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Ava Kalea Recommends: Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water

I don’t always drink water (I’m still nursing from my momma), but when I do, I drink Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water.

Ava Kalea Recommends Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water

 

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Ava Kalea Kennedy Uncategorized

3 Weeks Old: San Diego Beach Parents Must Have Jogging Stroller

This week I decided to dress you up in one of the outfits I bought you. A pretty colorful dress and a flower for your hair that Aunty Rachael got for you. She bought you a ton of pretty bows for your hair that will match anything you wear.

Flower in her hair just like mommy #avakalea

A photo posted by Stacia Kennedy (@staciakennedy) on

Before you were born I went crazy at Target. I waited till after the baby shower to shop for you so that I didn’t buy any duplicates. Your dad had never seen me go crazy shopping. He stepped away for a moment and I came back with a full cart of outfits.

Getting ready for #avakalea 14 days and counting

A photo posted by Joe Connector Kennedy (@joeconnector) on

Funny, but I’ve never witnessed @staciakennedy being so into shopping …

A photo posted by Daddy Blogger World (@daddybloggerworld) on

Your dad took us to the beach this week. I love taking a break during the afternoon and spend time with you and your dad. Here we are again in Del Mar.

@avakaleakennedy and @staciakennedy – two of the beautiful girls in my life

A photo posted by Monkey Baby Daddy Blogger (@monkey_babys_daddy) on

Your dad wanted to buy a jogging stroller months ago. Not for jogging but to take you on our walks on the beach. The Chicco Travel System stroller we have will not do on the sandy terrain.

As you know before you were born we love walking on the beach and catching a sunset almost every night.

Your dad is a great shopper and found a great deal on craigslist. You are too tiny for this type of stroller but we put down a nice fluffy blanket your aunty Fancy and Desi bought you and strapped you in. You fit perfectly and looked very comfortable.

Trying out our jogging stroller for our walk on the beach #sandiegoliving☀️ #sandiego #solanabeach #beachparents

A photo posted by Stacia Kennedy (@staciakennedy) on

If you are a #beachparent this is a must have. Jogging strollers are the best for strolls on the beach.

If you are looking for a good one, Jeep strollers are Daddy Bloggers favorite or anything with good tires and comfortable seating for baby to sleep in.

(For more advice and reviews Ask Daddy Blogger World for his opinion.)

This week your grandma Jojann also flew in from Seattle, WA to visit you. She will be here the rest of the week to stare at you and kiss you all up.

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As far as your health you have been growing like a weed. You are now 8lbs 14oz and 20 inches long.

You are also only doing breast milk and the last 2 days it’s been very hot so you have been crabby.

Not sure if it is the heat or if you are just so hungry. Or just the pains of growing so fast.

You make a ton of noises while you sleep and while you are just chilling at home you talk and squeak about.

It’s cute but also not sure if it’s gas when you start to get really fussy. Not so cute when you projectile vomit your milk at me.

Love you lots!

Mom

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2 Weeks Old: First Trip To Venice Beach

On September 21st you turned 2 weeks old. We started off the week with a great week.

You have been doing is eating a lot and sometimes you eat too much, too fast so you hiccup a lot and throw up on me a lot. You took your first real bath. After that, your hair got more spiky and I think your hair is growing fast.

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#SpikyHairDontCare My hair was very spiky when I was a baby too. Your hair is dark on the top but the sides look reddish and blonde. I think you got that from your daddy. His hair was red when he was little.

I still can’t tell but your eyes are grey or blueish. I hope they stay like that or be more like your dad’s. Either way, it doesn’t matter you are still so pretty and beautiful!!!

We also went to the doctor this week and you gained back your weight. You were 7lbs 8oz.

I got you dressed up and decided to deck you out in leopard print. Thanks to your Aunty Cherie, who sent you a ton of clothes including this outfit. ava-kalea-lepoard-print

Your dad and I also love taking walks on the beach. When we moved to San Diego from Washington your dad and I would walk on the beach almost every day.

We haven’t been to the beach since you were born and your dad came home this week and decided it was time to show you your first sunset. Here you are at the beach in Del Mar, we tried to wake you to watch the sunset.

@avakaleakennedy ‘s 1st #sunset

A photo posted by Daddy Blogger World (@daddybloggerworld) on


Over the past weekend, I was excited because one of your Aunties Jolyn that came to visit you last week wanted to see you again. She was in town for a few more days. I got your dad to drive us up north where she was staying. We took you and your brother on your first road trip to the LBC (Long Beach California).

