Chunky monkey

Avery went to the doctor again today. She weighs a whopping 7lbs 3 1/2oz. She gained 4 1/2oz in 5 days. Almost right on track! I asked for the nurse to measure her length as well and she was 21 1/4 inches long! She grew two and a quarter inches in 3 weeks! The doctor was very pleased with her progress and said we don't have to go back for another appointment for 2 week which is her 1 month check up. I also asked about getting her back off the bottle of breast milk 3 times a day and going back to strictly breastfeeding and she said that was a good idea. Avery is getting a little lazy with latching on since taking the bottle. She has to work harder for it when I breastfeed her and she isn't much a fan of the bottle. Her doctor said we could start tapering off the bottle feeding so she is only going to get 2 today and tomorrow and then probably 1 for a couple days and then back to just breastfeeding. Yay!!

A successful trip to the doctor!

Avery went and saw Santa!

Avery went and saw Santa! She looked so pretty in her dress!

Christmas Eve!

Christmas Day!

Happy girl!

She gives lots of smiles! Usually when someone is talking to her. Finally caught two on camera!

Two weeks!

I can't believe that Avery was two weeks old yesterday. The time has flown by! She went back to the doctor yesterday to get her weight checked again. She only gained 2oz in a week. She was 6lbs 13oz. The doctor said she is supposed to gain an ounce a day so she should have gained 5 more ounces last week. The doctor wasn't terribly concerned but I do have to take her back tomorrow to get reweighed and I have to pump and feed her from a bottle three times a day. I was not happy with that. I don't want her to have a bottle yet. She doesn't seem too fond of it either. She does good once she gets started though. At least they didn't tell me I had to give her formula. I'm sure they will if she hasn't gained weight tomorrow. Her doctor said that babies born early have a harder time gaining weight so I'm hoping that is all it is.

Her hip ultrasound came back normal so far. She has to have it repeated in 6-8 weeks and have an x-ray at 6 months. She gets her hearing checked on the 7th. I'm thinking she can hear just fine though.

We are doing much better with our days and nights. She has been sleeping almost the whole night in her pack and play. I have fallen asleep with her on my chest in the chair more than once. I fall asleep burping her and wake up and it's time to feed her again. Lol! A couple nights ago she was up most of the night. She had a tummy ache and was really fussy. I'm blaming on the ridiculous amount of pineapple I ate that day since it gave mom a tummy ache too.

Oh! Avery went and saw Santa on Sunday! I will post the picture when I get it on my computer. She looked so cute! It was a lot more difficult than I was prepared for. We waited in line for over an hour and by the time we got up to Santa she was hungry. I didn't want to leave the line to feed her so it took a couple shots to get one where she wasn't trying to breastfeed from Santa!!

I think that's all for now. Love you all!

Avery is one week old!

Avery went to the doctor today for her one week check-up. She is 6lbs 11oz. She has gained 5oz since she left the hospital on Wednesday and has 5 more to go until she is back at her birth weight. She doesn't look jaundiced at all anymore. We have to go down to Cincinnati Children's for a couple of specialist visits. She failed her hearing screen in her right ear so she is going to see an audiologist. The doctor said lots of babies fail their hearing screen because of birth gunk in their ear canals. She also has to get an ultrasound of her hips to make sure she doesn't have the same hip condition that I was born with. The doctor was very pleased with her and said she's right on track.

She still has her nights and days a bit backward but last night was much better than the night before. She's a great eater and a great pooper!! We have gone through a ton of diapers already!

Love you all!

Avery Grace is here!

Avery Grace made her appearance sooner than expected at 2:51 this morning, December 8th at 37 weeks 1 day. She weighs 7 pounds and is 19 inches long. I was in labor for 39 hours, including 1 1/2 hours of pushing.

I started having timeable contractions at noon on Saturday. I went to the hospital at about 4pm to get checked out. I was 3cm and 50 % effaced. They said they would monitor me for 2 hours and decide if they were keeping me or not. After two hours I was still 3cm but 75 % effaced. They decided to send me home. After a sleepless night of contractions every 2-4 minutes I went back to the hospital at 5am. I was 4cm and 75% this time and again they wanted to watch me for 2 hours. At 7am I was 5cm and 75% so they decided to keep me. At around 1pm I was still only 6cm so they started pitocin. I stalled at 6cm for over 6 hours before I had more progress. At 7pm my water broke and I started dilating further....slowly. At midnight I was 8cm and 80%. All of a sudden my epidural stopped working on the left side of my body and I could feel everything. The anesthesiologist tried everything. They pulled out the catheter a little bit, had me lay on my side, and gave me a bunch of meds through the epidural. My right side was completely numb but I had no pain relief at all on my left. At 12:30 I got checked again and I was 9 1/2 cm. I was breathing through the one sided contractions and started having a lot of pressure and sharp pain (pain only on the left of course). At 1am I was complete and started pushing at 1:30. After pushing for almost an hour and a half she was born at 2:51.

She had a little trouble when she first came out with her breathing. She went to the special care nursery and was on oxygen for about three hours. I went over to try to feed her and they took her off the oxygen to eat. She kept her oxygen up and ate really well. All her labs came back normal and she wasn't grunting or retracting anymore so they let me take her back to my room with me. Since then she has been perfect!

Breastfeeding is going really well. She is latching on right away. She stops a lot and has to be coaxed into sucking again, but is doing very well. Of course she is gorgeous and absolutely perfect! We're hanging out in the hospital until Wednesday morning.

I think I got everyone up to speed! Love you all!

PS. I'll post a pic in just a sec!