3 months...a little late!!

So Avery is actually 3 and 1/2 months now, but I've been so busy that I haven't thought too much about the blog! She is at such a fun age! She has started flipping over (on purpose now!! ) in both directions and I've been lucky enough to see both of those the first time!! She did belly to her back on January 20th and I actually have it on video!! She started going from her back to tummy on February 3rd and now does it almost every time I put her down to play!! Sometimes she just gets stuck on her side and it's so cute! She also spins and rotates on the floor and especially in the crib where she can kick off the sides. That's right, she sleeps in the crib now!!

I wanted to wait until after 4 months to move her out of our room, but after going back to work I was just not getting enough sleep. We go to bed after her and I have to get up so early I was tiptoeing around in the dark trying not to wake her. Plus I slept sooo lightly with her in there that I'd wake up to her every toss, turn, grunt, snore and fuss. She and I both sleep so much better in separate rooms. I'm so glad we have the video monitor though because I just roll over and look at my night stand and can see her in her bed. She likes all the room and is even rubbing a bald ring around her head from all her squirming and dream dancing! I'm so glad we are blessed with a good sleeper! She has slept all the way through the night a few times and besides a couple of nights of not feeling well, she usually only wakes once for a feeding. She is doing really great at soothing herself to sleep for naps and sometimes bed too. In fact I think it's how she prefers to go to sleep. Sometimes she is so fussy and tired that rocking and bouncing her just pisses her off! Haha she just wants to be left alone in her crib and she sticks in her thumb and passes right out!

She is loving playtime, books and toys more and more too. She is getting really good at grabbing toys and it just so smiley and happy playing on the floor. My baby is getting so big!! I think she's about 12 lbs but we'll see what the doctor's scale says here in a couple of weeks. She's wearing 6 month sleepers now but still 3 month clothes. She's eating bigger bottles and preferring bottles to nursing now. I think it's because she can take a bottle while sitting up and looking around at the world! She's so curious and already very easily distracted! Lol :-)

First time in the exersaucer!

Brown Bear Brown Bear, What Do You See?

Being a working mom is so hard. I miss her so much and I hate that I miss out on most of her happy awake time. By the time I get home she's so worn out, it's just dinner and bed for her. Then she may or may not get up once or twice before I'm back at work. I hate it. I love getting a full nights rest when she does sleep all night , but then I miss out on that middle of the night snuggle and feeding. I live for the weekends and cannot wait for spring break!! 4 1/2 more weeks. I am going to just play and love on her every second that I'm off!!

She loves grabbing and shaking this ball!!

She finally doesn't hate her bath!!

Pretty baby!!

She fell asleep playing. So precious!!

12 weeks

Well we've made it out of what they call the "4th trimester"; my hormones are supposed to be back to normal-ish, although the night sweats say otherwise. And my baby is no longer considered a newborn, but now just an infant. I went back to work this week and it was better than I anticipated. Sunday night I was super emotional and today I feel the Sunday blues coming back to me again. Leaving Monday was tough, but I was fine once I got to work. The days go by pretty quickly, but the week seemed to drag on. By Wednesday I felt like the walking dead, and Friday morning I was emotional again.
The hardest part has just been trying to find my groove in the schedule. I shower at night to have more time in the morning, but between adjusting my schedule around Avery's and still trying to pump before work I'm barely getting there on time. Then I'm spending my breaks pumping when I need to somehow eat lunch and be planning/at meetings, but I just feel rushed and miserable. On top of that I'm only producing about half of what she eats while I'm gone, so reluctantly we are supplementing formula a little bit. I don't know why, but it just makes me feel inadequate and crappy. I know the majority of babies eat formula and all that, and I don't think it would be upsetting to me if this had happened while I was on leave. I think because I know that me being back to work is the problem, it just breaks my heart. I find comfort in knowing that she is getting part of "me" while I'm gone, and to know that's not enough is upsetting. This afternoon I'm going to look for a couple of supplements that are supposed to help boost supply though. Hopefully they work!!

I'm just so glad she is finally taking the bottle with no problems! She is doing so great with it now so I'm not worried about her starving until I'm back!! She's growing so fast and just gets prettier every day. I think she's about to outgrow her 3 month footed pjs, but still has a couple of weeks in the other clothes. Most pants and onesies are a little baggy on my skinny girl! After breaking out in hives one day, we've learned we still need to be washing all the new clothes before she wears them. We did that with all her newborn sized stuff but I've been lazy about it as she's gotten bigger.. I usually just pop tags and go, but after her reaction to the last outfit, I won't be doing that again!! Scary.

