Avery tries cereal

After our 4-month check up this week, we were given the go ahead to try rice cereal. Here's how it went:

Avery's first Thanksgiving

Avery celebrated Thanksgiving twice in her first year of life...that's just how we do it. :)

The first dinner was at Grandma and Papa's house. We didn't take too many pictures that day, sorry!

This is the only picture we have of the front of this shirt. Thankfully we were able to snap this photo before the poop made all the way up her back!

This is Aves' new favorite chewey. We think we can see the start of her 2 bottom teeth!

Later that week we made our way down to Hernando, MS. Avery got to meet all of our "Southern" family on this trip! She did such a good job on the 10-hour car rides and it didn't take us too long to straighten her sleep schedule back out.

We were even worse parents and didn't take a single photo on this trip, but thanks to Jeremy and Kristin's awesome camera and photography, we have some really great shots. Enjoy!

Avery and Grandma Kebert at Great Aunt Cheryl's

Taking a quick nap before the big meal

A lot of people together at a huge table enjoying a ton of food!

Avery standing on the table after dinner...and the poop that claimed the Thanksgiving Day outfit.

Mmmmm, my fingers are yummy.

Some fancy photography...love those big eyes

What do you mean I can't have turkey?!

This is Avery's future boyfriend. She apparently has a thing for blond headed southern boys. She couldn't take her eyes off him!

Avery loves her high chair!

Is that not the cutest face you've ever seen in a high chair?!

Whatchya doin' on the floor momma?

Avery Went to High School

Avery had her first chance to roam the halls of high school last week. She and I were asked to be panelists for a parenting class that a friend of ours teaches at Momence High School.

The day went well and Avery was as good as she always is. Hopefully Carol thought it went as well!

Here's a couple pictures from Aves' high school experience:

I wonder if any of these kids will be in Avery's class someday.

Avery did a little one-on-one time with the class too. Sorry Carol, I told her later that she's not supposed to sleep through class!

Avery's first time watching the bird

Avery got to see the bird music box that all of the Eberle grandkids grew up watching for the first time on Halloween. You'll see in the video, she paid more attention to Pa than to the birdie.

Avery also wore her winter coat for the first time this year. It's a little big, but you know, it has to fit in January and February. And heck, it may need to fit in May...this is Illinois!

Happy 1st Halloween!

Avery spent her first Halloween dressed as a roll of Smarties. These were momma's favorite candy growing up. Now Lukey loves them, so when we seen the costume we knew she had to wear it!

Unfortunately the creator of the costume wasn't thinking of an infant when they made it. We had to slide her little body through the whole thing to get her to the top. Needless to say, she hated every second of it...and every second of taking it off. Next year's costume will NOT go over her head. Enjoy the photos and video!

Momma and Avery dressed as candy this year.

It was really hard to get her stretched out enough to get the whole costume in the shot.

Family shot...Daddy was Quailman from the cartoon Doug.

Smarties and Buzz Lightyear

Trick-or-treating at Great Grandma's & Pa's

Trick-or-treating at Great Grandma Kebert's

Avery's latest talent: Smiling!

Look at my pretty, pretty girl!

Good morning Momma!

No day can be a bad day when this is the face you wake up to!

Avery's first trip to the movies

Avery took her first trip to the movies with her momma and Aunt Meg the other day. We saw "You Again." She was pretty quiet for it, although she did prefer me to stand and bounce for the last half of the movie.

Man, she's growing fast!

So I know it's been way too long since I've done an update. I have a good excuse, I swear!

About 3 weeks after delivery I wound up with a nasty bacterial infection called C. Diff. It took 2 weeks to be diagnosed and even that wasn't until after a trip to the ER, a doctor's visit, and a couple of unpleasant tests. Apparently it was from all the antibiotics I had during delivery and ironically enough, it was an antibiotic I would have to take to get rid of it. Long story short, I was miserable for a couple weeks and now I am much better. I finally feel like myself again...for the first time since I found out I was pregnant!

On to the fun stuff, here's some pictures we've been taking along the way and just haven't uploaded yet.

We did our own little photo shoot when Avery was 2 weeks old.

She wasn't really all that amused.

"I'll give you one more, Mom. Just one."

My sweet sweet little girl.

This is a favorite of mine. Daddy's girl

This picture made me laugh because I could only think of those cards where the dogs heads are bigger than their bodies.

Look at my little bird girl. (She did have a diaper on!)

