Ava is Here!!!

Ava Marie Collinsworth

Born March 5th - 8:27 AM
7 lbs 10 oz


She's finally here and I can't begin to tell you how amazing she is :) I have so much to share with you guys but will save Ava's birth story for a later post. But I will let you know that the c-section went very smoothly and Ava made it safely into the world and was greeted right away by her Dad and I got to meet her soon after. In the recovery room she was surrounded by her family including my Mom, Step Dad and little brother Connor - this was a very special time seeing them all get to meet her for the first time. She is doing great and spends her days eating, sleeping, hanging out with Dad in his Ava backpack, napping in her Boppy chair and taking in her new surroundings every chance she gets - well when her eyes are open that is :) She's been sleeping great and is such a peaceful little girl. Her fur brother and sister (Rico and Marely) have loved getting to know her and I'm sure they are excited for when she's older so they can play with her. It is so great to be home and to have Ava here with us... we love you Ava bean and can't imagine our lives without you! Will give a more detailed update soon :) Thanks to everyone for the congrats and support - we love you guys!!

Early Morning Birth Day Post

Hey Everyone!

Here I am at 12:15 AM the morning of Ava's birth... still puttering around the house finishing up some last minute hospital packing and such :) I feel like my mind is all over the place with thoughts of today and what it's going to be like to finally meet Ava face to face! We got home from having dinner with my mom, step dad and brother around 9:30 and Dan has been passed out ever since hehe I know I should be asleep too but I am just too excited, anxious, nervous and happy all at once to be able to sleep. Even the dogs are asleep... I know I'm up too late when even the dogs are asleep before me :) Since we are having a c-section I had to stop eating at 12 so Ava and I just had our last snack of milk, grapes and chocolate covered graham crackers... I figured we might as well go out with a bang - hence the chocolate covered graham crackers. I won't be able to eat or drink anything till Ava is here... crazy to think about :) For tomorrow we don't have our c-section time yet since it's all happening kind of last minute so we will be calling at 5 am to find out when our scheduled time will be. I'm not too nervous about the c-section itself but more anxious than anything wondering what it's going to be like to meet Ava. I am planning on bringing my headphones along to listen to my Hypnobirthing tracks at least during the initial part of the c-section when they are putting in the epidural to help me stay calm and to keep myself from getting worked up. Especially with Dan not being able to be with me during that part I am going to need something to get my mind off of what's going on. I think once we're past the epidural and Dan can come into the room with me I should be good :) So for now I am going to go make a list of last minute things we need to pack in the morning, enjoy some more Ava kicks from the inside while I still can and then get a couple hours of sleep. So hard to believe these 9 months are over already... but this adventure of ours has only just begun :) Thanks everyone for the prayers and positive thoughts. We'll keep you posted on how everything goes tomorrow and of course with pictures of Ava once we get a chance :) Time to try and get some sleep.

Love <3

Ash and Ava

Dan is Home!!

Dan is home from Haiti!!

Saying hi to Rico for the first time in a month or so :) I know a month isn't long at all as far as deployments go but it felt like a year for some reason.

Our date night :)

Hi Everyone!

