Weekend

We had a very busy weekend with lots of visitors here to see Ava. Erin & Kevin came up from Des Moines on Friday evening and spent the night with us. Luckily Ava had a good evening and wasn't fussy all night long. Nate reffed on Sat. morning and then Nate (Voight), Meredith, and Jackson came to visit in the afternoon. Grandma and Grandpa Veldman came over to see them and Ava as well. Jackson will be a year old at the end of May and is such a big boy. It's hard to believe that in less than a year Ava will be crawling around like that and standing (at least we hope she is). Sat. evening was another evening of fussiness. We got little sleep, and it didn't help that it was daylight savings time so we lost an hour. I'm wondering when my body is going to adjust to living on four hours of broken up sleep a night.

We got up and headed to church on Sunday morning. Of course I couldn't keep Miss Ava awake long enough to feed her. I'm assuming she was exhausted from crying for half the evening. We headed home after church and Matt and Kelly, Mo, and Uncle Wes came to visit. The boys watched the Gopher game while I snuck in a 30 minute nap. I was able to take a short walk around the block, it was absolutely beautiful out!!! I love the extra hours of daylight and am looking forward to more warm days so I can take Ava out.

Nate headed back to work this morning. I was up feeding Ava when he left for the gym. I felt bad sending him off to work. It was so nice that he was able to spend those first two weeks at home with us. They just went by way to quickly! I'm sure that he'll look forward to seeing his little girl when he gets home.


He'll also be greeted by my sister, Reece, and Zackery when he gets home. They are currently on their way up here from Des Moines to spend a few days. Zackery will be meeting Ava for the first time, and Reece is evidently already in love with her as he wouldn't go to bed last night until he got to see her picture on the computer. It will be nice to see them all!



Well I should finish getting ready before Ava wakes up again. I need to take advantage of the time that she is sleeping. Hope that you are all able to get out and enjoy these nice warm days!

Taking a nap after church

2 Weeks Old

Ava is now two weeks old and the honeymoon is over! Last evening was a very trying evening in our house. Ava spent the afternoon/evening Screaming. From about 2:30-10:30 last night she spent most of the time screaming except for when she was eating and an occasional few minutes of peaceful silence. I think that her tummy was a big ball of gas. We gave her Mylicon drops but that didn't seem to help much. She got two baths last night; one was planned, the other was due to a major "blow out" that went up her back. She finally fell asleep on Nate's chest about 10:30 last night. She was so exhausted from crying all evening that she slept until 3:00 when I woke her up to change her and feed her. She was back to bed a little after 4:00 and then got up at 7:00. So, at least we were able to get some sleep last night. I'm praying that we don't have a repeat performance of yesterday this evening. Erin and Kevin are driving up from Des Moines this afternoon to spend the night with us so that they can meet Ava. I informed Ava that she is having company and we would all appreciate a nice quiet evening together. We'll see if she cooperates.

We've had a fairly busy week. Monday Lisa and Craig came to visit. Ava was on her best behavior. They were up visiting from Kansas City and we were so glad that they were able to come by to meet her. It's always great to see them and hard to say good-bye. Oh how we wish they didn't live so far away! We thank them for taking the time to come over when they had such a long drive ahead of them. Tuesday we took Ava for a weight check at the Dr. She weighed in at 8 lbs 4 oz, which was good. They wanted her back up to her birth weight by 2 weeks so we were right on track. We did a little shopping at the mall and then went to visit Grandma Veldman at work. Everybody just loved her. I hope that little girl doesn't get a big head. All she ever hears is how beautiful and precious she is. :) We spent Wednesday at home, which was nice. We had things to get done, like cleaning bathrooms and working on thank yous. Nate was very helpful and cleaned the upstairs bathrooms (that is my job, so I was very grateful when I found him doing it). Nate went to a basketball game that night while Ava and I stayed home. She was kind of fussy and I didn't want to take her to a game that was going to be super loud if she was already not a happy child. Yesterday we ventured to downtown Minneapolis to have lunch with Uncle Wes. She slept through lunch which was very nice for us, but was ready to eat by the time we were getting ready to leave Target. Shortly after that, the screaming began.

As for this weekend, Nate is reffing Sat. morning and we'll be having visitors in the afternoon. We're hoping for a nice weekend together before Nate heads back to work on Monday. It will be strange not having him around. These past two weeks have gone by so quickly.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

The weekend

We had a very nice weekend at home. Saturday Ang came over and took Ava's pictures, I posted some of them below so that you can have a sneak peak. She looks so precious (of course I'm a bit biased). If I could I would have her pictures taken daily. I just don't want to forget these days where she is so little. I know that the days to come will be fun and exciting though too, as she will begin to interact more. But right now I just love holding my little angel and enjoying all her little fingers, toes, her mouth, nose, etc.

