"My birthday is October 20th"

The story of Ava as emailed to my aunt Cindy who is a nurse-

"Well we have a beautiful baby girl born 10/20 at 7:39 am. Ava Marie Balvanz. She is an angel, with light brown hair. She was 21", 8 lb 4 oz. Needless to say labor and delivery was very hard, but isn't it for every one? I went into "pre-labor" on Thursday (10/18) only dialated at 1 cm, 90% eface. Mom happen to call when we were there. Mother's intuition?  Told her they might want to start heading this way sometime today. Missie and Mom left around 4 pm CST. I went back to hospital at midnight when I was having 3 contractions in a row. Still only at 1 cm. Mom and Missie get here at 4 am MST (10/19). We go home and rest. I slept for about 4 hours on Ambien. Tried to rest all day. Took a bath, walked a lot. Around 5 pm contractions started picking up in intensity and went from 12 min to 7 min. by 8 pm. By 11 pm they were 2 min apart and unbearable. Mom said better go to hospital before I can't get into car. (Sidebar-as I am in labor Pamela and Missie were watching Sinbad and cracking up as I am trying to breath thru my contracts!!!)  We hesitated because we had been there 2 times already! By 12 am I was 5 cm and 100% eface. 10/20 I was admitted and started Fentenal at 1 am. It would last about 20 min, but I could only take every hour. By 3 am at 7 cm, Dr. broke water. 5 am so unbearable I am exhausted. Decide to do interfetal epidural. Took a nap from 6 am to 6 :30am. Start pushing at 6:55 am, Ava arrived at 7:39 am.  I had some trouble nursing at first and with the pain they decided to keep me for 3 days. Ava is doing wonderful. She was 7 lb 10 oz on 10/23 (my original due date!) and when weighed on 10/26 weighed 8 lb 2 oz."

I remember when I looked out the window the day we were to go home and saw that we had a beautiful fall sprinkling of snow and I could not help but think that Octobers would be better now.

 

When we brought Ava home on 10/23, Mom and Missie had set everything up.  The pack and play and rocking chair were in our room, the changing table was organized and ready to go, the house had been cleaned and I was so greatful to have them there! 





Happy 3rd Birthday Ava Marie...we love you so much!



A REAL Pumpkin Patch!

  On Thursday, 9/30 we went to Happy Apple Orchard near Penrose, CO, about 45 minutes from our house.  There is no admission, you just pick what you want and pay when you are done.  It started off being a cool day so I dressed everyone in layers and their boots (Daddy and Ava needed to official break theirs in), just in case.  Good thing because about 1/2 hr into searching for pumpkins, we all had to shed our sweaters...that's CO weather for ya!  Daddy was the search team for the biggest and best pumpkins.  He pretty much searched the whole field.  I had to insist that we found the best and could we please move on to the raspberries! (Who does that sound like?...)

The apples, pears and blackberries were all done for the season, but there were some raspberries left to pick.  We had so much fun searching and picking raspberries!  I told Ava we were searching just like bears would for the sweetest and reddest berries.  So then she started calling us Mama Bear, Papa Bear, Sister and Brother bear (from the Berenstein Bear books!).  It was so cute.  We picked about 4 pints of raspberries, almost 1 1/2 hrs later we were tired, hungry, and satisfied.

 Bubby was so good!  I carried him in the front carrier, which was a mistake because the kid has to weigh 20 lbs!  He kicked and talked and loved seeing Sissy's reaction to finding our bounty of yummy goodness!  I made 1 quart of raspberry jam and the pumpkins we got cost us 40 bucks (24, 17, 10, 7 pounds !), but the experience was priceless!!!

After we stashed our bounty in the car it was now time for lunch.  And after a morning like that who could stop and eat fast food?  So I suggested going into town to find a small town cafe, they always have the best home cooked food!  We found a little cafe called the Gooseberry and took our time eating delicious food and giggling about the day.

Autumn in Colorado

It's kind of like the saying "When in Rome, do as the Romans do."  We have been in Colorado for 9 1/2 years and only one other time driven up into the mountains to see the aspens change color.  I always thought "What's the big deal?  In IA the leaves change in our back yard."  Well that's just the thing, aspens are as beautiful as the mountainsand it is quite spectacular to see.  So this year I said we ARE going to see the onset of autumn in Colorado and enjoy a beautiful drive in the mountains.

 September 28th we hopped in the car after lunch hoping to escape the 90 degree weather on the front range, but it was still 78 in the mountains.  Talk about an Indian summer.  We happened upon the Heritage Museum on Hwy 67 at the end of our drive west and took a look around.  It is so fun to see the interest that Ava takes in EVERYTHING!  She loved walking around pressing the buttons on the interactive displays, discovering, and learning.  (Perhaps she has a lot of papa Rick in her, that reminds me maybe I should purchase a set of encyclopedias so she can read them like he used too!!!)

The drive did not disappoint, neither did the leaves.  We had such a fun day!