you grow girl!

So I'm pretty sure Avery is going through a growth spurt. How do I know? Because all she wants to do is eat and sleep and eat and sleep. She used to be so patient while we changed her diaper, fixed her bottle. But now when home girl wants to eat she wants to eat NOW. And forget her 3-4 hour feeding schedule. She wants to eat now, right when she finishes, again in 20 minutes. I can hardly keep up with her.
The one good thing with said spurt is the sleeping. For the past 3 nights she has slept twice for 6 hour stretches and since I have the pediatrician's approval to let her strictly eat on demand, I have also been able to catch up on some much needed sleep.
I'll be curious on Monday when the nurse comes to do her shot to see how much she has gained in the last week.  Her newborn clothes are starting to get tighter and tighter and while I've slowly been introducing 0-3 months clothes, she swims in them still. So maybe after this week we will be able to do a full wardrobe change out!

Just a quick update on our March for Babies fundraising efforts!
So far Team Avery has 8 registered walkers and we've raised $455.00! We still have about 2 1/2 months left so if you'd like to donate or join our team check out the link below.
www.marchforbabies.org/teamaveryruth

Look how tight my pants are getting. 

My new friend the kitty wubbanub

Its a wubbanub party. 

I wub hugs. 

let's do lunch

Today Avery had her first lunch date with her daddy. He's been asking us to come out and have lunch with him since he went back to work, but his lunch usually falls right during her afternoon feed.  So today I decided I would just pack her picnic lunch--which involved preparing her bottle and surprising him. It was the perfect day for a lunch visit since it was cold and snowy out, Bill got to sit in a warm car and while he ate his lunch Avery ate hers.
Two things I learned from our lunch date. 1) Feeding her in the car was much easier than I imagined it being. And 2) the car bottle warmer thing we got as a gift is ah-ma-zing! I would highly recommend it for anybody who is going to be traveling with a baby who bottle feeds.  It warmed the bottle quicker than the method we use at home. Granted Avery could care less if her milk is warm or cold, but if we can warm it up that quickly and conveniently, than why not.
Since I didn't think to take any pictures of us lunching here are a few cute ones of her snuggling with her animal blanket thingy.

"oh, that's not good"

Avery had her follow up ultrasound this morning to track the progress of her kidney stones and since we were already going to be there they went ahead and threw in a scan of her lower spinal column to see if there were any concerns associated with the dimple on her back.
We were taken back in to a room with an ultrasound machine and an adult size hospital bed. A room very similar to the one I became all too familiar with during my pregnancy. My throat instantly tightened.  As Avery laid on the bed having her kidneys scanned I started to feel like I was going to pass out.  I started having flashbacks and all the anxiety and emotions that I used to get leading up to one of my ultrasounds came creeping back. I tried to do what I used to do back then; focus all my attention on Avery.  She was laying there, looking so tiny on that giant bed, and being so good as they gelled her up.  I could see the stones as the tech measured them. They looked huge, but I'm sure there was some sort of magnification going on.  There are still 3 of them in her right kidney but they are non-obstructive. We'll know more next week when we meet with the pediatric urologist what the results are.
When she finished with the kidneys the tech informed me she was going to get the doctor to perform the scan of her spine. He came in, had me turn her to her belly and jumped right in. He put the probe on her back and the first thing out of his mouth was "oh, that's not good." My heart stopped. Literally. He moved the probe around a bit and THEN clarified that he meant the image on the screen.  Jerk! Did you forget that you are scanning my daughter's spine to see if she has any issues? Wasn't there a better way you could have asked the tech to fix the screen for you? Or better yet I'm sure you've had enough schooling to do it yourself. Or is it that you've had so much schooling that you no longer have to do that for yourself? Ok I feel better.
That good news is that her spinal scan came back all clear! I should have known my little wiggle worm didn't have any issues with her spine.

I gots this handled. 

lasik eye surgery

No not for Avery. For me. I am considered 'legally blind' when I don't have some sort of corrective lens on. And therefore I have developed this really bad habit of wearing my glasses while I sleep. Weird, I know. Uncomfortable, yes.  Necessary, I think so.
You see it all started when I was moved to the Labor and Delivery floor during my bed rest stay.Ok, really it started all the way back in 3rd grade when I got my first pair of glasses. I should have known after this picture, that lasik was going to be necessary:

I don't know what's worse, the glasses or that hair. 