The latest milestones for Avery.. She is cooing and trying to laugh every day! In her sleep she rolls to her sides, but isn't making it all the way to her belly. She's outgrown the bassinet part of the playpen and I think she enjoys having the room to sprawl out in the main part of it. She somehow turns her body about 90 degrees from where I lay her. She is napping in her crib now and doing great with it. I think she'll make the transition to her own room in another month or so.
I'm not ready yet! She's always loved to snack on her hands but can now isolate her thumb or one finger to suck on and it's still the cutest thing to me! She's gone from swatting the toys on her play gym to realizing she can grab them! I'm working on trying to get her to grab other toys and stuff. And she's also discovered her lungs.. She used to wake so quietly and start with small fusses until I picked her up. Now she goes from dead asleep to WAHHHHHHHH in no time. She thinks it's funny too, because when I peer at her over the playpen she is all smiles. Little toot!

Back to work...

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year! We did. Avery got absolutely spoiled and was such a good sport at Christmas going to both of our family's and being passed around from everyone! So awesome too that her first Christmas was a white one!! I wish we would have taken more pictures in the snow though!! Funny that last year we were hosting a big NYE party at our new house and this year we were all in bed by 10:30!! Lol

Well tomorrow fun baby time is officially over. It's back to work for me. These last 11 weeks have gone by so fast! I can't believe my maternity leave is already over.

I know I'm leaving my baby with the best possible person though. My sister Lacy will be watching Avery at our house and if she loves Avery half as much as I love her
girls, we'll be ok! She's a baby expert and has been my biggest source for help and advice since the early days of my pregnancy. We are so lucky to have her!! I think I'd die a little inside if I had to leave A at daycare this young!! No matter who you're leaving your baby though, it's going to be hard.. We have left her for a few hours at a time here and there to run errands and go on a few dates, but all day every day is a whole other story!!

I technically could take a few more weeks off, but while losing full pay, it's just not feasible. I took Avery up to my school for their holiday party, and I'm so glad I did. I realized how teeny tiny my little first grade babies still are, and I remembered how much I do miss them. It helped me to look forward to my return a little more than I was, but it's still going to be tough these first couple of weeks. I've never been one to want to be a stay at home mom, unless of course, I had an infinite amount of money. I do like to work and I like to make my own money, and ultimately I'll be providing more for my family by working, but I would love just a few more months with my baby. I know being a working mom is the reality for most Americans, and most people only take 6-8 weeks of maternity leave while I've luckily had 11. So the countdown to spring break and summer will just be filled with more anticipation from here on out!

I'm so glad tomorrow is a work day so I'll have time to gather my thoughts, get reacquainted, prepare the week's lessons, set up where I'm going to pump, make copies and call to check in on my baby! Then I'll be ready to see the kiddos on Tuesday! One of my New Year's resolutions is to leave work by 4:30 every day. No more being the last teacher there at 6pm! It might mean I'm not as much of a perfectionist, or that I have to bring some papers home to grade, but I'll be a better mother and wife for it. Wish me luck!!

Here's some pictures, just because my baby's cute!

2 months

She wasn't real crazy about the hat! Haha

This past month has gone by even faster and has been even more fun that the first! At her 2 month appointment she weighed 10 lbs 5 oz, so she's gained 3 lbs since birth!! She also had to get her shots which was not fun, but she handled them like a champ. She cried for about 2 minutes, then was smiling before we left the dr office! Then she just slept for the rest of the day, except when I would wake her to eat.

Coming home from the hospital vs. now! She's getting so big!!

Avery is smiling and interacting more and more each day. She is cooing and tries to mimic me sometimes, which is about the cutest thing I've ever seen!! Seriously everything she does is cute. Yawning, burping, sneezing, crying, sleeping..all adorable! Her most recent milestone has been that she has discovered her hands and she sucks on her fingers, and tries to touch/swat things. She can even hold her paci to keep it from falling out too! She's also beginning to realize that she can move her feet. Of course she's always kicked and moved her arms, but now she sees it and notices that she is somewhat in control of it!!

Eating her fingers!

Holding her Wubbanub!

Cousin Jojo helping "Baby Avie" with her binky!

