Thanks sister!

I got a blog award!  Thanks to my sister at Between the Fenceposts for giving it to me!  :-)  Hopefully in a few days I'll be able to pass it on!

About Ava Grace...

3 Weeks...

She loves to stay awake.  I thought all newborns slept through anything and slept all day... not our girl!  She likes to be awake and she is a light sleeper!

She loves to eat!  Four ounces every time!

She is already growing like crazy.  Her toes now fit into the little footies of her newborn sized clothes!  I have a feeling we only have a couple more weeks in newborn size clothes and diapers.

She smiles more and more and seems to attempt to smile at us, but mostly it's still involuntary and often in her sleep!  So sweet!

She still eats every three hours, but has started to occasionally stretch to four, especially at night.

She gets man size hiccups at least 3 times a day - especially at night!  I expected this, as towards the end of my pregnancy she got the hiccups at least once every single night!

When she's swaddled, she knows it's bed time.

She is sweet as pie.

She smells so good.  A friend of mine was telling me that her friend had blogged about her newborn and said that newborn smell must be what the breath of Jesus smells like!  I thought that was beautiful and poetic and must be true!

She is such a GOOD baby!

Two weeks...

Ava Grace really started settling into a schedule this past week!  She usually stays awake between at least 2 daytime feedings and she sleeps great at night!  She eats every three hours like clockwork, and we really enjoy the reliability of that!  This week she still had to have sponge bath's, even though her umbilical stump finally fell off!  I was kind of freaking out aboutherittlestump before it fell off because it looked sore and was bleeding a little and I wanted it to fall off when her Daddy was here so I wouldn't have to deal with it by myself.  Her little belly button cooperated!  Early last Sunday morning Ava Grace woke up for her breakfast and I got her out of the bassinet and brought her to bed with us to feed her and snuggle!  We were piled in the bed watching TV and playing with AG!  She spit up a little on our sheets and then when I changed her diaper she peed on the sheets too (lol)!  Soo... we all got up and as we were climbing out of bed to strip the sheets we noticed her little cord was gone!  We looked and looked and couldn't find it anywhere!  Late Sunday night I stepped on it in the bedroom floor and said, "Ava Grace!  I found your belly button!!"  lol

The pediatrician cauterized the place where her little stump fell off on Monday... he said it'd make for a pretty belly button and help it heal up super fast, but no tub baths til the end of the week!  This resulted in a couple more sponge baths - NOT her favorite!  What do you think about those eyes.... blue? brown?  What will they be?

I have been waiting to have her newborn photos until her belly button heals up, 'cause I want some cute naked baby pictures!  ;-)  We'll get those taken this week, but I had to take some cute week 2 shots of our little angel!

She is the softest, sweetest thing EVER!

I love her tiny fingers...

...and tiny toes (my favorite)!

Week 1...

WOW!

I couldn't believe the day my baby turned one week old!  How could time fly by so fast!  I was going to be so good about documenting everything and posting on the blog and taking pictures!  Turns out it's harder to balance all that and enjoy soaking it up too!  Time is flying by, and our little angel will be THREE weeks old in just a couple short days, but I still wanted to document week 1...

At the one week mark we started seeing those bright eyes more often!  We can already tell she's growing so fast!  Her eyes are still dark gray, and we can't wait to see if they turn blue or brown!! 

 Ava Grace discovered her love-hate relationship with her swing!  She loves it, but she hates that it makes her fall asleep! lol  She already fights sleep because she doesn't want to miss anything!

Her first week, she did lots of napping in her Moses basket.  We can already tell that she's going to outgrow it quickly, but for now it's a very convenient place her for to nap during the day when we are all in the living room!

The only hitch is that she's still a side-sleeper and the bumper in the basket makes us a little nervous, so we make sure to keep a really close eye on her when she's in there!  :-)  She likes to stare at the polk-a-dots though! 

We also broke out the play mat!  She has really enjoyed laying on it!  We caught a little smile in the above shot - she's been smiling more and more - but we're pretty sure it's involuntary and associated with gas bubbles! lol

The play mat makes a good place to naps too!  She's not too picky, when she finally crashes, she'll nap just about anywhere!  ;-)

Ava Grace is such a good baby!  She almost never cries.  She doesn't mind being laid down awake to "play" most of the time, but she LOVES to be held!  She's just the most precious think and we are so thankful to have her in our lives!

