A Weeks Review

I'm writing(typing) this with one hand as Ava sleeps on my chest. So, we've been slack with the posts lately and I'm gonna try to bring everyone up to speed with recent developments. Last weekend, Grandma Ginger came to stay and help us out again, which was really like a little vacation for Jeremy and I. We were able to catch up on things around the house and I was able to do some power shopping at Target with the gift cards while Ginger kept the cart in motion. : ) We were also able to attend our friends the Kruskamp's wedding at a local B&B, which was beautiful and tons of fun! Ginger babysat with milk I've just started pumping at Ava's one month mark and she's occaisionally taking a bottle- but she won't from me cuz I'm the real deal and she knows better! Here's Grandma with Ava- Not only has Ava graduated to taking a bottle sometimes, but she's also started to smile at us and in response to things we do, like kissing her or playing with her, or when Daddy's a goob- which happens quite often! It's very rewarding to be able to interact with her more now and get to know her sweet personality.

Here's Ava cracking wise at her Daddy's mustache-
It's kind of blurry but here's one of many smiles, they're hard to catch with the camera-
Thursday, Ava and I went for her one month check-up and Hep B shot. She's really growing like a weed! That day she weighed 10 lbs 2 oz and we also have to correct her birth length because right now she's 22 1/4 inches long. She must have been 20 inches when she was born and they mismeasured. Actually, when we went to the pediatrician the first time, they said she was 20 inches but I thought they were wrong. Oh, well. The hospital never sent us home with anything printed with her length, just weight and time. We just heard them say her length in the hubbub of the delivery room. So, correction.


Another development, Ava has taken to sleeping in a Moby wrap, which I wear and then I can do things around the house with her close to me. So, here we go again, another shot of my bosoms-

And to round out this post, Jeremy's office had a Mustache May party on Friday, which was Ava's first party to attend. They didn't have a good Ava sized mustache there but here's Mommy in a fu manchu-
And here's Ava's mustache, which she sprouted just in time for the end of May, (must of been Rogaine or something in her bottle...)*
*No babies were harmed in the making of these pictures. And for all of you who may cry foul at my dressing up my baby in a mustache, I simply refer to my parents dressing me up as a conehead when I was a baby and taking pictures. It's tradition...

Happy Birthday Aunt Randi!

It's Ava's real Aunt's Birthday today! Too bad (or good?) when we stopped by to see her today, Ava was passed out in her carseat from the day's activities. She went to my work at the archaeological firm I've been at the last 6 years and then we went to Jeremy's work to visit as well. All that visiting was hard work staying cute for! ;)

Here are a couple of pic of Randi and Ava from her visit with us last weekend.

4 weeks/ 1 month old!

Yippee! Can you believe it? Ava's already 4 weeks old and growing like a weed. I swear she must weigh at least 9 1/2 lbs already. As of last Thursday she was already at 9. We go for our one month pediatrician appt. next Thursday and we'll see how much she weighs then. After posting yesterday, Ava was pretty much fussy all afternoon and into the night, which was worse than the night before. I couldn't even go in for decaf coffee at the racetrac last night! She cried as soon as we hit the parking spot. Dang! Oh well. Today, we're keeping our fingers crossed that today's really good rest will help. She actually slept by herself for two hours in the cradle. That's huge! Here's some cute pics to celebrate!


Jeremy at the Centering Pregnancy reunion last ThursdayI love this pic! She's smiling! She likes the dangley toys a lot.
Another one from her first bath.