I can't believe it's Christmas Eve. I'm so excited for Santa to come, although she'll have no idea what's going on this year, I can't wait to see her playing with her toys in the next few months. I'm so excited to share our Christmas traditions with her and to even start our own as she gets a little older. Christmas is such a magical and exciting time, and this Christmas we've been truly blessed with our perfect and sweet baby! She amazes us a little more each day and we love her more than we ever knew possible!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Visiting Santa!!!

Wearing our onesies at our BFF Christmas brunch! LOL

5 weeks of Avery

Wow time is flying by so fast!! My little pumpkin turned one month on Thanksgiving, and on Monday the little booger will be 6 weeks old!! This past month has been a whirlwind. I think part of what makes it go by so fast is that taking care of a newborn is a never ending cycle of feeding, changing her and putting her to bed throughout the day and night so all the days pretty much run together. We are so blessed to have a pretty good night sleeper though. She pretty much sticks to the same schedule of 2am and 5am feedings and once she slept right through tot he 5 o'clock, which was heaven! The other reason it goes by fast is because each day is a new adventure and we are all still adjusting to it. Everyone says children grow up so fast, but it is truly remarkable to see them grow right before your eyes.

I am not sure what Ave is weighing, but she is already outgrowing most of her newborn sized clothes. It's crazy, because she was swimming in them when we came home from the hospital and only a few of the tiniest outfits fit her those first few weeks. It felt like we were constantly washing her clothes so she would have something that fit. Then one day this week, I had to try on 4 different pairs of pajamas to find ones that were not all the sudden too short!! So this is kind of bittersweet.. I am glad that she can start wearing some of her 0-3 month clothes, because we have a lot more that'll fit her in that size and they're so cute, but sad because I realize she really will only be so tiny and cuddly for a little while longer!

 It is an empowering feeling though, knowing that I am keeping this tiny human alive and thriving with only the help of my body still. I'm not going to lie, breastfeeding is HARD! It's exhausting and frustrating and painful at first, and growth spurts feel like she's draining the life right out of me, but I AM SO GLAD I have stuck with it. The human body is so amazing. Her's sends a message to mine as to how much milk to make, and to make the most fatty kind at night to fill her belly for sleeping. Not to mention that it's the best possible nutrition for her, and good for me too! It's amazing when you think about it. Now the problem is going to be getting this child to like a bottle…we have tried 4 different kinds and had other people try to feed her, but she won't really take to one without a fight. So we've got to get in some more practice, because my maternity leave is halfway over and she's going to starve if she keeps being so picky!!

So some one month milestones..
Avery is smiling, and not just in her sleep anymore! It's adorable. Sometimes it is when she's filling her diaper, BUT she also smiles at me on her changing table, and when I talk to her before her first early morning feeding. She smiled at Jon this morning too! I just can't wait to hear her laugh. She has giggled in her sleep, but I just wonder what on earth is so funny that she is dreaming about?!

We have started tummy time, and she has flipped from her belly to back a few times now!! She can't do it every time and I am not sure that she even knows what she's doing, but of course we think she's advanced and probably a genius. :)

She recognizes mine and Jon's voices and will follow us with her eyes! It's so neat. Only a matter of time until she gets a kick out of peek-a-boo.

Also, in the past week she has become mesmerized by the TV. Sometimes when she is fussy, laying across my lap to check out the tube is the only thing to keep her quiet. I might have a future couch potato on my hands!

Watching Real Housewives with Momma!! LOL

39 Weeks and Avery's Birth Story

Man have I neglected my blog! Just been so busy with-- ya know taking care of an adorable and tiny little human! So where I left off- 39 weeks pregnant and beginning to get miserable!!

Originally, I was set to be induced on October 25th (Thursday), and crazy me wanted to go to work that Monday and Tuesday, so I could save my PTO for when Avery was actually here, but everyone else, especially my boss, was urging me to take those days to rest at home and relax before the baby came. My poor feet had had about all they could take of carrying the extra pounds and looked like this...

I was cranky and ohh so tired too. After staying up at school until 7 pm on Thursday the 18th trying to get grades in for the 1st 9 week report card and finish up some parent conferences over the phone, I decided my boss, and teammates were right. I needed to rest, and I was making the next day at school my last one. It would already be a half day for me because I had my weekly Dr. appointment in the afternoon. I called my long term sub that night, and she said she'd be glad to start early. I felt a little guilty, because I am such a cheapskate and really wanted to save my days, but I knew it was the right thing for me to do. I thought I'd have time to get the house nice and clean, catch up on laundry, sleep and even some trash TV…little did I know that Avery would be here before I would get the chance to do any of that! :)

At my Friday appointment, I still wasn't dialated beyond 1cm (nothing!) and baby girl was still up high. My Dr. said "You can't go into labor this weekend anyway because I am not the one on call! We'll see you Thursday for your induction!"

