A Losing Battle

Ava is a fidgeter. She just can't help rubbing her eyes, pulling her ears, poking herself in the face when she is tired. And she still has a startle reflex. So, for the most part, we have tried to keep her swaddled. Tried being the operative word. Here's how the progression has gone:

1. Use the SwaddleMe. It's great! It has velcro! It's stetchy! She escapes.
2. Double swaddle! Swaddle first with a light blanket, and then put the SwaddleMe over it to keep it in place. She still escapes.
3. Make a swaddle blanket that resembles a straight jacket. She rolls over in it. And still escapes.
4. Put her in an infant sleep positioner to keep her from rolling. She is in the process of trying to figure an escape path from this one.

5. Duct tape her to the bed.

We haven't done that last one, but I have, in my moments of desperation, caught myself plotting.

Tracy Hogg is my Hero

So, three days into the pick-up/put down thing, Ava is getting the hang of falling asleep without the pacifier and is sleeping in longer stretches. She slept from about 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. last night. Whew. I feel good (da na na na na na na).

She's still figuring out the nap thing, but she took a long one on Saturday, and is taking another long one now (after a little issue with the UPS man--knocking on the door as she was drifting off). I think we both feel better. Hopefully I didn't post this prematurely. Gotta go--she is awake!

Installment Three

Don't do this:

Lay baby on blanket to play. Notice babysitter left coffee mug. Run out to give said babysitter coffee mug. Try to open the door. Realize you've locked yourself out. Go for the extra key. Realize you didn't put it back in the hiding place after you locked yourself out last week. Look through the window. See baby staring at you with an amused expression. Break screen trying to get it off the window. Slide window open. Climb through window. In a skirt.

Not that I know from experience.

Good Planning

As most of you know, we purchased a condo unit in one of my projects called Country Club Village. Armed with the knowledge that the adjacent parking garage was only seven stories, I selected a unit on the ninth floor. Some time later, I received an email asking if the contractor could increase the height of the garage elevator shaft by four feet. As the structural engineer, I had no problem with this. However, when I visited the site on Thursday, this is what I saw when I entered our unit:

For comparison, here is a picture taken before the garage elevator shaft was built:
No more free football games, I guess.

Happily, there is more to this story...(to be continued)

Baby Boot Camp

So, Ava's sleep habits have been deteriorating for about 2 months now. She started sleeping through the night at about 7 weeks old, let us get used to it, then stopped about a month and a half ago. Since then, she has been consistently waking several times a night. And unlike when she would wake several times a night as a newborn, she won't sleep for longer than 30 or 40 minutes during the day either. This means I get no naps. Both us have been very tired. And I've been cranky (and a little angry).

So we decided to work with her to get her to go to sleep by herself. This is a very important skill to have, not just because we don't want to be having to put the pacifier back in her mouth every thirty minutes when she's ten. Turns out we all wake up multiple times a night, we just don't know it. We put ourselves back to sleep without even realizing we've woken. But if Ava doesn't learn to put herself to sleep when we put her down, she won't be able to put herself back to sleep in the middle of the night either. This is why I've routinely spent two hours or so trying to put her back to sleep at 3:30 in the morning.

Anyway, we pulled out the Baby Whisperer book, and started reading about sleep. After all, we were having problems, and she had promised to solve all of them. Last night, we started "pick up, put down." Rather than let her "cry it out," we picked her up or otherwise soothed her when she cried, and put her down as soon as her need was met. No pacifiers. We did this until she fell asleep. We were prepared for all-out battle, but it only took about 20 minutes last night. She woke up twice in the night, at which point I gave her the pacifier and she drifted back to sleep.

Greedy for more, we decided to do the same with naps. She fought sleep a little more this time, because there is lots more to look at in her room during the day. After falling asleep a few times and jolting awake, she settled in for good after about an hour. For this nap, she slept 30 minutes.

The next nap, it only took 6 or 7 minutes for her to stop fussing and go to sleep. She then slept two hours uninterrupted. She hasn't done that in I don't know how long.

She went down for about an hour after making really funny noises for about 20 minutes (Daniel said it sounded like a little boy playing with cars). Then she took about 30-40 minutes to go to sleep with very minimal fussing tonight.

She's been responding pretty well to the regimen. When Daniel said, "Ava, be quiet. Go to sleep," she responded, "Yes, drill sergeant!" Hopefully she'll keep it up.

Absent Minded Momma Strikes Again

When Daniel went out to get the paper this morning at about 7:30, this is what he saw:

It had been like that since we got home about 6 o'clock last night. And yeah, it rained last night.

Stove Privileges

I believe that when you become a Mom, you ought to have your stove privileges revoked for at least six months. In the past four and half months, I have:

1. Turned the wrong burner on when trying to boil pacifiers. The burner I turned on had the glass lid to my large skillet over it. The glass got extremely hot, and exploded in the sink.