Something else that I haven't talked about a lot on here was that Dan got deployed a little over a month ago to Haiti to help with the relief efforts over there. I thought this was so great that he had the chance to help the people of Haiti but with the time of deployment being so close to Ava's due date I was nervous to say the least. At one point while he was over there it didn't look like he would be making it back for Ava's birth... the thought of this was unbearable for both of us. Luckily his commander really pushed to get him sent home and it worked!!! He arrived back home last Wednesday night. I drove down to Cherry Point, NC to pick him up and we got home around 5:30 AM the next day... long day but it was definitely worth it :) The entire time since I found out he would be deploying I've been planning as if Dan wasn't going to be here for Ava's birth just in case he wasn't able to be here so I would be prepared for the worst case scenario... I can't tell you what a relief it is to have him home and know for sure that he's going to be here to meet his daughter! Things were tough there for a little bit but everything is calming down now and we're getting very excited to meet Ava in a couple of days! The day after Dan got home we had our doctor's appointment which I was so grateful that he was able to be there for. This appointment was considered a pre-op appointment which the doctors never told me directly but I heard in passing when they were scheduling my appointment. We were sent upstairs to the labor and delivery unit where I met with the doctor. I was very nervous about being in labor and delivery because I know how quickly they try and push things along and I knew we did not want to be scheduled for a c-section or anything like that at least until her due date. Dan helped to calm me down though and the appointment actually went very well. Ava is still in the frank breech position with her feet tucked up by her face and her bottom down near my pelvis. My step-dad was joking the other day that Ava must be stubborn just like her mother hehe I'm thinking this might be true :) That's ok though... I trust that she'll turn if she's able to. So we went over the procedure, recovery and all of those kinds of things. Dan and I both felt very good about the amount of information we received from the doctor and that we were able to schedule the c-section for Ava's due date. Generally this hospital schedules c-sections at 39 weeks for breech babies... the reason has to do with a higher rate of complications, etc, etc. I still knew going in that I would only feel somewhat ok with the c-section if we could have it on her due date or later so that we could give Ava the most amount of time possible to continue growing and to turn if that's what she wants to do. At first the doctor told us we could not have the c-section near her due date and that we needed to have it earlier. So by the end of the appointment when he scheduled it for March 5th I was very excited and feeling somewhat better about the whole thing. We would still love so much to have the experience of a natural birth, for us and more importantly for Ava but if that's not in the cards for us because of hospital policies and such I feel good about the decisions we've made given the circumstances. We are just so happy and grateful to be together, that we're all healthy and looking forward to Ava's arrival at the end of this week :) It's going to be a good week!!

Love <3

Ash and Ava

Being a Mother

I love this video :) I found it on blog that my fellow friend and blogger Rachel subscribes to called Doul-la-la. My favorite lines from the video are:

You have to be brave with your life so others can be brave with theirs.

You don't realize it yet but you are writing the story of your only life every single minute of every day and my greatest hope for you sweet child is that I can teach you how to write a good one.


Love,

Ash and Ava

Week 37 Pictures

Week 37 Pictures

My friend Sam described my Ava belly as a torpedo the other day :) I think that's very fitting!

Well here we are at week 38... I know I keep saying this but I cannot believe how fast time is flying! It's so true though. I wake up each day thinking ok, today could be the day that we meet Ava. Even though I know it will most likely be at least another week or so it technically could be today and that is very exciting and crazy all at the same time! I have come pretty close to finishing up with things I wanted to get done around the house which is good. The other day I got a ridiculous boost of energy and decided to check my most dreaded project off of the list finally... cleaning out and organizing the guest room. It took me almost the entire day and I had to take a long nap after I was done but it is finally complete. It still needs a lot of work but there's no longer a bunch of random things being stored in the room with no place to go. I feel pretty good about it! I also installed Ava's carseat on my own which was another project that I had not been looking forward to... mostly because I thought it was going to be really tricky for some reason but it was actually very easy which was great news for me! So slowly but surely everything here is coming together for Ava's arrival and I'm feeling good about the house being ready for her. Now it's time to wait I guess :) This is the part I need to get better at I think. One thing that I haven't shared with you guys yet that has been occupying a lot of space in my mind lately is that we found out Ava is breech a couple of weeks ago and she still is in the breech position as of last Thursday's appointment. I have been trying lots of different things at home to help her wiggle into a head down position but none of those have seemed to work as of yet but I am going to keep at it. I have also met with my Hypnobirthing instructor to do a fear release/turning visualization session. And just today I went to Dr. Kuhns my awesome chiropractor here in Fayetteville to have the Webster's Technique done. This technique apparently has an 80-90 % success rate in helping breech babies to turn head down, even late in pregnancy. I realize that there's a possibility that none of these things will work and that there could be a very good reason Ava is head down. If that is the case then we'll move forward knowing that we tried everything possible to help her flip and we'll just be excited to meet our healthy baby girl even if in the end that means not being able to have the natural birth we had planned and hoped for. I know she knows what she's doing in there so for now I'm just trying to get my body in the most optimal state to let her do what she feels like she needs to do. I also trust that God has a plan for us and I am learning to trust in Him more and more everyday. Either way that this turns out I am VERY excited and am always thinking about the day that we finally get to meet her :) These last two months have been full of surprises and change... some of which were really hard to deal with at the time and at times still are but I know I have learned a lot and that there are really good things to come... and one of those things is named Ava :)

Goodnight everyone!

