4 Weeks

Well, its been just over 4 weeks since little Ava was born. I already posted a bunch of pictures of her, but I didn't mention the things she's been doing!


Let's just get right to the point.


Ava loves to fall asleep while we burp her. She gets perfectly comfortable laying against our chests and just taking a snooze. The good thing: she gets good sleep. The bad thing: if she's not in her deep sleep yet and we try to move her to sleep somewhere else...she wakes up. This doesn't always make her happy, but really all it means is we have to feed her a little more and rock her or pat her to sleep again.


Ava REALLY wants to be able to control her head! She proved she was determined by lifting her head away from us and looking around for almost a minute while we were trying to burp her. When did she get such good control of her head!? If only that stuck though. She still has quite the wobbly head (which can be soooo cute) but when she's working really hard she can lift it for a while.


Speaking of when we burp her...she also likes to push up on our legs to inch her way up higher. Naturally we let her do this for a little bit to see what she can do, but end up pulling her higher ourselves. She also likes to do this thing where she squats just a little bit and then pushes with full force only to head butt you! She's going to be a volleyball player like mommy! :)


Another thing we noticed is that she tries to hold her bottle while we feed her. Notice how I said "tries". She puts her hands up on each side to keep it in place. Its weird how she just knows that's where her hands are supposed to be.


Along with the whole eating thing, we've now figured out when she's REALLY hungry. There's a specific sound she makes which means only one thing..."FEED ME!" Its a very persistent sound. I'd describe it, but its pretty difficult. I'm sure all you other mom's know what I'm talking about. This makes things easier for us though because we know exactly what she wants and we know she wants it NOW.


Also at 3 weeks, my baby moved to size 1 diapers!! This of course meant the cloth diapering journey was beginning. We had made the decision to use up our newborn diapers first and then start the cloth as she got just a little bigger. We wanted to start slow by using some of our size 1 diapers mixed with the cloth diapers throughout the day and then work our way up to exclusive cloth diapering (aside from long trips out in which we'd use a couple disposables). So far so good though! We do not have a diaper sprayer, but surprisingly the squirt bottle the doctor gave me after delivery works perfect for spraying the diapers prior to putting them in the pail. I have to say, my favorites are the Bumgenius w/Hook and Loop Closures (AKA the velcro). They're easy to use and they work great. The Bumgenius Flip diapers work great because you can reuse the cover many times (as long as nothing gross gets on it). I also like the Fuzzibunz that we got because the adjustable elastic inside works great for getting the sizing right on the legs. My only complaint is that with the snaps on both the Bumgenius Flip and the Fuzzibunz we seem to be sort of in between a size. I don't want to make it too tight, but I also don't want to make it too loose. It can be a little difficult to get them snapped also...especially the Fuzzibunz because there are 3 snaps to deal with on each side as opposed to 2. All 3 types are great though. So far they've all proven to be fabulous cloth diapers.


Over the past couple days Ava has been learning that her voicebox can make MANY different sounds. She no longer just grunts and moans all day long. She squeals...and when I say squeal...I mean it! Sometimes in her sleep she makes these whistling squeal sounds that are sooo adorable. She literally goes from a low squeal to a high squeal in one long breath as if she's singing.


We've learned that Ava likes the TV...a little too much. This could be bad! Its great for us sometimes because if she's in need of being calmed down she'll just glance over and all of a sudden she's quiet and content, but we don't want her to be addicted to TV at a young age! I try to keep her facing away from it unless she's super fussy. At night time I keep the TV off during her feedings. I want her to know that night time is for sleeping, not for watching TV (like her mom and dad do). :)


The best part though, of course, is that she smiles! She's been doing this since day 1 (although I know its just a reflex), but she used to always only do it in her sleep. Now she does it while she's awake too. I usually think its still just a reflex, but twice I have been playing with her and trying to get her to smile and she did. I nibbled on her little feet right after I changed her diaper and said, "Are you going to smile for momma!?" over and over and "Nom nom nom" while fake nibbling and she gave me a huge smile. I asked her again if she was going to smile and did it again...SHE SMILED AGAIN. I did it over and over....I got her to smile sooo many times. I was very proud.


On to my postpartum weight loss.


I had lost about 26.8 pounds as of 3 weeks postpartum, but this past week I actually gained a couple pounds back. I'm at a total weight loss of 24.8 pounds right now. I think I can assume my weight gain came as a result of me trying to figure out how many Weight Watchers points I need since I've been nursing about half the time and formula feeding the other half. The week prior I was doing more nursing and I ate all of my points including my flex points. This past week I was nursing less and didn't eat all of my points. I'm trying to figure out if I actually need less points now or if I didn't eat enough. With Weight Watchers the first few weeks are generally a "what amount works for me" sort of stage. Hopefully within the next week or two I figure out how many points are right for me to keep the numbers on the scale going down.


I have lost more inches though. My thighs are back to pre-pregnancy size (although they have MUCH less muscle so I'm working on that), my abdomen and waist are about 2-3 inches away from pre-pregnancy size, and my arms are about an inch away from pre-pregnancy size. I started really working out this week so I'm planning to keep up with that too. I did my Jillian Michaels Cardio Kickboxing just yesterday and it kicked my butt! I haven't done it in months, but I love the way I feel when I'm done with it! I had to modify a few things of course since I'm not in as good of shape as I used to be, but I still got a great work out.


I suppose that's it for today. I'd post a postpartum picture, but I forgot to take one and I haven't even showered yet. Maybe next week...? We'll see.