23 weeks & Happy Easter

Everett is doing great, growing by the day and certainly moving, jumping and kicking a lot...I think even more than Avery at this point. My last doctor's appointment was our anatomy scan about 4 weeks ago, and everything looked great. We were guaranteed (for the 3rd time) that we are 100% having a boy. Jake is pumped and so am I. We have bought everything for his room and in about 6 weeks, when Avery's big girl furniture gets here, we are going to set up the nursery. Everett was measuring right on track in size at this point, which is good news if we want to attempt a VBAC.

This pregnancy is going by 10 times faster than Avery's. It is so hard to believe that we are already at 23 weeks. Everything has been going very smoothly. I started having braxton hicks contractions at about 14 weeks and experience at least 10 or so a day, but the doctor said no need for concern. I do have a low lying anterior placenta, which is being watched closely by the doctors and will probably be checked again in a few weeks.

I have been super active with this pregnancy, teaching 2 classes per week and training 5 clients per week as well. On top of that I try to get to the gym 2 times a week and walk Saki and Avery 1.5 miles 3 times per week. However, even with that....I am gaining weight SO fast. I am already at 20 pounds and I pretty sure I will put another 25-30 on, if the weight comes on as fast as it has in the past few weeks. I'm not overly concerned, but it kind of sucks. I cannot even imagine how big I would be if I was not active, ha ha.

My vice, as with last time, is frozen yogurt. They just opened a place up about 1 mile from the house and needless to say, we have earned a few free yogurts from filling up our punch cards;) But hey, it is better than coldstone-which is what we ate when I was pregnant with Avery.

Baby E Due August 5th

I have not been keeping up with this AT ALL. However, I do want to track this pregnancy as I did with Avery Kae.

Today we had out 12 week appointment and had our nuchal tube screening. The baby's heartbeat was 157 bpm and measured a day behind at 12 weeks even instead of 12w1d. The ultrasound tech guessed that we were having a BOY!!! We are super excited but will not count on this for sure until our next ultrasound. The nuchal tube screening came back with an average of 1.3 and the scale is worrisome at 3, so she said the baby looks really, really good!

So far I have gained 4-5 pounds, mostly because I feel like I need to eat to not feel sick. Speaking of, I have just felt awful the last 7 weeks, everyday I get the cold sweats and either throw up or dry heave, and I have to force myself to eat something because that is the only thing that makes me feel better. I am hoping for a better second trimester. This is sooo different than Avery, with her I could barely even tell I was pregnant!

I have been working out almost every day, either at the gym, teaching classes, or taking Saki on a 2 mile walk. I am hoping to stay active, although through the summer that may prove to be more and more difficult with the extreme heat.

We are so excited and feel so blessed:)

Month 6

Avery had her 6 month appointment on April 20th and she has grown quite a bit! She was 17 pounds and 26 inches tall. She has been enjoying a large variety of fruits and vegetables, from peas to zucchini, plums to mangoes, she will eat almost everything and we are having a blast watch her try things for the first time.

She is getting very strong and is able to pull herself up onto her feet with a little help from us. She has not crawled yet, but continues "swimming"and scooting all around.

Avery has proven to be a a little difficult when it comes to the sleeping and napping department. We have read books, did our research, tried sticking to a schedule from the time she was 3 months old...nothing has worked! She goes to sleep like clockwork every night at 7:30pm and wakes up at least once each night for about an hour or two at a time. We are trying everything to get her back to sleeping through the night, but it has been a little bit of a struggle lately! Any tips would be appreciated.

We cannot believe Avery is already 7 months old. Her little personality is really shining more and more each day and we are having a blast with her. Right now her favorite things to do are sitting by herself, playing with her musical table, she loves jumping in her exersaucer, standing, patting, and playing in the bathtub!

We are looking forward to the summer, with swimming, going on long walks, and spending a lot of time outside enjoying the weather!

Avery Month 5

Avery had a very exciting month! Avery went on her first vacation to New Glarus, Wisconsin where she had her first hotel experience. While we were there, we took her swimming and she seemed fairly indifferent about the experience. She kind of just hung out in the water, but overall it was really fun-especially for her daddy and I!