Sunday morning we ventured out to church, which we did make on time. Grandma Veldman and Uncle Wes made sure that she wasn't neglected and held her the whole time wrapped up nice and warm in her blanket. After church Nate, Ava, and I headed to the airport to pick up Grandma and Grandpa Becker as they returned home from DC. We went back to our place where both sets of grandparents and Uncle Wes were so that we could have lunch and visit. It was nice to see Grandma & Grandpa Becker again, even if it was for just a few hours. They love to snuggle her! We'll be looking forward to seeing them again at Easter.

Today we will be heading to the Dr. for another weight check. The feedings have been going much better the past 24 hours. Ava seems to figure out how to latch on much quicker, which makes feedings go much more quickly and smoothly. She's constantly wet and dirty, which makes me believe that she's getting enough food. Yesterday we had our first "blow out" which was quite a mess and not very lady like. At least we know her bowels are working I guess. She slept like a champ last night, from 10:40-2:15, and then back up again at 5:45. I hope that this continues!!!

That's all for today. Thanks for checking in on us. I hope that you enjoy the pictures as much as I do!

1st bottle

Ava was unfortunately introduced to the bottle this morning. She woke up at 6:00 am for a feeding. After an hour of trying to get her to latch on I was in tears and extremely frustrated. I decided to just pump and had Nate try to give it to her via the bottle. She sucked it right down! I told her not to get used to it because that was hopefully a one time occurance for quite awhile. I was hoping to not introduce the bottle until she was 3 or 4 weeks old. Once again I am reminded that I'm not totally in control. There is now another princess living in this house! :)

Ava had her first photo shoot today. She was a rock star once she finally got a full belly and a clean diaper. Our friend Ang (angelacourtneyphotography.com) came over to the house for Ava's 1 week pictures (actually 9 days, but that's the soonest we could get her). We are anxious to see them and share them with everybody. Below are the pictures of her when she really was one week old.

Tomorrow is going to be a full day. Grandma and Grandpa Becker fly in from Washington DC and we're going to pick them up at the airport after church. We'll see if we can get to church on time now that we have a newborn. I feel like the mornings fly by on a normal day, so hopefully we can get some sleep and be up and out of the house by 8:45 am. Grandma & Grandpa will come over for lunch and then head back to IA tomorrow afternoon. Grandma & Grandpa Veldman and Uncle Wes are planning on coming over as well. Hopefully there will be time for a nap at some point. The days have been flying by with little time for naps...I'm not sure where all the time goes (I feel like most of it goes to breastfeeding).

1 Week Old

It's hard to believe that it's already been one week since we went to the hospital and our sweet angel was born. I know it's only a week, but it makes me sad...I feel like she's already getting to old. She's taught us a few things about taking care of a newborn in the past week. Nate has learned that when bringing Ava into the bathroom for her bath that he should wait to take her diaper off until he reaches the bathroom. Last night I was running her bath water and he brought her in. All of a sudden he's yelling that she's peeing. There he stood with pee running down his arms and his shirt. I had to laugh. And I've learned that when she poops, she may need a few minutes to finish up. During her 3:30 am feeding the other night we went through 4 diapers in 20 minutes. Lessons learned!

Ava had a visit from a home care nurse on Tuesday. This is something that I had requested upon leaving the hospital, just for piece of mind. The nurse was concerned that she may be a bit jaundice so we moved our doctor's appt. up to Wednesday instead of today. I was glad that we did, since she had been sleeping so much (a blessing and a curse, since I worry about everything) I was worried that her bili level might be high. Unfortunately our pediatrician was in Hudson, WI that day so Ava had her first out of state trip yesterday. Nate was not impressed that her first trip out of state was to WI. Anyway, we met our pediatrician and I absolutely love her. They checked Ava's bili level and it came back at 11, which was not concerning to the Dr. We did however do a little sunbathing in the window for the past couple of days just to help (since her level was 5.4 at the hospital). She did wake up a couple of times for feedings last night (the previous two nights I had to wake her up). So, I'm hoping that we might just be blessed with a beautiful little girl who likes to sleep at night. Nate has been very lucky, as he has not had to get out of bed in the middle of the night since she has come home.

The sun has been shining here and the temps are right around 40 degrees. We decided that most of the ice had melted on the streets so we loaded Ava up in the "Baby Bjorn" and headed out for our first walk around the block tonight. It was so nice for me to get some fresh air. She slept through the whole thing, and stayed nice and warm against Nate's chest, covered by his coat. She was also sporting her bear hat that Mike & Kristi gave her. I'll be looking forward to more warm weather so we can spend more time outside.

Getting ready for Ava's first walk outside today

More pictures

Honestly, what did you expect? Of course we're going to have tons of pictures of her. Hope you enjoy! :)

Ava's first time in the swing

Getting ready to head out to the mall. She already looks so big!

Little miss Sleeping Beauty

Pictures

Reece checking out "Baby"

Virg, Bruce, & Sara made the trip from IA on Sunday to visit

Grandpa & Grandma Becker when we arrived home

Lots of family from IA greeted us when we got home from the hospital