One Month

Ava's One Month Stats:

Height: 22 inches

Weight: 8lbs 10oz

Head: 14 inches

(5 weeks old)

Ava is growing up so fast!

She is sleeping 4-5 hours at night.

She is a slow eater.

She has a small head and all her bows fall into her face.

She loves sleep more than anything.

She can hold her head up.

She has strong legs and loves to kick and coo when she is awake.

She loves to be swaddled and won't sleep any other way.

She LOVES to be held and rocked.

She likes to take baths.

She has a lot of dark hair.

She loves her swing.

This is the only picture I could find with her eyes open.

Happy one month Ava we love you!

Newborn Pictures

My good friend Ainsley took Ava's newborn pictures. They are so cute and I couldn't believe how alert and awake she was at only 10 days old. I think that was the most she had been up in her in entire life at that point.

Thanks Ainsley they are so cute!!!!

Visitors

Right after Ava was born she had a lot of visitors and she loved all of the attention! My parents were the first set of visitors and they arrived about an hour after Ava was born. Thanks Mom and Dad for all of your help while you were here, Mom I couldn't of survived without you!

Grandma Hales

Papa Hales

We walked around the JW Marriott here in Palm Desert, such a spoiled girl already visiting the Marriott.

The second wave of visitors were Mike's parents they came down when Ava was a week old, Randy only was able to stay for 2 days so it was a quick trip, but he shared Sandra with us for an entire week! We loved spending time with Sandra and wish she could visit more. Sandra was such a huge help with Ava, cleaning, and great company, we couldn't of done it with out you!

Grandpa Nestman

Nana Nestman

Mike's brother Ryan who lives in San Diego was able to make a quick day trip down, him and Mike are the only ones in his family with girls!

My sister-in-law Ali and her darling little girl Lily also made a quick trip down to visit us while my brother was on a work trip in L.A.

Best friends

Lily loved the baby and always wanted to hold her I am excited for them to get older and play together

The last wave of visitors were my Grandma, Aunt Sheri, and Aunt Deanna. They were on a girls trip in San Diego and made a quick pit stop in the desert to meet Ava.

Ava makes great grandchild number 22!

That concludes all the visitors! Ava is definitely loved by her family and we feel so blessed to have her sweet spirit in our family!

Ava Cheri

Ava Cheri

6/10/11

2:28 p.m.

6 lb. 11 oz.

20. 5 inches

Even though Ava is already 9 weeks old, I would like to document her birth story since this is sort of my journal.

I went in for my 38 week check up with the doctor not thinking to much of it, you know the same ole boring appointments that you have toward the end of your pregnancy. Well the doctor checked me and I was dilated to a 3, and 80% effaced, then without me knowing he striped my membranes, which wasn't as painful as everyone informed me it was. He then told me he would be surprised if I made it to the weekend, which was only a few days away. I sort of panicked because I was having a baby shower that Saturday and I didn't know if I was going to make it, needless to say I didn't!! I then ran a few last minute errands and had a lot bleeding. I was sure if this was normal so I went home and rested a little bit to see if that would help, but the bleeding continued so I called my doctors and they told me to go to the hospital right away, I called Mike he came home from work and we were on our way to the hospital.

We got to the hospital checked into triage, I was dilated to a 4 and almost 100% effaced but was still having irregular contractions, I wasn't allowed to walk around the hospital because of my bleeding, so I was hooked up to a monitor for a couple of hours to check my progress. Well after about 4 hours I didn't have much progress but my doctor didn't want me to go home because of my bleeding so I was admitted to the hospital under 23 hour observation. Once I was checked into my room and hooked up to all of the monitors I started having regular contractions and was then admitted into Labor and Delivery, it was finally here we were not going home with out a baby. I was a little nervous because I was 2 weeks early and did not feel prepared at all!!!

Once I got admitted into Labor and Delivery I was allowed to have my epidural, I still couldn't feel much pain from my contractions, but I thought might as well get it now while I am not in much pain. I got my epidural around 10:00 p.m. which was heaven sent, I couldn't feel a thing and went to sleep. I didn't get much rest that night with all of the monitors beeping and nurses coming in and out. The night was pretty uneventful and woke up the next morning around 8:30 to get checked again, I was at an 8 and 100% effaced but my water still hadn't broke, and my doctor didn't want to break my water he wanted my birth to be as natural as possible. Well finally around 1:30 that afternoon I was fully dilated to a 10, but my water still hadn't broke. So the nurses finally broke my water and I was ready to push but had to wait for the doctor to arrive at the hospital, I did a few practice pushes but the nurses told me to stop because she didn't want to deliver my baby. The doctor came into the room at 2:21 got dressed and Ava was born at 2:28, I barely pushed and she came out, our baby girl finally arrived!

Mike and I didn't name her until the next day, we had a few names and we thought that once we saw her and name would just fit her but it was harder than we thought. We were only in the hospital for 24 hours and then we were sent home with our sweet bundle of joy! We love her and can't imagine our lives with out her.