Christmas 2011

I know its a bit late to be posting Christmas pics but I finally downloading from my camera & I had to share.

We had Christmas Eve with Chris's family at our house & Christmas Day with mine at my Mom's house, which seems to work really well.

We did our best to scale back on the number of toys/things we got the girls for Christmas but it still seems like we are wall to wall with new things. Emma main things she requested from Santa was dress up clothes, ice cream play dough & Barbie & of course he delivered + a few more things we wanted her to have. Avery only got 1 light up tambourine toy, fish aquarium for her crib & a mattress (not a very fun gift but totally necessary).  

 Christmas Eve before the festivities began

 Playing with Minnie Boutique toys from Grammy & Paw Paw

Avery & her big Puppy from Grammy & Paw Paw

Our family of four (pour Avery just couldn't hang anymore)

 Playing dress up

 Cheer

 Princess

 Playing with Avery's tambourine

Purple Princess

Play dough

Candy Land (her 1st board game)

Sister Barbies

 Christmas Day after church at Nana's 

Thanksgiving

Yes, I know this is a bit late seeing how Christmas is next weekend, but I still want to share. We are especially thankful this year at Thanksgiving to finally be a family of 4 & to all be home together. 

It was a great Thanksgiving. We had lunch with Chris' family & dinner with my family. It makes for a lot of eating but we really enjoy spending time with everyone. 

 Granny Ruth (Chris' grandmother) holding Avery for the 1st time.

 Riding her trike at Grammy & Paw Paw's

 Playing in Grammy & Paw Paw's backyard

 Gram (my grandmother) holding Avery (her 17th great grand) for the first time

Uncle Bob & Avery

Cousin Morgan feeding Avery

Avery's 1 week old check-up

This morning we took Avery to the Peds Clinic at the hospital for her 1 wk old check & she is doing great. She weighs 8 lbs, 7.4 oz which means she gained 7.1 oz since discharged on Friday. The dr did ask us how much we have been feeding her & we said 2-3 oz & she was a bit shocked. He said little ones this young really shouldn't be eating 3 oz yet & that we were over feeding her. Little does he know what we have dealt with having Emma, the heart baby/non eater so, if Avery said she was still hungry we would feed her more. So he told us to slow her down so her tummy & brain can learn when she is full instead of just sucking the bottle down. We will see how this works for Avery.

I also asked the dr to look at this knot on the back of Avery's head & he seems to think its just skin & tissue but to have our pedi at home to watch it. It really reminds me of the staf infection my niece, Morgan had when she was 2 wks old so that is why I wanted him to look at it.

He also said her jonduice looked a lot better & that she is free to fly home whenever we get permission.

Sick in Hawaii

I really can't think of anything worse right now that being away from home, in paradise with a 6 day old & sick. Tomorrow Avery goes for her 1 week old newborn check-up & after that we plan to find me a doctor. I have some kind of upper respiratory crud which I assume was caused by the combination of airplane germs, lack of sleep, jet lag & hospital germs. Lucky me.

I have been trying to keep my distance from Avery but its so hard. She is getting to know us & if she is awake she really wants to be held. I just try not to cough or breathe on her too much & put her down once she doses off. Hopefully I can get some meds tomorrow so will not spread this crud to her & be free to hold/cuddle her all I want.

Chris has been awesome & did all the feedings last night once we realized how sick I had become & has taken care of her & me most the day. He went out several times today to get me more drugs & some white hot chocolate, YUM. He always spoils me when I'm sick.

She's here

Little Avery Elizabeth was born Monday, october 24th @ 1:54am via c section. We didn't get to see her until tuesday due to our huge delay in the Atlanta airport. We were suppose to land in Honolulu @ 2:40pm but actually got there @ 12:15am after tech problems with our plane & waiting on a new crew.

Avery weighted 8 lbs, 0.1oz, 20 in long. I never would have guessed that length, she looks short & chubby. In fact she was only 3 oz more than Emma & 1 in longer. She had a hard delivery with low heart rate with each contraction & was sent to the nicu for breathing difficulties. She hard time eating too but started figuring it out late Wednesday afternoon.

She stayed in the nicu until Thursday evening & was then moved to the step down unit & was discharged friday about 1pm. So far she is a very sweet & good baby. She only cries when she is dirty or hungry. She of course likes to be or swaddled. I think she looks a lot like my niece Morgan, which is funny. She has light brown hair & deep blue eyes that I think will probably turn brown.

We will not be posting any pics publically of Avery until we get home & our family gets to meet her, sorry. Hopefully we will be able to leave in 7 days but it may be as many as 14 depending paperwork & adoption laws.

She's coming

The text came in yesterday @ 9:44am that Rachel was in early labor & at the hospital. I ran outside between bible class & worship to give her a call to find out they were admitting her + she was only 1.5 cm. The baby's heart rate was was very elevated but then started dropping during contractions, so they started her on meds to speed things along.

Their plan to speed up the delivery didn't really work. She is contracting but not dilating. It's been almost 24 hrs sine the first text & she still isn't here. The we heard was 6 hrs ago she was @ 5 cm. Hopefully our new little one will be here soon so Rachel can rest.

Patterson Farm 2011

Yesterday we took Emma to Patterson Farm & she had a great time. Grammy & Paw Paw went too, but could only stay for a little while. We fed some farm animals, went on a wagon/hayride (with no hay), pick pumpkins, ate a picnic lunch, played on the playground, rode trackers. tricycles & the cow train, had duck races, milked a fake cow & took a lot of pics. The only thing Emma would not do was get in the corn pit, which she wouldn't do last year either. She didn't ride the ponies or horses either, but thats because we didn't pay for it this year. She didn't miss it though, she had a blast.

 Looks like she is having a chat with the goats.

 Emma & Paw Paw hanging with the goats.

 Heavy

 Chris & Emma on the cow train

 Trying out the tractors

 Now lets try the tricycles

 Driving the playground tractor

 Horse swing

 Crawling through the tire tunnel

 Duck racing with Daddy

 Milking the fake cow

 "Say moo cow"

She did very little smiling for pics while we were there. 

This is the same face we got all day, but its still a precious one.