Watch Ava Grow - 1 Month!

I'm a couple of weeks late in posting, but I'm finding myself a little busy most days! In all honesty, Ava is really a very easy-going baby. She's a pretty happy little girl, and it's so fun watching her little personality start coming out.

Length: 22 inches (as of 4/5/16)

Weight: 7lbs 10oz (as of 4/5/16)

Head Circumference: Not sure

Sleep: She generally sleeps 2+ hours in between feedings during the day. At 1 month, she was going about 4-5 hours without waking to eat at night. As of the last 4 nights (I'm typing this on 4/19), she's been doing more like 6 hours at night without waking to eat. Daytime naps are lately starting to shape up much like Audrey at this age - it is getting harder to put her down and keep her down; however, at night, she drinks her bottle and is ready to go back to bed. Michel always helps out with night feedings, too, and we're generally back in bed within 30 minutes of getting up to feed her, so I can't complain there. This was around the time that I started implementing a Baby Wise-inspired schedule with Audrey, and I see us starting this in the very near future with Ava.

Eating: She generally eats 2-4oz every 2 1/2-3 hours

Clothes: She's still wearing a NB size in clothes, but they are getting snug throughout the length. She is wearing a size 1 in diapers, but only because we ran out of NB diapers, and had a TON of size 1's. She was still fitting into a NB diaper, though.

New Achievements of the Month: 
1. This girl has found her voice!! I seriously feel like she's a mini-me of Audrey! I had Ava lying on the couch (don't worry, I was sitting right beside her), and she was watching the shadows on the couch cushion as her arm moved back and forth, and she was making the SWEETEST noises. I wish I could have gotten it on video...it was soooo cute!
2. When she's in her bed fussing (waiting for someone to come in and feed her), she stops as soon as she hears me start talking, or as soon as she sees me (or Michel). She knows we're going to take care of her! Of course, if you don't get that bottle in her mouth in a timely manner, she will let you know that you're taking too long :)

Things she likes:
1. Hanging out in her boppy - usually while swaddled
2. Being held - she'll gladly let anybody hold her for as long as they want (and will probably start talking to you!)
3. Sucking on her paci
4. Her big sister :)

Things she doesn't like:
1. The car/car seat - ugh....again, just like Audrey! Audrey didn't hate the car ride as much as Ava. Sometimes we have a quiet car ride; sometimes we have just a fussy baby, and sometimes we have a screaming baby. It's very unpredictable, and I can't ever tell what it is that she doesn't like about the car ride. Ava also isn't a big fan of her car seat in the stroller either, so whenever I take her places, I just have to push her to our location and know that I'll have to take her out and hold her. Once she's out of the car seat, the tears pretty much turn off immediately.
2. Being hungry...but really, who likes feeling hungry?? :)

Other random facts:
1. Audrey LOVES Ava, and hates hearing her cry/fuss. If Ava does start crying and we're at home, Audrey usually gets a book to read to her while I make a bottle (most of the time if Ava starts crying it's because she's hungry). If we're in the car, Audrey will be in the back seat going "Shhhh Ava" (in a sweet voice), or sometimes Audrey will just inform me, "Mommy, Ava cwying." LOL....yes. I hear it, too. One time, the thing that cracked me up the most was when Audrey told Ava, "I know. It rough being a baby." Hahahaha!!! Can you tell that I've said this before?
2. Ninja seems to feel a sense of responsibility for Ava. I had her lying on her boppy on the floor, and Ninja walked over, sniffed her a little bit, and then laid down beside her. If she's on the floor and starts crying, he has sat down beside her and then stares at me like, "Ummm...this thing is crying. Aren't you going to do something?" Also, when I go in to feed her at night, he usually follows me in there and curls up inside her crib!! He will jump out when I put Ava back in there, though. :)

Welcome to the world, Ava Noelle!

I haven't touched this blog in 7 whole months!!! I got annoyed with my pictures disappearing, and just thought about stopping the blog altogether. However, this is the only way I keep track of my kids' milestones, and since I did so well with Audrey's month-ivesary series, I have to do the same with Ava. As the younger child, I always said I wasn't going to do more for the older child than the younger, but now I see how it just happens. Some days, we have our hands FULL! Yesterday, I got about 30 minutes of down time the entire day. I was absolutely EXHAUSTED by bedtime. I digress.

Today, the day that Ava turns 1 month old, I decided that I should go back to the day that she was actually born.

On March 8th, I had my regular 39 week appointment with my OB. When she did the cervical check, she found that I was 3 1/2 cm dilated, baby was REALLY low (which I already knew thanks to my trips to the bathroom every 30 min!), and my water bag was bulging to the point she was surprised that it hadn't broken yet. She told me if I had been 4 cm dilated, she could have admitted me to the hospital in active labor, and asked if I was having a lot of contractions. I told her I had them all the time, but they were only 15-20 min apart, lasted about 30 seconds, and pretty much painless. She asked if I could come back the next day because she was certain I would be dilated to at least a 4, and that we would have a baby that day! Michel and I called our family, and Michel's dad came and stayed with Audrey while we went to the hospital. We were also told to go ahead and bring our bags as my OB was really certain that March 9th would be baby day! So we got to the OB's office, and found out I was 5 cm dilated!! Also, when my OB checked me, my water bag sprung a small leak, so now it was definitely baby day! I was 39 weeks and 4 days along, and soooo uncomfortable, so I was so happy to hear that we were going to meet Ava that day!

My OB's office is at Medical City, so we just had to drive around to a different building, and went up to L&D to get checked in. We arrived there around 1:30, and I was asked if I wanted an epidural. I declined it at the time because, again, my contractions were virtually painless. My OB was going to come over soon and break my water, and my nurse warned me that would likely cause the intensity of the contractions to pick up, and an anesthesiologist may not be available right away. I still declined. Around 3:00, my OB came over and broke my water. Um, the nurse wasn't lying. My contractions sped up from every 15-20 minutes and virtually painless to every 2-3 minutes and they HURT! Needless to say, I asked for the epidural not long after. Luckily, I got it within 20-30 minutes of when I requested it, and life was good again. Michel and i got to enjoy some calm before the storm by hanging out, watching TV, and updating Facebook lol. Around 6pm, I was fully dilated, and ready to push! Because I only pushed for about 20 minutes with Audrey, the nurse had me wait to push (no practice pushes) until my OB got there. Good thing she decided to have me wait because I only pushed 3 times and Ava was out!!

March 9, 2016 at 6:21pm our sweet Ava Noelle Zoutendam was born weighing 7lbs 2oz and measuring 20" long - the EXACT measurements of Audrey when she was born! She was healthy and absolutely perfect in every way!