Rough Night, Happy Day

Last night was a rough one. We were at the point where the milk hadn't started flowing yet, and Ava was thinking it was time to get down to business. Gail couldn't do much for her during the night, and I couldn't either. Both of us were at the end of our ropes (which I suppose must get longer). Grandmother to the rescue! She stayed up and rocked the baby in the recliner most of the night while Ava cried and struggled to wring some milk out of the pacifier. Gail slept fitfully and fretted thoroughly, and I managed to catch a few winks here and there. By morning Ava had settled down a little bit and fell asleep, and Gail crashed out until about noon. Meanwhile Grandma kept puttering around the house and being in general a wonderful help, and it turned into a gorgeous day outside. By the time Gail woke up and was feeling better, we wrote down some questions and called the lactation consultant at the hospital. (This too much information for y'all?) The consultant told us several useful and comforting things that Gail probably remembers. Later in the afternoon we had another visitor - Uncle Nathan!



Initially he thought maybe we should have returned her and gotten another one, but it wasn't long before Ava had him pinned down and helpless. Nathan is pretty strong, but he's no match for 3 tons of cuteness. It was a treat to have him over, he'd been blacksmithing in the North Georgia Mountains, and was a little tuckered. So he got some shuteye in the dappled shade and gentle breeze while laying in the hammock.


I'd set the hammock up in my fit of nesting. (Which unfortunately for Gail only manifested itself in projects outside the house.) One end is wrapped around a huge oak, and the other is attached to a cedar post I'd put in the ground. Unfortunately it was never set quite right, and had a slight but noticable inward lean to it. This had always left me vaguely dissatisfied, but not so much as to make me do anything about it. Once little miss thang got in there with her 4 tons of cuteness (she grows on you...), the cedar post began to lean inward to a degree that was no longer acceptable. Luckily her Uncle Nathan is a wizard with metal. He recommended a guy wire, and I had some steel cable lying around. We planted a big 'ol cedar stake in the ground, looped one end around the top of the post, and wrapped the other around the stake, attached it, then pounded it into the ground. The result is most victorious.

Now lazy dogs everywhere can be secure in the knowledge that the hammock will not sag too low to the ground and interfere with a good roll in the hay.