Baby Steps

Ava is sleeping through the night!!! She has been sleeping from about 10/10:30 pm to about 6:30-7:30 am :) We have her bassinet elevated because she is still a little stuffy, but she is doing great. Last night we moved her bassinet to the study as our transition area before she gets moved upstairs to her bedroom. She didn't mind at all and Patrick and I slept really well also! Our baby is getting so big already, it really does fly by :( Ava is so much more awake now, and so I have a few more pictures of her with her eyes open. I also think she is going to be a water baby, she loves her baths. If she is fussy, I get her in the tub and she settles right down, until I take her out!

Anna and McKenna are doing great in their swimming lessons. The process they go through is to swim from the instructor to the step without coming up for air at first and then they learn to float on their backs when they get to the instructor. Once they have that figured out, the plan is to have them flip on their back when they need air while swimming. Anna can swim and flip to her back to breathe without a problem, but she doesn't kick hard enough to swim again once she flips back over after breathing. McKenna is fighting the flipping to her back to breathe, but she is doing so much better on her swimming position, I think she will figure it out in no time. This makes me so much more comfortable with them being in the pool and at the lake, and the girls are having so much fun - they are going to be disappointed when we stop lessons. Patrick and I are going to be at the community pool and Grandma and Grandpa Clerkin's pool a lot this summer :) This Friday, we are going to a 'kindergarten outing' in our neighborhood for all of the kids starting kindergarten in the fall. I think it will be lots of fun, and it will be great to meet all of the kids and parents that will be in Anna's class.

Quick Update

With 3 little ones it was bound to happen, so we have decided to share germs and get both McKenna and Ava sick this weekend. McKenna has croup which kept her (and Patrick and I) up most of Thursday night. We took her to the dr. on Friday and they also found she has an ear infection. She is on medication and has the humidifier going full steam in her bedroom. Since she loves to give kisses to Ava, I was afraid it would be passed on and without a doubt, Ava was up snorting and choking on phlegm all Friday night. Patrick and I are both is such great moods from lack of sleep which is such a shame with the weather being so wonderful this weekend. Everyone seems to be feeling better today and we are armed with steam showers and saline nasal spray, so hopefully we will all get some sleep tonight. Please cross your fingers that Anna stays healthy and that McKenna and Ava sleep well.

Ava was up to 8 lbs 4 oz today (6 weeks 1 day) and we were able to get Dr. B to move our 2 month appointment back to her 2 month birthday, the office originally scheduled us for late May, but Dr. B 'moved some things around' and got us in on the 7th. That makes me happy since I like to keep the appointments as close to their actual dates as possible so I don't forget them! Take care and enjoy this weekend :)

A Time of firsts

A lot has happened since the last post... Ava celebrated her 1 month birthday, her umbilical cord fell off, so she got her first real bath, Anna and McKenna started swimming lessons and Anna registered for Kindergarten! Time is moving fast and I can't believe my 'baby' is going off to kindergarten. She is really excited about it and wanted to know what her teachers name is, but we won't find that out until the week before school starts.

Anna and McKenna's swimming lessons are going really well, they only go for 10 minutes a day each, but they are private lessons. They are both putting their heads under the water really well, and are actually swimming on their own. We aren't ready for the Olympics yet, but they are getting there!

Ava has been enjoying her real baths and is looking forward to getting to go in the swimming pool, but it is no where near warm enough for me to get in the pool yet, so she will have to wait awhile longer.

My friend Katie, her daughter Charlotte (6 months) and her mom came by today and we had a nice visit. Anna and McKenna were at the sitters, so it was just the babies. It is hard to believe that Charlotte and Ava will be in school together - 6 months makes a huge difference when they are babies. Charlotte was an absolute peach while she was here, just smiling and talking away.

