7 weeks with Avery

Guess who is almost two months old already?! This adorable girl!

I can't believe how much my life has changed in the past two months! Have I mentioned how much I enjoy being this girl's mommy? Or how much I enjoy not being pregnant?? Besides having my little baby here now, it is so wonderful to eat normally and bend over comfortably and sleep flat on my back! I put this together awhile ago and keep forgetting to share. I can't believe how huge I was at the end!

The very best part of not being pregnant, of course, is that I get to hang out with this cute face all day. Being a mom has its perks when your baby is as sweet as this one.

Miss Avery is growing, growing, growing. She changes so much every day. She rarely stops moving and is always making noises. She coos and gurgles when she is happy, yells when she is mad, and grunts in warning before losing her cool entirely. She even giggles in her sleep, which is the cutest thing in the world.

Daddy had to go away for work recently. It was awful for all of us--those 7 days felt way longer than last year's deployment. Avery got sick the day he left, with a fever and lots of icky congestion. There was a lot of crying and not a lot of sleeping for either of us. As soon as daddy got back, she cuddled right up on him and fell asleep for a solid 3 1/2 hours. Paul was awesome and took care of Avery and most everything around the house for a few days so I could recover from my week of sleeping even less than usual. Avery didn't mind one little bit, because he is totally her favorite parent (she is holding onto some resentment toward me for sucking out her boogers and taking her temperature so often. It's a thankless job).

Our struggles with getting her to sleep have been getting drastically better thanks to tummy sleeping and a pacifier. I only let her sleep on her tummy during the day when I can watch her because she still likes to bury her face in whatever she is laying on (even though she is totally capable of moving her head from side to side). She sleeps for hours and hours on her tummy. I have been laying her down on her belly on the couch so I can watch her and get a few things done. Even though it isn't a solution for nighttime sleeping, it prevents her from getting overly tired during the day, which makes her easier to put down at night, and it is an improvement over having to hold her for all naps.

And as far as I'm concerned, the pacifier is the greatest invention of all time. This kid will fall asleep almost anywhere now, as long as we pop a paci in her mouth (IF she is sufficiently tired). It has revolutionized my entire life. It was a short road from "Well, only to get her to sleep," to, "Ok, and also when I shower...and in the car ... and at the grocery store...and whenever else she wants it." The best part is, I don't have to feed her to sleep. Or maybe the best part is the silent car trips. Or the freedom to go places in public without her crying the whole time. All this thanks to Avery's my new BFF, the pacifier. (She used to gag every time we offered it, but perseverance won the day ans she finally figured it out).

This isn't to say she is a great napper/sleeper now. Not by a long shot. She thinks a 10-minute snooze qualifies as a nap, fights sleep with a determination I have never seen in one so small, and still requires a lot of snuggles to get into a deep sleep. But we are making huge progress. She has slept totally on her own for 2 nights this week, and has made it from 7pm until 3-4am every night for the past two weeks (with snack breaks, of course). I think she could go the whole night but for her -apparently routine- 3am poop. She gets all riled up during her diaper change (I can't do poopy ones in the dark), especially if it requires an outfit change. She usually decides she might as well just stay up for a few hours, and putting her in bed with us is the only way to convince her otherwise ... although sometimes even that doesn't work. Sometimes we just start our day at 4am. 

(Thankless, I tell you).

 

Besides not taking naps, her favorite activities are playing in her baby gym, looking at herself in mirrors, reading stories, and taking baths. She also loves to just talk with us. She smiles, pants, and coos for us anytime we make eye contact with her.

Alright, enough of my babbling. Here are some more super cute pictures of our super sweet girl.