two months

my little babe is two months old!
i can't believe how fast time flies when you have a baby.. i am seriously worried that i'm going to fall asleep one night and wake up with a teenager!
well two month old avarie is even cuter then she was before - i really didn't think that it was possible but this baby just keeps getting more and more cute every day.
she loves taking baths and showers
but HATES getting out and getting lotion put on her
avarie gets the hiccups almost every day and they usually make her mad
she has been sleeping through the night like a champion - i lay her down and she sleeps 7 or 8 hours straight. every single night. i was blessed with avarie because honestly if she wasn't a good sleeper, i dont know how i would survive work.
she is such a happy baby in the mornings - which makes it soo much harder to leave her when i have to go to work.
she got her 2 month shots a couple days ago and i just bawled. the sound of her little cry just broke my heart :( but she didn't seem to get a fever or sick at all from them!
avarie mostly sleeps in her bassinet but there are nights where she is just not wanting to fall asleep in it so she will sleep next to me in bed - which i think she likes better but i dont want her to get attached to sleeping with me.
i got a cold right when i went back to work and poor little avarie caught it too - luckily she only had it a few days but it was so sad when she would just cough her little lungs out.
if she is upset - the best way to calm her down is to walk around with her. the second you sit back down she is mad at you again and just wants you to stand up!
she is such a good baby to tag along with - she will just sleep in her carseat if i need to run errands and i've even taken her to a couple movies and she slept through the whole thing!
she still is fitting best in the outfits that are "newborn" size... she has a few 0-3 month things that she's able to wear without drowning but most of them are still way too baggy.
she was weighed at her 2 month appointment and she is a whopping 9 pounds 15 ounces! she was 20th percentile and he told us she is growing beautifully she is just a petite little thing.
avarie really is just my best little friend in the world - she is so fun and i love every second i get to hold her in my arms. i seriously would do anything for this little baby.
well here's a few pictures of this growing child of mine!

photo fun

my avarie is now 6 weeks old! i can't believe how fast that flew by...
i'm now back at work and its so hard not being able to hold this little one all day long every single day.
but here are some pictures we took of the worlds cutest baby!!

one month

my little miss avarie elle has turned one month old!
i can't believe its already been a whole month but at the same time i feel as if avarie has been around forever. i love this little girl so much - i truly can't imagine not having her. it's like my life is actually important now that i have a sweet angel to take care of!
well this past month has definitely been a learning experience - i was TERRIFIED of tiny little babies because they are just so fragile. now i can't imagine avarie getting any bigger, i want her to stay mini forever!
avarie is such a good baby - the first week or so her schedule was all backwards. she was awake the whole entire night and would still be awake a good amount of time in the day... i was thinking i would go insane if i didn't start getting some consistent chunks of sleep. luckily about 2 in a half weeks ago she started sleeping atleast 6 hours every single night! she's kept this little pattern up as well and i'm mighty grateful for it. i just am crossing my fingers this keeps up because i go back to work in a week..
for the most part avarie loves her baths - if she is being fussy they usually calm her down and she's a happy baby until she gets out. there's a few times where she doesn't like to get scrubbed or get her hair washed but thats not all the time.
there's one thing for certain though, avarie HATES getting her diaper changed. as soon as we lay her down on the changing table she starts having a fit.. she knows exactly what is about to happen and lets everyone know she is not a happy girl.
avarie is still fitting best in clothes that are "newborn" size - there are even still a few little tiny outfits that she doesn't fit in yet that are labeled newborn.. she's just a tiny little girl and i absolutely love it! she just has soo many outfits that are 0-3 month size that are adorable - i can't wait til she can fit into some of those..
avarie has gotten spoiled this last month. everyone wants to hold her all the time! i'm trying to be a little more strict by putting her down for a while just so she doesn't always expect to be held at every moment of the day, but usually if she makes one little sound someone will go pick her up... she's just so loved by every one around her they all to keep her happy and always have her near.
when avarie cries she does the cutest little lip quiver thing - its hard to take her crying seriously when it's so dang cute!
i've been breast feeding this little girl and she's been doing great with it! i can't believe how bad it hurt for the first couple weeks... and now it is still uncomfortable when the milk is coming in! i've always heard all these stories about breastfeeding and how painful it is but its just something you have to experience to really know what they are talking about. but avarie usually eats every 2.5 to 3 hours. sometimes at night she gets super hungry though so i'll feed her a little sooner.
miss avarie has been such a wonderful addition to my family - she is so loved and i really can't get enough of her. if someone else is holding her, i get jealous that she's not in my arms. if i go out of the house for a little bit, i miss her and can't wait to get back! this little baby has completely changed my world but for the better. i can't wait for the upcoming adventures with this gal.

