursday July 27th! Its amazing at how fast the time has gone. I can remember the last two months of my pregnancy seemed to last forever and now an entire month has gone by with my baby girl and it seems too quick.

Ava is a wonderful baby! She has her fussy moments, but thankfully they only come twice a day (today, thankfully we only had one!). She sleeps really well. She sleeps pretty well through the night. Waking up between 1am and 2am then again at 5:30am. Sometimes she will go back to sleep and we will get another hour or two of sleep before we have to get up.

We are really blessed to have such a wonderful daughter. We really couldn't ask for a better child. She is so amazing. She's beautiful, she is funny, and she's sweet.

This week has been pretty crazy. Almost every morning I go walking with a new friend that I met. She has a baby exactly one week older than Ava. Monday however I went to Sacramento with my parents because my mom had a doctors appointment. Besides Ava being a month old..(and doing things every baby does like cry when they are hungry), we really had an awesome trip. It was a really long day too. We left Reno around 7:30am and got to Sacramento at 9:30am. My mom had her appointment and we went to lunch then headed back to Reno. We took a detour...which led us off road, so Ava had her first off road experience (which made me very very nervous) but Ava seems to take after her dad and absolutely loved it! The second we started bouncing all over the car, she fell asleep, and stayed asleep for almost the rest of the trip.

Tuesday I go to a class for breastfeeding mothers. I was really disappointed to find out that Ava had only gained 3 oz since the last class the week before bringing her to 7lbs 2oz. I was really nervous that maybe she wasn't eating or that I was doing something wrong. But it turns out that I'm doing everything right. During class she ate 5oz! Which is amazing since she is so small.

Wednesday I found out my boss at work was admitted to the hospital. So that night I asked my mom to go with me to the hospital since I wasn't ready to leave Ava for that long. My mom did great! Unfortunately Ava gets kind of fussy in the evenings and it didn't go so well...I will just leave her at Grandma's house next time. But it was nice to visit with my boss. I am hoping that she gets better soon.

Thursday I went back to the breastfeeding class because I was so nervous about Ava's weight. Ava gained well! She was about 7lbs 8oz on Thursday. I was really excited about her gain in such a short period of time.

Friday Phil, Ava and I went to breakfast together before Phil went off to work. It was nice to have some extra time with him. Then I went to the park to take pictures of Ava before we went walking around the Marina.

Saturday was a crazy day. We spent the entire day running around and we spent some time with Phil's brother and sister in law. It was fun. We had a great day.

Almost 4 weeks!

I can't believe its almost 4 weeks already since Ava was born.

She has been the best thing that has ever happened to us. She is such a great baby.

This week I've noticed that Ava has sort of a schedule. So this is how our days go, with some variation of course.

Ava goes to bed between 9pm and 10pm. She sleeps 4-5 hours so she wakes up between 2am and 3am. She eats, then goes back to bed at 2:30 or 3:30am and she'll wake up any time between 5:30 and 7:30am. She'll eat. I get to shower and maybe do my hair and get dressed and she's hungry again. Then we usually get in the car and she'll go to sleep and she'll sleep until about 10:30 or 11am and she gets hungry again. She'll either stay up or go back to sleep depending where we are, if we go in the car or if we have classes or meet with friends. She usually takes a nap in the afternoon sometime (if we nap together we sleep from about 2pm to 4pm) then she'll eat and eat and eat and eat until she goes to bed. Sometimes we get lucky and she will nap for a little while in the afternoon or evening.

This week has been great. I met a new friend named Meagan and her daughter Alison is exactly one week older than Ava. We went walking at the Marina on Wednesday and Thursday. The Marina is a two mile walk. We've decided that while we are both on maternity leave we will walk about two times a week.

Ava has had some great accomplishments this week. Besides somewhat of a schedule (which is nice), she can now focus on things in front of her. Her eyes don't always go cross-eyed. She gets really funny looks on her face when she see's her hand or foot move (I'm not sure she knows that they are hers). She sometimes smiles (and not just when she has gas!).

I've been having a hard time with breastfeeding. It was really wearing thin. I think we've worked out a schedule. It was really hard for a while because she would eat almost continuously from about 4pm-8pm. It was hard because thats usually the time that I spent with Phil but because I was feeding Ava all of the time I wasn't getting any time with anyone but her. Not that I didn't mind but I was exhausted from feeding her then not getting any time with my husband was absolutely killer. So I've been pumping and feeding her bottles which has cut down the breastfeeding time.

