We celebrated Ava's 100th day this past weekend. Baby girl is getting so big and look at all her hair! Here are a few pictures:

3 Month Update - Ava

Just a quick little update on my little dumpling!

• Still not napping well. It's a battle getting her to take a nap longer than 45 minutes. 
• She likes to bury her face into blankets or anything near her face when shes sleeping. I think she finds it comforting.
• She's still eating well. She's about 13 lbs now. 
• She smiles all the time. Still waiting to hear a little laugh from her. 
• She's not as gassy anymore. I can tell the gas has subsided because she's not grunting anymore and she's not as noisy when she sleeps.
• She is talking SO much. Nursing sessions take longer now because shes always taking multiple breaks to stop, stare and babble to me. I guess its kinda cute.
• There are many nights during a week she becomes a crazy person. Once the sun goes down she gets real fussy and cries a lot. Don't know why she has nights like that, but I'm just glad/thankful its not everyday. 
• She isn't taking the bottle 100% of the time. There are times she'll cry bloody murder and other times she drinks it right up. Silly.
• She's sucking on everything. It has begun. 
• Her hobbies include: staring at her fist and swatting at everything and anything.
• She's pooping at least once a day now.
• Shes such a light sleeper. Any little sound will wake her for good. Not kool. 
• She started sleeping 6-7 hr stretches a week ago. She even slept through the night..once! Score!

I have less than two weeks left of maternity leave. As tiring as it has been, I'm going to miss seeing her chubby face all day long. I must savor these last few weeks with my little baby!

32 Month Update - Erin

Erin will be 3 in just 4 months. Crazy. She has grown so much these last few months. She's not our little girl anymore, she's a big girl now (like she always reminds us). Some highlights I'd like share:

• She's saying "no" all the time, which makes her a really bad listener.
• She's asking "why" all the time now.  
• She's not potty trained yet and I feel like its going to be quite a challenge getting there.
• She has been eating really well. Sometimes she eats as much as me!
• She likes her veggies again, especially broccoli. 
• She loves to sing. She remembers all the songs she hears, like the songs on the radio while we're in the car. When she hears the song uptown funk, shake it off, fight song..she says.."remember that song??"
• She even makes up her own songs..."becauseeeee...I took off my socks...because becausee...i'm a big girl noww"
• She's still obsessed with batman. Thinking about just giving her a batman themed birthday party this year. 
• She enjoys cleaning, playing with her dolls, playing in her kitchen and putting diapers on all her dolls.
• When we share food she always starts off by telling me "Don't eat it all, ok??".
• She can recognize a third of the alphabet and almost all the numbers and shapes.
• She picks up on everything we say now. She called Ken "Ken", says "what the heck" and "kool".
• Went to the dentist in March for the first time and she had no cavities and didn't cry!
• She remembers everything you say to her. Can't make promises hoping she'll forget..because she will not forget. Hah.
• She loves giving kisses and hugs to her little sis. (Erin has been awesome since Ava arrived)
• She is starting to get adventurous and wanders off on her own now. 
• She is finally getting out of her bed on her own now. She would always wait for us to get her when she woke up, but now she can open the door, so she gets out by herself.
• She really likes the show Clifford right now.
• We cut her hair for the first time.

2 Month Update - Ava

I wouldn't say Ava is an easy baby. I hear often that your second child will most likely be easier than your first. That's not really the case here. Erin and Ava are so different and I wouldn't say either of them were/are easy. Both have given me challenges in different ways, but both were also pretty mellow in their own way.

Stats
Height: 22 inches - 48 %
Weight: 11 lbs 9 oz  - 64 % (almost double her birth weight!)

Sleep
Ava has been sleeping decently at night, with the exception of a few nights of constant feedings. She wakes up 2 times on average, once between 1-2:00 am and once around 4:00 am. Her bedtime is pretty late though. I start putting her down around 7:30 pm, but it takes a few tries before she actually knocks out for the night and that's usually around 8:30-9:00 pm. With her sleeping later, she has a somewhat late morning wake up time. She'll be up around 7-7:30 am and most mornings she'll go down for another short nap after I nurse her.

Her naps are another story. They've been the most challenging for me thus far. They haven't been consistent these last few weeks. She takes her naps at a handful of locations (anywhere but her crib). She'll usually have one nice long nap in the morning and a couple shorter ones throughout the day. She likes to sleep in my arms so it can get physically tiring. Some days I'm just holding her all day and she ain't a tiny infant no more. She also prefers sleeping on her side or tummy.