Sleep...all I can say is that Anna and McKenna are sleeping really well :) Ava has been really hit or miss - one night she slept for 10 hours and then the next 2 she is up every 3 to 4 hours. Since she goes back to sleep after she eats pretty quickly it isn't too bad, but I am a little worried about what will happen when I go back to work - those long nights will take their toll. I only have about 2 weeks until I go back, so I am just enjoying my time home and we will figure out the sleeping schedule thing when I go back! 'til next time...

4 Weeks Old!

I am a day late, but Ava is 4 weeks old!!! Time has really flown by, and I can't believe half of my maternity leave is over :( We were at the doctor yesterday, and I thought we were going to get Ava's umbilical cord stump removed, but instead Dr. B just re-cauterized it saying that there was still too much blood flow for it to come off yet. Supposedly, it will fall off sometime this week, which I really hope for so that we can give her a proper bath. While we were at the dr., she got weighed - 7 lbs 8 oz! She is growing and doing really well. We have had a couple of nights of good sleep (the picture is of her in her bassinet, see she does sleep there sometimes :) and she is continuing to be more awake during the day. Anna and McKenna still want to hold her and feed her all the time and McKenna has started to 'mommy' Ava even more. Most recently, when Ava is crying in the car, McKenna will hold her hand and make 'shhing' noises and softly say 'It's okay Ava, we are almost there'. It is really cute, and it sometimes even works to quite her down.

My biggest hurdle to get over for the month of April is that we will be registering Anna for kindergarten in a little over a week! I can't believe that she is going to start kindergarten this year, I still remember her being in the NICU like it was yesterday, it doesn't seem possible that she is going to be 5 in July. She is really excited about school and keeps telling me that she can't wait to go to kindergarten. McKenna would also like to start at Isbell this year, and doesn't understand why Anna gets to and she can't. It will make the logistics of the morning that much more interesting on days when Anna has to go to school, McKenna goes to preschool and Ava will either be with grandma or the sitter - we will see what time Patrick and I make it to work!

I am off to try and finish the drapes for Ava's room - maybe they will be finished by the time we move her to her own room...

And so it begins...

Anna and McKenna have managed to completely freak Patrick out this week by 'pretending to kiss their boyfriends'!!! I couldn't figure out what they were doing the other day - making kissing noises, then saying 'yuck'. When I asked them, they matter of factly told me that they were pretending to kiss their boyfriends - yikes. I thought we had several more years before we had to think about boys at all - at least they thought it was yucky. Patrick's response - 'I guess I need to go get a gun license!'

The girls and I have been hanging out this week - school, playdates and going to work. On Monday, Anna and McKenna went to Jessica's house and Ava and I went up to my office. It was great fun to see everyone at the office and Way-Way and Claire (7 weeks old) were up there as well, so the babies hung out for a little bit. It was amazing to see the difference a month can make - Claire was holding her head up really well and focusing on objects pretty far away - they grow up so fast!

Today we had a playgroup at our house and some of the moms and kids from a playgroup that we started when Anna was born came over. 4 moms, 10 kids - talk about being outnumbered! It was great to see how big all of those kids have gotten and to talk to the moms - I forget how quickly I miss grown up conversation, and I have only been home for less then 4 weeks. We also got to meet Isla for the first time - she is 7 days older than Ava and a beauty just like her older sisters, Gemma and Zara. Thanks for coming over everyone, the girls had a great time.

Ava has been sleeping much better this week. Most, if not all of the night, she has been sleeping in her bassinet for at least 4 hours between feedings. Patrick was out of town Monday night and she slept from 9:30pm to 3:30am! That would have been even more wonderful if Anna hadn't chosen that morning to wake up at 4:45, so I still didn't get much sleep :( Patrick was back in town last night, but didn't get home until about 1am, so Ava decided to wake up at 1:30 and then again at 5:30 - I think Patrick is trying to plan more trips so he gets a full nights sleep!

The girls got new robes from one of their great aunt and uncle - they are supposed to be for getting out of the pool, but the girls wanted to wear them so badly we just used them for getting out of the tub.