Umbilical Cord

I forgot to mention that last Thursday, Avery's umbilical cord stump FINALLY fell off. Considering she was almost ten weeks old at the time, I was pretty excited. :)

Catching Up

Okay, so my intentions were good. But let's face it, when you have a baby, time can very easily run away from you.

I set up this blog before Avery was born, and wanted to use it to keep track of all the big moments in her life. Well, here I am. 2 1/2 months later. And am just now getting around to it. We've got a lot of catching up to do, so here goes...

Avery's Story (So Far)
Avery's due date came & went (August 25th). So we opted to induce. Well, my body wasn't really interested in being forced into labor. And after three different days of trying to be induced, the third try finally got us somewhere. Sort of. I was completely dilated and ready to push! Hooray! Or so I thought. Well, three hours later (did I mention the 21 hours of labor that preceded that?), Little Miss Stubborn still wasn't wanting to make her appearance, so Mommy ended up with the one thing she was hoping and praying wouldn't happen. A C-Section. Let's just say it's a good thing that I don't really remember much of it, because Matt said I wasn't a very pretty sight.


Avery Lauren Johnson was born at 9:53 a.m. on Friday, September 4, 2009. (Only 1 1/2 weeks after her due date!) She was 7 lbs, 10.4 oz., and 21 1/2 inches long. Dr. Rellihan was kind enough to take one of her first pictures with Daddy in the operating room!

Mommy was pretty out of it from her operation, and Daddy waited until she woke up (at about 11:30) to tell everyone what that pretty little baby's name was. He wanted me to be able to share her name with our families. Aww. What a sweetheart. :)



We finally got to come home from the hospital on Monday. We didn't get home until almost 4:00 in the afternoon. Then Avery made her first outing to Grandma and Grandpa Platte's for a Labor Day cookout.

Her first night home was pretty awesome. She went to bed really easily, and only got up twice- around 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. Hooray! She kept that pattern pretty consistently for the first couple weeks of her life. (Which Mommy & Daddy were really thankful for!)

We took her to the Newborn Assessment Clinic when she was one week old. She was already up to 7 lbs., 13 oz., which was pretty cool considering she lost over 10% of her birth weight while we were in the hospital. (We had ended up having to supplement with formula for the first few days til my milk came in. Poor baby wasn't getting enough to eat.)


At her two week check, she made it all the way up to 8 lbs, 5 oz, (50th%) and 22 1/4 inches (95th%). She didn't mind this doctor's visit too much.

That day, Avery got to meet her Aunt Steph, and Great- Grandma Johnson.

And when she was three weeks old, she started smiling. I'm not kidding. A real smile. It wasn't gas. I have a witness to prove it.





When Avery was about a month old, she took her first big road trip. We went up to the Twin Cities for her Aunt Steph's wedding. She did great and slept the whole way up there! We took Grandma Platte with us to help with her, as Matt and I were both in the wedding. She did great during the ceremony, and slept through it.

Around this time, Avery also starting getting up only once a night, usually somewhere between 3 & 5 a.m. Yay for a good sleeper!

When Avery was 6 weeks old, I started watching a little girl that is about 5 months older than Avery. She really likes watching the other baby, because she moves around and makes a lot of noise. And, well, that's just interesting to watch. :)

At around 8 or 9 weeks, she found that she has a voice. She has a "happy" voice, that sounds a little like she's saying "hi", and a voice that she likes to use when she's ticked off. (Because seriously, Mom, you need to pay attention to me. Now. :))


Here is one of her pretty 2 month pictures. Mommy had quite the photo session that day. :)

We found out that we have quite the growing girl at her two month check-up. She weighed in at a whopping 12 lbs, 7 oz (90th%), and measured 24 inches long (95th%)! I'm pretty sure I know who she got those genes from. :) (I love you, honey!)

So that wonderful 2 month appointment also comes with some not so wonderful things: her first shots. She screamed. I cried. That's all I'm saying about that.

I am also happy to report that for about the last week, she has been sleeping through the night. Yep. From about 9:00 to around 6 a.m. Mommy really likes that. (And Daddy does too.)

We have just been loving on her, and totally enjoying being her parents. We are truly blessed that God chose her to be in our family, and we thank Him for her every day. We love her to pieces. :)

(And just so you know, she's been sitting in her bouncer seat flailing her limbs and making happy noises while I typed this. Well, that is until I started typing this sentence anyway... Good thing I'm finished!)