Ava: week 2

Ava's first sponge bath. Of course the kids had to be right there helping.

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Saturday Brandon went for a bike ride so I took the kids to Macey's for ice cream cones.

Kids painting pumpkins.

Making pumpkin shaped sugar cookies.

Tyler helping Kallie unbutton her dress. I love when he helps her get dressed. These two are best friends and they melt my heart every day.

We took a little family trip up to bridal veil falls. The kids had a blast!!

Brandon helped Tyler carve his pumpkins while the girls were gone at a birthday party.

Beautiful baby!!!!

Brandon took Tyler on a date to see the Stork movie to make up for the birthday party he missed out on. Tyler was soooo excited.

Kallie has the hardest time keeping herself away from Ava. It's adorable. She is always by her, touching her and talking to her. Whenever Ava cries Kallie comes running from wherever she is to try and help her. It's so sweet. Kallie is such a great big sister.

Ava's first week

I may have gone a little photo crazy the first week of Ava's life. But I give no excuses, no baby has ever been more loved than this one. 

Brandon took the kids to the BYU homecoming parade while I stayed home with Ava. They had a blast. Best parade ever.

Kallie always tickles Ava's face with her hair to calm her down. Ha ha ha.

At 4 days old I was taking a selfie and Mckinley was right there and when I took this picture she said Mom! Ava smiled right when you took that picture!! And she was right. What a random catch, but I'll treasure it forever.

These guys are just thrilled over their baby sister and can't get enough. I love that in a lot of the pictures of someone holing her, Tyler's hand is on her head. He is so gentle and soft with her. Just the most tender brother ever. So sweet.

My sister-in-law Chandra gave me a baby backpack and I love it. I have never carried my babies before in one of these and I have really been enjoying it.

Ava loves to poop during a diaper change. She started at the hospital and hasn't stopped since. This is the first time she really sprayed me. It was disgusting. She has had poop in every single diaper I have ever changed. A first for me. All of my other kids would go days in between pooping. So we are cruising through diapers like there's no tomorrow.

My mom brought over this cute haunted gingerbread house and put it together with the kids.

Sleeping in her bassinet. Ava has been such a good sleeper and has had some seriously amazing nights, with only a few bad ones.

Ha ha, her sisters are teaching her the life of a princess at an early age.

Brandon let the kids snuggle her in their own beds one night for a few minutes and they were so excited.

Here she is at 1 week old. Pure heaven!!!!

Home Sweet Home

We have been home now for 2 and a half days and it has been so wonderful. I think pumping has made the biggest difference and everything has been really easy and the kids can't get enough of Ava.

She has done super well at nights and is alert for a couple hours first thing in the morning which has been really fun.

We even took advantage of the good weather on Saturday and took a quick little trip to the park. We ran into our pediatrician there. So fun to see him three days in a row. We love Dr. Bailey!

Kallie was so excited to push the stroller with me.

I took a selfie today with Ava and Mckinley said "Mom, she smiled right when you took that picture!!" So I looked at my phone and sure enough, I randomly caught this super cute smile of our little angel girl at just 4 days old. We are so in love and just can't get enough snuggle time in.

The hospital stay

That first day was pretty frustrating and a little emotional for me being alone in my hospital room while Brandon was with Ava in the NICU. I felt a little guilty too having her barely get released to us and then I sent her to the nursery and asked them to keep her all night so I could sleep.

The next morning when they brought her to me it was so fun to see her finally bathed and clean. She was so alert in the morning.

We had such a nice relaxing hospital stay and were so grateful for Shannon and my mom for watching our kids for us. We had very few visitors and it was just very low key and enjoyable, especially all the room service.

My mom brought the twins again the next day to see her. They were so cute and sweet to her. Kallie wanted to share cookies and ice cream with her.

Mckinley got to come later that night and she was so excited to be able to feed the baby. I have been almost exclusively pumping and it has been so heavenly. It's working out great for us.

The morning we took her home Brandon just stayed home with the kids, checked Mckinley out of school early and we got to leave the hospital as a family. So much fun and different than the last time where Mckinley didn't even get to see Kallie in the hospital at all.

Ava!!!

On Wednesday, October 12th Brandon and I went to the hospital bright and early so I could be induced and finally meet our sweet baby girl.

At first it felt like things were going to be slow. I got caught up in my journal. I didn't realize I hadn't even written in it since I found out I was pregnant.

Brandon was getting pretty bored. We should have brought books or something. But when it was finally time for things to happen, they happened fast! It was such a smooth, wonderful delivery. It only ended up being 5 hours and 15 minutes from the time they hooked me up to the IV until she was born. Not bad.

Ava was a lot bigger than we were expecting her to be. 8 lbs 9 oz!

I'm pretty sure this is the first time I have ever done skin to skin.

Brandon was so excited to feed her a bottle! I wasn't sure at this point what I wanted to do about nursing/pumping/formula feeding.

The nurse was worried about some grunting noises she was making and she ended up spending the rest of the afternoon/evening in the NICU on CPAP but was released before bedtime.

The kids waited all day and it was pretty frustrating that they couldn't meet her yet but finally they got to come and spend a few minutes with her before they went back home to bed.

This was basically the first time I felt like I had really seen my baby, like 7 hours after she was born.

Family of SIX!

As much as Tyler wanted a brother, he will be a great protector for all his sisters.