Well, my girl is a growin'! We've gone past week six and now seven! During week 6 my midwife came over for our last appointment (we'll miss you Lisa!), and while here, she weighed Avery and she was up to 10 lbs 14 oz, which is up quite a bit from the 8 lbs she was at birth. Yeah Avery! Keep growing! As you can see from the pictures below, she has been filling out and just looking "older". As a result, I had to pack up some of her clothes since she can no longer fit into them! Here's the pile of all the adorable, sweet, newborn -size clothing that she can no longer wear. Boo hoo! (Thank so much to my friend Joy and Baby Karadyn for sharing most of these with Avery!). I think when the onesies start to pull down so much around her chest that they look like a "V-neck" or "scoop-neck" shirt, it's time to retire them to storage!
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| Goodbye newborn-size clothes! |
She is now primarily wearing "0-3 months" or "3 month" sizes, which makes it a little tricky to shop for because I'm not sure if I should buy her something in the 0-3 size that she'll only be able to wear for another week or two, or do I get 3-6 month size but have to wait a few weeks for her to fit into it? Ahhh, the joys of shopping for a growing baby! Now even though it's tricky to shop for her because she's growing so fast, I love that because it lets me know she's healthy and that my breastfeeding is doing "it's job"! The funny thing is that we have tons of onesies and outfits in the 6 month and 6-9 month range, so when that time hits we will have lots to choose from!
Moving on, here's some more of what we've been up to for the past two weeks. For starters, she's been interacting with us a lot and she seems to recognize our faces and voices. As you can tell, she's also been smiling a lot which has been so fun!
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| Yeah...smiling is my favorite. |
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| Dad knows how to get me smiling! |
Her legs have been getting stronger each day and when we hold her on our chest she tries very hard to use her legs and stand up. Here she is laying on a pillow and using her legs to push up. Once this girl starts crawling, I have a feeling she's going to be unstoppable!
Nothing really to talk about with this one, just a cute picture! Thanks for the dress Grandma Cheryl!
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| You guys like my dress? |
In the week 5 post I mentioned how she has been starting to make some babbling/cooing sounds and that continues to increase each day. A prime time to hear these sounds is during diaper changes with Daddy. As you can see below, it doesn't take much to get her excited when her Dad is around, he can just smile at her or make some baby sounds and "boom" she start kicking her legs, swinging her arms, and attempting to make some sounds! She also likes to make her sounds to her favorite panda from a book, and even to me first thing in the morning. They sound a bit like this: "agoo," "daa", "eww", and "anehh" just to name a few.
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| I love talking to my Dad! |
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| Panda makes me pretty happy too! |
Another fun change we've been noticing is that she's getting much stronger with her neck, shoulder, and arm muscles and as a result, she has much better control of her head. In fact, anytime she's on our chest, she will bring her hands together and push her head up to look at you. Granted, she's still a bit wobbly, but it's fun to see how much she's changed already. There's a similar pic of her laying on Brandon's chest the day after she was born in
this post, and it's fun to compare the two and see her growth.
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| Pushing up to see Daddy |
You can she her increased neck and upper body strength here during tummy time as she lifts her head and shoulders higher and higher...while looking at one of her favorite animal picture books. Aside from holding her head up higher, she can also hold it up longer, such as for several minutes at a time. It sure is crazy to see how much she changes in such a short amount of time. I can remember only a few weeks back when she was able to hold it up for 10-20 seconds and being so excited about that...and now she's up to several minutes!
Lately, tummy time has also morphed into "Book Time" and after we do some work on our tummy, I flip her over and she lays on her back as I read her some books. Her favorites seem to be animal books (like the one shown in the picture above), or other books with real pictures (especially things with black, white and red). Here you can see that she was quite happy during "Book Time" one day as she smiled at a page about farm animals.
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| This book is so fun! |
I meant to post back in week 5 that I had attempted something that took a lot of courage...I drove by myself with Avery in the car! Yes, I know that probably does not sound like that big of an accomplishment, especially for you moms out there with more than one kid. But for a new mom like myself, this was a big deal! In the earlier weeks I'd been out and driving with Avery, but always with my mom in the backseat with Avery ("Backseat Buddies" as we call them). But I knew the time would come when I would need to drive with her on my own. Basically I was worried that she'd be crying or upset and there would be nothing I could do to help her...to make matters worse, I couldn't even see her face since her car seat faces the backseat! This led me to Google things like: "Tips on driving in the car with an infant/newborn...". Unfortunately, there wasn't much advice out there, other than..."just hope they get used to it." And although there are some fancy mirrors you can buy, they seemed a bit complicated, and I wondered if they would just distract me even more from my driving.
One day I was tired of stressing about it, so I got up the courage, made sure she was fed, changed, and happy, and drove over to my parent's house (only 10-15 minutes away). How did she do? She did great...actually she fell asleep, but I'll take it! I think I talked to her so much that she fell asleep to tune me out-lol! Since then, I have way more confidence in driving with Avery by myself. I always try to make sure she's been fed, she has something to look at (like a soft little book I prop up in front of her or something hanging down from her car seat handle), and she seems to be happy. There's been a few times that she's got a bit fussy, but usually talking to her..."We're waiting at the stop light, when will it turn green?" "We're almost home and then we can see Daddy! Are you going give him a big smile? It's almost time to start cooking dinner, can you help me cook when we get home?" You get the idea...and this seems to help calm her down. On top of this I always crank up one of my favorite artists,
William Fitzsimmons, and she seems to really like it since his music is very chill and relaxing. Now I'm sure there may be times in the future when she's crying out of control or she grows out of "liking rides in the car" phase and when that happens I'll deal with it, but for now she's one happy, backseat-riding girl...and I'll take it!
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| I'm proud of my Mom! |
As I mentioned, one of the main places I drive to is my parents house, especially on Monday nights so we can watch
The Bachelorette (a tradition we've had for several years)! While there, Avery gets lots of love, hugs, and attention from my parents and my two brothers...as well as their two dogs! Here is one of their dogs, London, trying give Avery a "Hello Lick!"
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| Silly London! |
Here's my mom, or the "Backseat Buddy" I mentioned earlier...I don't know what I'd do with out her help, thanks mom!
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| Hanging out with Grandma Karen |
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| Sitting up with Mom. |
So that wraps up week 6 and 7...we'll be seeing you for week 8 real soon! ( :
Well, my girl is a growin'! We've gone past week six and now seven! During week 6 my midwife came over for our last appointment (we'll miss you Lisa!), and while here, she weighed Avery and she was up to 10 lbs 14 oz, which is up quite a bit from the 8 lbs she was at birth. Yeah Avery! Keep growing! As you can see from the pictures below, she has been filling out and just looking "older". As a result, I had to pack up some of her clothes since she can no longer fit into them! Here's the pile of all the adorable, sweet, newborn -size clothing that she can no longer wear. Boo hoo! (Thank so much to my friend Joy and Baby Karadyn for sharing most of these with Avery!). I think when the onesies start to pull down so much around her chest that they look like a "V-neck" or "scoop-neck" shirt, it's time to retire them to storage!