Avery experienced her first plane ride at the end of March. We took her to Arizona and although she did not enjoy the plane ride out there (she cried for about 75 minutes straight), she had a blast basking in the sunshine and spending some quality time with Tia and Greg. We were there for a total of 6 days and we were very sad to go home.

A big milestone happened when we were in Arizona, she started sitting up by herself. She started for about 15 seconds at a time and can currently sit unassisted for a few minutes at a time. She is also very close to crawling, she "swims" right now, kicking her legs and swinging her arms anytime she is on her belly. She is also rolling around like crazy.

We also noticed that her gums are getting a little white, so we believe her first tooth is on the way. She did have one night where she was in some pain, but aside from that she has been in a great moon nonetheless.

On April 5th, I made her some squash and she LOVED it! The next day...not so much, but we are excited to be starting her on real food. She was ready for the change, milk and cereal where just not cutting it anymore.

We have her next doctors appointment on April 20th, so we are looking forward to seeing how big she has gotten in the past two months.

Avery months 3 &4

Once again, time has slipped away from us! We have been so busy that it is hard to believe that Avery is almost 5 months old. I went back to work in mid-January and Grandma Kathy has taken on the role as Avery's full time babysitter...we are so thankful that she is helping us out and taking such good care of our little lady. Avery went from sleeping through the night to getting up again, and this obviously started the week I went back to work;). Now, she gets up about 2 times per night to eat. She is a hungry little girl, and is growing like a weed!

Avery was baptized on February 14th (her daddy's 27th birthday). We had a beautiful ceremony preceded by a luncheon with our families. Marcus, Tiffany, Greg and Tara were her Godparents and we feel so lucky that she has four amazing sponsors to walk her through her religious upbringing.

At her 4 month appointment, she weighed 13.8 pounds and was 24 inches tall! She is eating 5.5oz at a time and usually eats every 2-3 hours during the day. We were able to start rice cereal on February 19th, her first attempt was so adorable and hilarious. She acted like we were giving her lemon juice, making such sour faces every time the spoon came near her mouth. The whole concept of a spoon was so new to her, but after a few days she finally got the hang of it. She actually tries to take matters into her own hands by grabbing the spoon herself! Right now she is getting 1.5 tablespoons of cereal mixed with about 1oz of milk before bed and first thing in the morning (along with a 5-6oz bottle).

Avery is talking, cooing and laughing up a storm. She is such a happy baby and her smiles are so big, they are almost too cute for words. She rolled over from her tummy to her back at about 14 weeks and ever since then, we can barely keep her on her back! Her core is getting stronger, so the next thing she will be doing is sitting by herself and even crawling. I have a feeling those two milestones are coming sooner than we think! Her first tooth should be breaking through in the next few months as well. It is so amazing how many things happen and how fast babies develop.

We are so blessed to have Avery in our lives and look forward to spending everyday with her:)

Avery's second month

Time certainly has a way of getting away from us these days, with the holidays these past 6 weeks just flew by! Avery is now 10 weeks old and more alert than ever. We got her first real smile on Thanksgiving day and ever since then she has been laughing, cooing, and smiling nonstop. I love watching her wake up and being the first person she sees in the morning, she always greets me with the biggest smile and a huge stretch!

At 5 weeks, Avery rolled over for the first time and has done so a few times since. She is still not a fan of tummy time, but has really developed her neck and core muscles through this unfair form of "torture".

She has also started to enjoy her bumbo, we put her in there around 8 weeks old and she likes to sit with daddy and watch football. Speaking of which, she is mesmerized by the television. We try not to let her "watch", but figure it most offer some sort of visual stimulation, so until she can really get whats going on, we'll let it be for a few minutes here and there, ha ha.

Avery is growing a little more fonder of baths these days, she does not scream too much, until it is time to get dressed, yeah she is definitely not a fan of that.