2. Left a burner on after serving lunch up and melted a plastic spoon, sending who knows what toxins into the air of my house.

3. Turned the wrong burner on (again) and melted the lid to a tupperware bowl and our splatter shield for the microwave.

4. Immediately after doing this, I turned the correct burner on, and proceeded to let the water boil all the way down and burn the bottom of one of my good pots.

5. Attempted to turn a burner off, but instead turned it up to 8 and burned green beans to the bottom of the sauce pan.

I'm going to burn the house down. And kill us all.

Faith in the Midst of Life

As we ate dinner last night, Daniel and I did some catching up. It is amazing how much motherhood consumes me, and how isolated I feel at times. The evenings are pretty much all the time I get with Daniel, and when Ava doesn't cooperate, we don't get a whole lot of time to talk.

I was telling him about some things that I have been thinking about as I spent time with God lately--mostly how frustrated I have been. As he prayed for me, the cat jumped up on the table and started licking the barbeque sauce off our plates, and Ava rolled from her back to her belly and began to fuss. We both laughed, and asked for joy in the midst of all the distractions. To that, Ava squealed.

It got me thinking: my faith is very different now than it was five months ago. In some ways it's better--stronger, more humble, more dependent on Him. In other ways it's more challenging.

A good friend and I were talking about maintaining our relationships with God while as we cared for our infants. She told me that a mutual friend had been able to spend 3 hours in the word, in worship, and in prayer. She lamented that she hadn't done that lately. I reminded her that she had a six week old, and God has called us to something very different at this point in our lives. We honor God in part through our service to our little ones. And, by necessity, our faith will look different than it once did. It doesn't mean that we are less devoted. It does sometimes mean that we get our spiritual nourishment in bites rather than feasts.

Maintaining my faith in the midst of life, in the midst of distractions, has meant doing things a little differently. It means putting first things first. I am conscious of the fact that I may not have another fifteen minutes free, and I'd better seize what time I am given. It means journaling until I am interrupted by a screaming infant or struggling to read a few verses as I try desperately to keep her swaddled and keep the paci in her mouth. It means learning to lean on God even in the small things, like praying for rest for Ava and for myself. It means singing praises to soothe her and meditating on his word while I change a diaper. It means sharing with Christ in the discipline of self-sacrifice, and giving my life and comfort for someone who depends on me.

Being a mom is different than I thought it would be. I knew when I was eagerly awaiting our little Tiddle that my idea of motherhood was somewhat idealistic. I remember asking my sister-in-law what it was like to be a stay at home mom. She replied: "Death to self. Every day." And it is. But I'm pretty sure that's a good thing. A hard thing, but a good thing.

I needed a laugh...

Man this is funny...

My MeMe

I'm not sure what a meme is, but my friend Ellie tagged me. I think I'm supposed to tell you 10 things about me. I'm excited because I have been discovering some great new things lately.

1. My name is Ava Nalani Popp. Nobody can quite agree on what Ava means. It seems to not have a meaning. My mom isn't deep enough to give me a first name that means something. Mostly she just thought it was pretty. And so did everyone else apparently. Maybe I'll go by Nalani.

2. I am 24.5 inches long and 15 pounds. This makes me very fleshy--so much so that complete strangers feel the need to squeeze my thighs.

3. I have cousins! And I just met them for the first time last weekend. They liked me a lot. Especially Isaiah.


4. My favorite book is Goodnight Moon. You might be incredulous that a four month old could have a favorite book (or use words like incredulous). But I do. Just the sight of it excites me beyond belief, which is good because it is a part of my evening wind down routine. Goodnight, my foot.

5. I love to grab things. Especially people's faces. I'm pretty good at inflicting flesh wounds. I think this is very funny. When there is no skin available to tug at and/or shred, I put random objects in my mouth. Most of these objects aren't clean. Oh well.

6. I just discovered that I have feet on Saturday. They are utterly fascinating. Unfortunately, my upper body is long, and my legs short, so I can't quite get them in my mouth. But I try. Mostly, I pull my socks off enough that I can chew on them a bit. They taste better than Dad's.

7. I also just learned to roll from my back to my belly. It's tons of fun, and I do it pretty much constantly. Even when Mom is trying to change my diaper. I can't help it.


8. I used to know how to roll from my belly to my back, but I forgot how. This is a source of endless frustration for me, because although I like to roll from my back to my belly, I don't necessarily like to be on my belly. So I fuss until Mom comes and rolls me back over. At which point I roll back to my belly and fuss some more.

9. I have an incredibly sweet disposition. I charm just about everyone I meet. I love to smile, squeal and laugh. The only time I get fussy is when I'm hungry or tired, and then I'm just trying to let you know what I need.

10. It is this disposition that allows Mommy to put up with my bad sleep habits. I just can't help it. Sleep isn't much fun. I would rather eat or play.

That's all we have time for! Tag! Isaiah's it!