Random Pictures

We've had a good month, however, it will take too much time to write about, think of a clever title, etc. So, enjoy the random pictures of our activities with side comments only. Also, don't mind all the demon baby red-eye. It took forever to load the pictures, and then I noticed it and I was much too lazy to go back and fix it.

Bumbo Time

At the Tuachan for the live Nativity

Clayton was able to get Flava laughing pretty heavily

Ready for the BSU Bowl Game

Although she doesn't really show it in this picture, Ava loves standing up.

Sugar, How You Get So Fly?

I heard that song on the radio the other day. It was a sweet flashback.

Anyway, Ava looked supa-fly at church today. I couldn't resist getting a picture before church...which ultimately led to us being late...totally worth it. My favorite part...her sweet kicks. Thanks Emilee!

We Pimped Ava's Bumbo

She be thuggin'.

I had this conversation with myself the other day.

"Maren, you keep buying blue things for Flavs."
"Aaaaannnnd?"
"You have a girl."
"But if I buy blue now, then I won't have to re-buy things when I have a boy."
"You have a girl now, weirdo."
"Hmmmmm, I see your point. You are so smart."
"Duh."

Thus, the "pimpage of the Bumbo" came to be.

Also, apologies for the whiny post the other day...apparently, I should not blog when I've had a rough day.  Ava's wicked diaper rash is looking MUCH better and hopefully her reflux meds will kick in soon. Thanks for all the words of encouragement and advice!

Frustration

Seriously so frustrated. Lately I've been feeling more and more incompetent as a mother and at Ava's checkup yesterday, the incompetence built even more. I know that the things Ava has to overcome are WAY small compared to others, but right now they feel like huge mountains to me.

Obstacle #1: Ava has ridiculously dry skin. Turns out she doesn't do well with the cheap stuff. We've just switched to Aveeno baby lotion and so far found that it works the best. It's still hard to see her skin peeling because it's so dry. Luckily, it doesn't bug her too much.
Obstacle #2: Horrible diaper rash. Ava has had the diaper rash that never ends. It is so huge and inflamed. Again, luckily, it doesn't bother her too much. She is such a champ. But, we've had to get her on a prescription for that as well.
Obstacle #3: Hemangioma. Ava has a large red blotch on her back. It wasn't there when she was a newborn but it started showing up around 2 weeks. It has been getting bigger and puffier. It almost looks like someone cut a raspberry in half and glued it on her back. It's not something that bugs her but if it doesn't start to go away on it's own, it will have to be lasered off.
Obstacle #4: Reflux. Turns out she's not a "happy puker". Mind you, she still thinks it's hilarious when she pukes. This is the obstacle I am having the hardest time with. Feelings of guilt and frustration keep getting larger. We thought it was a bit unusual how much Ava puked but she never cried with any of it and she seemed to be gaining weight. Here in the past week or so, the puke has been getting out of control. There would be projectile vomit everywhere, every time she ate. If I pump, and give her a bottle, she doesn't puke nearly as much. But, when I nurse her, it's an explosion. Pumping has been such a hassle and I haven't been able to find a decent pump and it takes so much time that I just don't bother with it. So at the appointment yesterday, they weighed her. She gained weight, but not as much as she should have been. Please stamp a big FAILURE across my forehead. So now, Ava is on a new medicine that will hopefully help with the reflux. I am also having to pump all the time now, which means my schedule every day consists of pumping for half an hour, feeding Ava for half an hour, keeping Ava propped up for another half an hour, having an hour to get things done, then back to pumping. On top of that, I'm feeling (weirdly enough) so sad not to have that nursing time with Ava.

So there you have it, my frustration as a mother. It makes me so sad to thing of all these little obstacles that are out of Ava's power to take care of. As sad as I feel, I also feel really blessed that what she has are things that are pretty easily cared for. I am so grateful for my beautiful baby who somehow has the patience to deal with me and is still somehow the happiest, smiliest baby I have ever seen.

Events of Sorts

This week has been a week of BIG events. Ava is growing so fast!

She rolled over from tummy to back...

Action shot...Are you ready mom?

 She had a foot in mouth experience...literally.

Also, I realized most of the pictures I post of Ava are when she is in bed or in her pajamas. She really does get ready for the day...she's just the funnest in the morning right after she wakes up.

"Hoo" Loves Halloween...Not Flava!

Seriously...she hated every minute of costuming it up for the ward Trunk or Treat. I spent forever making her costume. For real, I made the costume...amazing. Even more amazing if we remember the Halloween disaster from last year.
When we went to put the costume on Ava, somehow, the onesie had shrunk! It didn't fit on her. We tugged and pulled with no avail. We finally cut the costume down the back and then safety-pinned it together. She was traumatized...screaming ensued.