@avakaleakennedy w Aunty Jolyn

A photo posted by Monkey Baby Daddy Blogger (@monkey_babys_daddy) on

Your aunties loved visiting with you and they all took turns holding you. Here we are in front of El Torito’s they have a great buffet for breakfast.

After that, I really wanted to take you to one of our favorite places on the Venice Beach Boardwalk, this place called Poke Poke. Since I haven’t been able to eat raw fish since I was pregnant with you I was excited to go there. Your dad had lived in Santa Monica a city very close by for a few months a couple of years ago. I went to visit him there and we had a great time. I think your dad misses living there. Maybe we will live up there again one day.

Loving me some @pokepokebowls

A photo posted by Joe Connector Kennedy (@joeconnector) on

There was also a new place that serves acai bowls in a coconut shell. It was their grand opening and it was only $3 I love a great deal. It was Amazebowls!

#grandopening

A photo posted by Daddy Blogger World (@daddybloggerworld) on

One thing we have been noticing is that you love to sleep with your hands above your head. It reminds me of your dad. He loves to go to the ocean and raise his hands to the sky in a Y shape and say YES! YES to the world, YES to abundance, Yes to Opportunity! It’s a way he gets energy, inspiration from the ocean. Maybe you will do that too when you get older.

@avakaleakennedy on a power nap

A photo posted by Joe Connector Kennedy (@joeconnector) on

Monday, you spent the mid-morning and afternoon with your dad. He took you for a walk and to the gym with him. While I went to see an acupuncturist for the first time. I have been having minor lower back pain. Now it is all better. Dad recommended me to get this treatment and I wasn’t sure but it was surprisingly very helpful.

The next day evening you slept a lot during the day which means you were up with me all night. I had no sleep. I was very tired but look how awake and alert you were. I wouldn’t trade this time for anything else.

Loving being your mommy! Happy 2 Weeks and will be back next week with a new update on your journey.

Love Mom!

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1 Week Old: Bringing A Lot of Love and Joy in 1 Week

Today, Ava is one week old. It has been a very great week full of love and joy.  I am sure mostly friends and family will be reading these posts. To introduce myself I am Ava Kalea’s mom aka. Monkey Baby’s Mama. More on that story in a minute…

I was thinking about creating a baby book for Ava but I thought since Ava’s dad and I are a very digital couple that I would write about her life here. I will also start to write to you Ava so that you can read these posts when you grow up.

Hello! Monkey Baby!

So why do we call you the monkey baby? The back story on that was that before we got married we talked about having a baby together. You already have a big brother Makaya and sister Jacquline. Your dad and I wanted to manifest you into our lives. So like everything in our lives time is of the essence. There is no time like the present to make our dreams come alive. Not only our conscious dreams but even our unconsious ones. I literally woke up one day and told your dad I had a dream that I had a baby and she looked hairy like a monkey lol…

One of your aunties, Aunty Andrea would say that she wanted to have a Monkey Baby. A baby born in the year of the monkey. Your dad and I got married in October 2015. So we talked about having monkey baby also. That means we would have to create you later that year so that you could arrive within the time frame of the chinese monkey zodiac. Further in this post you will learn mommy has a lot of friends and though they are not related to you by blood they are all your aunties.

Your Big Birthday Story!

So much has happened this week Ava your arrival was highly anticipated. Your daddy and I couldn’t want to meet you in person. We had several ultrasounds taken of you before you were born and one that they took a 3D photo of you that looked just like me. Your dad was so excited to see that you would look more like me because he thinks I am so beautiful.

On September 6th which happens to be the day after your real Aunty Mahea’s birthday I was scheduled to go into one of the twice a week appointments I have to check on you. They check to make sure you were swimming around with enough water in my belly and make sure you were kicking and moving around great.

That morning before I left I started to bleed after I peed and I thought you were ready to come into the world. Since your older brother Makaya happened to enter the same day that also happened to me when I gave birth to him. I called your dad and said, “I think it’s happening today”. He rushed home and  I called the Midwives emergency line. They took forever to call me back only to tell me that day was not the day for your arrival. But I knew it would be very soon.

Your dad took me to my Dr’s appointment later in the day even though I missed my original appointment and I found that I was having contractions.  I wanted to make sure everything was ok and it was and I also learned that the hardness in my belly was a contraction. You were getting my body ready for you to come out. Now that I knew what a contraction felt like I started to take notice.

I had your dad take me to work later that afternoon but he stayed in the area in case of an emergency. My co-workers and friends are super nice and by-the-way they threw us a baby shower a week before your arrival which now looking back I feel like is always a sign. A week after your brother’s baby shower he arrived a month early. That was probably just a coincidence. They made and gave you such amazing handmade gifts, dresses/outfits and gave generously. They can’t wait to meet you too!

