Pump, Feed, Change...Repeat!

Throw in some some "tummy time" a few times a day and that is my new schedule. I am a Mommy. Ava has not quite decided on a routine just yet so I am still napping when she does...or at least I try to. She seems to function just fine on a twenty minute cat-nap. The problem is by the time I get her down and settle in for my own nap, she's waking up! Once last week she slept for nearly six hours through the night (so did her Daddy!) but I still had to get up and pump at three a.m. Then I started to worry about how long she had been asleep and spent the rest of the time looking into her bassinet to make sure she was breathing!

I have also come to the conclusion that delivering a baby is a great weight-loss method. I have already lost 26 pounds!!! The down side- I gained 35 during my pregnancy...

Despite my sleep deprivation and life changes, I never cease to be awed by this little gift from Heaven. When I rock her at three a.m. and look upon her tiny face glowing softly in the lamplight and I think about her future, our future as a family, my heart is simply overjoyed. And when I sing to her (Yes, she appears to like my singing!) and her blue eyes look into mine I realize no matter the sacrifice, this baby is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I have been blessed twice- first, with Michael and now with Ava.

Ava Updates:
Birth weight: 6 pounds 15 ounces Weight at one month: 8 pounds 4 ounces
Birth length: 19.75 inches Length at one month: 21 inches
She is still just below the 25th percentile for weight for age.
She is in the 25th percentile for weight for length for age.
And she is just above the 25th percentile for length for age.
Her head seems to be the fastest thing growing for it is now in the 50th percentile (up from the 25th at birth)!

A Few of the Things I love about Ava:
1. The way she smells.
2. The "Whatchu talkin' bout Willis?" look she gives- especially when I tell her where the thermometer goes ;)
3. When she smiles- even if they're gas-related.
4. When she holds my finger and won't let go...I hope that never changes!
5. The funny noises and faces she makes in her sleep.
6. That she is a total cuddle-bunny and loves to be held.
7. That she loves music and is easily soothed by Jewel lullabies and Bob Marley.
8. Her bow lips.
9. The way her hair spikes itself as it dries- and that she lets me put bows in it :)
10. Everything!

Check out the slideshow below of her first month:

Introducing Baby Ava

After 9+ months of anticipation, Ava Kathleen Johnson came into the world at 2:44 pm on February 22nd. It's hard to believe that a week has already gone by (and we're only now finding time to update the blog), but it turns out that it really is true what everybody says about just how busy and exhausted you'll be with a newborn.

This is going to be the short-ish version of events leading up to and since delivery, because the whole story will take too long to tell.

Tam had continued going to work through Friday the 18th. Ava was due on the 15th, but rather than sit around at home waiting she decided to keep busy. She finally had her doctor put her on FMLA leave effective Monday the 22nd. She figured she would relax over the weekend and get a few projects wrapped up at home. So now that plans were in place to relax, Ava was sure to arrive.

Tam started having sporadic contractions in the wee hours of the morning on Saturday the 19th. Nothing too regular though, so she thought "this can't be it." So we ended up driving down to Ocala for her niece's bridal shower that afternoon. The contractions continued off and on through the day, but not with any regularity. We even stopped by Office Depot on our way home to get a file cabinet and re-organize some files. We laid down for a nap and woke up to contractions spaced about 15 minutes apart. Tam remained unconvinced that this might "be it." But the contractions were coming so frequently it was difficult to focus on anything else. Shortly after going to bed (around midnight) it became clear to Tam that sleep would be impossible and relocated to the library to read. She timed her contractions while I slept. Her rationale for not waking me when they were eight minutes apart was that I was going to need my rest if this truly was labor- she still was unconvinced. After breakfast however, the contractions became a bit more intense and we decided to call our good friend, Lindy and ask her opinion. Lindy is a former labor and delivery room nurse and we got some advice from to her to go ahead and call my parents to get them headed down from north Georgia, because this was most definitely labor.

Tam, being Tam, said after she hung up the phone "I don't know. Do you think this really is it?" We timed the contractions, wrote them down in a notebook, and when we saw the space between getting shorter and the intensity getting stronger, we decided to head for the hospital. We got there at 4:30 to find that her water had indeed broken, so they checked us in. At that point we knew that within 24 hours, Ava would be here no matter what.



Although her water had broken, she was only dilated 1 cm, so she endured another couple hours of contractions before they got so intense that she asked for the epidural. Ava's godfather came in to the hospital on his day off to administer the epidural. Tam got some relief from it, but after an hour or so it was clear that it was only taking effect on her right side, so it had to be removed and re-inserted. That's when she could finally get some rest from the pain. She and I both managed to get a few hours of sleep as she dilated up to 7cm, and then early in the morning came the transition stage of labor where it's almost time to push.

