5 months old

Ava is 5 months old today! I can hardly believe it---I think I say that every month! I was able to spend the day with her today since our babysitter and her daughter are both sick. It was a fun day even though we didn't really do anything special. I just enjoyed spending the day with her. Each and every day her personality comes out more and more - as I think you can see from her facial expressions in some of these pictures. She is starting to giggle more and continues to LOVE her voice. We went to dinner tonight and she was 'screaming' almost the whole time and I don't mean crying. It probably doesn't help that I make silly noises all the time with her and we scream and sing. She is also more and more interested in her toys and really grabs things and inspects them---including her feet. She is infatuated with them and has started chewing on them! She is ABOUT to roll over from her back to belly but most of the time she will just do 360s until she can get to something. I still don't think she loves her belly so hopefully she'll eventually do it on her own. :-)

I. Love. Her.

Trying to eat her ducky...





What a big girl!

Cousins

The cousins!
Ava, Reddington, Dasani




Ava and Reddington were having a blast apparently 'inspecting' each other! Hopefully Ava's not going to be a hair puller but she does already like to grab ANYTHING!



Please excuse her outfit. This was the end of a LONG day---she'd lost her headband and her dress by this point. :)

Rader Pumpkin Patch - Take 2

Travis and I decided to take Ava to the Pumpkin Patch again since it was such a nice day yesterday. We actually bought some pumpkins too so that was fun! I'm happy with how the pics turned out.


Boo!

Nothin like layin in the dirt! She didn't seem to mind!

Yep--that's right. 24 inches!

I LOVE FALL!!

hmmmmmm...Not sure how great this will taste, but let me try it out!

On our way home. I think she is thinking "Are we done now???????"

Playing with some of our purchases. :)

Spoon River Drive

The first weekend in October is the Bettis girls annual trip on the Spoon River Drive. This year it was me, Megan, Mom, Bridgett and my friend Anne, who I consider like a sis! We always have fun no matter what and are always looking for a photo op. I actually really like how the picture of me with the hat turned out, thanks to Bridgett's 'vision.'



I decided to take some fun photos of all of the RANDOM things we encountered on our trip. Wow! These were just a few. My favorite is still the SHOUPIES mainly because I said "Wow! Look at all of those Sharpies for just a $1!" And Anne replied, "No, Steph, those are SHOUPIES!" haha!




It was a little chilly but it gave us a chance to fashion some of our new winter attire!

Fall Pics by Lori

Going out of order here but I HAD to put our fall pics on. We went to Taylorville last weekend so Lori could take our fall photos, as well as hang out with the Bettis Fam for a cookout. I am in love with them all!!!!!!!!!!!!
Spoon River Drive and Rader's Pumpkin Patch - take 2 - coming up!

Lauren and "ABA"

Here are some super cute pics of Ava and Lauren. Lauren is Kim's daughter, my good friend that I met at Fairview several years ago. She is a 1st grade teacher there and our girls go to Jeanne's together. Lauren will be 2 in December. She loves her ABA! If she gets to Jeanne's first, she always greets Ava at the door and has named her dolly's Aba, too. She loves her---when her mommy isn't paying too much attention to her. :-)

I especially love the picture that Lauren is pointing to Ava's bow. So cute! Check out Ava's patchy 'do! :)

Rader Pumpkin Patch

We met Laura and Dave in our Childbirth classes while we were both pregnant. We never exchanged numbers or anything and though Laura was due 5 weeks after me, she ended up having Izzy 2 days after me. Travis ran into her at the hospital as we were leaving - just by chance! We're so glad or else we wouldn't have hooked back up. Since then, we've kept in contact and have gotten together a few times. Yesterday we went to lunch at Moe's (YUM!) and then took the girls to Rader's Pumpkin Patch. It was C.O.L.D.!!!!!! but we had fun. We got a few pics anyway and I thought Ava looked super cute in her 'So Cute It's Scary' outfit even if her ski hat didn't match! :)

Quirky Girl

I LOVE this picture! The other night I put Ava in her bathrobe after her bath to take some pictures. I loved how this one turned out--my total favorite! Then I had Lori do some touching up to make it look a little more 'professional.' :-) Then I had some fun on picnik.

Revelation!

Thanks to everyone that has listened to all of my questions and thoughts on Ava's sleeping habits. This morning I had a REVELATION!

Being a parent brings upon so many questions and doubts---'why is she doing this or that, is this what's best for her, why won't she do this?' etc. I've realized you have to go with your 'gut' feeling. You know what is best. You can't compare your child to anyone else's child. Each baby is their own person--unique and special in their own way. It may be hard to hear that so and so's baby is sleeping through the night or that so and so's 3 year old is 'already reading' but you can't let any of those things bring you down or make you feel like you aren't doing your job. :) I've realized that once you REALIZE all of that and accept it, it is then that you will really be able to be the best parent you can be. It is so true. All babies are different. They are little people and that's just how people are, right? Different.

