More Pictures

You can find more pictures of Aviella by clicking on the "View my complete profile" link on the right of this blog page. From there click on the "My Web Page" link on the left side of the blog page (under our photo). We will update this Web page with new pictures of Aviella whenever we have new pictures (and time to upload them).

Life with Aviella - The Honeymoon is Over

Aviella is now 5 weeks old. The first two weeks, the honeymoon, were absolute bliss! We loved staring at our beautiful little girl (we still do), holding her, bringing her into bed with us in the morning, hearing her cute little sounds (she's very noisy, I mean talkative), feeding her, changing her, etc. Jamie was a bit tired during this time, but filled with adrenaline so she could handle it, we were very thankful that some neighbors and friends made meals, helped clean, and ran errands for us. Our first big family outing was Asian fast food and Target. Then Jamie got to go to the grocery store without Aviella between feedings. Later we went to a picnic held by Ryan's department, and to church the next day. Jamie took Aviella on errands to various stores. Sometimes it was a disaster and other times it went just fine. Aviella prefers being in the infant carrier rather than her car seat in a shopping cart.


Around week 3 Aviella started getting a bit fussy. Jamie read a book on sleep for infants and children and realized that Aviella's fussiness was likely due to being overtired. Apparently infants can only handle being awake for about two hours before they need to get back to sleep, who knew? At about one hour after waking up Aviella is ready to be asleep or on her way there. Things got better after we realized this. Then the real fussiness started, she was very fussy from about 5pm to 10pm for four nights and then things got better again. Last week the fussiness came back with a vengeance, Aviella sleeps fine during the day, but after 5pm she will not go to sleep until 11:30pm. We can tell she is exhausted and we often get her to fall asleep for 10 minutes to an hour - if we are holding her, she is in a swing, she is in a bouncer, or she is in an infant carrier. Ryan and Jamie have both taken Aviella on walks around Smiley Court to get her to settle down or fall asleep. We have tried gripe water and the chiropractor, so far nothing seems to help. She seems to be uncomfortable or in pain, but we can't do anything to help her. Very frustrating.


Although Aviella is very fussy at night, we still are in love with her and enjoy all the wonderful things about her. It can be draining and stressful at times when she cries so much and won't sleep, but we manage to get through it. Jamie is almost always tired, but finds ways to get a few things done during the day. Ryan has caught up on his homework and TA grading and has a better handle on school and work. He is still fairly busy, but he did find time to make a run to our storage unit to get our fall/winter clothes. Ryan has been successful in getting Aviella to smile for him and she now smiles at mommy too. Jamie cut out some colorful shapes and put them on the wall next to Aviella's changing table, she loves to look at these and they make diaper changing time much better. She even smiles at the shapes.