Sleep begets sleep

We're having a sleep catch-up day here at the Tarver household. Ava was pretty much fussy all afternoon and into the night yesterday, constantly verging on sleep but fighting it and waking back up after ten or so minutes. So today little girl has been power napping all but one hour but still eating about every two. I had a breakdown myself last night after hours of me and Jeremy trading off soothing her, and after falling asleep breastfeeding, en route moving to the bed she got herself all worked up again. I woke up Jeremy crying, he took her and told me to sleep, which I did fitfully for a couple hours, until I woke up from a bad dream, missing Ava,and went to look for her. Wish I had a pic for ya'll but I didn't want to wake ANYONE up with the flash, because Jeremy was sleeping hard on the futon, with Ava swaddled fast asleep in her vibrating chair next to him. We're learning quick whatever it takes- vibrating chair, car ride, gripe water (which helps a lot with tummy troubles but I don't always remember to use it in time), stroller rides (we're wearing out the tires on the gravel already!), or just rocking and patting. At any given time, she can hate whats worked before but something else will do. For now I'm just banking on an adage an experience mom told us- "Sleep begets sleep". Let's hope these naps help!

Actual information

We are doing pretty well (today). The first half of the week, Sunday - Wednesday, went quite swimmingly. Gail and Ava didn't have any problems, and I was able to sleep through the night in the other room (either living room or bedroom, whichever wasn't occupied by babes and boobs). However Wednesday night Ava decided she she was not pleased with 1am to 3am. I'm not sure exactly what it was that made her feel this way, but she let us know of her disapproval. Gail hadn't been able to get much sleep, and when the silver bullet (breastfeeding) didn't work, she was tired and frustrated and didn't know what to do, so she woke me up to share in the misery, erm, joy of a baby. Sadly lacking boobs myself, I've always had to resort to creative soothing. So that mom could get some sleep, I took Ava for a midnight drive. Babies like car rides, its a pretty good approximation to womb like conditions. So I drove around in circles on Flat Rock Road for about 2 hours. Sometimes she slept, sometimes she woke up and voiced her displeasure. I had the foresight to bring along marital aids (or as Gail likes to call them - "earplugs"), so when Ava was dissin' 2:19AM, I was able to hear the muffled version. Along the way we saw 4 deer, 2 cats, 2 racoons, and a possum. By the time it was close to 3am, and I knew Gail had gotten almost 2 hours rest, we cruised back to the hacienda. Ava got a midnight snack, and the both of em chilled for the rest of the evening. I stayed jacked up on coffee and delirious for the next few hours.
Thursday I'm fairly worthless at work, although I did manage to help mount a cd rack on the wall. Thursday night, repeat. We saw 3 deer (although to be fair, maybe it was two and we saw the 2nd deer twice), 2 cats, and two other scampering sets of unidentified eyes. This time I drove around for only about an hour and a half, and came back hoping Ava would sleep easy. Gail fed her, then we swaddled her and put her in the vibrating chair on top of the bed. It worked! Huzzah! So mom and baby got some rest. I was bent from having really weird sleep hours, and around 4am emailed in that I was too stupid to work. Friday I just did my best to keep it together. Saturday was ok, although it felt like there was never enough time to do anything. Dishes were piling up, Gail kept trying to do stuff like laundry, and I kept having to bitch slap her and say - get a nap honey! Throughout the day we kept talking about breaking down and calling in some help from Aunt Randi, but we managed to get through the day.
I guess Gail had gotten enough naps on Saturday such that during the night she was able to cope with the fussiness. I think at one point Gail tried to wake me up, and I rolled over and said something probably incoherent or ridiculous, and it got me off the hook, because she let me sleep through the night. So today I feel almost mentally at par, and have had time to catch up on the blogging. I guess the schedule for updates will for the foreseeable future be on the weekends. I'd hoped to be more consistent throughout the week, but breeding is so much easier than rearin...

She's like this all the time, I swear!

Couple of Firsts

I'm gonna cut straight to the chase on this one...

First Bath!

I fear the adjectives "cute" and "adorable" are going to be worn out and break apart from overuse. Perhaps I'll invent a new word to save the English language from the inevitable fallout.

Here's Gail coming home from her first stroll with Ava.

We totally live in the country.

Random bit

Pictured below is our diaper champ. The thing gobbles diapers like bankers do cash. I've taken to calling it R2Poo2.

The Alabama Android