She fills this chair out a little better these days!

Avery's first Illinois game with Daddy. See the socks?

Daddy called her his little troll doll. We learned not to let Daddy have control of her hair while it's wet.

I really can't believe how fast Avery Jo is growing. I already can't remember how small she started and miss those days. It is wonderful, though, getting to spend so much time with open eyes. And the extra sleep doesn't hurt either. Our little girl has been very good to us in the sleep category. The last two nights she's gone down at 9 or 9:30 p.m. and slept until 3 a.m. then up again at 7:30 or 8 a.m. I'm hoping this becomes the new pattern until she sleeps through the night!

I'll try to do better at keeping up with posts now. Hopefully I can get a good routine going before heading back to work!

Bath time video

Well it took 2 full weeks for Avery's cord stump to fall off, and we were getting quite impatient. We really wanted to give her a real bath instead of the counter top sponge baths she disliked so much. Earlier this week, we got to do just that. Here are some videos from Avery's first bath.

She seemed to enjoy the water...no tears at all! And she really loves having her hair washed!

Fulfilling the many requests of pictures!

It's official, we're home and parenting all on our "own." Thank goodness we have all the helpful family members that we do! Day time routine goes fairly smooth, not much worry there. Nighttime is a little different. We really are on our own at that time and I'm a bit too afraid to sleep while she sleeps. Hopefully soon I'll get past that!

Here are some pictures we've taken since the big birthday!

Momma and baby Avery on her birthday.

Papa Caudle with his Little Jo

Grandpa Kebert with his beautiful girl

Great Aunt Kass (aka Aunt Wheeza) was so happy to meet Avery.

Madi was in a world of her own while she was holding Avery.

My little one was ok with her carseat...hope it stays that way.

Momma and Avery get to leave the hospital!

Grandma and Papa Caudle brought us an ice cream cake.

Grandma and Aunt Meg call her Princess Avery.

She sleeps pretty peacefully in her napper.

Lukey absolutely loves his cousin. He calls her his friend and kisses her often.

When asked if he was done holding Avery, Luke said, "Um, not yet."

Welcome to the world Avery Jo

First of all, both Jess and Avery are healthy and doing well.  Perfect ending to a hectic morning. 

On to the delivery details.  Jess and I spent the day at Grandma and Papa Caudle's house playing bean bags and grilling.  It was a fun day.  As everyone was winding down, and while Zynski was making a daring escape, we decided it was time to head for the hospital as Jess had been having contractions every five minutes or so for an hour or two.  We got to the hospital, and after 15 laps of walking around the labor and delivery unit, they decided Jess really was in labor and that she wasn't going to leave the hospital while she was still pregnant.

Then began the wait.  From 11pm on Saturday until around 3am on Sunday we waited.  Grandma and Papa Caudle and Grandma and Grandpa Kebert took turns visiting with Jess.  Aunt Meg kept her walking the halls and things progressed.  Around 3am Jess decided it was time for the epidural.  Of course, I left for this part, as a needle that big would've scarred me for life.  Right before Jess got her epidural, her water broke and soaked the poor nurse who was downstream. 

Things got a little crazy after that when the awesome nurse noticed some cord alongside our baby.  The nurses acted quickly, professionally and awesomely to get Jess to an emergency C-Section to ensure both mom and baby safely made it through.  Now, let me say that if our baby girl wasn't so cute, she'd be grounded already for playing with her umbilical cord when she clearly shouldn't have been.  The doctor arrived at 5:07 am and after running to the OR, Avery Jo was born at 5:25am. 

Both Mom and Avery are happy and healthy now.  We are trying to rest, but neither of us is really used to sleeping at 11am yet.  Not to mention, this is where they expect me to sleep:

Thanks to everyone who has been calling, emailing, twittering, facebooking, texting, etc.  Please keep the kind thoughts coming.  Jess and I have been down a long road to have a child.  Every finish line that we thought we were close to got pushed away from us.  It is still kind of surreal that we finally reached the end.  I do believe it is true that God wouldn't have sent anything to us that we couldn't handle.  Jess and I had our rough spots during all the bumps, but we made it through as a stronger family, more appreciative for this gift than we'll ever be able to explain.  We look forward to seeing everyone soon as we get our daughter started on her own path.  We'll do our best to keep the pictures and updates coming, but feel free to call or stop by if you can't get enough.

Love,

Kory