She is still a very, very intense little eater. As soon as she is hungry, she will let out a blood curdling scream and will not stop until the bottle is in her mouth...and then when you have to take the bottle away to burp her, you would think that she has not eaten in days! At least she is a good eater, so we cannot complain. She is currently eating a little over 3.5 oz every 2-2.5 hours during the day and is an AMAZING sleeper, clocking in an average of about 9 hours of sleep each night. After our holiday festivities, she even slept for 11 hours straight.

Avery had a wonderful Christmas, spending time in both Long Grove and Sussex, she was showered with beautiful clothes, toys and books and we are looking forward to getting some good use out of all of them!

On December 29th, Avery received four vaccines at her two month appointment. It was so hard to see my daughter in so much pain, but she handled them quite well. Her temperature was slightly elevated and she was a little fussier than usual in the days following the vaccines, but aside from that she was a little trooper. She will go back to the doctor at the end of March for her four month check up. Dr Miller said she is still ahead of the curve developmentally and is in the 75th percentile for weight (10lb 15oz) and head circumference and in the 55th percentile for height (22.5 inches).

Each day is a new opportunity to teach Avery about the world and each day Avery teaches us a little bit more about being parents. We are so blessed to have her in our lives and to have such supportive, amazing friends and family. We could not have made it through the first two months without all of you!

Avery's first month

Today, Avery is 4 weeks old. We cannot believe how fast the past month has gone and we are so lucky to have such a beautiful baby girl! Avery has made leaps and bounds in the past month. When we first brought her home, she was screaming from 9pm-6am and had her nights and days confused. fast forward to last night, Avery slept from 10-2am, woke up and ate, went back to bed from 3-6:30am and then ate again and napped throughout the day! We are able to, on most nights, get at least 3 solid hours of sleep at a time-if you have not yet had a baby, you will one day understand how amazing 3 hours of sleep can be!

Avery is a very strong, alert baby. She enjoys being held and rocked, she loves her swing, hates her crib and pac n play, and does not like being changed at all! Her favorite thing in the world in our family room fan...there is a domed light that she enjoys staring at. Any time we need to calm her down, we just tell her to "look at the light" and it works like a charm! Avery does not really like tummy time, however she has been able to turn her head in both directions when lying on her tummy. She can also lift her head and hold it in place for about 15 seconds at a time.

Avery is currently trying to find her thumb to suck on, but in the meanwhile she likes her nuk after she eats and while she is trying to fall asleep. She seems to be very interested in all of the new things around her because she really fights falling asleep. As long as we rock her, dance with her and sing to her, she seems to settle down. We have also started playing a game with her where we stick our tongue out at her and she will stick hers back out at us. If we open our mouth really wide, she will do the same. It is amazing how many things babies can pick up so early on!

At her last appointment, two weeks ago, Avery weighed in at 8lbs 12oz, she goes for her one month check up on Tuesday, November 24th. I am excited to see how much she has grown in this past month!

Avery Kae is here!

I will start at the beginning...

On Wednesday, October 21st Jake and I went into labor and delivery around 10pm because Avery had been unusually quiet all day. We were hooked up to a non stress test and were told that due to fetal heart rate decelerations, they wanted to keep us over night. Clearly, I did not sleep a wink because I was worried about Avery and anticipating what would happen the next morning. Around 6:45am our doctor came in and I was around 3cm, with out much progress even though I had been contracting every 2-5 minutes since 10pm the night before. The doctor told us that she believed we should induce, although it might raise the risk of a C-section. We decided to go ahead with it, because due to Avery's size there was a good chance we would need a C-section anyway.

Around 7:00am, they broke my water and started pitocin. I was contracting every 2-4 minutes and mostly all of the contractions were "coupling" meaning I would get two strong contractions back to back, each lasting over a minute. Well, Avery did not like this and her heart rate continued to decelerate. The nurses placed me on my side and for the next two hours I was not allowed to move at all, because if I moved, Avery would begin to show signs of distress. Around 10:45am the doctor came back and told me that Avery was not handling the pitocin or the contractions very well and since she was not moving down and I was not dilating, they would need to do a C-section.