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Later that evening your dad and I decided to chill at home and rented a few movies which we ended up falling asleep to or at least your dad did. I couldn’t sleep but I thought I should rest because I had a feeling you were going to come soon.

Your dad got up at around 2am so of course, I woke up and started to feel more contractions. They got closer and closer together and stronger at about 5 or 6am and that was time for me to call the Midwife emergency line again and this time they called back within 5 minutes or so and they told us it was time to come in.

Your dad has been making me the same lite breakfast which includes 1/2 of a whole wheat English muffin, toasted with almond butter and 2 scrambled eggs. This was my breakfast choice since I got diagnosed with gestational diabetes. It’s the type of diabetes that some women get my age being 35 and it could be because diabetes runs in my family. This is something we don’t want for you.

But it was a good thing that I received that news so that I could be better at my eating habits and make sure you got the right nutrition you need. I ate that and we were off to the hospital. Your dad turned on his camera and started video blogging while we were on our way to the hospital. He started at

So I had my light breakfast and we were off to the hospital. Your dad turned on his camera and started video blogging while we were on our way to the hospital. He started a blog at DaddyBloggerWorld where he posted that video so you can see how happy were to be going to the hospital. You may get tired of it but you will have a camera in your face probably until you get old enough to tell us to stop. But we will probably keep doing it anyway hehe.

I decided a long time ago that I wanted to experience everything with you. So, I decided not to have any pain medication or drugs. I wanted a very natural birth. It happened very quickly, we arrived at the hospital at about 7:30am your dad dropped me off at the entrance and went to park the car. The security asked me if I wanted a wheelchair but I insisted on walking.

The contractions were getting more painful and closer and your dad was taking forever it seemed like. He was having issues with the parking meter thing. He finally met me at the front and we walked up to the delivery room. I know this is starting to be a long post so I will cut through the graphic parts basically 2 and half hours later you were born at 9:54am.

You were 7lbs 1oz and 19 3/4 inches long. The most beautiful Angel!

You came out screaming and they handed you directly to me. It was amazing! Your dad had tears and just fell in love with your right then and there. You stayed with us in the room the entire time. Of course, right away your dad was posting photos of your arrival on to Facebook. Your posts I swear could have started a trend you got a lot of like’s, love buttons and comments on your posts.

We ended up in a very tiny room that they normally use as a triage room because all of the other rooms were taken but it didn’t matter because we were not in there for very long. You arrived very quickly and besides the major pain I was in a pushed through and it wasn’t so bad. I didn’t tear and I was up and walking around the next day.

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Stacia Kennedy with newborn Ava Kalea 090716

One of your favorite aunties Fancy and Desi just moved to orange county area of California which is just about an hour and a half away. They decided to come visit us right away. They brought you some awesome gifts and spent time with us. Your dad brought us one of our favorite dishes that I couldn’t eat while I was pregnant with you, Sushi!

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See you are already bringing joy to the world. For those who don’t know yet Ava’s middle name Kalea means “to bring joy” in Hawaiian.

I didn’t get much sleep the first night in the hospital since you woke up every 2 hours to feed and someone would come in and check on us seemed like every hour or 2 as well.

Plus I told your dad I couldn’t sleep because I just kept staring at how beautiful you are. Everyone who came in also mentioned to me how cute you were. Not every baby is that cute! You are the cutest and I didn’t care that I had no sleep.

Your First Week In This World

You have been here an entire week and have been such a good baby. You have been getting up to eat about every 2 hours. You are doing what every normal baby does. Eat, Sleep, Poop and repeat. hehe!

Your dad is a very light sleeper and hasn’t been sleeping well. Of course, I can sleep anytime, anywhere and I sleep whenever I can. Mostly during the day I watch you sleep and take photos of you yawning or trying to catch you smiling in your sleep.

Your dad has been trying very had and has gotten up at night to let me sleep. I finally got a breast pump in the middle of the week to be able to have something for you to eat at night when your dad wants to wake up and feed you so that I can go back to sleep.

The Aunties Came To Visit

To end a great week. Your aunties came to visit. Some of my besties, Aunty Christine, Aunty Rachael and Aunty Jolyn. They flew all the way from Seattle to come visit you and bring you more gifts. They brought you pretty tutus, hats, and bows for your hair. They even got you a little bouncer you can play in. They just fell in love with you also and all the joy you brought to them. They held you, rocked you and played dress up with you. It was a great day!

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Ok here comes the pictures and videos of the week. I took a few photos at the hospital and photos of our week at home.

(more videos and photos to be added later. Momma needs to go back to sleep)