First Date Night

Tonight was our first date night without the baby. My Mom came in from Buffalo to babysit so that Gabe and I could go out for our anniversary. We decided to try a place right near our house that we've never been to. It's called Max Chophouse. We knew it was a nice place, so we saved it for a special occasion.

The restaurant was very nice-pretty small but cozy. We each had a salad to start-I had a lettuce salad with cherries, candied walnuts and cheese-very tasty. Gabe had an iceburg wedge with blue cheese and bacon. We each had a steak for dinner-I had a 6oz filet and Gabe had a ribeye. The steaks come a la carte so we ordered a side of mac n cheese to share (it was a special for the night and was good!). Of course I had to get dessert!! I had the apple crisp and Gabe had gelato-both very good. We had mentioned to our waiter that it was our anniversary so he brought us over some champagne with dessert which was very nice. We'll definitely go back-the table next to us ordered cheeseburgers (yes, at a classy steakhouse) but let me tell ya-they looked fantastic! So we'll be going back to try those one of these days!!

In order for date night to take place, we either had to time dinner around Avery's eating schedule or give her a bottle while we were gone. Gabe did give her a bottle overnight on Friday and she took it like a champ! Of course I didn't get any sleep because of it-I was worried she wouldn't take it, wondered if I'd still need to feed her, and to be honest, my boobs were killing me so I had to get up and pump anyways. So the overnight bottle thing?! Not the greatest idea unfortunately. Anyways, we left my Mom a bottle for her if she needed it while we were gone and she did-and Avery did very well with it again-so that makes me happy! And she had no problem breastfeeding in between so that's great! Hopefully it stays that way!

Here are a few pics of her from the past few days:
On the ottoman after I fed her:

On my Mom's shoulder-too cute!

Shots of her cute outfit-a onesie and cropped pants (sorry they're rotated-they do it when I upload and I can't figure out how to fix it!):

My Idea of Heaven

Last night was our first family outing. A local restaurant, Phillips European, which is well known for its desserts was having a special for the month of July. You pay $9.99 and get all you can eat dessert. Well, if you know me and know how much I love sweets, this was right up my alley. So of course when I heard about it, I decided we had to go. So for our first family outing, that's where we went! And it was nice to get out of the house!!

Gabe and I each had a salad for our dinner-he also had a cup of soup. Then it was dessert time. They started you off with 3 half slices of any dessert off of the menu. After that, they bring you one half slice at a time until you can't eat anymore. Gabe started out with apple pie, peanut butter torte, and berry cheesecake. I started with carrot cake, peanut butter torte, and chocolate chip walnut pie. They were all very good. Gabe's next selection was a cookie sundae and I went for the Viennese Meringue torte-this was very good. The cake was made with meringue so it sort of melted in your mouth. Then it had a layer of a whipped cream and strawberry filling. It was yummy. I was the pig of the group and after that had a cookie sundae as well. There were a few other things I would have liked to have tried instead (cheesecakes, chocolate things, etc) but I thought they would be too rich and make me sick. In my first round, the peanut butter torte and chocolate chip/walnut pie were both pretty rich and after eating them I wasn't sure how much more I could handle so my other choices after that were "lighter" desserts I guess you could say.

Avery was great the entire time-she was awake for half of the time then fell asleep. For her first real outing, she couldn't have been better! So yes, this outing was my little slice of heaven!

It's Friday!

Well it's Friday! We had a pretty uneventful week. We got a new furnace put in on Wednesday which took all day. Gabe's Dad came over to visit while they were here working. Yesterday, Gabe's Mom came over for a baby fix as well. Other than that, it's been pretty quiet. We took Avery on a few walks at night after dinner. The last one we went on she screamed for 2 blocks on the way home! It must have been pretty comical to see! Haha!

We're going to attempt introducing a bottle tonight to see how Avery does with it-should be interesting. I got my pump all up and running and used it for the first time today-all went well. Now we just need to see if she'll actually take the bottle and be able to handle both that and breastfeeding like a champ! I'll keep ya posted on that.

Here are some pics of Avery from the week:
A cute one on Daddy's lap between burps:

Waking up from a nap:

On Mommy's lap making silly faces:


Helping Daddy play Xbox-we love car racing!

Almost Normal-My Recovery

Since I have nothing really new to update on, I figured I'd write a little bit about my recovery. As you know, I had an unexpected C-section which I didn't really want. Now of course after the fact, I didn't really care at the time-my labor was so brutal that I just wanted the kid out! And knowing how bad my labor was, I wouldn't mind having another c-section next time.

My recovery hasn't been too bad. I expected way way worse so to me, it hasn't been bad at all. The worst part was in the hospital-getting in and out of bed was a chore because you couldn't use your stomach muscles at all because it was sore. So it was a lot of lifting your weight with your arms and stuff. My pain wasn't too bad either. They had me on ibuprofen and percocet the first day in the hospital. The second day I didn't take any percocet at all. I pretty much took the ibuprofen as scheduled all of the days in the hospital. By the time I got home, I really didn't take anything-the pain wasn't bad at all. If I got sore, I would take an ibuprofen, but it was rare that I took it. The only discomfort I still have (2.5 weeks later) is wearing tight waistbands. I've been living in gym shorts/pants and maternity shorts just because they have a stretchy waist. The odd thing is that the incision itself isn't sore, it's the area above the incision that's sore-I'm assuming from the muscles being pulled, etc.