Jake and I were ready to meet Avery and we wanted her to be here safe and sound, so we signed off on the C-section. Around 11:15 they stopped the pitocin and began prepping us for surgery. Jake was not allowed in the operating room until the surgery had begun. Within 10 minutes, (and a lot of pulling, tugging, pushing and manipulating...she was so big and so high up that they had trouble getting her out even with the C-section) she was finally here and we heard her cry at 12:03pm. Words cannot express how beautiful of a moment this was.

Jake was allowed to meet Avery and bond with her right away as I was finishing up the surgery for the next 50 minutes and was in recovery for the next hour. I was finally able to hold my daughter around 2pm.

My recovery could not have gone any smoother. I was able to refuse all pain medications post-surgery, I think I was just on a high from finally having Avery here. I was out of bed and walking the halls within 24 hours and everything is healing perfectly. I think the hardest part was the fact that I had to go over 42 hours without eating because of the induction and surgery. My first meal (chicken broth) was amazing:)

After 4 days and 5 nights in the hospital we were able to come home on Sunday, October 25th. We are adjusting to life as a family of three and could not be any happier. Avery is actually just waking up, so I will post pictures and more details on her first week of life later on today!

40 weeks!

Today is officially our due date, we are so happy to have made it all the way to 40 weeks, but we are ready to finally meet Avery. We had an interesting appointment yesterday. Ashley is dilated to 2cm and things are progressing nicely. We had a non stress test to check Avery's heart rate in reaction to the contractions. Ashley is contracting regularly every 8-10 minutes and although Avery looked good on the NST, her heart rate was not accelerating- this is something they like to see happen every so often for about 10 seconds at a time. They sent us immediately over to the hospital for continued monitoring. On the way there, we grabbed something to eat because the doctor said it was possible Avery was just sleepy and needed some sugar. So when we got to the hospital, they monitored Avery for about 2 hours and everything looked good, she was more awake, having accelerations and only had a few decelerations (something they do not like seeing). They released us around 3pm and the nurse said that she expects to see us back by the end of the week because things are moving as they should.

Ashley is officially off of work, so she is just running errands and relaxing around the house...waiting for the signs of labor! With having so many contractions, the doctor told us not to even call until Ashley is unable to talk or move through the contractions, since she is pretty used to them at this point. We are hoping to have Avery in our arms by the weekend, so we will keep you posted.

We have another doctors appointment on Thursday. They will be doing another NST and an ultrasound to measure Avery's size. If she is as big as they expect, they will more than likely induce on Thursday or Friday. However, if she is measuring "normal" then they will not induce until Oct. 29th (a day after our 3 year anniversary)! However, everyone is thinking she will come on her own before next week, but only time will tell!

Thank you for all of your continued support and prayers!!

38 and 39 week appointments

Well, we do not have too much to report. At last week's appointment, we were told that Ashley was 50% effaced and at -1 station. This week things looked much the same, so not too much progress from last week. Avery is nice a cozy and it seems like she might fool all of us and come after her due date (which is next Tuesday by the way). The good thing is that Avery's growth has finally slowed down and she is now measuring as she should, although she is still probably going to be about a 8.5lb baby.

Ashley is doing great, although we are both pretty anxious and ready to finally meet our daughter! We were told that if things do not progress by our 41 week apt (Oct 26) we will be induced that week. So, there is a chance we could have an anniversary baby....although we are not exactly hoping for that to happen :) Keep your fingers crossed that everything progresses as it should and that we have a baby sometime this week!! We'll keep you all posted!

37 Week Appointment

Well, there is no real news to share this week! Avery is still "floating around" and has yet to "drop". She is officially considered full term today, so anytime between now and October 20th it's fair game so to speak. Jake thinks she will be coming this weekend and Ashley is still thinking closer to October 10th, only time will tell!

Ashley is feeling great, we are walking about 2 miles everyday and she'll continue to work until Avery decides to make her grand entrance! We have everything ready to go, the car seat is installed, her room is ready, everything is put together, now all we need is a baby! We will keep you all posted. Our next appointment is on Tuesday, October 6th, so we will post next Wednesday. Hopefully by then we see some progress!