Back to my L&D stay...I was moved up there for the purpose of being monitored 100% of the time instead of just twice a day.  Well the thing with being monitored all the time is they catch everything. And that meant several times in the middle of the night a nurse would rush in to my room and tell me I need to switch sides, adjust my position, shake things up a bit to see if they could get Avery's heart beat up again. Every time her heart dropped like that, mine stopped. So I started sleeping in my glasses so that when they rushed in I didn't have to scramble around to try and find my glasses to see what was going on.
And now that Avery is home I find myself waking up at some point almost every night wearing my glasses. You see it is much easier for me to wake up and turn over and check on her if I don't have to first put my glasses on.  And I check on her a million times a night. I sometimes joke that I check to see if she is breathing. Jokes on me cause I do.  I watched her stop breathing far to many times out of no where while in the NICU to feel completely comfortable that she has completely grown out of it.  I know eventually we will and already the frequency of my night checks has decreased, but it would be so much more convenient, comfortable and normal if I just got the lasik surgery and tossed the glasses for good.
Unfortunately our million dollar miracle baby doesn't leave much room for optional eye procedures, but some day it'll be super awesome to know what it is like to wake up in the middle of the night and just be able to see. At that point I will probably be checking to make sure Avery isn't sneaking back in to her room after a long night out. Oh how things will change :)

This was not a staged picture. This was sneakily taken this morning by  Bill. 

sacrifices

Today I sacrificed doing the dishes, taking a shower, changing my clothes, eating normal meals all for this:

Avery wasn't feeling good after her shots yesterday. She was achy and had a low grade fever and the only thing that made her feel better was snuggles.  So no judging that I didn't brush my hair (although it didn't look too bad from the day before :)), my kitchen is a mess, I still have spit up on my shirt from yesterday. Don't judge because I was busy all day doing the most important thing first. Being a mommy. 

hello 7 pounds

Avery had her 4 month check up at the pediatricians' office today.  Of course we were dying to know how much she weighed. It is such a change going from weighing her every night, celebrating every ounce, to only getting weighed once or twice a month.
The last time she was weighed was back in the middle of January when the nurse made a home visit to give Avery her Synagis shot (for RSV).  At that point she weighed 6lbs 14 ounces. Today she weighed in at a whopping 7 lbs 14 ounces! Wowzers. We are knocking on the door of 8 lbs. She is exactly 7 times her birth weight at this point. 7 times! It takes most babies years to gain 7 times their birth weight. And that doesn't take in to consideration the fact that even though she was born at 1lb 2 ounces, ultimately she dropped all the way down to 14 ounces. I try not to think about that because the thought of my baby weighing less than a pound still  makes me sick to my stomach.
She's also grown a whole inch since her last appointment. Her doctor said she is very pleased with her progress. Phew. Huge relief. I have been really nervous that she would thrive at home. And because we've been dealing with some reflux issues I always wondered if she was keeping enough down to make her weight go up. She was prescribed something to hopefully help with the relux. So hopefully we'll see soon if it works.
The doctor was very patient and wonderful about answering my list full of questions I had complied since our last visit. I love her doctor. We are working on getting some things figured out and she is very quick and proactive at making phone calls and getting things done.
One of my concerns came about a few weeks ago when I was changing Avery's blow out diaper. I turned her over to clean up her back when I noticed what looked like a hole in the top of her bum crack. I had never seen anything like it, so of course I googled it. It is called a Sacral Dimple. The good news is that it is closed at the bottom. The bad news is that because of the size of it, it could be a sign of some issues with the spine. Since Avery was already going in next week for a follow up ultrasound of her kidney stones, the doctor went ahead and ordered an ultrasound for her lower spine as well. Hopefully it turns out to be nothing but a cute dimple that only myself, Bill, her doctor and her future husband will ever see. I'll of course share the results next week after we hear back from the doctor.
Ok I'm going to go snuggle with my little lady who isn't feeling well after all her shots today. A little mommy med will make it all better...

The look on her face in this picture cracks me up. 

Getting my girly girl on. 

It's almost like we have twins. 

rub a dub dub. cute baby in the tub.

I may have mentioned before that Avery LOVES her bath time. Like loves, love, loves. She is so cute, just chilling in the water, taking it all in. She doesn't mind at all have her hair washed or water dumped on her. If she gets water on her face-no problemo-she loves it and tries to drink it up as it drips down her face.
I should also add that there is nothing more yummier and cuddlier than a freshly bathed babe. Seriously they should bottle that smell and make it into a scentsy!

This is nice. Real nice. 

I'm a mostly big girl. 

Just letting my hair deep condition for a bit

Frog head.