Christmas is Happening

On Sunday I went to church for the first time since Avery was born. Brian and I did the tag team for different meetings since we're not taking Avery to church for another couple months. When I was at Relief Society Brian and Avery put our Christmas tree up to surprise me. :)


Last night for FHE we decorated the tree and put up our other Christmas decorations. I made gingerbread men for our tree this year with real gingerbread. It was supposed to be a gingerbread house that we do in October but with the pregnancy stuff, it never got past the dough making. I'm glad though because I love the feel it gives our tree and the smell of gingerbread in our house!

{Brian also hung lights in our window. What a sweetie!}

{There were some extra gingerbread men so I hung them on a string and we used them as garland above our window.}

{Brian hanging the garland}

Avery also had her first bottle last night. She was skeptical at first, but soon got the hang of it and drained the whole thing. It was fun for Brian to be able to feed her.

My First Bath

Avery had her first bath on Sunday night. Her umbilical cord stump came off over Thanksgiving allowing us to have a real bath instead of the sponge baths she's been getting. She did pretty well for such a new and foreign experience and we had fun getting her clean.

{I love her little chubby cheeks!}

{She started getting cold near the end and decided she was done. I think next time we'll steam up the bathroom before we give her a bath.}

{Getting dried off and warmed up with daddy}

{Such a proud momma!} :)

Two Weeks Down- A Lifetime to Go!

Well, we have successfully survived two weeks of parenthood. Sometimes I feel like I'm just keeping my head above water between feeding her, changing her diaper, and getting her to sleep. And then there are the times I just sit and marvel at how perfectly beautiful she is. A tiny miracle in my arms. I learn a little more about love every day. Unconditional love- the kind that doesn't change even when she poops all over me in her nighttime feeding/changing and then pees all over her clothes so I have to change them too! Isn't parenthood great?

The second night that Avery was home from the hospital we had to put her in the bili bed. Her bilirubin levels had gone up a few points from where they were in the hospital and to be safe they wanted to have her on the bed as much as possible. So besides feeding her, burping her, and changing her diaper, she was in the bed. She made this sad experience a lot easier by sleeping the whole time and by looking so cute in her protective eye wear!


A week ago we took Avery to get some photos taken of her and we are so happy with how the shoot went. She slept for two hours of a photographer positioning her body and only peed on Brian once. :) We don't have the pictures back yet, but we do have a family photo that she shot for us.

{I shot this one from my phone}

So far Avery has been a pretty good sleeper. In the first two weeks she slept for 6-7 hours straight at night and after one feeding would sleep for another 3-4. In the last couple of days she has been a little more alert at night, but she's still an angel.

Avery at 2 weeks:
8 lbs 2 oz (43 percentile)
21 inches long (75 percentile)
Head is 13.75 inches around (23 percentile)

We love this little wiggler so much and already can't imagine life without her in our family.

Introducing: Avery Mae Nielsen

Baby Avery Mae Nielsen
Born @ 10:09 a.m.
November 4, 2010
8 lbs 0.5 ounces
19 inches long

More posts to come...