Ava is amazing! We love her so much. She is amazing. Its hard to think that she's been here for almost four weeks already. And its even harder to imagine that I only have about 4 more weeks with her.....

Spur of the moment!

Ok...so we decided since we really haven't had much quality family time together lately, Phil and I pulled a couple (meaning: before we had kids) move. We woke yup yesterday morning and we decided to go to Sacramento. With our 19 day old baby and all.
We packed, we threw stuff together, we loaded Phil's car with all the essentials, and we took off at 10am for Sacramento.
Past Truckee (somewhere) we had to pull over because Ava decided it was time to exercise her lungs and I feel so awful when that happens, and because of all the road construction, Phil had to concentrate on the road so we pulled over on the side of the road. After a quick change and putting Ava's nukie or nuk nuk (we call her pacifier nukie or nuk nuk because its a nuk brand) back in her mouth we were on our way.
Our first stop was the flee (or is it flea) market just outside of Roseville. We got there a little after 12:30pm. Man was it hot! We didn't end up staying very long. I think most of the vendors had left. And we had sweat dripping down our backs by the time we were done walking around. We were hungry so we decided to go to the nice air conditioned mall. We drove down the street to the Galleria mall in Roseville. We headed straight for the food court. Apparently everyone else in Sacramento had the same idea! We found an Italian place that only had a few people in line and we ate there. We quickly walked through the mall. I wasn't really interested in walking into any stores (Phil was in shock, especially passing up the opportunity to go in Forever 21). I was absolutely amazed at the restrooms in California! They had something called a family area...they had an entire changing station, plus a spot for little kids to sit and watch TV (there were lots of dad with their kids) they had restrooms (with locks and doors and such) they had a big potty then a little tiny potty for kids and a big sink and a little sink. They also had rooms that could be closed off with curtains for nursing moms. In almost every restroom at the mall the women's room (even in Norstroms!) had a mother area, complete with couches for nursing or feeding and a changing station. It was crazy!
After the mall experience we decided to go to Ikea. We walked through the entire store! That's a big store!
And then we went to Fry's. Our trip there was cut a little short due to our newest addition wanting food (I'm not sure Fry's was quite as up to date as the mall was, complete with a nursing station and changing table).
It was about 5:45 by the time we were done at Fry's and we were hungry so we went to Rubios (of course!) and then headed home after that. We did have to pull over on the side of the road again because little missy was hungry, again. We had the chance at the rest stop to take a few photos!
It was really a great trip! Ava pretty much slept the entire trip except for waking up a few times to eat. And Phil and I had a really nice day together. That was pretty much the first time we've spent that much time together since Ava was born. It was really nice to have time together as a family. Phil is great with Ava!

18 Days

Ava is now 18 days old. She is beautiful! I love her more and more each day. Each day is easier than the day before. Ava is beginning to get some sort of schedule together. She sleeps for long periods of time, eats, wakes up for a while. She has begun her exercise, she screams at the top of her lungs for several minutes. She turns bright red then a purple color. If I pick her up, she stops. When I put her back in her car seat, she falls asleep with in several minutes. It is the scariest thing I've encountered so far, besides her choking when she eats.

We've done a lot this week. We've gone shopping and run errands. I've had more energy this week since Ava has taken to a sleeping schedule at night. She sleeps for about 5 hours either from 9pm-2am or 10pm-3am. She gets up for about an hour to eat then goes back to sleep for two or three hours. She has several nap times through out the day as well. Some days she sleeps more than others during the day, but she has kept her schedule at night pretty well.

Ava is pretty amazing! She is still really little. She is up to 6 lbs 10oz. She had her second doctors appointment on Wednesday this week. She is developing really well. She is gaining weight, she is developing pretty normally at this point.

Some of her mile-stones this week are:

Looking and focusing on objects

Sleeping schedule

Sleeping through the night

Making really funny faces

Stretching and lots of movement

She can flip from side to side (not turning over yet, thank goodness!)

Ava is such an amazing child! Phil and I could not be happier.

My First 11 Days As A Mommy!

I've only been a mom for 11 days but in those 11 days I've learned lots of things about mother hood. Things I didn't expect to happen, happened, and there are items I can't live without!

