9 Months seems a whole lot older to me then 8 months. I don’t know why, but it just put everything in perspective for me. Time flies and I need to start living more in the moment because before I know it Ava will be driving a car! (Well not that fast but that’s what everyone keeps telling me)

AVA’S UPDATE

Ava is weighing in at 18lbs 8oz…she is super long but I don’t have an exact update on her length, we head to the doctor this week.

She is saying mama and dada, and rotates between the two. The last couple of days have been primarily dada which is a nice break since she said mama for about a week straight. I’m not too sure she knows what those 2 words mean yet, but she will learn fast.

Ava is super brave and loves the water, she literally will crawl in the water at the beach and pretend swims when she is in the bathtub. I hope she’s a great swimmer one day!

EAT

One thing I learned this month is that a healthy child eats great!

• Ava loves her puff cereal in any flavor, she also loves oatmeal still
• She loves fresh fruit… bananas, peaches, watermelon (in tiny pieces)
• Hates broccoli…
• Spinach and strawberries do not agree with her!
• Loves sweet potatoes, peas, green beans, squash, etc.
• She likes waffles & eggs, and is open to new things
• She’s a good eater and easily opens her mouth for you to feed her
• To let you know she is done, Ava will clench her mouth shut or push the spoon away

(Don’t let her fool you… she cannot hold the bottle on her own yet!)

SLEEP

I have no complaints; as long as Ava sleeps through the night I am a happy camper! Generally she goes to bed at 8pm and wakes up at 630am. She usually takes one morning nap for an hour or and one afternoon nap for usually 1-1 ½ hrs. (Sometimes they are flip-flopped)

The days I really need her to nap she doesn’t and then when I don’t care when she naps she takes her best ones. So now I try not to think about them and now I am just happy when she sleeps J

PLAY!

Ava loves to play & explore! She thinks its fun to climb the stairs, and if the gate is up she does a fake cry for help to move the gate.

She loves pulling on Coopers tail and touching his mouth. She has no fears when it comes to pulling a bone out of his mouth.

Lately her favorite thing to play with is Cooper’s water dish. I guess it is a mini pool to her, and she will splash her hands and empty it on the floor. It was fun the first couple of times and now I wish she either knew how to clean up the mess or she was careful not to sit in water!

The summer is over and we have had our fair share of fun at the beach… it gets me excited for next year when hopefully we can really get in the water together and I can teach her to swim.

I am looking forward to the day Ava walks… yes I said it! Everyone keeps telling me “it’s all be over when she starts walking” but I am up for the challenge and I can’t wait!!

POSTPARTUM UPDATE

There isn’t much to update here, besides some strength gains. I am feeling strong again and I am loving being able to challenge my body. I went for a jog yesterday (I don’t run too often) but I felt strong and I felt that I could run forever.. well that was until I got bored. I enjoy boot camp workouts where there’s more to focus on.

My core is gaining strength and my shoulder is finally feeling close to 100%…. yessssss.

My new goal is to increase my pull-up strength. With my shoulder injury Pull-ups were one of the exercises I avoided because of the impact on the shoulders. I know I can improve and I am looking forward to the challenge of adding them back into my workouts

HAPPY MONDAY!!

Ava is weighing in at roughly 18 lbs and is 29.5 inches long.

WHAT IS NEW?

Ava is now actively crawling ALL over the place. I thought I was fast, but man, she can move!! Sometimes I think to myself as she is crawling “I have plenty of time before I have to chase her” but then she surprises me at how quickly she can get into things… especially when she crawls so fast towards Coopers water bowl where she dumps it all over the place.

She tries to pull herself up on everything…..clearly she will be walking before we know it!

Oh yeah, and Ava also has 2 bottom teeth.

