STRAVA

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Baby Girl is HERE!!!

Hello all! Well if you haven't heard, Baby Girl Sweet is HERE!
We named her Aven Eve Sweet.


Her first name is a mountain flower. The Aven can be found in Nova Scotia and upstate Vermont. We like the name because it is unique without being strange and it is really pretty. I found the name on-line when I searched for "southern baby names." Not sure if it really is a "southern name," because I went back to look for it again under the SAME search, I couldn't find it. Hmmm. Strange but cool, maybe I was the only one meant to see & find her name that day. After we realized Aven was a flower we liked it even more. Coincidentally, Heather is also a flower; found in the foothills of Scotland. It seemed like a perfect fit. I really liked the fact it started with an "A" as well. We thought if we picked a middle name with an "E" then Aven and her Daddy would have the same initials...the whole family would have a connection ;-) Initially, we couldn't find a middle name we both liked and that flowed with her first name, until she picked her birthday. Yup. Her birthday (New Year's Eve) is the reason we gave her the middle name of Eve. =) Andy came up with it and I fell in love with it immediately.

Aven was born on 12/31/2010 at 1:46 pm in the afternoon. Her measurements are: 6lbs. 1 oz., 19.5 inches long, head: 13 inches (wowza), & chest: 11.5 inches. She scored an 8 and a 9 (out of 10) on her Apgar tests. She has perfect hearing, according to her hearing test Saturday morning. She has all 10 toes, all 10 fingers, and is looking to be the perfect little bundle of joy. =) Yeah!




So far breast feeding is going well. We are still learning, both she and I, but I am confident the bigger she gets the better her latch will feel. She is pooping and peeing as much as she should. We did 2 days with the disposable diapers from the hospital. They are good, but are rubbing her in areas and her skin is a little red. Today, we are trying the cloth diapers. They look really really big, but still fit her. I think they keep her warmer too. Nice.

As everyone mentioned--we are tired. Multiple days of no sleep prior and then the rush and excitement of actually having her HERE...exhausted. Trying to get naps in when she is napping.

We were able to go home after 30 hours! (Yeah natural childbirth!) I was so excited to sleep in our own bed (without pain) and get home with our baby girl. Andy was an awesome driver and we made it home safe and sound.

Everyone has been so wonderful. Andy's Mom (Elaine) and her husband Al were able to take a "vacation" between the holidays. Good timing too, because they were here for Aven's birth. It was awesome having them here. They cooked some crazy awesome food for us and froze it on Wednesday. Elaine reorganized the nursery on Thursday night and they helped us with a ton of things at the birthing center. "Aven" got me some beautiful pink/peach roses and a card today too! ;-)

LOVE the Facebook congrats and to offers to make us food. (I am ravenous!!!) Speaking of food, Deni and Lloyd dropped off New Year's black eyed peas, greens, and ham for us! What a treat!!! Last night we cracked open the bottle of French champagne our friends Zach and Alexis gave us and celebrated 2011 with our new little family.

I will be posting up a labor blog as well. But I wanted to get an initial update out there. Thanks everyone for the congrats and well wishes. I will leave you with my most recent pic...Aven is getting her vitamin D to ward off any jaundice. LOVE the big windows in the great room. ;-)


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations Mommy and Daddy! She is absolutely adorable :)

Aven G. said...

Yeah... it's not that "original" of a name... At first I thought I was the only Aven, besides my Aunt, whom I was named after. Then I decided to search online, a few years ago, I found no other Avens in existence. But today I decided to search again... and have found that many people have finally discovered the rare and beautiful name, and flower. Yet, still less than 100 people probably have that name. It is so rare, I hope it stays that way.