Ava Salehi: November 8th

I'm glad I'm keeping track of all this stuff because today was the first day Ava smiled at me! I'm fairly sure she did it in response to me smiling at her but I suppose it could have been a coincidence. Later in the evening she smiled several times though these weren't quite as long as the first one. Ava had smiled for Keren a few times already so I was really excited to witness it firsthand. It's amazing how the most basic of human emotions can mean so much to a parent.

Ava was perfect all day long and was very easy to take care of. Now that I know she can spot ceiling fans I took he through the entire house (our house isn't exactly the Biltmore Estate so the tour was minimal) to see if she would find anything else as fascinating. (she didn't) Keren and I also took her outside on the deck for her next feeding. She seemed to like looking around out there, maybe finding interest in the trees and sky perhaps.

Keren took her for a stroller ride and I left to run a few errands and go to the gym. I picked up a white noise machine at Babies R' Us, some fancy bibs with a "drool protector" and some even fancier "Nuk" pacifiers. The pacifiers are designed to mimic the mothers nipple and were the best selling pacifier in the US. (according to the package) They should consider changing their name to "Yuk" pacifiers because Ava promptly spit hers out when I gave it to her.

Keren was ready for me to come home because Ava hadn't slept in almost 5 hours evidently. She was wide awake for the stroller ride and she simply wouldn't go to sleep. We're seeing a pattern emerge, Ava's fussy/awake time is in the late evening. We plugged in the white noise machine to a soothing ocean sound and she was out in 10 minutes. Either the machine is the best thing since sliced bread or she simply wore out finally. I let her sleep on my chest for three hours until my right arm went numb. By that time she was ready to be fed again.

Some random pics from the hospital: