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!! :-)
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| At William's 1st birthday party at Hermann Park |
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| Avery's 1st Halloween party! |
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| Avery Smiling! |
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| More smiles! |
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!!!
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| 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!!).
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| 2 months old! |
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