Our Little Trooper

Ava has been such a little trooper lately. We had to stay an extra day in the hospital because her biliruben levels were high and she was jaundiced pretty bad. They put her under light therapy and we were only able to hold her during feedings. (Here is a picture of her in the hospital under the light therapy.)

Then we got her home and had to get her biliruben levels checked two days later and her values were high again. They said that we could try a home therapy for a few days and see if that worked, and if not ... back to the hospital.

The home therapy consists of Ava wearing a light band around her body at all times. It is attached to a machine and only has a three foot cord. It makes it difficult to feed, change, and hold her at times, but she is a trooper, and has tolerated it quite well. In fact, I think that she deals with it better than I do at times. Here is what she looks like wearing her lights.



We cover her in sleepers to keep her warm, and hold her constantly. It has allowed Joel and I to bond with her in a way that we probably would never had. She is such a good baby, and we can not complain at all. Hopefully this will all pass soon.

We love her so much!!

All I want for Christmas...

Our little girl finally came to Joel and I on December 24th 2009. I was at home on December 23rd and lost my water around 12:00 noon. I called Joel and asked him to come home from work and we headed for my doctors office to confirm that my water had infact broken. Once there they said that it had and sent us to the hospital. After 21 hours of labor, we were blessed with a beautiful little girl at 2:02 PM on Christmas Eve Day. We named her Ava Claire Anderson. She weighed 7 lbs 7 ounces, and was 20 inches long. Joel and I both have just fallen in love with her, and could not ask for a better Christmas present this year.

Here are a few pictures of our favorite little girl.

(Jen and Ava right after birth)

(Precious Ava)

(Ava getting her first bath)

(Proud Papa Joel with his baby girl)

(Ava with the Christmas hat the hospital gave her)

(Our Family)

Final Countdown

I can honestly say that I hope that this is the last post that I put up before our baby decides to come and join us. Oh, I hope that it is before Christmas, but she is now finally content inside of me. You would think that after contracting and being on partial bed rest for the last three months that she would want to come out early. Oh No...she is dragging it out to the end it looks like. But at least I can say that we should be in the final countdown stages.

Joel and I saw this cute little car seat cover at the doctors office and I thought that we could probably make it for way cheaper than you would be able to buy one. Yesterday we decided to attempt it, and I think that it turned out pretty cute. We still have the cover that zips up around their head too, underneath this, but it is so cold lately, that she will need this protection too I am sure.

Here is the last shot of my pregnancy pictures - this is a little over 36 weeks pregnant.

(Sorry about the showing of skin). I am not taking any more pictures because I feel like I have a Triple Chin now.

Well, now I guess we play the waiting came. The anticipation is a killer.

The Nursery

I have had a few people ask me to post pictures of our nursery, but have just not gotten around to it. I took a few random pictures the other day of the nursery, that I will attached to this post, but her nursery still needs some work. I figure that she will be living in our room for the first few months any way, so I can work on making it more cute during that time. I just have no energy right now to do it. I have a big bare spot on one of the walls, that I want to put her name on it in vinyl letters, but I am going to wait, since we have not decided on a name for sure yet. I think that we will have to wait and see her, before we decide on the name. I have no idea why choosing a name is so hard for us, but it is. It is such a permanent thing, and we want to make sure that we like it and that it fits her.

Here are a few pictures of the nursery. As you can see, there is really no theme. It is just pink and brown, but we like it that way. I am not huge on specific themes.

Her crib

Her dresser / changing table - the changing pad is MIA at the moment, but will be there when needed.