Love,

Ash and Ava

Snow and Week 36 Update!

Hey Everyone!

We're getting snow as I type this and it is SOOOO pretty! It's such nice and fluffy snow compared to the last snow/ice storm we had. It's really cool looking right now because it's not cold enough for it to stick to the roads or driveways yet but it's sticking to all of the trees, grass and everything else. We had a really windy day this past week so there are huge branches all over the driveway and they look so pretty covered in snow. Here are some pictures I took...

Reek trying to catch some snow :)

This is my kind of snow too because by tomorrow afternoon the roads will most likely be completely cleared but it will still be all white everywhere else! Here is another picture I took this evening - my end of week 36 belly picture. I don't feel like a whole lot has changed the last couple of weeks... Ava is still growing as ever though :) And moving more than ever!

Week 36

She has been doing all sorts of acrobatics in there. At night, usually right around this time (10 PM or so) my belly starts moving in waves. It cracks me up and I love watching her move all around! Speaking of belly movement... on Super Bowl Sunday I spent the day at Sam and Mike's and I got to see baby Dean move! I was so excited... it's totally different seeing someone else's baby move... so amazing to think there's a little person in her belly too. Now that I am moving onto week 37 Ava and I are considered FULL TERM - yay! So if she came today we would be good to go. I am slowing down quite a bit these days which is to be expected I guess :) Since the whole pregnancy has been so smooth and I have felt so great I guess a part of me thought I would always feel that great. I don't feel bad by any means I just tire MUCH quicker now, have to take more breaks and have a tough time moving around (rolling over in the middle of the night has become quite painful in the pelvic area - OUCH! The dogs probably think I'm hilarious the way I move around these days). I have some practice surges (contractions) but they're not bad and just today my lower back started to hurt a little. Other than that no real signs of impending labor or anything like that. Will keep you guys updated on that though! I am VERY excited for Ava's birth and as always we're praying that the birth goes smoothly and that we're able to have the natural and gentle birth that we prepared for but most importantly that Ava arrives safe and sound :) It's going to be a great day. Last bit of news - Mom and Dad (Ava's great grandparents) helped Dan and I buy the last staple for Ava yesterday and that is a Bassinet/Travel Crib for Ava to sleep in in our room when we first bring her home... here's what it looks like -

This should work great next to our bed for the first couple of months at least and then when she's done using it as a bassinet we can still use it as a travel crib or an area for her to play. This model is called the Graco Travel Lite Crib in Marlowe. It's only 20 lbs., has wheels, a bassinet area and it fits through doorways unlike the bigger Travel Cribs! Thanks Mom and Dad for all of your help!

That's all the news for now. Hope you all have a great weekend and I will talk to you soon :) Only 3 weeks or so left!

Love <3

Ash and Ava

35 Week Belly Pictures and Outfits for Hospital

Hey Everyone!

Just wanted to do a quick post with my 35 week belly pictures and the outfits I picked up for Ava to wear at the hospital and to wear home from the hospital.. I couldn't resist these they're too cute!

35 Weeks - it is getting very tricky to get up on my tip toes far enough to get my whole belly in the picture hehe lots of things are getting tricky now that I think about it :) That's ok though... I don't mind, it keeps things interesting that's for sure!

Matching set I found at Target - I love the hat and mittens that go along with it. This will most likely be her first outfit :)


Outfit to wear home... Daddy's Little Girl :)

We're going to bring along some thicker one piece sleepers too in case that is more comfy for her to wear. Being that this is our first baby I'm not sure what to expect so as always I will most likely pack more than I will actually need :)