Love Journal for Ava: Birth to 1 Month

Love Journal for Ava: Birth to One Month

My sweet little one, you are now one month old. I cannot believe how quickly one month has gone by. I am completely amazed at your beauty and sit and stare at you for hours. Your Daddy and I talk about how madly in love your big sister, Blair, is with you. She cannot keep her hands and lips off of your sweet little self but neither can your Daddy and I. You make the sweetest sounds while you sleep and very rarely cry. We learned that when you wake up, you are ready to eat and we better be quick with the bottle because you do not have much patience with waiting to eat.

Because you were 4 weeks early, you were considered a preemie. You weighed in at 6 pounds and 1 ounce and measured 19.5 inches long on your birthday. Your pediatrician wanted to see you 4 days later to make sure your weight and bilirubin were on target. Your weight during the visit was 5 pounds, 12 ounces and your bilirubin was 14. Both numbers were not pleasing to the doctor. We had to put you in the sunlight as much as possible to bring down your number and your feeding consisted of waking you every 2 hours around the clock until you began gaining more weight. You would take around 30 cc’s of bottle per feeding. It did not take long for your weight to pick up and the sunlight worked well and your bilirubin number came down.

During your one-week visit, your weight went up 2 ounces and we were able to move to feeding you every 3 hours instead of 2 hours. At your one-month visit, Dr. Huie checked you out and deemed you perfect. Mommy and Daddy could have told him that one! You weighed in at 7 pounds, 4 ounces and measured 21 inches long at your check-up. You would take around 3 ounces of bottle per feeding.

Some of the firsts that you experienced your first month:

You experienced your first cold, which at times scared Mommy and Daddy with all of the choking and vomiting from all of the drainage. You experienced your first newborn photo-shoot with Uncle Eric and Aunt Stacy. You made many trips Christmas shopping and meeting people for lunch. You got to sit on Santa’s lap for the first time with your big sister. You got to see Santa ride through the neighborhood on the fire truck. You attended your first Christmas Eve Communion at First Baptist in Childersburg. You celebrated your first Christmas. Santa and all of your family were really good to you. Blair and I consider you our Christmas gift from God. We prayed for you for over two years and by far you were the best Christmas gift we could ever receive. You also celebrated Aunt Stacy’s 30^th birthday at The Club.

This month with you has flown by so fast that it makes me so sad to think of leaving you and going back to work in a few weeks. You have made our family of four complete! We are so in love with you sweet Ava!

Love Journal for Ava: Birth Day

Love Journal for Ava: Birth Day

My sweet little Ava, what a wonderful, totally unexpected day November 28^th came to be for all of us. Mommy went to the doctor the morning of the 28^th because of the contractions I experienced over the weekend. Dr. Edwards, Mommy’s obstetrician, examined me and told that I had dilated to 3 cm. He told me to quickly come back to the hospital when contractions started again. One hour later, contractions started again and I was sent to Labor and Delivery. When the nurse checked me, I had dilated to 6 cm. You were ready to make your entrance into this big world and only a couple of hours after being admitted to labor and delivery, you made your grand debut.

Everything happened so quickly that not even the doctor or nurse had time to totally prepare for your arrival. At 3:50 in the afternoon, ready or not, out you came! You weighed in at 6 pounds, 1 ounce and measured at 19.5 inches long. You had a head full of dark hair with frosted blonde tips. You were the most beautiful little girl and looked just like your big sister. I will never forget the emotions of the doctor handing you over to me for the first time and seeing your beautiful face. I cried tears of joy and so did your sweet daddy (which made me fall in love with him even more).

In the room waiting for your arrival were Daddy, Blair, Nana, Aunt Stacy, Aunt Rebecca, Norah, Grandma, Grandpa, Poppy, and Gigi. Everyone agreed that although small and 4 weeks early, you were absolutely perfect.

We had promised your sister that she would be the first to hold you after mommy and daddy. When your daddy put you in her arms, our hearts melted. She fell in love with you from the moment she saw you. We all did!

It's Been an Awesome 2011

Date Night
First Tooth

Cheerleading

Snow/Ice Day

Blair enjoying her Roller Coaster

It has been a while since I posted a blog so I thought it was time to let you know what has been going on at the Dukes house. We have been blessed with a great year so far. Blair has been cheering every Saturday morning for Upward basketball and this past Saturday was her last game. I have to be very honest, I am looking forward to sleeping in on Saturday morning instead of hitting the floor running to make an 8am game.

Santa brought Blair a roller coaster for Christmas so it has been a hit around the neighborhood when the weather has cooperated. We have loved all of the kids and neighbors visiting! The more family, the more love.

We have enjoyed many snow days together. Nothing shows God's beautiful creation to me more than a snow covered city. Everything seems so peaceful and beautiful.

We have been to many birthday parties that Blair has been invited to for her little buddies. It is so much fun to see all of the kids interact with each other. It does make me very sad to see how grown-up they are already acting. I want them to stay little!

We enjoyed a trip to the circus with Nana this year. Thanks Aunt Stacy for the tickets! Blair seemed to really enjoy the show and she really enjoyed the bucket of popcorn and snow cone. Luckily all of the blue snow cone came out of Chris' pants and Blair's outfit.

Blair lost her first tooth. I must tell you that I wanted to cry! That is all of the baby that is left of my little baby. She complained one Saturday night that her tooth hurt and when I started checking the tooth I noticed the problem was it was loose. She was soooo excited! At church on Sunday morning she told everyone (including complete strangers) that she had a loose tooth and then showed her loose tooth to them. By that afternoon she had pulled her own tooth. When we returned to church that night, she had a different story to show and tell everyone....her first lost tooth. Of course the tooth fairy came to visit that night but she wanted to leave the tooth across the room from her, not under her pillow.

My boss gave me VIP tickets to the McWane Beaker Bash two weekends ago and Blair had a blast. We enjoyed dinner, playing throughout the levels and several magic shows.

Blair and Chris enjoyed a date night together at the church for our annual Father/Daughter Date Night for Valentine's. Blair looked beautiful and she knew it! Chris looked hot too (he also knew it) but don't tell him I said that.

Our most exciting news is that Blair asked Jesus into her heart. She will be baptized March 6. We are so excited and proud! That is a blog on it's own that I will post later.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!

My Little Pretty!

Photos taken by Jeff Graham on Morris Avenue of My Little Pretty in October. Love them all!!

Pretty Princess to Pretty Player

Blair and her cousins, Kailyn and Ansley, got all dolled up in tiaras, sashes and jewels last weekend. They all three looked cute as pie! The same weekend Blair had a soccer game that she scored 5 goals. She was so excited and we were as well. Here are a few pics from our fun weekend.

It's Great to be a Tennessee Vol!

Go Vols!