My revelation happened this morning when Jeanne asked how Ava's night was--if it was better. It really got me to thinking as I answered saying "Well, it's not that she's not sleeping well, it's that she is getting up once in the night to eat." Jeanne asked what time she was going to bed and as we were discussing I realized something. #1 Ava is going to bed at 8pm and sleeping until almost 2am (6 hours) and that in itself is great!! Like I mentioned in my last post, she is also taking TWO - 2 hour naps during the day where she goes to sleep in a crib on her own. So I'm thinking little Miss Ava doesn't have any sleeping issues. It was ME that had an issue feeling like 'why is everyone else's baby sleeping through the night by this time' or having these preconceived notions of what should be happening.

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't want her to get in the habit of waking up at night to eat but I am thinking with the introduction of some baby food, hopefully her little tummy will start getting more full for longer and hopefully her 2am feeding will turn into 3am, 4am, 5am, and eventually disappear! :) I've realized that if she isn't hungry and is just waking up, the paci or her blanket works to put her back to sleep and if it doesn't work, then she is hungry. Dr. Emm also didn't ask what time she was going to bed so I think all of those things factor in. I admit it. I was feeling like 'by now' she should be sleeping 12 hours (haha) and what is wrong that she isn't.

I doubt this is the ONLY time I will have to stop and remember that Ava is her own little person - special and unique - and will do things on her own time! I am very blessed to have such a sweet, happy baby. She is definitely her daddy's girl. Smiley all the time. And at least Travis and I are aware of things that could lead to bad habits and we'll try anything to help our little girl.

4 month Appointment

Ava had her 4 month appointment last Friday with Dr. Emm. She is doing great! A healthy 13 pounds 11 ounces and 24 inches long. Her head is still in the 90% :-) She is a happy baby and is really getting into a nice routine at Jeanne's - taking two 2 hour naps a day. She also takes a little catnap at about 5pm each day. Dr Emm said that since she has had formula (I'm still pumping but I can't quite keep up!), we can continue the rice cereal but also start solids. Fun!! We started with peas----the first night she actually seemed to like them but every other night since she literally gags when I put them in her mouth. Too funny! Travis and I both hate peas.


I am still awaiting the night she sleeps THROUGH the night, however. I'm in such total debate about what to do about it. Is it an issue?, I don't know. When I mentioned it to Dr. Emm, he asked "Are you feeding her?" I said, "Yes." He said that she is old enough and big enough (he said he would not have said this at 2 months) to not have a middle of the night feeding. He also said if I want to get more sleep in the long run, I should not feed her in the middle of the night, however, it is my choice and he can't tell me what to do. The getting up doesn't bother me because she nurses and is back in her crib quickly. I just don't want her to be eating out of habit so the real question is "Is she hungry?"

She has also been going to sleep much earlier - in her crib asleep around 8pm, which is still going great. She goes to sleep on her own with her blanket and paci. Anyway, for example, last night she woke up at 1:45 (almost 6 hours!). They say that sleeping through the night for a baby really means 5 hours but I'm not sure what age that is referring to. A book I was reading also said that some babies may need a middle of the night feeding up until 9 months (and maybe even 2 feedings), however, you shouldn't feed them if they are not really hungry (duh!) and awake because all babies have a period of partial awakening and if you go to her during one of these, you could cause night-waking or night-feeding habits. A little confusing!

I let her cry it out when she woke up at 1:45, and she did finally go back to sleep (Yay Ava!) after almost 45 minutes or so. THE CATCH----she woke up about an hour later at which time I fed her. I figured it had been 8 hours since she had last eaten and I just felt she was truly hungry.

I'm in limbo about what to do. I understand the cry it out method for older babies or for when it is at their bedtime, but I am not sure what to do in the middle of the night considering she is only 4 months old. She nursed like crazy at 4am and went right back to sleep. I've explored some possibilities: dream feeding=getting her out of her crib right before I go to bed and nursing her to make her able to go a longer stretch; feeding her the first time she wakes up and then letting her cry it out the second time if necessary; or just feeding her both times she wakes up (if she does...and no more than 2 times) and hoping she is ready to sleep through the night soon!

I've just heard from so many people that 'my kids were still up in the middle of the night at 1 1/2'---OUCH! I think for now I might try the dream feeding or the other option of feeding her the first time and seeing how she sleeps after that and letting her cry it out. Not sure if that is the right decision or not but after one night of getting no sleep, Travis and I both are zombies, and not to mention we both overslept until almost 7am this morning! And really, I'm hoping if I do feed her once in the night, I can focus on weaning that out soon. She's adjusted so well to everything else (no more swaddling, going to sleep on her own) that I'm just praying for the best!

Any of you moms out there that have any advice, feel free to fill me in! :)