Ava is 5 Months Old

My beautiful baby girl is 5 months old! To say I can't believe it is redundant, yet I always do. 

She is such a sweet girl and I love her so much. Every time I do these updates I feel so happy and sad at the same time because it reminds me that she is not a newborn anymore, and soon won't be a baby anymore and so on. 

As with all the kids I try to savor the moments. This is harder to do now with 3, but it is very important. 

One way I try to savor moments is to be present. I used to use the down time while nursing her to check email, and Facebook or what have you. I realized though, that she would gaze up at me wanting to engage, so now I just gaze back and it makes breast feeding that much more amazing. It's such a beautiful experience. 

I have not felt certain one way or the other about having more children. I know my body would probably thank me if I stopped with Ava (my 3rd c-section), but I never felt certain about it. I can't say that I am any more certain now than I was before, but I do know that I love knowing that Ava is the baby of the family. There is something so sweet about her being the only girl and the baby. 

Something I'm surprised about is that Aaron refers to her as his little princess or the princesa. It never really was in his nature to use such a term of endearment. He does call the boys "mijo" (Spanish for my son) but something about the term "princess" surprised me, but it's so cute. Clearly, he is putty in her hands!

Adrian calls her "Ba-buh" which he pronounces as if he were saying Ava but his v is pronounced like a b and the adds a b at the beginning as well.

Mac calls her: sister, sissy, mama, mami, baby sister, pretty girl. Those are all names I use to refer to her, so I'm sure he has picked them up from me. 

I wonder how she will ever know what her actual name is. Ha!

When the boys were young (especially Mac) I assumed they were teething long before they actually got teeth. I did so because of the drooling and desire to get things in their mouths. I hate to claim she is teething (as I did with them), so I've been hesitant to, but I really think she might be. 

She doesn't just want things in her mouth, she gets hold and clamps down! She also gets really anxious as if she is looking for the right spot to relieve the sensation. I've also never had a worse drooler. I once mistook the drool for her diaper leaking. Her diaper ended up being dry, but I traced drool all the way back up to her mouth!

Needless to say, I do believe that this time the funny behavior is due to teething. 

Oddly, she has become very interested in food so the timing seemed right to let we gnaw on hard veggies. I did this with Adrian when he seemed to be in the first stage of teething. 

She was quite frustrated about not being able to get the whole thing in her mouth!

So I had to intervene and give her the other end!

Ava still sleeps through the night which is awesome. She now rolls back and forth so she does end up on her belly most nights, but I always lay her on her back to sleep initially, then leave her to do what she does which is what our pediatrician recommends. 

My favorite thing is pulling her into my bed just before I get up to dress in the morning. She nestles up to me and latches on. Then falls back into a deep sleep. She actually never even cries, I wake up when I hear her shuffling around in her crib. Funny how our instincts work like that. 

I'm still pumping at work. I get 6 ounces in one session. This is perfect cause she only takes one 2 oz bottle a day and I nurse her the rest of the time so she doesn't need much, so I get to freeze a net of 4 oz a day and that seems like plenty for us. 

Only pumping once a day also helps keep me from over producing milk and so I am able to skip pumping on weekends. 

I don't know if I mentioned it in my last post, but she recently went through a growth spurt and I was beginning to worry she wasn't getting enough milk. She nursed constantly and I always felt empty. Just before I whipped out the special tea I bought to amp up my supply, it picked up for me and she backed off of nursing.

I was producing a lot more than necessary for a few days, but quickly regulated. 

Another amazing fact of nature!

It goes without saying, but I love my little girl. I love her like I can't explain in words. I hope that she'll always know that.

Happy 5 months, Ava Rose!