At least she looked good. She might be the cutest, least- disease ridden forest creature I have ever seen.
John and I lamed out on costumes this year. I was a rabbit, he was a hunter with no weapons..."He's going to hear him a Caribou" (Brian Regan reference for you cool peeps who know him).

Flava is Scary Awesome

P-P-P-Pooper Face

No, this post is not about poop....it's about Las Vegas and the adventures therein. The only reason I chose that title is because of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" song and that is about as clever as I can get.

Megan, Brooklyn, Brynlee, Ava, and I went to Vegas for the day! We shopped, ate, drove, shopped, and marveled at the fact that at the M&M factory, a pound of M&M's cost $12.95.

It was good times...minus the fact that Ava was a beast the whole time.

All You Need is Mother Earth, Father Nature, and Your Dear Old Uncle Tony

We took Ava hiking...at first, she was like..."What the heckers is this bright thing burning my eyeballs?" and then she was like, "Oh, this isn't too bad." And then she fell asleep...she would be sleepy.


Don't mind my face. I didn't realize Megan was taking a picture of me plus baby.

Seriously, this baby is friggin-riggin cute!

Do We Love to Jazzercise?

With leg warmers we do!

A Weekend of New Buddies

Flaves likes to meet people. It's a fun activity. This weekend she got to meet Uncle Tyler, and Uncle Tyler got to meet Benson (who was sporting a sweet bunny costume. We were sad for the reason Ty had to come out, but we were really grateful for the short time we got to spend with him. Also, we missed Jackie and Kylie and were bummed they couldn't come out here.

Tyler and the Flava

Ty and Bunny Benson

Flava also got to meet Whitney and Jillian, who are probably her best friends (except me). Ava hasn't really been around other babies and is really not sure what to do about crying babies. Jillian was not feeling very well when we took these pictures (we love that Jillian baby and we feel so bad for her! I also feel bad that these pictures didn't turn out better. So, Whitney, we will have to do another photo shoot one day!) So here is what we think Ava's internal monologue sounded like when she heard another baby crying.... (Please note the finger point in picture one)

Soooo, that baby over there is crying.....

and I'm not really sure....

What to think about it!

Ava has complex thoughts. Anyway, we were sad to see Uncle Tyler leave and we are sad to leave our friends! We love you guys!

Baby Brigham's Blessing (Say THAT 19 times fast!)

We went to Brigham's blessing in St. George. We love having a cousin Flava's age!

Sometimes cousins don't like each other....

Aaaaaannnd sometimes they do...

A Blog Just for Aunt Lorie

Dear Aunt Lorie,

Thanks for the super cute dress. Everyone liked my "tight-shoes". I'm super excited you're getting married...I could probably be a really cute flower girl or something...just saying...I rock and I'm adorable and I would make your wedding about 18 times more awesome.

Love,

Ava "The Flava" May

Parental Grandness

Ava likes grandparents...especially the great ones...and the great-great ones. Wowzahs.

Ava got to meet Great-Great Grandma Blackburn in Beaver....That's right peeps, you're looking at 5 generations! Holla!

Are they both laughing....or screaming? We'll never know.

Also, her onesie says her name...she's that awesome.

Ava also likes to chill with Great Grandma's that shes named after...which is just this one. My sister who was supposed to have her baby the same day as me named her baby after our grandpa. It's a fun thing.

Grandma Mayzell and Ava May.

Oh, and Grandpa Lavell and Brigham Lavell

Chinese Food Did Me Wrong....

Ava had the worst day of her life yesterday...apparently, she does not like Chinese food. She hardly slept, she cried, and she kicked. It was so stressful and we felt so bad that we couldn't do anything for her. Today is a much better day...with a girl this cute, we can barely remember yesterday!

Her shorts are too big...still!

Also, she and John have matching hair. It's flippin' awesome.

My Almost 3-Week-Old Baby!

Flava is getting so big! At her two week appointment with Dr./Uncle Chris, she weighed 7 lbs, 4 oz (she was discharged from the hospital at 6 lbs 8 ozs) and measured 20 1/2 inches long (discharged at 18 1/2 inches).

This is the difference between her now and when we left the hospital! Her newborn clothes are finally starting to fit!

*Doesn't she look just like John!?!*

15 Lessons Learned by a Baby Rookie

1. Babies make me tired.

2. Just because you think the baby is done peeing, doesn't mean it is.

Finding a particularly nasty diaper.

