Saturday, May 24, 2014

Puppy love

Ava loves the puppy that came in her Easter basket. If I lay it out on a blanket with other toys, it's the one she always reaches for. Yesterday she finally figured out how to bring it up to her mouth. She was pretty pleased with herself. :)

Babywearing

I have become totally obsessed with babywearing. Oh my goodness. Why didn't I do this with Raegan? Actually, I did have a sling when Raegan was tiny, but it hurt my back so I barely used it. Thank God too, because they've since been recalled due to infant death while using them. I had that exact same one picture in the link too. I've never been more thankful that pregnancy gives me such a weak back and core. :)

But babywearing with good quality wraps and carriers? Magic. Pure magic. A friend of mine sent me her Moby Wrap and once I figured it out, it was amazing. Perfect for a tiny new little squishy that just wants to be on her mama all the time. The website says that you can use a Moby up to 35 pounds, but I cannot see how that is possible (neither can anyone else in the babywearing world, from what I've read!). Already at 11 pounds Ava is almost too heavy for it. The stretchiness makes it a great wrap to learn with, but the passes don't hold very well because of that same stretchiness.

About a month ago I purchased a Baby Hawk Mei Tai off of the Babywearing on a Budget page on Facebook. (Side note: this page and The Babywearing Swap are addictive. I limit myself to only looking at them for a few minutes each time I nurse. It's a rabbit hole, I tell you.) I got a really good price on my MT, and it's as good as new. I love it. Loooooove it. I'm curious to see how it holds up once Ava is a toddler, and I'm eager to try a back carry with it, but for now I am super happy with it with the front carry. It was a much easier learning curve than the Moby (seriously, Ava and I were both in tears the first few times I tried her in the Moby) and it doesn't sag hardly at all. The back panel comes up high enough that I don't worry about her head flopping at all, and she was starting to hate me tucking her head into one of the pockets of the Moby. I really want to find some material that contrasts well with it so I can make some strap protectors, because Ava already loves to suck on the side straps. I can't see me wanting to sell it anytime soon, but I would like to keep it in good condition and not have to wash it constantly.

Next up I'm going to get a woven wrap. Oh, if only we had money so I could Buy All The Wraps.

 
There are so many options. So, so many. I've decided that since we don't have All The Money I can't buy them all, so I'm going to get one of each. Meaning, one Mei Tai, one ring sling, one soft structured carrier (preferably a Tula) and one woven. Actually, I've decided it's completely acceptable for me to get two wovens, because I need a shorty too. HA! Justification, thou art my friend. :) So here's the long wrap I desperately, desperately want:
 
Erna im Wunderland  = one true love
 
This wrap. Oh, this wrap. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it. I really really hope that it's as beautiful and vibrant in person as it is on screen. I have someone to buy it from, so it will be mine soon. I am going to be crushed if it's not All That. What I really want to do is wrap with it for like a year then send it off to be converted into a Tula-type carrier. With ears. ;)
 
So yeah, babywearing. It's my jam. And Raegan really likes it because it means she gets to ride in the stroller. Silly girl.
 
 




Tummy Time

Ava really doesn't care for tummy time. I honestly don't know a single person who says, "Oh yeah, my baby loves tummy time." I've read that actually babies that are worn don't need as much tummy time because they are building neck strength from being in an upright position wrapped against you. And I totally believe that, because unless she's sleeping, Ava loves sitting up straight and looking around at everything while I wear her.
 
But I do make sure that she is getting some tummy time. Our Boppy pillow helps with that, because she doesn't have to do all the work herself and she can still see some things. Here's a few pictures I took of her in it the other day.
 
I added the bow to make it all "photography" like, but I should have thought about a better background. Oh well. :)
 


Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Milestones

Ava has discovered her hands during this past week. She's been sucking on them since day one, but this last week she's figured out how to reach out for other things. She will stare really intently at her toys for a while, then swat in their direction. Sometimes she makes contact and even grabs on. She loves the toys I've attached to her car seat and spends a lot of her time in the car staring intently at them and trying to get them.

