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Ah, Ben and Lily's new obsession - painting! Every day that we pick them up from school (they go to preschool 2 days a week now) we ask what they did that day and the answer is always: "paint!" . . . this holds true even if painting did not actually occur at school that day. They just love it. Lily especially. They ask to paint at home a lot, so, of course, we oblige. Here they are creating some of their latest materpieces: 
Yes, this paint is washable :)
Wow, it is so easy to have one baby! While Ben and Lily napped, my good friends from law school, Lisa (with 12 week old Lauren) and Holly (with big girl, 11 month old Taylor), came over to hang out. How fun! 
Ava has learned to love her little playgym. Here are some smiles! 
Happy Dad's Day to all the Dads out there! We had a busy Father's Day this year with our newborn and two busy toddlers. Ben and Lily played in their new pool with a slide (cool!) and we had a nice BBQ dinner outside. Jeff and Ava both started the day out and ended it with a nice nap together. 
We also had a great visit from our friends Amy and Matt and their new son, Jack. Jack - meet Ava. Ava - meet Jack. 
We have some great news! Ava had a follow-up appointment yesterday with her renal (kidney) doctors at Stanford. We have been taking her blood pressure at home (via a home health nurse) and have been getting numbers within range (they want her systolic pressure - the top number - to be between 70 and 100 and it has been in the 80s and 90s). Yesterday at the doctor's office it was 77/44 - great number. So the decision was made to take her off the blood pressure patch medication. Hooray! It is so nice to know she is off all of this support and is just a regular baby now. I love it :)
The plan going forward is to keep monitoring her blood pressure (we have a fancy blood pressure machine that we ordered last week that we can use) and come back to the renal doctors when she is 6 months old for a repeat renal ultrasound to make sure everything looks good. We will be giving her an antibiotic as a preventative measure against kidney infections and will watch out for any fevers that might indicate such an infection.
Apart from that, life is pretty darn good here. Ava is continuing to eat like a champ. She is up to 9lbs 9oz (up from 8lbs 1oz when she came home a little less than 2 weeks ago). We determined that Ben and Lily have ear infections and got them started on antibiotics, thus getting them back to their (mostly) cheery selves. It is nice - we were realy concerned that Ben and Lily were insanely jealous of baby Ava (they have been very clingy with Mommy and, while it is very flattering to be so popular with all 3 kids, it is not very practical or relaxing), but now they are being very good with her and all seems to be settling down a bit. My twins club playgroup has been extremely generous with their time by making meals for us every night for the past 2 weeks - what a treat and everything has been so tasty - thanks! We also had visits from Nana Sandy and Grandpa Dick last weekend, and then Aunt Melissa, Uncle Ryan and cousin Lincoln (now 20 months old!) early in the week. And we took all the 3 kids to Ava's first birthday party experience - our friends Jen and Steve's daughter, Sarah's 1st birthday - how fun! Ava slept most of the time with Aunt Marya and Ben and Lily felt very lucky to be having goldfish and birthday cupcakes, even after how *challenging* they have been lately. Here are some of our latest photos to share with you all...
Here are some new pictures of Ava at home...
Enjoy!
Ava has been busy meeting some of her family. Here are Aunt Robin and Cousin Hannah with Ava:
Nana Karin with Ava:
She can't wait to meet the rest of you!
Ava is settling in nicely at home. It is so nice not to have to go to the hospital, have her hooked up to machines, be away from Ben and Lily, etc. She is making up for lost time and is eating ALL THE TIME! Another good reason to have her at home. Jeff is bottle feeding her once a night to keep up the practice and to ensure our (well, my...) freedom.
One issue we have run into is the follow up for her blood pressure. It turns out that it is not feasible to take her blood pressure in our pediatrician's office after all. In the NICU, they would put the blood pressure cuff on, feed her, get her to sleep and then sneak up on her to take it - this is so you get an accurate at-rest reading. Well, trying to do that in the doctor's office just doesn't work and we really need an accurate reading, as this affects her care (the medication she is on, whether she gets re-admitted to the hospital, etc.). So we are in the midst of trying to work something out with a nurse who will come to our house to take the blood pressure. Hopefully we will figure out the details on Monday and start the process.
Ben and Lily are very interested in Ava. Lily likes to sit right by her and make comments on her little toes, little hands, etc. Ben, as predicted, became a bit jealous after the first day. I think he realized she is here to stay!
Here is Lily meeting baby Ava: 
Here are Ben and Lily in their Big Brother and Big Sister t-shirts :) 
Ava was released from Stanford NICU today about 1pm - yay! The day that Ava was born, we decided to reschedule Mother's Day to June 1 (because we knew that she wouldn't be home for actual Mother's Day) - so it is quite fitting that she actually came home today.
This morning when we arrived at Stanford we heard that she would probably be staying a day or so more, due to a high blood pressure that was taken overnight. However, the blood pressure was taken after she got her vaccination shot for Heppatitis B, after a bath and during a feeding. No wonder it was high! Anyway, our doctor was not worried about it and, after a discussion with the renal specialist, they gave us the go ahead to blow the joint. Whew! What a ride this has been. Her follow up care starts tomorrow at our regular pediatrician's office, where they will monitor her blood pressure 3 times a week for a while. We have a few follow up appointments with various doctors over the next few months. There are things we will have to watch out for and medications to administer, but she is coming out of all of this (we hope) pretty much unscathed. We are looking forward to enjoying her normal babyhood at this point.
So...we are home now! Robin, Hannah, Nana Karin and Grandpa Steve were there to welcome Ava. First visits from friends were by Eliot and Thanh (Jeff's garage co-workers). Ben and Lily will be coming home from school in a little while and we are excited for them to meet their baby sister. We'll let you know how our first afternoon/evening/night goes.
Thanks again to everyone for following Ava and being there for us in so many ways :)