When the time did come to consider pushing rather than dilating and more, our nurse was fantastic. Ruby talked us through the the first 95% of the process. And it turns out that she has a little girl named Ava who was born in the same room - 3419. She was better than any doula we could have hired; she kept Tam focused and got her to keep pushing even long after she wanted to keep going.

Finally we reached the point of crowning, and then one more push and Ava almost shot out past the doctor's hands. That's when the scary part started. We were waiting for that big cry to let us know she was okay, but all we got were a few little gasps. Over the course of the next minute, half a dozen doctors and nurses surrounded her, and they ended up intubating her and taking her to the NICU.



We were fortunate, though, because she only had to spend one night there, and we got to come in and see her and hold her throughout the evening. There were plenty of babies in there who you could tell had been there a long time. I changed my first diaper in the NICU, and Ava got her first bath there, too. Then she was released to come back to our room the following afternoon.

Tam was discharged on Wednesday, but we ended up staying until Thursday, because Ava was having some difficulty feeding due to throat irritation from the breathing tube. Once they were sure that she was feeding well enough, they cleared her to come home with us on Thursday. That first journey down from the room to the car was the first taste of traveling from here through the foreseeable future, because we dragged what seemed like a dozen bags down with us. At least we didn't forget the baby, though.



So now we've been home for a few days, and Ava is a week old. We're realizing now how true everybody's advice was to get all the sleep we could because we were going to need it. She's adorable, exhausting, wonderful, gassy, cuddly, fussy, and everything that you could expect a newborn to be. We love this kid like crazy, and we can't believe she's finally here.

Anticipation!

After our visit with Dr. S. yesterday I have decided that Baby A is as stubborn as her mother is impatient. Therefore, we have made no progress on the delivery front. For now, she is staying put.
In the meantime, I thought I would share “Tam’s Top 10 Pregnancy Likes and Dislikes!"

Dislikes:
10) Being asked if I am having twins!
9) Round ligament pain
8) Pregnancy induced rash/ dry skin
7) Nausea/ vomiting
6) Pregnancy induced carpal tunnel syndrome
5) Swelling of ankles, feet and hands
4) Waddling/ back pain/ hip pain
3) Not being able to sleep comfortably
2) Sinus congestion
1) Waiting for her to make her Grand Entrance into the world!!!

Likes:
10) Getting to park in the Expectant Mother parking space
9) Maternity clothes
8) Baby clothes
7) Milkshakes
6) Being pampered by my husband
5) Michael talking to my belly and feeling her respond to him
4) Baby A hiccups
3) Hearing her heart beat
2) Watching her undulate across my belly
1) Knowing I helped create a miracle with the man I love!!!

A False Alarm, and The Godfather

For the last few weeks, we've been meaning to make it to Shands to take a tour of the labor & delivery floor, but each time we've tried it either has not worked out with our schedule or theirs. But we finally got to see part of it on Tuesday, even though we had not planned on it at all. In the last several weeks of the pregnancy, we're supposed to be taking note of the number of times Baby A moves around each hour, because a sudden change could mean something needs to be checked out. I guess she was taking a break from her usual somersaults on Tuesday, because when I got home from work, Tam mentioned that she had not felt her move much at all. So Tam sat down with a glass of orange juice and a stopwatch to give Baby A a boost of sugar and to see if she perked up.

We didn't get quite the results we were looking for, so the on-call doc suggested we head over to Labor & Delivery for a monitoring session. We got worried for nothing, though - Ava's heartbeat was strong and regular, and the nurse said she sounded perfect. Of course, the next day, she was back to kicking and dancing and whatever else she does in there to keep busy.

And now that we're in the home stretch with just two weeks to go until the due date, we've been taking care of some important items that we needed to tend to. One of these decisions was choosing a godfather. Neither of us knew precisely what a godfather's role is, or what the "requirements" are. It turns out these are varied depending on various religions, but the definition we settled on is: somebody with an interest in the well-being of the child, who acts as a spiritual advisor and moral guide when needed. We asked the one person that we feel fits this description better than anybody we know, and we are delighted that he accepted. If Ava ever has something that she feels she can't come to me or Tam about, then I have no doubt that Colin Brown will give her wise counsel and sound guidance. Thank you, Dr. Brown.

Despite the legend of a full moon inducing labor, an especially full, especially bright moon this weekend failed to coax Baby A out in to the world. We'll check the last chapters of "What to Expect" to see what other tricks we can try...

