Avery's YouTube Channel

I've been taking a few videos of Avery and wasn't sure where to put them then Rustin told me about this new thing - YouTube.

Haha just kidding - but he did tell me you can have your own YouTube channel, so I decided to create one and post videos of Avery. I don't want to be "that mom" who constantly emails videos of her baby so I thought I would create this channel and if you want to watch them, you can. I'm still trying to figure everything out but I posted a couple...

http://www.youtube.com/samrandrews

Sitting Up, Solids, and Reflux...Oh My!

The last week has been pretty eventful in Avery's world. She is still very fussy all the time, and I felt like it was getting worse.

I have thought she's had reflux for a while, but my old pediatrician seemed to dismiss everything I said. When I'd tell them how she was acting (like eating hurt) they would just say it's probably something I ate (when I was still nursing). Then when I would ask questions she seriously said one time - "let me think what I did with my kids." What?? If I want to hear what someone did with their kids, I'd ask my friends, but I want medical advice from you - a doctor! Anyway I switched pediatricians and have been very happy with the new one. As I mentioned in my last post, he suggested trying soy formula, so I did. But it made no difference.

Avery got to the point where she was only eating 1.5 ounces at a time, and one morning she threw up all over me and soaked me down to my underwear! I decided it was time to call the doctor again. When I called up there I talked to a super sweet nurse. When I told her everything, she said it definitely sounded like reflux and I needed to bring Avery in that day. (Sometimes I feel like nurses know more than doctors.) Long story short she is currently on Prevacid. She is still very fussy but is eating a lot more. They said it could take 2 weeks to show improvement so I guess we'll see. If this doesn't help I'll have to switch to the super expensive Nutramigen formula.

I'm trying not to be bitter, but I really think that if she had been correctly diagnosed with reflux several months ago and we fixed it, she would still be nursing. I am very sad that she stopped so early.

Enough about that...let's get to the good stuff! So Avery has been dying to sit up for a while now. She is not a fan of laying (or lying?? I still don't know the correct grammar on that one) down and will lift her head to try to sit up. It's so funny and she looks like she's doing ab exercises. Well she can finally sit up by herself (not lift up but stay there when I sit her down) now and she is loving it!

About to fall ahhhh! Don't worry - I caught her. 

Since she's gotten on her medicine she has been doing a lot better eating solids. Not sure if it's actually the medicine or if she's just learned how to do it, but she'll finally swallow something now! This is her eating sweet potatoes -

She looks a little scary in this one haha - 

She has gotten very grabby! Her daddy was letting me sleep in the other day and woke up with her, but it didn't last long because I heard a loud crash. Apparently she had somehow grabbed his coffee cup and dropped it on the tile!
When I sit her in her bumbo chair, the napkins are behind her and I have to move them because she always reaches for them. Well I forgot to move them today...

I love her to pieces!!

St. Patty's Day

There are few traditions in Dallas as big as the annual St. Patty's Day Parade. I think I've gone almost every year since moving here except for the year Rustin and I got married right around this time.

I read an article the other day saying 100,000 people come to it. But this year it almost didn't happen because the city didn't have enough money. Luckily we have one cool owner of a Dallas sports team. Mark Cuban donated $40,000 to make it happen.

I thought of not going this year. I'm old and have a baby now. But if Mark Cuban is going to fork out that kind of money I need to go right?? 

So I woke up this morning, put SPF 85 on (and still got super burned), and left Avery in the good hands of Rustin's parents.

Casey (Rustin's brother) came to town and we met up with Andrea, Dena and Jana. They had all run the 5K in the morning. That is one tradition I have never done and didn't plan to start this year.

The ladies-

Rustin looking "cool" -

Casey's editing handiwork-

We had fun hanging out at the parade and that's when I should have gone home. I realized something today - I'm old. I don't want to deal with 100,000 drunk people wearing green. Example - we got stopped and were asked which superhero was our favorite - Peter Pan or Robin Hood. (What??) The guy wouldn't let us pass until we answered and gave him a high five. 

Anyway back to the part where I should have gone home and didn't. Instead of going to eat somewhere nearby, we decided to venture close to Lower Greenville where the block party was. If you're not familiar with the block party, think Bourbon Street in New Orleans at Mardi Gras. We walked for miles and miles (or it seemed like it). Then waited in line for years at Snuffer's. We got re-energized with food but then... had to walk back. I haven't been that exhausted since I had Avery.

I learned that I just don't enjoy crowded craziness anymore. I guess I wanted to still enjoy it so I could consider myself young. But let's face it. I'm old and I'm ok with it.

Until next year, St. Patty's Day... I will probably celebrate you from my living room.

Daylight Savings

Not sure if anyone else cares, but if there's other new moms like me who weren't sure how to handle daylight savings time and baby's sleep schedule, I thought I'd share...