Of course I was restricted from doing things at first. For two weeks I couldn't drive or lift anything heavier than the baby. I could do stairs (some people can't) but was supposed to limit how frequently I used them. I basically would go upstairs once to shower and then try not to go up again until bed. Now I'm using them like normal and having no problems. Gabe and I have been going on some walks here and there-mainly around 1-2 blocks and that's it. Again, nothing too strenuous at this point. I feel pretty good walking so I'm sure we could go a little bit longer at this point. I'm not sure about working out and stuff like that. I suspended my gym membership until September so I won't be going anytime soon. I'm sure that'll be rough the first time I go though :)

The big surprise was how quickly I lost my pregnancy weight. Overall I gained 27 pounds which I was happy with. Within a week of her birth, I had dropped 16 pounds and now 2.5 weeks later, I'm down a total of 22 pounds. So I'm only 5 pounds above my pre-pregnancy weight. I have no idea how that has happened but I'm thrilled with it! I'm sure breastfeeding has helped a ton! Of course my stomach looks completely different now-I have a nice flabby area that I never had. Who knows if it'll go away-it could be extra skin from my stomach stretching, or it could be the lack of ab exercises for the past 9 months! We'll see if it changes or not.

So overall, my recovery hasn't been too bad-like I said, I expected things to be way worse than they are so I'm very happy with how things are going at this point.

Quiet Weekend?

Well it's the weekend! Last night we took Avery for her first photo shoot. We took her to JC Penney's to have newborn photos taken. Of course our eating schedule got messed up so she wanted to eat right in the middle of it and was screaming! The woman was nice and let me feed her then we continued along with the photos. They turned out cute and we'll have them in a week or so. Unfortunately, they don't post them online so I don't know if we'll be able to share them at all.

We really have no plans for the weekend at all. The Corn Hill Arts Festival is this weekend so maybe we'll go to that. I don't know. We like going to it and Gabe's friend Cordell is an artist and has a booth set up there. We'll see-it'll be tough taking Avery with us, but maybe we'll give it a shot. We'll see how we feel when the time comes! Other than that, nothing planned-probably will just be a quiet weekend at home.

And today Avery is two weeks old already!

Family Visit Day

Yesterday was another busy day of visitors.
I woke up to a voicemail from my Dad saying he was on his way over-so I got in the shower right away. My Grandfather had come in from Las Vegas the night before and wanted to see the baby. So, my Dad, Grandpa and Colleen all came over around 10:30 and stayed until around 3:30. They had some good quality time with Avery and we had some Wegman's subs for lunch (YUM!). I was so happy my Grandpa got to meet Avery. He's 81 years old and we see him maybe 1-2 times a year so I'm glad he got the chance to be here shortly after her birth and see her as a little peanut.

My Grandpa recently got into using Web TV for "internet" type stuff-sending emails, etc. So while he was here he was trying to look up something on my computer. Gabe always said he wishes he could see him surf the net, so I had to take some pics of it since Gabe was at work:


Here is our famiy pic of 4 generations of Battaglia's...Grandpa, Dad, myself and
Avery. Think we look alike??


That evening, we had more company. My cousin Joe was in from Florida so him and his sister Kim came out from Buffalo along with her 3 kids-Kayla (my Godchild), Matthew, and Nathan. They stayed for dinner and to visit a bit. It was great seeing all of them since we don't get to see them very often. We last saw Joe in March on our trip to Florida so it's been a few months. Again, we maybe see him 1-2 times a year so it's great seeing him when we can. I haven't seen Kim and the kids in awhile either so it was nice having them come along as well!
Here's Kim with Avery:

Kayla with Avery:

Joe with Avery:

As of now we don't have any other visitors planned. It was great seeing everyone so far and I'm happy Avery has gotten to meet so many people so far!

7/8/09-A Day of Chaos

Yesterday, 7/8/09 was a day I'd rather not experience again-it was quite chaotic to say the least.

The day started with me changing Avery's diaper and in the middle of it, she shot poop about 4ft across the room-her dresser was covered, her stuffed animal was covered, she hit the wall and it was dripping down the wall. In the midst of trying to wipe some of it up, she peed everywhere! Not a good way to start the day. We were trying to get ready because my friend Renee was coming in from Buffalo for a visit with her Mom.

So, Renee and her Mom get here and they're here not even 5min and we hear my Mom break a glass in the kitchen (which has become a good habit of hers). We ask if she's ok and she was like "I don't know, I think I need help." I'm holding Avery and go in the kitchen to find glass everywhere and blood all over the floor! We got a chair for her to sit in and she's just gushing blood from her foot. I call Gabe at work pretty much in tears not knowing what to do-I can't drive still from my c-section and there's no way I'm having my friends drive her to the ER. So here's Gabe on his 3rd day back to work and he has to leave to come home and take Mom to Strong Hospital! She really couldn't walk because she had to keep pressure on her foot so Gabe carries her to the car. As I'm coming back into the house, I trip up our new steps and get scrapes on both legs!

The rest of my visit with Renee was nice-no more chaos for a little bit. Here's Renee holding Avery:

Here's Renee's Mom, Connie, with Avery:

This is a cute pic of Gabe burping Avery when he stopped home after taking Mom to Strong:

After Mom got home, we went to Gabe's parent's house for dinner (she insisted we still go even though she was in pain). His sister and the kids came over too so I took a few more cute pics of them with Avery.
Here's Bianca with Avery in her car seat in the background:

Here's Bianca leaning over the car seat checking Avery out:

A cute one of Owen, Gabe and Avery:

Camille holding Avery and Owen giving Avery a kiss (how precious!):

So the chaos continued at dinner. I went up to feed Avery and in the middle of changing her diaper, she peed everywhere again-all over her outfit, changing pad, you name it (can you tell she's good at this?!).

To top it off, Avery did not sleep at all that night-maybe 1-2 hours at the most! Every time I fed her she was wide awake and looking around. She just would not go to sleep! So on top of the chaos during the day, Mommy got hardly any sleep that night! Like I said, a day I wouldn't want to experience again in the near future!