Christmas Eve Already

It's hard to believe that Christmas is almost here. It seems like just a couple days ago that it was Thanksgiving, and now another month has already passed. Maybe I should revise that statement - for me, the time has flown, though for Tam, it seems like each day brings on a newly discovered discomfort of the third trimester.

So here we are tonight, relaxing a bit and enjoying our last Christmas together as just the two of us, since we'll have a little extra help celebrating next year. The presents are wrapped, Christmas music is playing, and we'd have a fire burning if it wasn't 70 degrees outside. We're off to Jax in the morning to spend the day with my family, and this will likely be the last trip out of Gainesville for Tam until Ava makes her arrival. We're at 33 weeks now, and she could decide she's ready in two weeks, or she could wait as long as another ten. We're hoping she makes her appearance around week 37, because this kid is pushing and kicking and putting pressure on some pretty sensitive places.

In the time since Thanksgiving, we've gone out for a couple of maternity portrait sessions - one at Jax beach in the 40-degree early morning the day after Thanksgiving. Yes, I made her walk barefoot in the cold wet sand while I was nice and warn in my jacket, but as you can see from the sample images below, the results were well worth it. The second session was here in Gainesville, in the very same park where we had our engagement photos taken five and a half years ago.









We also had a second baby shower in Jax a couple of weeks ago, courtesy of my sister. This was a smaller affair than the one we held in Gainesville in November, and was more of a get-together for longtime friends of the Johnson clan. Tam and I are grateful to everybody who came to the showers, and we appreciate everybody's excitement about Baby A.

I don't see how anybody could be quite as excited about her as we are, though. I'm already shoving my blackberry in people's faces to show them pictures of our 4D ultrasound on the blog, and she's not even here yet. I am going to be that guy who says "let me show you some pictures of my kid."

We hope you all have a Merry Christmas, and Tam and I will try to update a little more frequently now that the nursery is all done, the baby showers are over, and we're reaching the home stretch.

Ava's Baby Shower

After lots of planning (if you can't tell yet, that's what we do best - plan. And by "we" I mean "Tam") we had Ava's baby shower on November 14th at the West End Golf Club. The venue was great, because while the girls oohed and ahhed and played baby shower games, the guys hacked away on the golf course. Jesse and Amy hosted the affair, and we had roughly 36 guests in attendance. If you're reading this, you were probably one of them, so thank you for helping us celebrate.

The cake was amazing, and we only hope that Baby A comes out as cute as the topper on the cake. Kudos to Tammy Denmark for another incredible cake. We'd like to thank her for coming out of "retirement" to do one more cake for us. We'll have to bribe her when Ava's first birthday is getting close.

Baby A received LOTS of presents from friends and family, and we are very grateful! It was a lot of fun not only opening the gifts, but also figuring out what each one of them was for. (This is our first time at this, after all) After the shower, Jennifer and Becca stayed over and organized all the clothing in Ava's closet in order by size (newborn, 3 month, 6 month, etc.) Then over the next two days, everything else made its way from our living room into its proper place in the nursery.

Here is a slideshow of the day's festivities:



In the meanwhile, we've also been working on completing the nursery. We finally found a glider, after we figured out that the recliner Tam really wanted was too big to fit in the nursery. Who knew that would be one of the hardest pieces to find? We also got lucky on a shopping trip and found a handpainted wooden sign with "Ava" painted on it, and now it's hanging on her door.





And also this week, we went to our 4D Ultrasound appointment, where we were finally able to see more than just the typical 2-dimensional black and white ultrasound image. We spent half an hour mesmerized as we watched Baby A suck her thumb, curl up for a nap (which we poked and shook her out of), yawn, lick her arm, and even give us an unmistakable sign that she's going to be trouble. Look at the images below and guess which one we mean...

What happened to my ankles?

It's been a while since the last post, but things have been chugging right along. The third trimester has arrived, and the defining segment between my calves and my feet has departed. Maybe it's not quite as bad as all that, but there is definitely some swelling.

The last post documented Michael's efforts to put in the new nursery flooring. He got that done, and then tackled the job of painting. It didn't seem like too big a job at first, but he ended up using two coats of primer on EVERYTHING (walls and ceiling) and painting three walls in pink - "sweet baby girl" is the exact name of the color - and one wall in chocolate. Then a light cream color for the trim, doors, and ceiling. 

Once that was done and the masking tape was peeled, the furniture arrived. There was a little fiasco involving incompetent warehouse employees destroying one of the pieces, but it was replaced pretty quickly. Once we had the furniture in place, we decided that we had not done quite enough painting, so we decided to start on the mural. We painted the tree from the crib bedding on one of the walls, and we think it really brings the whole nursery together.  We have a couple more pieces to find (the glider and the rug), but we're very close to having the nursery complete.