labor

the moment i hit 37 weeks i was more then ready to have this little one pop out - i was getting loopy and cranky and super uncomfortable. so i googled all the things you can do at home to hopefully speed labor up a bit. i tried going on long walks, eating spicy food, castor oil, taking a hot shower then turning it ice old, my doctor even stripped my membranes twice! i had people bringing me food that they swore put women into labor - but NOTHING worked. i continued to work and every day just got harder and harder - i swear i couldn't think straight so when i was talking to customers on the phone i was fumbling my words and forgetting what i was saying. i was just so miserable. i went to the doctor about a week before my due date and i was 90% effaced and dilated to a 3. he told me i bet we will be seeing you sooner then your due date - i was so excited because i just wanted to meet the little thing that had been growing inside me for 9 months and i wanted desperately to not be pregnant anymore. the day before my due date came and i went to work as i normally would - i contacted HR to let them know that i still didn't have a baby and so i could work up until i went into labor. i had been having pretty consistent contractions all day that were ranging from 10-25 minutes apart. i was keeping track of them just because i wanted it be the real contractions so bad. once i got off work, kayla, joanne and i went on a long walk and all of a sudden my contractions were coming about every 3 to 5 minutes the whole walk! and they were starting to hurt like period cramps in my back! we walked 3 miles and once we got home we rested for a little over an hour and the contractions were still staying pretty consistent. my aunt who works at an OBGYN told us to go on another short walk and if they still stayed about 5 minutes apart through the walk then to go to the hospital. sure enough they were about 5 minutes so i took a quick shower and we headed to alta view hospital around 7:30pm on the 8th. as soon as we got there they hooked me up to monitor my contractions and also baby girl's heart beat. the contractions had slowed down a bit but they were still coming and they were getting more and more painful. after a couple hours they checked me and i was still dilated to a 3... so they told me to walk around the hospital for 45 minutes. i did as i was told and once they checked me again i was still at a 3! they said to just wait another hour and if i wasn't any more dilated they would send me home but they would give me a shot of morphine to help with the contraction pain. well i got the shot of morphine and right before they were going to tell me goodbye they checked me once more and i was at a 4! finally!! so i was able to stay to have my little baby :) davis, kayla, my mom and joanne were all there to support me and make fun of me while i was SUPER out of it from the morphine. they gave me my epidural around midnight and that was the part i was most scared for because i'm terrified of needles. well the morphine was a great thing and i was laughing while they were putting the epidural in - it tickled?! once i had that it was amazing - there were only a couple times i could BARELY feel the contractions so i would just push the button for some more juice to make me a little more numb :) all we had to do was wait until i was dilated to a 10 but it was not a speedy process. by 7:30 the next morning i was still only about a 6 and so the doc came in and broke my water. we waited some more and at around 11:30 she checked me and i was at a 10! i started pushing with the nurse for about 4 or 5 contractions and the baby was READY to come out! the nurse was so shocked at how well i was pushing and how fast she was crowning. she called in the doctor and after 2 pushes my little baby was born at 11:52am. it was so emotional in the room, everyone was bawling their eyes out as soon as they saw this beautiful little child. they put her right on me and davis cut the umbilical cord - i just cried and cried and cried. this little girl is perfect in every way and i couldn't believe how lucky i was to have such a miracle. she didn't have a name for a day or so but once davis and i could finally agree on something we knew it fit her perfectly. avarie elle has been so fun to learn how to take care of and spend every minute with. she is still a little backwards on her sleeping schedule but she is getting better at knowing that night time is meant for sleeping. she hardly cries, she takes bottles and binkys and nursing has been great with her. she is healthy and happy and i just love her so much. she sure has a lot of people that have fallen in love with her already. i never want her to get any bigger but i can't wait to spend the next 18 years teaching this little girl about life.

avarie elle

avarie elle may 9, 2012 11:52am 6lb 13oz 20.5 inches

35 weeks

so tomorrow i will be 35 weeks pregnant. it blows my mind that in just 5 weeks i will meet this little baby girl who has been swimming inside of me all this time!
i sit and day dream of her all day long - what she is going to look like and what she is going to be like.
i already know she is going to be a stubborn one... she will be kicking like crazy and as soon as anyone goes to feel her little feet kicking my belly she completely stops moving... and once they move their hand she starts kicking again! sometimes i will trick her into thinking it is my hand and so a few people have felt her in there but its not very often that happens.
she likes to kick a lot during the day when i am at work - then i think she gets tired and doesn't kick a whole ton when i am home around everyone but once i am getting ready to go to sleep she kicks and kicks and kicks. luckily i haven't been woken up by her kicking me but if i do wake up during the night, i definitely feel her trying to wake me up!
she doesn't have a name yet... i always thought i knew the name of my first little girl but as soon as i found out it was a girl ALL these other names started becoming cuter and my old name became a little more blah... so we are still working on the name of this little girl. for now i just call her baby.
i had my first baby shower this last saturday thrown by alex and kd. they did an amazing job and i was so grateful for the nice things people were saying to me and for all the wonderful gifts i received. this little baby is going to be very well dressed i can already tell you that much :)
i have two more baby showers that are getting thrown for me and i can't wait! they are both for different sides of the family and so i am excited to get to spend time with all the girls in the fam.
my brother has a good friend who is a photographer and she took some maternity photos of me! i love them - i thought i would hate them because i feel like i have been looking rather large in pictures but they are actually really cute. she is super creative and the shoot was really fun.
i can't wait to have this little girl - well i am TERRIFED of the whole "having a baby" part but i can't wait til she is out and in my arms. i just already love this little girl so much and my situation may not be the ideal situation but i feel so blessed to be given such a miracle.
here are some pics from the shower and from my maternity shoot!

growing belly

30 weeks

21 weeks

17 weeks

14 weeks

1800CONTACTS

today i started my second week of training at my new job at 1800CONTACTS!

i seriously already love working there...
all of the benefits and how they treat their employees is amazing and plus going through this whole training process with my sister makes everything a hundred times better, even though i'm getting real close with all of the other trainees.

last week was a little bit stressful because first of all we are thrown into this new environment surrounded by people we dont know and learning things that we had never even heard of before. plus we had two tests we absolutely had to pass in order to move on any further in training.

we spent a lot of last week studying all this new information about contacts and the different kinds they have and all the cool lingo that i would never have to know unless i worked at a job involving contacts. the two tests last week really weren't that hard at all and i scored a 98% on both of them :)

we have spent a lot of time also going to the actual call center and plugging some headphones into other agents lines and listening to their calls. it gives us a chance to hear their sales pitches and notice mistakes they may make or things that really stand out to us that are working with their calls. a lot of this job is based on how well you can sell the product - which isn't going to be hard at all because
a) i dont have to call people asking if they need contacts
b) people call me needing contacts and if they are calling, obviously they are looking to buy contacts

so as a phone agent i just have to learn those important sales skills on how to catch that customers attention and have them buy contacts from me :)

we have also spent some time doing role playing with one another pretending to be the customer calling in for contacts or pretending to be the phone agent taking the order. my partner has always been my sister and the first time we practiced it was just hilarious because we have a certain "phone voice" and she kept laughing at mine and i kept messing up and it was just awkward but after practicing quite a few more times i feel like i am starting to get the hang of it.

we start on the phones this wednesday!! ahh i can't believe it but we are on the phones for 2 and half weeks while we are still training so our trainers will be right there to help us if we need it (which i definitely will)

i am so excited about this new job adventure in my life - i have felt i needed a change for a while now but i had really loved working at cartridge world and the people i was surrounded with so it was hard to make a commitment to something but with this little girl on the way, i needed the insurance benefits that this job offers so the decision was rather easy when i just thought about the baby girl and what was best for her.

wish me luck with starting on the phones! i will probably make a fool of myself for a little while - HOPEFULLY it doesn't cost me any major sales... :)