Avery's Second Month

The second month seemed to fly by so quickly!

Firsts:

Avery went to her first birthday party at Hermann park to celebrate her cousin William's 1st birthday! She also attended her first Halloween party where she dressed in a black tutu and orange & black tights. On October 23rd, Avery gave us her first REAL smile, not a "gas smile," and she hasn't stopped since! She is such a happy baby!  Mommy and daddy went on their first date night on October 29th (mommy wore her pre-pregnancy jeans on this date!); Gramma D babysat! Avery went on her first restaurant outing on November 3rd to Chili's. On November 5th, I could safely say that Avery has been consistently sleeping 6 to 7 hours at night (she still has her difficult nights, but they're few and far between)!! Avery has also been cooing a lot; I think we've got ourselves a little talker!! :-)

At William's 1st birthday party at Hermann Park

Avery's 1st Halloween party!

Avery Smiling!

More smiles!

Sleeping at Night:

The first month I really dreaded going to bed. Sometimes I would actually cry thinking about how tough the night was going to be. She would go to bed around 10pm, wake up around 1am, 3am, and 5am to nurse. And after the 3am feeding, she would be wide awake until about 4-4:30am, which only gave us a 30 minute nap before it was time to feed her again. It was exhausting!! But now she's in bed around 10:30pm and sleeps until 5:30am. She then eats and goes right back to sleep until about 7:30am, then eats again and goes back to sleep AGAIN until about 10am! It's WONDERFUL!!!

Avery loves being swaddled when she sleeps!

Love:

It's amazing how much love this little girl brings out in me! Just when you think you couldn't possibly love her more, she looks at you with those beautiful eyes and your love just grows more!!! I never understood a mother's love for her children until I became a mom.

Maternity Leave:

Being home with Avery has been such a blessing! I go back to work after Thanksgiving, and it's going to be tough, but I am so grateful I got to spend quality time bonding with Avery. I am going to be an emotional wreck when I go back!! I imagined my maternity leave to go something like this: Avery and I would wake up and go for a walk every morning, we'd go sit out on the porch and listen to the birds, I'd do laundry and clean house while she napped, we'd spend quality time together in between naps and we'd cook dinner and wait for daddy to come home from work. But it didn't work like that! We'd be lucky to get a walk in because it was either too warm, too cold, or too windy (yes, I am an overprotective mom!). Instead of sitting on the porch we sat on the couch and watched some tv. I did a lot of laundry, but cleaning the house was more difficult because Avery likes to take short cat naps so it was very hard to get much done. I  got some great quality time with her, but most of it was during feeding time! And dinner?? Ha! The only time we had a home-cooked meal on the table was when my mom was here, and she was the one doing the cooking (thanks mom!)! Our favorite part of the day was when daddy got home from work and we could all spend family time together (and it helps that he was home to help change diapers!!).

2 months old!

Avery's First Month

I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post, but I've been a little busy lately. ;-) Although it seems like all she does is eat, sleep and poop, Avery has been occupying a lot of my time!  The first month was fairly uneventful, but here's what happened:

Firsts:

Since we've been home from the hospital, we've had a lot of diaper changes, even more feedings, and SO much laundry, just to name a few! We gave Avery her first sponge bath after her first doctor appointment on September 14th. We gave it to her in the laundry room, since it was the warmest room in the house! Two weeks later, as we were getting Avery ready for yet another soonge bath, her umbilical cord stump fell off, so we were able to give her her first real bath!! Another milestone that happened the first month was on October 2nd, she slept for 4 straight hours, which was awesome because she'd been feeding every 1-2 hours around the clock!

First sponge bath
(5 days old) 

First sponge bath
(5 days old) 

First time outside
(since coming home from the hospital!) (6 days old)

First photo shoot
(12 days old)

First bath!
(16 days old)

First walk
(Mommy had to get her blood pressure down before she could walk!)
(22 days old)

Laundry: 

Who knew one tiny little baby could create so much laundry! I do her laundry every other day. The problem is that Avery has reflux... BAD reflux... projectile vomiting. It's definitely not a pretty sight. But because she spits up so much, I have to change her clothes, and mine, often. And I can't even count how many burp clothes I go through on a daily basis! 

Crying:

We lucked out in the crying department. Avery rarely cries. The only time she cries is when something is really wrong, and even then she rarely has that "screaming" cry. The first time she REALLY cried, I thought I was the worst mother ever!! I didn't understand why she was crying. I changed her. I swaddled her. I shook her...just kidding! I was just making sure you were paying attention! ;-) And finally, I decided to feed her and she immediately stopped crying. Because she rarely cries, I am still trying to learn what each one means!

Adapting:

Having a baby in our home has definitely changed the way we do things! For starters, we eat meals around her schedule and sometimes we take shifts eating. Our cat and dog aren't too fond of her yet, but I think they're slowly warming up to her. And everywhere you turn you see a burp cloth or baby lotion or her bouncer or a bottle or pacifier. I've given up trying to keep the house clean!

Honestly, the first month wasn't as entertaining as I thought it would be, just exhausting! She mostly just layed around, while I catered to her every need (she's such a little diva)!

Her 2nd month has been more eventful! I'll have that blog soon!

I'm one month old! October 9, 2012

I'm one month old! October 9, 2012