Eating
She seems to be eating well. Almost doubled her birth weight! I nurse her every 3 hours during the day. Sometimes she can go 4 hours before a feeding. We introduced the bottle after she turned 1 month. She doesn't seem to be having issues with it so far. This was a problem we had with Erin. Erin refused the bottle and that made things quite challenging, i.e. when I wanted to go out for long periods of time without her. We're glad Ava is taking the bottle well. One thing I noticed about Ava is that she spits up quite often. Believe it or not, Erin rarely spit it. Maybe only a handful of times the first year. Ava is quite the opposite. I need to keep her up right for a little while after each feeding otherwise I'm left with a mess. Sometimes she overeats and just spits everything back out and just looks at me with a big smile. Silly kid.


Misc.

• Ava had some bad acne around 5 weeks and its finally almost all gone. She also had a mild case of cradle cap. I just put some coconut oil on her daily for a few weeks. 
• She has outgrown her 0-3 size clothing and has moved on to size 3-6. 
• She's a very noisy child! I think a lot of her grunting has to do with gas (she is such a gassy child). Some nights I can hear her grunting and squirming around for hours (poor thing). 
• Ava has maybe 1 poopoo diaper a day, which is so weird to me because at this age Erin was pooping at least 3-4 times a day. Sometimes Ava will go a day or two without pooping. Weird.
• She is smiling so much and is "talking" often. She has the cutest voice! 
• She definitely loves having human interaction and having someone near her..like always. Hah. 
• She likes it when I sing to her (believe it or not it puts her to sleep) and surprisingly saying "shh shhh" over and over puts her to sleep.
• She makes intense eye contact these days. Intense.
• She also makes the best sad face..quivering lips and everything. And her "sad" cries are just so precious. 
• She enjoys bath time, dislikes being cold, enjoys getting kisses and loves watching her sister. 

Ava's getting so big! I'm excited for when she's big enough to play with Erin! I'm sure Erin can't wait either!

My Favorite Nursing Tops

Finding nursing wear I liked was a challenge when I had Erin. Honestly, nursing wear isn't all that appealing/attractive and I didn't want to spend a lot of money on it either. But, when you're exclusively breastfeeding (which can mean anywhere between 8-12 feedings in a day), it really helps to wear attire that accommodates properly.

1. The Naked Nursing Tank. I only discovered this recently (wish I knew about it before). It's pretty genius. When I had Erin, I only wore non-nursing attire so I'd always be flashing my midriff every time I was out breastfeeding. The nursing covers aren't too big so it doesn't cover everything, i.e., your back. I never liked regular nursing tanks because I didn't feel it had enough support. This naked tank top fixed all of that for me. I don't have to spend tons of money on different nursing tops but instead am able to wear all my regular non-nursing attire with my fav/comfy nursing bras. I also don't have the problem of exposing any of my body parts. Seriously, my favorite purchase.

2. Nursing T-shirts. I wanted to invest in nursing specific t-shirts for night time/pajama purposes. I wanted something light, loose and comfortable, but also with easy access. These old navy tops were perfect. They weren't too pricey and they're super comfortable as well.

3. Button down shirts. I have a ton of button down shirts: chambray, plaid, checkered..and so on. It's a staple in my wardrobe and it works out perfectly for nursing purposes. These shirts make nursing easy because you just need to unbutton a few buttons and you're ready to go. No exposing your midriff/back or anything.

Ava and I have our share of difficulties breastfeeding, but we are finally starting to get in a nice rhythm. The difficulties/challenges are different from what I experienced with Erin. Erin had a better latch but was a slow eater and comfort nurser. Sometimes I'd be nursing for hours straight. Ava is much faster, but she takes forever to latch on and things get quite messy. She's still little and my overactive letdown is not any fun for her so she gets quite squirmy while eating. I'm hoping things get easier as she gets bigger. I'm glad I'm getting the opportunity to breastfeed again even though it gets tiring and difficult. Ava is so dependent on me for food, but I love that I get to spend lots of bonding time with my little babe. Oh, and all the constant feedings have brought me back to my pre-pregnancy weight. Score! Here's to another year of wearing a bra 24/7! =)

Erin likes to nurse her bunny too.