AVA LOVES:

• Crawling towards Cooper’s food & water bowl and thinks its funny to bang his bowl on the ground.
• Pulling herself up on the dishwasher or any cabinet.
• Her eating from her squeeze pouches and she likes little puff cereal
• the mirrors and looking at herself
• Pulling Cooper’s tail and touching his paws or face.
• Peek-a-boo… it never gets old to her
• obstacles.. and will crawl over pillows, Cooper, or whatever is in her way.
• sesame street.. whenever she hears elmo’s voice it excites her
• music
• being outside and being in her pool

EAT, SLEEP, & PLAY:

As long as her teeth are not bothering her she sleeps really well. Generally around 8pm-6:15am. Her naps are usually around the same time each day now. She either takes 2 good naps or 3 small ones. I am fine with either

It seems like she’s getting sick of a lot of the toys she has. She prefers to explore the cabinets (the ones that are childproof), she likes to hold spatulas, drop her toys from her high-chair to hear them bang on the floor, and likes to pull herself up and look out the front door to people watch.

This past week has been fun for me as Ava explores her VOICE. Yesterday she was clearly making mmmmmm sounds all day and I swear I am not making this up you can ask Marc, but she said Mom. She definitely doesn’t associate the “mom”  word with me, but she got me fired up when I heard her say it!! Bababa and dadada had been her lingo for the past few weeks, so clearly I was excited for the MMMMMM break through!!

POSTPARTUM UPDATE

I am pleased with the strength progress I have seen my upper body this month. I have been focusing on my arms, chest, and back a lot lately and I can tell that some exercises are getting easier. I have also been able to increase my weight in Group Power on the triceps, biceps, and back tracks.  My cardio strength is on point. When I did a cardio workout over the weekend, I was surprised at my speed and energy compared to Month 2 postpartum where I was incapable of completing a lot of the exercises.

I look forward to challenging my body in new ways in the next few months and learning new exercises to teach you all!!

I cannot believe 2 months has passed since Ava was born, time is flying by. The picture below was a week after she was born… look how tiny she was!!

Here is our 2 month update!

As far as me and my body:

I am down a couple more pounds which is great, but wasn’t part of my plan. My goal was to get stronger and increase my lean muscle.

(2 months postpartum, sling and all..)

Once I got cleared from the doctor I eased back into exercise and slowly increased my intensity/duration over the course of 2 1/2 weeks. I was feeling FABULOUS and after 2 1/2 weeks of exercise I felt stronger and more like myself. My stomach felt a little tighter and I wasn’t as winded. I was just starting to increase the weights a little too.

And then… I broke my collar bone. Ouch! Literally, it was so painful. Talk about SETBACK. I was so psyched to get back to teaching/training and I was heartbroken from my injury. I was frustrated that my first day back at work never happened because it ironically occurred on the same morning I broke my collar bone. I have come to grips with the injury and that everything happens for a reason so I have been enjoying a little more time with Ava. I love exercise and work but getting my body as healthy as possible is more important. I realize that I am mentally a lot tougher then I think and when I do get back to my work/routine I will be unstoppable

AVA

Ava is a growing machine. At 2 months she is a long and lean 11lbs. She is wearing mostly 3 months of 0-3 months clothing because her legs are too long for anything smaller! She is still on a 3- 3 1/2 hr eating schedule, but she gives us usually a 5 hour stretch at night which is lovely.

She is very strong and can keep her head up for quite some time on her own. She is so observant and follows me with her eyes as I walk around the room. She LOVES music and when I exercise she thinks its funny. Cooper loves to lick Ava’s hands and feet and she seems to have no problem with it!

(Ava secretly gave me an I LOVE YOU hand gesture in sign language! she’s too smart)

Ava also enjoys play time! She likes her play mat and all the toys, music, and noises that go along with it. Yesterday she was fussing a bit so I turned on Sesame street and just like that she went silent and stared in amazement at the TV. She smiled, kicked her legs, and made happy noises. Now I know what to do to keep her happy!

I can’t wait to share more updates. I hope my next update is on the progress of my shoulder recovery. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for a speedy recovery!