Just a few days old...

From:  Ava Grace

I was so excited to get to come home from the hospital.  Daddy couldn't get me out of there fast enough - he was so ready to take me home.  I think my Mommy was a little scared to take me home... she wanted to stick around at the hospital where there were nurses ready to help with anything.  She didn't need to worry much 'cause the very next day...

...we were back at the hospital!  :-)  Not in a bad way though.  I was a little jaundice and so Grandmommy had to take me and Mommy to my pediatrician while Daddy took my big sister to her cheerleading.  When we got done at the pediatricians we had to go to the hospital to have my labs done.  Thankfully, my levels weren't high enough to require action - just lost of eating and going potty to clear me up and then back to check it again on Monday!  The picture above is me on the way to the pediatrician's office... I hadn't discovered my strong dislike of the car seat yet.  ;-)

I did, however, get a chance to discover my strong dislike of bath time!  Oh my word!  It's freezing when you're all wet with no clothes on!  I was starting to think my family was a little crazy!

But then I got some extra snuggle time in my favorite spot and that made it okay!  This is Daddy's special spot for me... and when I get upset, Mommy hands me off and I get all snuggled down in Daddy's arm and it calms me right down every time!  I think every little girl needs a special snuggle spot like mine!

 See?  Here I am again in my special spot!  And check out my outfit - it says Daddy's Cutie... I thought that was pretty appropriate!

When I am not snuggling during the day, I love to be in my Moses Basket!  This way I get to be right in the mix with everyone... even if I'm taking a cat nap.  Oh, and if you are wondering how I got on my side, rest assured that I did it all by myself!  Mommy and Daddy are determined to lay me on my back, but I much prefer my side!  Mommy says I'm her little side-sleeper, and she's right!

Here's my first "real" visit to the pediatrician!  I checked out healthy as could be with some good weight gain and everything!  They made me be naked there too - brrr!!  Thank goodness for Daddy and his warm snuggles!

Whew!  All this in just one short week was a lot!  I am taking my world in every day and already learning so many new things!  I have also met so many special people!  It tires me out just thinking about it!  I better catch another nap...

...hopefully I can find my thumb again.  I have a hard time keeping my paci in my mouth, but I sure do enjoy it... oh, but when I can get my thumb... that's good stuff!  I had my hands in my face in all of Mommy's ultrasounds, but I can't seem to get my fingers where I want them!  This is the only time I was able to get it to all work together, but I'll keep practicing!

See y'all soon!

Love,

Ava Grace Hooper

Lots of firsts...

Ava Grace's first couple of days held lots of firsts for her...

First official photo shoot! 

 Firs hearing test - passed!

First time putting on real clothes - whew - that was a worrisome workout for Mommy!  Good thing Daddy changes clothes and diapers at lightening speed! lol

First visit with Megan and Web... and... 

...first visit with Lauren too! 

Meeting big sis for the first time!

Lily said, "I like her!  Let's keep her!" LOL

They are already big buddies! 

Her first couple days included lots of bonding time with Mommy and Daddy, of course!

We also learned for the first time that her face was not bruised during delivery as we first thought.  After a clean up in the nursery and a good night's sleep, we found out that she has a birthmark on her face.  It's a port wine stain that is most likely JUST a birthmark, but on rare occasions can be associated with a couple of syndromes.  We'll be checking into that soon and also the procedure to have it removed by laser at some point.  In the mean time, we call it her extra sweet spot and she gets LOTS of extra kisses on that very sweet face!

We sure do love our little monkey!

Meeting Ava Grace

It's hard to believe that a week has passed since we met our sweet Ava Grace.  It's hard to express this feeling - although I am sure all you mommies out there relate!  I feel like she was just in my belly yesterday and now she's already a week old!  I wish time would stand still!  This explains why I haven't blogged yet... I have been recovering and soaking up every moment, but now I want to share with you the story of Ava Grace's arrival!

