ava's photo shoot

ava's first photo shoot

We recently had ava's photos taken and they turned out so beautiful. Thanks Graham and Hillary for such a good job! We love them.

Family and friends III

ava in her wendy belissimo outift






















Cousin olivia is so good w/ ava!
I remember when olivia was this small!





















"She's pretty, give her back?"
(what little nicky said after Rita was holding
Ava for a little while)












Breakfast with Aunt Rachel and cousin olivia
at our favorite breakfast place, First Watch.
We love the yummy banana pancakes!





















Cousin mindy and geoff stopped by
to visit Ava, and we had fun watching the Oscars!

Do these make me look fat?

Somewhat coherent mutterings of sweet relief

Ava's sleeping.
Sleeptime
ava is finally getting the hang of napping and sleeping in her crib. I am afraid to say that as she is napping right now and i swear i always think i hear her crying even when she isn't!












First weeks...ava sleeps all of the time.
We started trying to put ava in her crib at 4 weeks at the encouragement of ava's dr, Dr. Sams, who said that babies sleep better in their own space. I had heard rumors of those on the other side of mommyhood getting 5,6,7, gasp even 8 hours of sleep, but brandon and i thought these were only rumors made to make us crazy, sleep deprived parents even more crazy.

Well, we thought we would give it a try, however, after being encouraged by ava's dr. So we moved her to the crib the first night. i told him i felt like we were shipping ava off to college. Even though it was only a room away, it felt like 100 yards, not 1!



Ava with her cousin ethan, who is two months older.
All of this drama really did help us with ava's sleep schedule -- the whole process is something like the following, ava's up screaming for food, diaper change, etc.. , we take care of it, she drifts off and then we go back to bed! at first we were up and down 5 times before she went to sleep, now she can go to sleep by herself! i am still amazed!

Pictures

the kuhns gang

grandparents!

my mom
w/ ava at her house
















sharon (brandon's) mom at the hospital



hi -


dad at the hospital w/ ava rocking her to sleep

at the hospital on jan 29

whew! i can't believe it's been almost 6 weeks since we had ava - as you can imagine - we have been short on time lately.

i am down to reheating my morning cup of coffee only two times before i can drink it...:)

Birth story
we arrived riverside for our day that we had scheduled to be induced at 9 a.m. and started active pushing around 5 p.m. - ava was born at 6:51 p.m. and was 6.5 lbs and left the hospital weighing 6 lbs! this experience has been so surreal. I was really happy how everything went and the actual labor was nothing compared to the recovery.

Brandon and i were so excited to see ava and i literally balled after she came out because i was so extremely happy - and then i threw up....the epidural made me naseous i guess!

i just really appreciate everyone's support! All of the yummy food from my mom, aunt, grandma and cousins were so welcome! it was nice to have all of the support we did. My sister and niece rachel also came out to see us from phoenix! so nice to see them




mommy and baby

baby and daddy

ava photos from february

photos

here are some photos of ava-- it's been really busy so sorry we haven't posted more!