Six weeks of Ava Jean

Our little bean has been around for over six weeks now. So much had happened in the past 6 weeks, and there has been so much change, it feels like she's been part of our lives for soooo much longer than that!

Ava has quite the little personality. She will definitely let you know if she's happy or not. She reminds me so much of Alathea at this age. Both in looks and personality. Sometimes I'll look at Ava and have to remember which baby girl I'm holding. Its a funny feeling...like a flash back in time since our girls look so similar as babies.

Poor girl has had some real struggles with her tummy. Its hard to know for sure whats going on. Even though she's quite "opinionated" in personality, its pretty obvious that at various times throughout the day, she's not just unhappy, she's in pain. It may be as simple as an immature digestive system that she'll soon grow out of. But we're trying to rule out other things in case its more than that. This week I'm trying to go dairy free at the recommendation of my doctor and others. I'm only on day two and haven't noticed any drastic improvement yet, but plan to stick out at least a week. The doctor also mentioned a possible mild acid reflux. She's typically unhappy right after I feed her and spits up tons, so that may be a good guess too. It sure is a guessing game with a newborn! Any suggestions you may have, send my way!

A HUGE answer to prayer is that the little girlie is now finally sleeping at night! The first 4 weeks of her life she would not (really could not) sleep more than 20 minutes at a time. We quickly learned that each time she woke up she was covered in spit-up...poor girl. She'd sleep fine when we would hold her. We could comfort her quickly back to sleep when she'd spit up. Needless to say, we were exhausted staying up all night. I may get reprimanded admitting this, but once we switched and had her sleep on her tummy, she started sleeping at night! She still wakes up to eat, but sleeps in between feedings! Hallelujah!

I'm now slowly making progress on getting her to sleep soundly for naps during the day. My other girls were amazing sleepers from birth, so having one that struggles with sleep is a new experience. She struggles to stay asleep for her naps for the same reason as she did at night. But we're making progress and she's so much happier when she's napping on a regular schedule. Even though its a bit challenging not having a regular daily napper yet, I'm not complaining since I'm getting some sleep at night now!! Those four weeks of no night time sleep put a new perspective on everything!

The sweetest thing of all is the HUGE full body smiles and happy coo's I get from my baby girl!

When her tummy's not hurting, she's a total delight and happy little thing. I'm so grateful for my sweet girl.