Things I can't live without:

Boppy Pillow- makes feeding Ava a much better experience

Huggies- the curve for Ava belly button fits her better

(Pampers newborn were just too big and I still had to fold the diaper over to fit it under her belly button)

Chicco Keyfit 30 car seat- we love this car seat! It's so easy to use and the extra padding really helps her out since she is so small and the extra padding around her head keeps her head from falling down or to the side

Chicco Trevi stroller- the stroller fold small like an umbrella stroller, still kind of heavy, but I'm not a fan of the canopy because it doesn't cover much and the storage compartment is small. But for its purpose we like it. It fits in my car!

Onsies- can't live without them! They are so handy especially on the hot days we've been having.

Pump- I couldn't live without my pump! It is so helpful when Ava is not hungry but my body doesn't understand that! It also helps me build supply for when I return to work.

Aveeno Diaper Cream- we haven't had any problems with diaper rash since applying the cream at least once or twice a day!

Things that I didn't expect the first 11 days:

How in love I would be with our baby girl. I never thought I would feel this way about anyone so tiny!

Lack of sleep!- Ok..I expected lack of sleep, but I expected to work through it a lot faster than I have. I thought I'd be out running errands and going to classes, but I'm so tired by lunch that I usually have to take a nap.

Life is a lot slower- it takes us so long to get out of the house in the morning. One morning it took almost three hours to get out of the house.

Its all about Ava- you can't just run out the door, if Ava wants to eat, it has to be right now, there is no waiting.

Accidents happen- In just 11 days we have both been pooped and peed on and she had three accidents where her clothes have been soiled.

Lots of time with my baby girl- of course I have lots of time with my baby girl but the days go by too quickly!

Never enough pictures!- I haven't taken as many pictures as I would have liked so far. Hopefully thats something I can work on this weekend and next week.

10 Days

Ava is now 10 days old.

Here are a few of her accomplishments:

She has slept 6 hours a night 3 nights

She's gone through almost three packages of diapers in just 10 days

She's met family

She went from 5 lbs 12 oz last Wednesday to 6lbs 3 oz (just a week later)

She is awake for longer periods of time

She makes really funny faces now

She laughs in her sleep

She smiles in her sleep and when she has gas

She can hold her head up a little bit

She rolls from side to side

She pooped on me once

She pooped on Phil once

She peed on me while I was giving her a sponge bath

She is the most amazing thing that has ever happened to us! She is so amazing, she really is our little miracle. She is so adorable. We have been blessed with such a wonderful child. She rarely cries, when she does its usually for a reason like she needs a change or to be fed.

We've had a really good week. We have a routine sort of worked out. I usually go to my parents house everyday. It really helps. They watch her while I take a nap. Or they help me out by getting me water or something. There are hours and hours where she just nurses and I can't even get up to get a glass of water or food to eat. My parents are so awesome. They can watch her so I can fix something to eat or nap or if Ava won't let me move, my parents are awesome and they are willing to help out and get me food or water. I decided not to have this luxury on Tuesday and it really took a toll on me. I fed her ALL day long it seemed like and I was totally drained, I felt sick, Ava wasn't feeling well. Phil got home and he was able to help me out and get me water.

I love Ava more than anything. I would do anything for her. I never thought I would feel this way, ever. A mother's love is something totally unique. I never felt this way when I was a nanny and I loved the kids that I cared for but its nothing like what I feel for Ava. She is my world, along with Phil! I feel totally complete.

Whats in a name?

I wanted to write about how Ava got her name and some really cool things that we've found out since picking out her name.
Back in February we found out that we were having a girl (I was totally convinced that we were having a boy due to the fact that Phil has three brothers and one of the brothers had a boy, my nephew). We had only picked out boy names. So when we had the ultrasound and the tech said that we were having a girl I freaked out, not really because we still had plenty of time to pick out girly things and girly names.
About a week after we found out that we were having a girl, Phil and I came up with the name Ava Kai. It sort of flows, especially with our last name. We liked Ava, its short and pretty. Kai we had picked out in our names that we liked for a boy. I looked up the name Kai in the baby name book and it said that it could also be a girl name.
So in May, we went to my brother in laws birthday party where I was able to talk with Phil's dad for a little bit. We told him what we were planning to name our baby girl and it turns out that Phil's great great Grandmother was named Ava.
Then a week after Ava was born my co-worker smartly pointed out that our last name is WoznIAK and the last three letters of our last name spelled backwards, spells KAI.
So I think when a name pops out, there is a reason for it.