Finally, she's starting to get into somewhat of a napping schedule. If I swaddle her before I feed her, she'll usually take a long morning nap. With picking up the kids in the afternoon, the swaddling doesn't always happen, so she'll usually take a few short afternoon cat naps and one early in the evening. For the last two nights Ava has slept through the night (until 5:00 or 6:00 a.m.) which just amazes me! I hope that this will keep up once I go back to work to make that transition a little easier. :)

Here's a few pictures of my gorgeous blue eyed girl....

 

 

 
 

Friday, May 16, 2014

Happy Baby

Ava has been changing and growing so much this month. She's such a happy baby - always giving us smiles. Sometimes she'll be starting to fuss about something (usually because she's getting hungry) and if she makes eye contact with one of us she'll stop fussing, give us a smile, then start fussing again. It's really cute.

Her eyes are definitely blue, and I think she's going to be a little blondie. Sometimes in certain lighting her hair has a tint of red to it, so maybe she'll be a strawberry blonde. She already has more hair than Raegan did at this age - it's coming in so fast now.

Ava is an amazing sleeper. She usually goes to sleep around 8:30, and I wake her up around 9:30 or 10:00 to eat. Then she'll sleep until 2:00 or 3:00, then go back to sleep until around 6:00. And on Mother's Day, she slept from 10:30-6:45! It was amazing - best Mother's Day present EVER!

Cloth diapers are still going great. No problems with washing, and Ava hasn't had a single diaper rash yet. I'm trying out some cloth wipes now (my husband officially thinks I'm insane) and I really like the solution I found at the cloth diaper store in Wichita. That place is amazing - so many choices for accessories. I am starting to understand why people end up with so many cloth diapers. I'm eyeballing some bamboo velour fitteds right now because I'm curious to try something new.

Selfie of me and my girlies from Mother's Day

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Update on the girls

Ava's 2 month check up was on April 24th. She was 9 lbs 12 oz (10 percentile for weight) and 23 1/2 inches (50th percentile for height.) Just like big sister was, and still is - tall and skinny. Doctor said she's not worried about her weight because she was 5th percentile at her 2 week appointment, so she's slowly moving up the curve. We know she has reflux, and we know that I have slow gaining babies. And Ava is alert and meeting milestones, so we'll just continue on with breastfeeding and she'll grow at her own pace.

I've been so blessed to have two amazing doctors when the girls are babies (Raegan's pediatrician was the best, but sadly she passed away when Raegan was 4 months old). It's so wonderful to have a doctor that understands breastfeeding and how breastfed babies gain weight, and who doesn't push formula on us. It's really important to me to have exclusively breastfed babies, and it helps to have a supportive doctor.

Ava has really just come alive in the last two weeks. She's started putting her hands in her mouth a lot, with a little bit of thumb sucking. She's starting trying to swat at and kick the toys in her play mat, and she looks at and tries to reach for the toy on her carseat handle. She smiles all the time, and we're starting get a lot of little "heh heh" laughs with her smiles. It's funny because sometimes she'll be upset (either tired or upset tummy) and she'll be mid fuss and make eye contact with one of us and start smiling. She'll smile real big then start fussing again during her smile. It makes me laugh every time.

Ava loves Big Sis and watches Raegan all the time. It takes me back to when Raegan was a baby and used to watch Zane all the time. Zane is really good with Ava too. He's such a good big brother.

Raegan is doing amazing with reading. She finished all of the beginning reader books at school and is able to read simple sentence books. She's starting to write a lot more, and will try to write out words with inventive spelling. It's really cute, and I know from my job that she's making progress in her writing development. I'm excited to see how far she goes next year doing kindergarten at Montessori school. The fact that she's staying at her school for kindergarten has helped keep all my feels about her going to kindergarten at bay. It's not quite as much, "Oh my baby!" as I think it would be if we were going to kindergarten round up and enrolling her in public school.

The egress window is FINALLY in, and Luke started painting this weekend. I'm hoping that by the end of the month we have all of the kids moved to their new rooms and there can be some order in the house again. I think that we could probably put Ava in her crib for at least part of the night once that room is hers, but I'm just not ready for that yet. She's doing a fantastic job of sleeping about half the night in her cradle in our room (something Raegan never did!) and she's so little still that I like having her close to me. Plus, I kind of like listening to her little snores and wuffles before I fall asleep at night. :)