Avery-6 month update

*13 lbs. 14 oz. (10%)

*25.75 in. (41%)

*16.5 in. (40%)

-since her weight percentile has dropped quite a bit we will need to do monthly weight checks to make sure she is growing ok. I'm not worried since we went through this with Isabel, but it is annoying. 

-she continues to wake up once a night around 2:00 am. But she definitely is a good napper most of the time. She wakes up around 7:30 am, back to sleep from 8:30-11:00 am, awake for a short period and then back asleep from 1:00-2:45 pm. Then she is finally awake for a good stretch until bedtime around 6:45 pm. 

-she started solids while I was at Ragnar and she is a good eater. She likes pears, squash, and peaches this far. I'm feeding her around lunchtime and dinner time which are when she struggles with fussiness and it is helping her last until the next nursing session. 

-tummy time is finally not the horrible struggle it had been. She can go a solid 15 min before getting mad. She has rolled over both directions, but very infrequently. 

-still so chill and happy almost all day. She just loves to be held and played with and pretty much never cried unless she is tired or hungry. She is just a joy!

Ragnar Trail, Snowmass, CO

I was invited to join a team of my friend Nichole to do a Ragnar trail relay in Snowmass, Colorado which is right by Aspen. I decided to do it with the understanding that I would bring Avery with me since she was nursing but would leave the rest of the kids at home with Matt. Matt was on call on Saturday but since he rarely if ever gets called into work on Saturdays when on-call we decided to risk it and just have some backup babysitters on hand if needed. However, as it got closer the forecast showed a lot of rain for Aspen. We got very nervous about bringing Avery camping in the rain. So last minute Matt decided to keep her at home. Fortunately she takes a bottle and would also take a half milk half formula bottle so that my pumped and frozen milk would last through the weekend.  Murphy's Law struck and of course Matt ended up getting called in pretty much all day on Saturday. So we ended up using three different babysitters who all had different windows of availability to help us out.  Matt was understandably very stressed about the whole situation and coordinating babysitting but in the end it all worked out fine and I was able to be kid free and have a great weekend.

I only knew one person on the team going into this but quickly became friends with everyone. It was a great group to run and share with and we had a great time.

The way Ragnar trail relay works is that there are three loops and all 18 members take turns running each loop. So by the end you have run all three loops for a total of 14 miles on teeny tiny trails. Because this is Colorado we obviously went up and down mountains. A lot. You even run in the dark through the night with a headlamp. I was fortunate the only one of my runs was completely in the dark. It makes it very difficult to go downhill because you can't see very far in front of you so you can't pick up very much speed. My second run was half dark half-light and I hit the sunrise just as I was coming down the mountain which was perfect. I was the anchor runner doing the longest and hardest run last and it was difficult but the views were amazing. Absolutely stunning. I sincerely wish I would have stopped to take some pictures but it was so difficult that I was afraid if I let myself stop moving then I would never get moving again. It was also difficult because you literally do not sleep at night because of noise and lights and people talking and making sure you don't miss your next run time etc. I came home and ended up sleeping 12 hours straight through the night. But it was a really really fun and challenging thing to do and I'm so glad I had an amazing husband who was willing to take the kids and let me do such a fun and unique racing experience. And Avery did GREAT on just bottles for 28 hours. Matt also started her on solids to also help stretch out the milk supply. So it makes me more confident leaving her again all day Saturday to run the Spartan Beast at Breckenridge. 

One of the guys on the team started this company, Outdoor Element, and sort of sponsored us. He also took a lot of pictures so I'm grateful for that since I didn't!

Pictures