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!