Miss Avery Marie

One of my best friends, Natalie, had a baby girl on May 7th. Her husband, Troy, is in the Air Force and had to go to Ohio for some training stuff. So, being baby obsessed and wanting to snuggle, I offered to drive up to Deleware to stay with Natalie.

I am very blessed with a job and a boss that allows me to work from home. So I drove up to Deleware after dropping Kenny off at the airport on Monday night. I stayed there until Thursday afternoon (when Troy got home). 

I got lots of baby snuggles and tried to take my mind of the fact that Kenny was deploying that week.

But look at that face, how can that sweet thing not make you smile?! It was awesome to see Natalie in action. From other new moms I've been around, I've seen them be pretty neurotic about germs and holding the baby. Natalie is NOT like that in the slightest. She just told me "Kristen, she's not going to break...it's fine." And put me to work helping her with everything. Well, minus the feeding part since I'm not really equipped to help with that.

It was definitely good practice. Since the room they were staying in only had 1 bed, I slept in the room with Natalie and Avery (and on the pull-out for the night Troy was there). I got up when Avery wanted changed and fed at 4:30 and then again at 7:30. It was definitely exhausting for this girl (who needs AT LEAST 8 hours of sleep to function properly). But calming in a way that in total, there was about 8 hours of sleep...just interrupted.

I look SO tired!

But it's really hard to feel the exhaustion when this face is just that cute...

Loved my time with Miss Avery. And I can't wait to watch and help her grow up as her Aunt Kristen!