Ava Marie Kruse

Matt and I took Ava to Dr. Pyevich (cardiologist) on Tuesday.  We started out in x-ray, Ava was not pleased with the whole situation. It was ok that she was crying as it makes it easier for the tech to tell when she has taken a deep breath. After the x-ray we headed to Dr. Pyevich’s office. Once we were there Ava decided she needed to eat and needed to eat NOW! The little diva has forced me to get over my phobia about nursing in public, which is a good thing.

After her snack we went back to a room. We waited while the nurse was trying to get blood pressures from the none too happy patient next door. Dr. Pyevich came and and checked for the pulses in her groin area and in her feet. I won’t lie, I have checked her many times myself. If you can feel good strong pulses it is an indicator that there is good blood flow. I checked Ava when she was just hours old. Most mom’s would check the feet to make sure there were five little toes- I check to make sure I can feel the pulses.

Dr. Pyevich asked us if we wanted to do the echo. She felt comfortable not doing one since no murmur was detected and the fetal echo showed no anomalies. We decided to go ahead and do one for peace of mind. Ava cooperated as much as a one month old can. We looked at all parts of the heart and everything is normal.

Once we were done with the echo she had a EKG which consists of a zillion stickers across the chest and one on each arm and leg. Then the patient has to remain still to get a good reading… good luck with a one month old who acting like an octopus. We managed to get her still for a short time to get a print out. Her EKG was normal as well.

We then weighed her and she is up to 11 lbs 4oz. No need for me to worry about her getting enough. I was so accustomed to measuring every ounce of food it was hard for me to not know how much she is taking in. With a weight gain of over three pounds in less than 6 weeks the little piglet is taking in plenty

Once we were done we got her dressed and headed home. I am glad this appointment is out of the way. I can finally feel confident that her heart is ok. I would be lying if I said I no longer have worries, but I think it would be impossible for me not to. I Google way too many things   For now though, we are enjoying this sweet, sweet baby who is perfectly normal.

Last week Ava turned one month old – it’s amazing how fast the time goes! We took her to get her one-month pictures taken and I think we got some good ones. We weren’t sure we would even get anything useable, since she was not in a good mood when we got there. She was crying and wouldn’t cooperate. Dawn fed her right before we left in an attempt to make things go smoothly, but she still wasn’t having any part of it. We changed her and ended up feeding her again at the photography studio in an attempt to settle her down. We finally did get a few pictures we could use, and one in particular with her head on her hands that we really liked. It was worth all the effort just for that picture!

She is now at five weeks, and becoming more aware of her surroundings every day. She holds her head up really well and looks around. She’s still very calm and content most of the time, but she gets mad really fast when she’s hungry. As long as jump to her needs, she’s happy. A diva in training! And she does like to eat, too – we estimate that she’s up to almost 11 pounds now, and she’s getting a little thick in the arms and legs. Last night I even noticed elbow dimples. She’s actually started outgrowing some clothes.

We think she has smiled a few times on purpose, but of course it’s hard to tell.

Sleeping is going pretty well. She will usually get in a feeding around 9 or 10, then go to bed fairly easily and sleep for 3-5 hours. We typically only wake up once or twice at night with her, and she goes back to sleep. Unfortunately she is in the habit of waking up around 5am and not wanting to go back to sleep. Sometimes by the time I finally get her back to sleep it’s already time to get Emily up for school, so it ends up making for some early mornings!

Ava had her first trip to the zoo yesterday. I’m not sure she really appreciated the animals, but I think we’ll go again

A few more pictures:

Ava had her first doctor visit yesterday for her 2-week checkup. We are taking her to Dr. Anderson, who was also Kevin’s doctor.

She weighed 8 pounds 15 ounces, so she is up almost a pound from her birth weight. Everything looked good and she seems very healthy. She is definitely growing well – we can notice her getting bigger already!

She is staying awake more now, even if only for a few hours. She’s still very calm, seemingly content to just sit and stare at the world around her. She really hates being wet and being hungry, though. She quickly turns from calm, content baby into screaming baby. But once she’s changed or fed, she’s back to her calm self.

She gets the hiccups a lot, but it doesn’t seem to bother her that much. She doesn’t seem to like the binky at all, which is different for us. Both Emily and Kevin loved their binky’s more than anything! She doesn’t like being in her car seat at all, but she does pretty well in her swing and bouncy seat. More than anything she loves to lay on our chests and sleep.

She’s gotten the chance to dress up in some of her cute little outfits already, which of course gives Dawn great pleasure. But she spends most of her days in simple comfortable sleepers. It won’t be too long before she realizes that her mother has quite a thing for fluffy pink clothes and headbands!