Avery's First Month

It has been a little over a month since Avery was born and having two babies in the house leaves no room for blogging, which is why I'm late with all my updates.  These past 7 weeks with Avery have been chaotic, loving, stressful and blissful all rolled into one big emotion.  We feel so blessed to have this perfect little angel who is so calm and patient.  Brian and I thought Emily was such a good baby who gave us no trouble at all, but Avery is actually so much easier.  Maybe it's due to the fact that it's our second time around the baby block and we are more experienced, but looking back on our time with Emily made us realize that Avery is just more of an easier going baby.

From the moment we brought Avery home she has been such a joy.  As a newborn she would eat and then fall right back to sleep for a good 2-3 hours at a time.  At 4 weeks old she started eating 3-4 ounces of formula at every feeding and then sleeping for 3-4 hours.  Because she is such a patient and calm baby Avery takes forever to eat.  It takes us up to an hour for her to finish her bottle and be burped because she does it in small increments and sometimes falls asleep when feeding. 

She is starting to stay awake a little longer to view the world around her and take in her surroundings.  At this stage she can't see very far as her eyesight hasn't fully matured.  Her eyes have adjusted and aren't crossed like they were when she was born, as is normal for all babies.  Avery has blue eyes like her sister Emily, although a slightly different shade.  We won't know if they will stay blue until she is around 6-9 months which is the standard age at which eyes stay their original color or change.

Avery was born with a tiny frame so we had to dress her in preemie clothing for the first couple of weeks at home.  She is now in newborn clothing and is growing fast but is still smaller at this point compared to her sister.  At her first month checkup she was 7 1/2 lbs. and measured 21 1/2 inches long.  The doctor said she has very strong neck muscles and is perfectly healthy and development is right on track even though she is slightly under the average curve for weight and height.

Speaking of neck muscles, I would have to agree with Avery's doctor, she can pull her head away from your shoulder when she is being burped and look around for a good amount of time before she gets tired and her head starts to bob.  We always have to have a hand to her head when burping her because she will suddenly pull her head up and then accidentely slam it into our shoulder.

At 5 weeks of age Avery started to ooh and aah when looking at you.  It completely melts my heart when she talks because she sounds so cute and looks at you with big alert eyes as if wanting to have a conversation.  Now at 7 weeks old she has a bigger voice and will make louder sounds and try to get your attention.  We haven't seen her smile willingly yet but she sure does smile alot in her dream state.  Avery has many sweet dreams.   

So how has big sister taken to her little sister?  At first she wasn't too sure about this new little person stealing mommy's attention away.  Emily seemed irritated whenever I would feed Avery and would pull on her blanket to get her away from me.  She has now gotten used to having Avery around and gets excited at times when seeing her.  Emily gives baby sister wet kisses on the head, but watch out, she has to be supervised because a newborn's soft cheeks are mighty tempting to a teething child.  Avery has been bitten a couple of times by big sister, although they weren't bad enough to leave marks.  Sometimes Emily will softly stroke baby sisters head and clap when applauded for her loving ways.  Then when you don't expect it she slaps her on the head.  Something tells me that Avery is going to have to toughen up quick to hang with Emily.  We know there will be times when they won't want to be apart and times when they can't stand each other.  We look forward to everything they have in store for us.