As you know I am a huge fan of Dr. Weissbluth, the author of Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. I subscribe to his blog (http://weissbluthmethod.wordpress.com/) and there is tons of helpful info on there. I also like reading the comments section and seeing what other parents have to say. Anyway he posted this about daylight savings time:

If your child’s bedtime is 6pm, then after we change our clocks, still put your baby to sleep at 6pm. We eat, play, rest, and bathe around the same clock times and these social cues help tell the child when bedtime is coming.
Sweet Dreams!
Marc

This helped me because I wasn't sure if I should put her to bed at 8 since she usually goes down at 7. But I guess I will keep it 7 (which will be like 6 to her). I guess we'll see how tonight goes!

Avery 6 Months

She did it! Avery turned half a year old on March 7!

Here are a few more further away that show her chunky thighs :)

 I feel like I have gotten to really enjoy her this last month. I love her to death, but the first 4 months were *really* hard. There wasn't much play time. It was basically just me trying to get her to stop crying.

Here are her "stats" -

Weight - 15 lbs. 7 oz (40%)

Length - 26" (61%)

Food - Maybe I'm too concerned with things, but I decided to not start her on solids until a week before she turned 6 months. I know they say you can start at 4 months, but I read a lot on why it's better to wait until 6. Maybe there's nothing to it, but what does it hurt? I started with rice cereal and she is not a fan. Not sure any of it has made it in her mouth. She purses her lips as tight as she can and makes a face like "gross." I guess I'll just move on to some other foods and hope she likes them better! I plan to make my own baby food so this should be interesting :)
She is also eating formula now. I wanted to nurse her for a year, but at 4 months she just stopped. I even talked with a lactation consultant about it and even she was stumped. It was like she weaned herself but she was too young to wean. I was really depressed about it for a while.
But I am still having a hard time with her eating. She will only eat max 3 oz at a time and then starts fussing. It's like she wants to eat but it hurts her. The pediatrician suggested I try soy formula but she does the same thing. He said she is gaining weight fine, so it may be something that's just more of an inconvience for me (yes - washing tons of bottles!).
Here is a picture of her eating rice cereal for the first time -

Clothes - 9 months fit her perfectly so I guess she'll be moving to 12 months soon. Luckily my friend Hillary gave me a HUGE box of 12-18 month clothes, so we're set!

Sleeping - She has been sleeping in her crib for over a week!! Yes, she was in her swing the whole time before that. I know some people may judge me for that, and some of the books say it's a bad habit, but all I know is it helped her sleep which helped me sleep. And when she was ready, the transition to her crib was super easy. I don't see how her sleeping in her swing hurt anything. I have also learned to not compare babies and their sleep schedules. They are all so different. My parents were telling me that when I was little they didn't even have to tell me to take a nap - I just did it. But with Colby it was a huge fight. Our sleep habits are still like that - I still love naps and Colby can stay up all hours. In fact, he works the night shift and loves it.
Lately she has been sleeping well through the night. She sleeps about 12 hours and either wakes up once or doesn't wake up at all. Her naps are still only about 45 minutes, but I've tried everything and I can't change it. I realized the only thing I could control is her bedtime, so she just goes to bed early. But since she's sleeping so long at night, I think she is getting enough sleep in a 24 hour period.

People - she has gotten very wary of people she doesn't know, especially men. When I was younger I used to be scared of men. If my Uncle Bruce or my dad's friends looked at me, I'd start crying. I think it's because I was sensitive, and Avery is very sensitive too. I think men are just loud and big.  When we were in Wichita Falls, Uncle Colby talked to her and she started screaming crying (well who wouldn't? haha). She also did it to my dad a couple of times but then she warmed up to him. She wouldn't cry but she wouldn't smile at him either. She just gave him her poker face. She has also started crying when cashiers at the grocery store and my neighbor talked to her.

She is finally big enough to sort of enjoy her exersaucer -

I am so thankful God has allowed me to be her mommy and that I can stay home with her!

Trip to Salado

I finally did it - I left Avery overnight. My friends planned to go to Salado, TX to celebrate Jana's 30th birthday. I had an email typed up saying I couldn't go, but I really wanted to! And I figured Rustin could hold down the fort for one night. Plus, I've known Jana since jr. high and really wanted to celebrate her 30th with her.

We stayed at the Salado Inn - 

It was very cute and quaint. The people who owned it made a home cooked breakfast in the morning and it was delicious! There were also journals in each room in which people who stayed there could write entries. A few were pretty interesting!

We decided to get a few pics on the balcony -

And of course had to get one of the birthday girl -

We went to two different wineries. One was horrible! The wine was so bad, but the lady running it was super nice and we got to sit outside and enjoy the weather -

The other winery we went to - Salado Creek Winery - was *really* good. They had several unique wines. One was called a "Chocolate Lab" and it seriously tasted like a grape tootsie pop. My favorite was the sweet white, and I brought home a bottle for Rustin :)

We also went to some antique shops and an art market. It was a lot of fun and nice to get away. I thought about it - that was the first night in about six months that I haven't slept with a monitor next to me. I could also really sleep in. Granted, I still woke up at 7 because I'm so used to waking up early, but that's better than 5:30! And Rustin did a great job watching Avery!