All About Aubrey!

Aubrey Judith Pantuso
August 2, 2016
8lbs 10oz
21 inches long
Born at 7:00am

I'm feeling guilty that our newest addition does not have a blog post yet (she's almost a year old already), but I guess that's the blessing of being a third child (sorry Aubs!)

Aubrey Judith Pantuso completed our little family on August 2, 2016. My pregnancy with her was the toughest out of my three. I had really bad morning sickness and terrible heartburn. She was our little surprise baby and it was so fun to watch Andrew and Alli (especially Andrew) anticipate her arrival. Andrew was SO excited that she was a girl baby. We had fun announcing her arrival and it seemed as if my pregnancy flew by.

Our announcement for Baby #3

Aubrey's due date was August 9th. She was born a week early on August 2nd. I was at home and had just had Bill take pictures of me for my 39th week of pregnancy. I had just finished packing my hospital bags that day and finally was feeling ready for Aubrey to join us. I went to the bathroom and my water broke! We called Bill's mom to come and watch Andrew and Alli and we headed to the hospital. The hospital was PACKED. We waited for over an hour before we even got to go back to triage. Apparently, many babies were ready to be born that day! It was after 11pm when we got back to triage and my contractions were becoming closer and closer together. Finally, I was admitted to a delivery room. I thought Aubrey would be my quickest delivery, but I was not progressing as fast as I wanted. We waited for a few hours, and once I switched positions, things started to progress. I didn't need any Pitocin to get contractions going, but I did get an epidural (which was SO painful this time around!)

39 weeks pregnant!

Brand new Aubrey- just a few minutes old!

Andrew listening to Aubrey's heartbeat

Proud papa

First pic as a family of 5

Alli listening to Aubrey's heartbeat

I had some complications after Aubrey's birth due to my blood pressure spiking and being really high, so I was under observation for a few hours before I was deemed okay and moved to a recovery room. It was so fun introducing Aubrey to her big brother and sister. They were immediately smitten with her and just couldn't believe how little she was. She had no trouble nursing and loved snuggling. We loved the professional pics that the hospital took, Aubrey was so cooperative and mellow.

Everything with Aubrey has just seemed easy. As a newborn she was a good eater, she slept good, and she has just been so easy-going...your typical third child that has to roll with the punches and go with the flow. She's been my cuddly baby and I already miss her little neck snuggles when she was an infant. Bill and I would both always remark about how soft her head was when she snuggled into our necks.

Little snugglebug

Some of Aubrey's "firsts" and milestones:
~First smile (around 3 months old)
~First time trying oatmeal cereal (5 months old- she liked it!)
~Rolled over from back to belly (3.5 months old)
~Started sleeping on her belly when she could roll both ways (5 months old)
~Mommy nursed/pumped for just over 6 months
~Sitting up without support (7 months old)
~First teeth- bottom front (8 months old)
~First word "dada" (10 months old)
~Crawling (10 months old)
~Cruising (11 months old)

               

Currently, Aubrey weighs in at 21lbs 11oz and is 28.5 inches long. She is such a happy baby and adores her big brother and sister. She has the best squeal and we love to make her belly laugh. She's my baldest baby and people often mistake her for a boy (even when she is wearing "girly" clothes). She takes after her mama in that respect, since I'm told I didn't have hair until I was two!

We've been seeing the dermatologist for two hemangiomas, one on Aubrey's scalp and one in her diaper area. The dermatologist is hopeful that these will fade with time, and as of right now we're not too concerned.

Summer cutie

Fourth of July at Uncle T's house

I also started teaching Aubrey baby sign language and she is able to sign more (claps her hands) and all done (looks like she's waving bye-bye). She loves to eat and gets so excited for puffs (she squeals "puff" when she sees the canister). Her favorite fruit is banana and she doesn't seem to love veggies, but will eat carrots and sweet potatoes. She's realized that we all eat "real" food and she loves trying what we are eating. Current faves are taco meat and anything with noodles. She's like her daddy- shoving huge bites of food in her mouth... it scares me sometimes how much she can fit in her mouth!

Aubrey has had the luxury of not having to go to daycare...yet. Daddy worked a special schedule to be home with her 2 days each week and Grandma Pantuso watched her the other 3 days during the week. It has been a blessing. Bill is back to working a "normal" M-F schedule, so after this summer, Aubrey will be joining Alli at Small Wonders 3 days out of the week. She's just growing up so fast and I feel like time is flying so much faster for her than it did for Andrew and Alli (hence the reason why this blog is coming now, almost a year after her birth).

I've been having fun planning Aubrey's first birthday celebration, which will be a very small and intimate family celebration this time around. More on that later, but I'll end this blog with a sneak peek picture from our "DIY" photo shoot in the backyard.