That weekend I was so tired, so Jon and I were really lazy! After watching a Diners Drive-Ins and Dives marathon the weekend before, we had already decided we were going to check out this BBQ place at the Farmer's Market  that had been featured on the show, as our last date before becoming parents. So Sunday morning, we got up early to go check it out, and walked around sampling all kinds of delicious fruits and veggies too. When we got home, I wanted to do some more walking to see if I could jumpstart the whole labor process. For some reason I was really scared of being induced and just prayed that things would happen naturally. So I grabbed Abby and went on a nice walk around our neighborhood for about 30 minutes..it was all I could handle. I was exhausted!  When I got home we took a long nap and ordered our fav pizza for dinner with jalapenos. I wanted to see if the spicy food trick would work now. We ate and headed to bed around 9. On the way to the bedroom, I made Jon take this  39 week pic of me, realizing that it COULD be my last preggo picture, but having no idea that I'd really be in labor in just a couple of hours.  

At 11 pm I woke up with terrible cramps, but thought it was just indigestion from the pizza. I went to the bathroom, threw back some tums and went back to bed. 11:30 I woke back up. More cramps…thought this might be a contraction? Drank a glass of water and went back to bed. This kept up about every 30 minutes until 1:30 am when things got a little more intense. Jon was supposed to have jury duty in the morning, which had already been postponed once due to a flat tire, and since I had had a bout with false labor the weekend before, I didn't want to wake him unless this was the real thing. I couldn't just lay there in silence anymore though. So I got some more water and camped out on the couch with my contraction counter app to start timing things. Contractions stayed at 7 min apart until about 4 am when they got to 5 min apart. The hospital rule is 5-1-1, head there when they are 5 min apart, lasting 1 min long for at least one hour. So I woke Jon up to give him a warning that I had had contractions all night, and that I was going to take a bath to see if they would stay 5 min apart. Well they did, so I got dressed and laid back down to try to wait out as much at home as I could and we headed to the hospital around 5:30.

We got there, checked in, hooked up and I was only at 3 cm and in a lot of pain. I got the epidural a couple hours later, and we notified our families that Avery would be there that day. We couldn't believe the day we  had been counting down for so long was finally here! We were going to become parents!

Once I got the epidural, labor was a breeze! I was pain free until the very end, and I progressed very quickly.  Unfortunately Mondays are my doctor's day off, so I had the on-call doctor from her office, who ended up being amazing! They came in to check me and reposition me every couple of hours, and everything was very calm and laid back. Shannon, Jon and my parents were there most of the time for me to talk to and to feed me ice chips.  Around 1 o clock I started feeling pressure and pushing my epidural button for some more numbing action, and the nurse came in to check me. She said I was at 9 cm and should be ready to push within another hour. This is when I started to get really excited and nervous! About 30 minutes later, I was a 10, so she called the doctor and we kicked out all the visitors. Jon turned off the TV and it was just him, me and the nurse to do some practice pushes while we waited for the doctor. The silence really freaked me out for a second so I asked Jon to please put on some calming music. He got my phone, put it on one of our favorite Pandora stations- Elton John Radio. I started singing along to Philadelphia Freedom and instantly felt better. Music is such a powerful mood changer!

My incredible nurse Michelle coached me through pushing a couple of times, while Jon cheered me on. It was such a special moment. Soon the doctors and nursing staff came in, and she rest is kind of a  surreal rush and a blur. Pushing went by REALLY quickly. The next thing I knew, the most beautiful little human was laid on my chest while I cried hysterically from pure amazement and heard Hotel California playing in the background. I remember looking up at Jon and seeing his face in complete awe and adoration of our little angel. It was the most overwhelming, beautiful and amazing moment of our entire lives.

Avery Parris Mercer was born with tons of dark hair on October 22, at 2:10pm, weighing 7lbs, 3 oz and measuring 21 inches long. Our lives have been forever changed! We are so in love!

I can't believe it's almost been 3 weeks, but I'll update on how that's going later. It's time to feed my little munchkin!