Ava Marie Kruse

We went to Picture People on Saturday, when Ava turned one week old, for her first "official" photo shoot. We wanted the classic black-and-white naked baby shot, and the photographer did great. Below are the pictures!

Ava turned one week old today! We came home from the hospital on Monday morning, and Emily was so happy for us to be back. She had made a bunch of signs and was waiting on the porch when we pulled up. She was so excited to have her little sister home!

Ava has been such a good little girl for us so far. She seems very laid back and calm. She sleeps most of the time, and rarely fusses or cries. Even at night she’s been pretty good, but I do have to admit that she spends most of the night sleeping on one of us while we sit in the recliner. She sleeps so well and seems so peaceful, and we don’t mind spoiling her a bit . During the day she often naps in her Moses basket or in her swing.

She’s made a few trips out of the house so far. We went to the Tackett house, made a trip to Wal-Mart, walked around the neighborhood garage sales with mom, and went out to eat and to the mall. She slept through dinner when we went out, so it was easy!We went to the mall to get her pictures taken and got a lot of really cute ones.

We think Ava will probably always have a relaxed personality, but we also know that she won’t always sleep this much or this well. So we are enjoying it while it lasts!

She is eating well and seems to be growing well. We weren’t able to schedule a heart echo until later in August, so we will have to wait a little while to make sure everything with that still looks good. We have no reason to suspect that there are any problems, but it will put our minds at ease just to have everything looked at.

We are really enjoying the time we have with all of us home as a family. I have four weeks off from work, so I have plenty of time to get some things taken care of around the house later. For now, we are spending a lot of time sitting around with Ava, relaxing, trying to catch up on sleep, and enjoying having a healthy, beautiful baby girl in our family.

A photographer came into the room today and took some pictures. They are available for a short time here:

http://www.bella-life.com/interim/index.php?page=gallery&gallery_id=29706

At midnight on Saturday July 18th, Dawn went into labor and we rushed to the hospital. A short time later, at 2:27am, Ava was born! It was a short but difficult labor and Dawn was remarkably strong and focused. Ava came so quickly that the main doctor didn’t even make it into the room for the delivery! She came out healthy, crying, and beautiful! She was 8lbs 1oz and 20 inches long, although to us she seems a little bit smaller than her measurements suggest. She has just a little bit of hair. We haven’t had a chance to sleep since then, so we are very tired and are going to try to get some rest tonight. So for now, we’ll just post some pictures of our new little girl!