3. It really is possible for a baby girl to "shoot pee" onto her mom's glasses.

4. ALWAYS have a backup outfit when going out.

5. Nursing hurts....real bad.

6. It's really okay that I don't get ready for the day until 4:00 in the afternoon....at least for now.

7. Being a man is easy.

8. Babies actually make people late...for real...it's not an excuse.

9. Hand sanitizer is my new best friend...and if you want to touch my baby...it's yours too.

10. I now understand the line, "My mother hasn't had a hot meal in 10 years."

11. It's fine that I'm not back to my pre-baby weight already...really it's fine...it really is.

12. Watching the baby sleep at night, isn't going to make it sleep better.

13. Time now revolves around when the baby eats.

14. It's okay to fill up an entire camera memory card every day.

15. Even though we are extremely tired, constantly smell of pee and vomit, and have to juggle everything now....we have never been happier.

This is the abridged version of what we have learned so far...yeah, we know there is much more for us "newbs" to figure out...

Welcome Home Ava!

Ava May Williams

I have seriously never felt so blessed/lucky/grateful in my life. Ava is THE BEST BABY EVER. She is so cute and sweet and John and I feel more in love with her everyday. We are obsessed with everything about her....including her poop.

I had been having contractions on August 3 starting at like 3:00 pm. They only lasted about 30 seconds and they weren't super painful. However, they were like 1-2 minutes apart and our doctor said that we should go to the hospital when they lasted 60 seconds and were 3-5 minutes apart. At 9:00 that night, we finally decided to go to the hospital and have them check. I was hoping I was at least dilated to a 4.

First of all, we all know how I had planned on having everyone in that delivery room where blindfolds so that nobody would see my lady parts. Of course, right when I walk in, guess who one of the nurses is...two of my old students' mom! FIGURES. Luckily, she wasn't my assigned nurse...however, she kept coming in to look. GROSS.

When the nurse checked me, I was dilated to a 2 1/2. CRAP. I felt like they were going to send me home. They decided to keep me there for an hour to monitor my contractions because they were so close together. Once they got me all hooked up, my contractions started lasting 1 to 1 1/5 minutes. The nurse came to check me again and I had dilated to a 3 1/2. She called the doctor and he said to just break my water and get it over with. BEST DOCTOR EVER.

They gave me the epidural (most painful thing ever), broke my water, and then had me pushing at 5:30 am on August 4. 20 minutes later, Ava popped out! The nurse kept asking me if I wanted to watch with a mirror and finally stopped asking when I told her I would literally throw up if I saw anything. The doctor barely made it in time to deliver her....with no blindfold on. (P.S.... I lost all sense of modesty/caring when a nurse had to help me go to the bathroom, I had to wear mesh undies that someone had to keep checking, at least 13 people had something to do with my rear, aaaaand a complete stranger had to show me how to nurse.)

EPIDURALS ARE THE GREATEST INVENTION EVER. I had no idea Ava was even close to coming out until the doctor held her up. WHAT THE WHAT! I just pushed a baby out of me and didn't even know it! And HOLY COW, where they heck did all that hair come from?!

John cut that little cord and then took her over to the nurses to get checked. She had some fluid in her lungs and had to have the respiratory doctor come in to check her. Luckily, it wasn't too bad and they weren't super worried about it...she would just puke it out later (yay me!).

We love watching our sweet little baby every minute. I am so afraid of missing anything she does. She already makes the most hilarious faces! She has the classic "Maren scowl", a half-smirk, rolls her eyes, and she looks totally surprised. Sometimes she does all of these things at once. She doesn't cry very often, I have to wake her up to eat, and she has the cutest little squawks.

She is SO TINY. When we left the hospital, she was 6 lbs, 8 ozs. She doesn't fit an any newborn clothes! She drowns in a sea of cloth whenever we dress her.

Her coming home outfit...way too big!

We are so grateful to have our sweet little Ava with us and that she is so happy and healthy. We love her and she is literally the CUTEST BABY EVER. I just need to teach her how to put out the baby vibe.

HILARIOUS SIDE STORY

While in the hospital, the Daily Harold newspaper came into my room. They were doing an article on breast feeding. They got several recommendations from the staff about Ava and I and they wanted to take a picture of me nursing her. ARE THEY OUT OF THEIR MINDS!? Clearly they did not get the blindfold memo. I told them No Thanks and that it was really weird (yes, I actually told them they were weird).

Great Grandma and Grandpa King

A name so nice, you have to say it twice!

Zero make-up, but SO happy!

John is the best dad ever! She totally has him wrapped around her little finger!

Grandma Peggy

Um, yeah, my hair did look that good.

Auntie, Grandpa, and Grandma King

Cute, even when covered in nasty.

John waiting for her to do her business and get the heck out!

She fell asleep like this...she needs her beauty sleep, do not disturb.

First bath