Happy 1-Month Ava

Ava turned one whole month today and she is starting to pack on the pounds and stay awake for longer periods of time. She still nurses every 3 hours but is quick to eat and snooze. The nights aren't too bad (famous last words) because she eats and goes back to sleep right away. We remember with Elise and Sean having to pace the room in the middle of the night but Ava seems to get that it's nighttime and even holds her poop til the morning.

We are torn by wanting to see Ava grow up to make things easier but knowing she's our last "baby", we are trying to savor each moment. When she is alert and wide awake, her expressions (mix of confusion and curiosity) are the cutest ever. 

Life with three has its challenges and when we're out in public, it always seems like there are more than three of them. Sean always wants to take advantage of our full hands and runs off knowing we can't quite catch up to him.  Waiting for a table takes a little longer since we're now a party of five, getting the kids in the car is quite a lengthy process, and our daily laundry load rivals a small country. 

We are also trying to get Ava to take the bottle but so far no luck.  We've tried two different brands but she either gags and spits up alot of milk or pushes the nipple out of her mouth.   We'll keep trying and hopefully she'll get the hang of it soon.

While she seems to be a good sleeper, she doesn't like to fall asleep on her own.  We've tried to "sleep train" Ava to test her tolerance (and ours) for her crying it out but no success yet.  We'll give it a few more weeks before we call in reinforcements but we are hoping she'll learn to do it on her own.

Her stats this month:
Weight - 8lbs.
Height - 19.75 inches