36 week appointment

Yesterday was our 36 week appointment and everything looks good. Nothing is going on yet and Avery is still hanging out up in Ashley's rib cage, but sometime within the next week or two she will drop into position for delivery. Her heartbeat is a strong 155bpm and she is a very busy baby. The doctor said (once again) that she is measuring about a week and a half ahead, so she is currently measuring at about 37.5 weeks. Our next appointment is on Monday, Sept 28th, so we will see if there is any progress at that point. We will be considered full term on Tuesday, September 29th, so she is more than welcome to make her appearance at any point thereafter. We'll post again next week!!

34 week ultrasound

Avery looked perfect at her ultrasound this morning. Her kidney is no longer dilated and everything looked exactly as it should. She seemed to be enjoying breakfast during the ultrasound because she kept opening and closing her mouth and swallowing the amniotic fluid. We were able to get some really nice pictures of her face and we will post those later this week. Her cheeks are so chubby, and it looks like she actually has Jake's nose! We were told that she weighs around 6 pounds and to expect about a 9 pound baby if we go all the way to 40 weeks....but again we think we will have a baby by the 10th of October, but who knows:) Avery has also moved positions again, her head is down and she is facing the world, with her back against Ashley's spine. So if that back pain starts up again for Ashley, we'll know why. Our next appointment is on September 21st, and from then on out we will be seeing the doctor every week.

We are getting ready for Avery's arrival bit by bit. We (with the help of of Grandma Kathy) washed all of her clothes, bedding and toys and finished setting up the nursery. Only 42 days to go!

Baby Shower

On Saturday, we had our first baby shower at Biaggi's in Deer Park. It was so great to see all of our family and friends and everyone was SO generous, we could not believe how many amazing things we got. As soon as we got home, we set up the nursery and organized everything. We are slowly getting ready for Avery's arrival! We have another shower in Wisconsin on September 12th and we plan on dedicating the 13th to finishing setting everything up. Thank you to everyone that attended the shower and we are looking to seeing everyone in Wisconsin in a few weeks! We will post some pictures of the nursery once it is complete, it looks so beautiful!

Ashley continues to feel well. The pain in her lower back has completely diminished, Avery must have changed positions. We are both getting more and more excited by the day and cannot wait to meet our little girl:) We'll update everyone after our next ultrasound, which is scheduled for September 8th.

32 Week Apt. and Baby Classes

Yesterday we had out 32 week appointment. Grandma Ahern went with Ashley to her appointment since Jake was tied up with CDW trainings all day. The appointment was fairly quick, but the doctor did mention again that Avery is a big girl and is "much above" the 75th percentile in size right now. She also said that the dilation in her kidney will hopefully resolve itself by our next ultrasound and even if it doesn't there is a chance it will by birth. We have our last ultrasound in two weeks, so I guess we will know a little bit more at that point in time.

The betting has begun on when Avery will be making her grand apperance. We think that she will be here around the first week of October. Check out our poll and let us know when you think!

We have officially "graduated" from baby school as well. We finished up all of our classes on newborn basics and childbirth education...so I guess we are ready for Avery's arrival. Today marks the start of our 8th month of pregnancy, it is hard to believe that in just about 6-8 weeks Avery will be here and we will finally be able to hold her and see what she looks like! We are getting very excited!

30 Week Ultrasound

Yesterday we had our 30 week 3D ultrasound and it was so amazing! Avery was moving nonstop and we could not even get a good picture of her face to show everyone. We will be posting some pictures of her arms and legs later this week. She seemed to really like playing with her feet, grabbing her toes and pulling her legs over her head...I see a future cheerleader in our future whether we like it or not! We were also able to watch her yawn and stretch, oh and she even gave her mommy and daddy the finger- so it seems like she has a little bit of an attitude:). The ultrasound lasted about 45 minutes and they did another full anatomy scan.