Last Tuesday, January 10th, I had a regularly scheduled OB appointment.  As you know, I had been on bed rest and Dr. Hamrang was seeing me every 4 or 5 days for ultrasounds and to check our progress.  Although progress was slow... and I mean S-L-O-W... Ava Grace was growing like crazy in her warm little hot tub in my belly!  On Tuesday, we found me still at only 1 cm and she still hadn't dropped much - her station was -3 (stations start at -5 which is totally up in my belly, to 0 which is in the middle of my pelvis, and all the way to 5 which is crowning).  My ultrasound Tuesday estimated that Ava Grace would weigh over 8 lbs, though.  With this consideration, even thought my doctor considered me "just on the edge of inducible," she decided it was better to take her.  Imagine our surprise when the nurse came back and said, "Do y'all have plans for tomorrow?  How'd you like to have this baby?"  We were thrilled!  Excited!  Nervous!  The whole bit!  My induction was scheduled for Wednesday, January 11, 2012.  We went to the hospital to pre-register and then out for a steak dinner - my last meal!  :-)

After trying to get a good night's sleep we got up to a VERY rainy morning!  We took one last belly shot (26 lbs total weight gain... I was shooting for 25 or less, so I was pretty satisfied) and headed for the hospital.

After arriving at the hospital at 5:30 AM they wasted no time in trying to get my labor started!  They began IV fluids, an antibiotic drip, and pitocin.  Every 15 minutes they upped the pitocin and my body responded with mild contractions.  By 9:30 Dr. Hamrang had been by to check me and break my water.  I stayed at 1.5 cm and my contractions picked up.  Although I considered them painful, doctor Hamrang said I had still not achieved active labor.  I asked for my epidural and continued to crank up the pitocin.  I must pause here and say, THANK YOU LORD for epidurals!  There are no words for how wonderful that thing is!  It hurt like fire going in, but it was so worth it!  It was around 2 or 3 in the afternoon before I achieved active labor, but by that point I couldn't feel a thing.  Unfortunately my body still wasn't responding too well - I was still sitting around 80% and 2 cm and still station -2... s-l-o-w going!  Around 5:00 we still weren't making much progress and by 6:00 we were only at 5 cm and Dr. Hamrang began to think about a c-section.  She told me she would give me one more hour and if I didn't make drastic change in that hour, she was going to go ahead and take her.  Around 7 I started feeling pressure and by 7:15 Dr. Hamrang came in to check me!  She lifted the sheet and said, "Wow, there she is, I can see her!"  I had gone from 5cm and not much else to 10cm, 100%, and station 3 in just an hour and we were ready to push! Once she decided to come, she came fast and at 7:55 we met our Ava Grace!

She had a rough trip through the birth canal and came out so smooshed!  She came through my pelvis at an angle and had a crazy looking, sideways cone head, a smooshed ear, and what we thought was a big bruise on her face (more on that later), but we didn't care - we still thought she was the most beautiful little girl we'd ever seen and knew she was perfect in every way!

She weighed in at 7 lb 6 oz and 20 inches long!  Her Daddy was the best coach ever - he was there for my every need and helped during labor by holding my very numb leg and feeding me ice!  My mom assisted on the other side with my other very numb leg!  Both were as excited as I was to meet our sweet girl, and I do mean sweet!  Even after her rough trip into this world, she didn't even cry!  It scared her dad and I to death, but they assured us she was pink and perfect!  Her apgar was a 9  and she was just happy to be with us and so alert!  After a clean up and some bonding time, we brought in grandparents to meet the new addition!

Here are Ava Grace and Papaw (my daddy) meeting for the first time!  Yes, she is taking it all in and making eye contact - she stayed awake and alert like this for a couple of hours after her birth and never cried the whole time!

Mimi (Chris' mom) was next, and then..

her Pap (Chris' dad).

Grandmommy was my delivery room assistant and photographer, so she had already "met" Ava Grace upon arrival, but hadn't actually held her until this picture was taken.  I know these two will be inseperable!

So that's the story of how our sweet girl arrived.  It was a very big  and special day.  There really are not words I can type here to convey our feelings, but rest assured we are thrilled and head over heels in love with this tiny little person.

Thank you, Lord, for choosing us to be her parents - we feel blessed beyond measure and overcome with joy and love.