Christmas

I love this one!

Pawki is just in love

Cute Christmas dress

Merry Christmas to everyone!  We had a great first Christmas with Avery, though it was quite busy.  For Christmas Eve we attended the Seals (Wes' grandparents)  annual family affair, then off to my aunt's house.  My dad had spent the night on Christmas Eve so he was there with us in the morning (Such a treat).  After presents we made a nice breakfast.  In the afternoon we went to Wes' dad's house for a nice dinner.  Avery was a little overwhelmed by our huge families at times, but otherwise did pretty well.  Here a just a few pics from the last few days.  Enjoy!

3 months old

So Avery turned three months old on Friday.  My has the time flown by.  She is getting more fun and adorable by the day.  She is cooing so much, smiling and starting to laugh.  She is sticking anything she can hang on to in her mouth now.  Her favorite is still her hand though.  I went back to work this week, which was so sad.  Praise God the first night went well.  The second night was rougher though and she refused the bottle and cried for 2 hours.  It is so sad as a mom to leave her.  I am just so lucky that the majority of the time I am gone she is sleeping.  She goes to the Dr.'s on Tuesday and we can't wait to see how big she is getting.  We are guessing between 11 and 12 pounds!  

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.  We had a great day today and just wanted to share some pics of her in her thanksgiving dress.  The picture of her close up is just to show you all how smushy her cheeks are.  :)  Enjoy.  

Train of Lights

Today we took Avery to see the train of lights.  The train came in at the local metrolink station decked out in 50,000 lights.  This was sponsored by the local firemen who were doing a toy drive.  Avery liked the lights but she was too little to enjoy the Santa, and other things that were happening.  We are looking forward to next year when she will be able to enjoy everything along with us.  I tried to get some more close ups of her facial expressions and smiling.  It is so hard to photograph a baby.  :)

The Getty

Hello,

Today Avery went to her first museum, the Getty Villa in Malibu.  Wes had to go for one of his classes so we decided to all go and make a day out of it.  It was beautiful, but a little smokey from the fires.  We only took one picture of it, but are bummed now because the grounds were really pretty.  Here are some other pics we took this week.  I kind of got her smiling, which she does all the time now.  She is so sweet and cute, but no bias of course.  Hope everyone is doing well.  Enjoy the new pics.  

Two months/Shots

Hey everyone.  Today Avery turned two months old!  My has time flown by.  Unfortunately for her two months equals her first shots.  :(  She did so well.  She cried after the second shot but only for a minute.  She was fussier than normal this afternoon, but the Tylenol did wonders.   She weighed 9 pounds 8 ounces and was 21 1/8 inches long.  She is now in the 20th percentile for her weight but still in the 10th for her height.  Oh well she will be short like us.  She is starting to smile more so hopefully I will be able to get a pic of that soon.  Here is a pic of her battle wounds as well as some other pics I have taken in the past two weeks.  She is just such a blessing to us and we can't remember what we did without her.  Miss you all who are away.  

Halloween

Here are some pics of Avery on her first Halloween. She is a pea in the pod. She was such a good sport about it and we got a couple of cute pics. We started the night out at Brook's house with our niece and nephew who were a turtle and the UPS man. They were so cute. There we tried to get pics of all of the kids together, as you can see we were not very successful. We took pics of Tess and Avery together, they are 6 six weeks apart. So sweet. Next we were off to visit our friends, John and Katie where Avery hung out with Jonas, who is 4 days older. It was an eventful night. Enjoy the pics.

Visit with Papa Pawky

My dad came to visit this past week from Texas and met Avery for the first time. For those of you who don't know my nephew started calling my dad Papa Pawky when he could barely talk, so the name just stuck. My dad was thrilled to meet his first granddaughter. She is doing very well, although still having her tummy issues. I have been off of dairy for two weeks, with a small noticeable difference. I am afraid to try dairy again in fear that it will get worse, so for now I i will stay away from it. Avery is getting much more alert and starting to sleep longer at night. She has gone as long as 6 hours at one point! We hope this will continue.

Doctors appointment

So Avery had her one month check up yesterday and she weighs in at 7 pounds 10 ounces and was 20 inches long. He said she had gained 26 ounces in 22 days! That is a huge weight gain. I guess I don't have to worry too much if she is getting enough milk. He gave me some new prescriptions for her tummy to see if they help. I have started to put her in her bouncy seat at the end of the night when her tummy bothers her the most and that has seemed to help. I also started to use a sound machine which has also made a difference. I have not had any lactose in 5 days now, very hard for me, and it seems to be helping a little. I may try to reintroduce it to see how much of a difference it is actually making. I miss cheese!! Otherwise he gave her a clean bill of health. I have included some pics of her nursery since some of you have not seen it complete. They aren't the best pics, sorry I am not the best photographer. We are looking forward to my dad coming tomorrow, he can't wait to meet her for the first time. We also have my work shower tomorrow, since I had delivered already and missed my last one.

4 weeks old

Hi everyone,
It is hard to believe that Avery is already 4 weeks old today. She has grown so much and doing well. She is sleeping well at times (3 hours at a time on some nights), but other nights she still wakes up every hour or so. She is also grunting a lot still, probably due to the lactose intolerance, which is keeping me up for hours on end. She has a Dr.'s appointment on Tuesday and hopefully he can give me tips on what to do about it. We are starting to get out more and develop a little routine. This past weekend we went to our nephews 2nd birthday party at Underwood family farms. She slept in her sling the whole time and was dressed in her appropriate farm onesie. It was fun for the kids, and soon enough Avery will be able to participate. Tonight I get to go the spa for my girlfriends last pampering before her baby arrives. I am looking forward to taking some time for myself and Wes gets to have some daddy time alone with her.

Patience

Hey everyone,
The patience and perserverance has paid off and for now she is finally nursing! Well at least most of the time... I received so much encouragement from moms and from a lactation consultant and finally I think she has gotten it. Avery is going to be 3 weeks old on Friday and she is doing great. We don't have a Dr.'s appointment for a couple of weeks but we know she has grown a lot. She is more alert during the day now and she loves when you talk to her. She is still a very content baby and we keep praying that this will continue. As you can see she loves to hold her own binky. Oh and for those of you who have been asking how the dog has been doing, we thought we would include a pic of him to show you. He is depressed, but really good around Avery. Thank goodness. Thanks again to everyone for their prayers.