Everything looked great, the only thing of concern was that her right kidney was slighted dilated. Normal range is up to 5mm and hers measured at about 6mm. The doctor said that this is nothing to be concerned about, but she did order another ultrasound in 4 weeks to see if it has dilated any more. If so, then more follow up will be needed, but if it stays at 6mm then we are good to go. Essentially, it is dilated due to a back up of urine in that kidney. If the dilation continues, then it means that her kidney is not excreting urine properly and since her urine makes up the amniotic fluid right now, and she practices breathing by swallowing the amniotic fluid, it could potentially become a major issue. However, since it was only 1mm above the norm, the doctor did not seem too concerned. We will find out more on September 8th at our next (and hopefully last) ultrasound.

Ashley is feeling good, although lately she has been having some severe pain in her right lower back. It is believed to be an issue with her sacroiliac joint, which is common in late pregnancy. So, she will probably just be limping around for the next two months and hopefully things will get back to normal for her once Avery is here! Aside from that, everything is going great!

We thank you all for your continued support and prayers!

28 Week Follow-up Appointment

We had a very quick follow up appointment yesterday. The doctor was pleased to hear that the braxton hicks contractions have slowed down since Ashley has been easing up on the exercise. Our next appointment is in two weeks.

We have had a lot of exciting things going on in our lives lately. Jake recently accepted a job at CDW to be their corporate recruiter. He begins his new position on August 3rd and will be working out of their Chicago location. We are so excited for this opportunity, as it has been in the works for over a year and a half! Ashley has also taken on a new role at work, moving into the manager position for the community. Essentially, she is managing both the activities/events and the overall property of Cambridge Lakes. 2009 has been a very blessed year so far!

Glucose Screening/26 Week appointment

On Monday we had out 26 appointment and Ashley had her glucose screening for gestational diabetes. The results came back normal and everything looks great! The doctor did say that Avery is measuring a little big bigger than average, but that is to be expected seeing that both mom and dad are a little taller. Ashley continues to feel awesome, although her energy levels are slowly creeping back down as we round the corner for our third trimester.

Over the past month, Ashley has been experiencing a lot of braxton hicks contractions. Although they are not at all painful, we did mention it to the doctor. For now, the doctor is having Ashley cut back on some of her exercise to see if that helps in slowing down the contractions. It is nothing to be concerned about, but obviously the less contractions the better!

From here on out, we will be seeing the doctor every two weeks and our next ultrasound is scheduled for August 10th. This ultrasound will be in 3D so hopefully we will have some great pictures to post at that time!

22 Week Anatomy Scan

Yesterday we had our 22 week anatomy scan and ultrasound. The two pictures we received are posted to the right, the quality is not that great but it was very cool to see how much Avery has grown since our last ultrasound a few weeks ago. The doctor said she is in the breech position, which does not mean anything at this point, just that she likes to stand upright...and Ashley can tell that she is trying to walk around seeing that Avery is directly on top of Ashley's bladder as she practices:)

The anatomy scan showed that everything is developing properly. We were able to see all four chambers of her heart, they measured the length of her femur, tiba, fibula, humerus and they checked to make sure that all of her organs are in the right place. They checked out her brain and skull as well. So far, so good!

At this point in the pregnancy, all of the books say that we can determine wake and sleep patterns. Avery is pretty active around 8am, 3pm, 10pm and 4am. So, if that is her sleeping pattern now, we'll have to find out what happens once she enters the real world!

Avery weighs about 1lb right now and is almost 1 foot long. Her sense of taste is developing, she is practicing her acrobatics and breathing techniques, growing hair on her head, and is even sucking her thumb already...she has been bee pretty busy in the past few weeks!

Our next appointment is mid-July and our next ultrasound is scheduled at 30 weeks, so in about 8 more weeks we will see her again!

Avery the Tumbler (or soccer player- depending on who you ask)

The past few weeks, Avery has been making her presence known by moving, kicking, and working on some tumbling passes. Jake finally felt her for the first time on memorial day! She is still pretty gentle, but I am sure in about a month or two those kicks and punches will be knocking the wind out of Ashley, especially if she was blessed with Jake's strong legs:)