Heart Check

I had to take Ava for a heart checkup appointment today. My brother was born with a significant hole in his heart so the doctors decided to do a thorough check of Ava's to make sure she didn't have any problems.

It was a crazy morning! The appointment was scheduled for 10:30 so I put her in the car at 10:20 (a little behind schedule but the hospital is only a 5 minute drive away so I figured I'd be able to make it.) As I was driving down the main road outside our estate, some idiot in a BMW decided to pull out in front of me and drive 25 mph through a 60 mph zone! Obviously I didn't have time to crawl along behind him so when it was safe I passed him - and he had the nerve to get mad! He flashed his lights at me but I really didn't care. He's the moron doing less than half the speed limit.

Anyway we got to the hospital with 3 minutes to spare. I rushed in searching for signs towards the Childrens Centre. After a minute a woman stopped to ask if I needed some help because I clearly looked confused and a little bit stressed trying to juggle a baby, a hand bag and a diaper bag. She informed me that not only was the Childrens Centre not in the hospital, it was in another town completely!

I had assumed that because the appointment letter had been sent from the hospital, and all other appoinments had been at the hospital, that it meant that's where we were going today. I'd never even heard of the Childrens Centre.

By this time I'm 5 minutes late and nowhere near where I'm supposed to be. I ran out the doors to the parking ticket pay machines hoping that because I've only been there a few minutes they won't charge me. No such luck - £1 for 6 minutes parking! And the machine wouldn't accept notes which was all I had. I ran around to the machine behind and it wouldn't accept my £5 note because it was crinkled. I kept dropping things all over the place and Ava was getting really heavy in my arms. I had stupidly decided against taking her out in the car seat because it was so heavy so I couldn't set her down anywhere. After grumbling at the machine a man at the ticket counter over heard me saying something about being charged for 6 minutes and he kindly punched the ticket for me for free.

I finally got to the car and was able to set Ava down and make a phone call. After several minutes of listening to an automated voice give me options for things I couldn't care less about, I finally got through to an operator who gave me directions to the Childrens Centre. Luckily it wasn't as far away as I'd thought and we were able to get there only 15 minutes late for her appointment.

At the checkup everything went perfectly. Her heart is fine, there are no problems at all which is a huge relief.

Her weight is right on target, as is her head circumfrence and height. She was so well behaved too, happy and smiling at everyone. Squeaking at the TV in the waiting room and being very patient during the ultrasound.

Weight - 14lbs 15oz
Height - 64cm
Head Circ. - 42.5cm

I was able to relax after we left and the drive home was much less stressful - until I got stuck behind a very slow Learner Driver. I wasn't too bothered by it though because I was able to make a left and take a shortcut up a bumpy old side road that no one ever uses.

I then ended up behind an even slower Learner Driver.

Guess it's just one of those days where the Universe decided to mess with me. I think I'll stay home this afternoon.

Sleep Update

Ava has started sleeping on her own now. Although not without a bit of a cry first.

Last week we began a set routine of:

1) Bath
2) Pyjamas
3) Food
4) Lullaby music
&
5) Bed while still awake

After we start the bath she has to stay upstairs away from any commotion and from that point onward it's bedtime.

We started it about a week ago and the first night she screamed for an hour and a half. We checked on her every 10 or 15 minutes until she finally fell asleep. It was the first time she had ever fallen asleep in her own bed!

We've been going through the same routine every night now since then and some nights it takes 45 minutes, but other nights it only takes 10 minutes of crying before she's asleep. It's so nice to have the evenings back again!

Hopefully soon she'll stop the crying all together and just fall asleep when we put her to bed.

Cry Baby

I love my little Ava bug so much, but she's driving me crazy right now!!

She's over 4 months old now and has never slept through the night. 75% of the time I will put her to sleep by feeding her and set her into her moses basket where she will sleep for about 3 hours. She always wakes up around 1:30 0r 2am and I have to pick her up. She'll only fall back to sleep by feeding so 99% of those times she ends up in bed with me because I can't stay awake long enough to get her back into her basket.

The other 25% of nights she'll fall asleep while I feed her, but wakes up the second her head hits the mattress of her basket. It's then another hour while I try to get her back to sleep and settled in her own bed before I give up and just put her in our bed with us where she spends the entire night. I hate it, but it's the only way anyone in the house gets any sleep at all.

We've been trying so hard to get her to fall asleep on her own by setting her into her bed when she's tired and then leaving the room or hiding out of sight.

She screams, and screams and screams. We leave her for 5 or 10 minutes before we show our faces and try and get her to calm down without picking her up.... It never works. She still cries and cries and cries until we finally give in and pick her up. Even then she's still too upset to calm down so I end up feeding her again! It's a vicious cycle and I'm going crazy because of it. All I want is for her to fall asleep on her own, but it just seems impossible. We've left her for more than an hour and a half (checking on her every 10 minutes and letting her know we're still around) but she still never calms down or goes to sleep.

I don't know what to do. Part of me is ready to just give up and keep feeding her to sleep for as long as it takes but then I know we'll just be creating a monster and we need to get this sorted sooner rather than later.

So frustrating!

She's laughing now!

Ava has started laughing! It is the cutest thing I have ever seen. She was laughing at me on the bed this afternoon when I was making noises at her. So adorable!!! I hope I can catch her on video soon.

4 Months Old!

The little Ava Bug is 4 months old today! She doesn't seem to have changed much since her 3 month old picture for some reason. She's doing well though, however she still isn't sleeping through the night yet. It's beginning to feel like she never will either!

She has sort of started laughing recently which is absolutely adorable. It's hard to get her to do it and it's only like one 'Ha' instead of a 'Ha ha' but hopefully she'll start doing it more soon :)

Happy Halloween!

Ava is 17 weeks old today and we're going to start trying her out on baby rice and porridge. I really need to keep on top of these updates more frequently than once a month! It's just so hard when I barely have time to make lunch let alone sit down and type away on the computer.

During October we've been very busy. Ava went on her first plane ride on the 6th of October. We went in Graham's plane from London to Belgium where we picked up his boss's mother and then we all flew to Blackpool for one night. The next day we did the trip in reverse and when we got home around 7pm we had to hurry and pack our bags because Ava and I were flying to Canada early the next morning!

We spent Thanksgiving in Canada and Ava got to meet the rest of the family. It was such a nice trip and it was great seeing my family again. My mom has spoiled us rotten and even through a beautiful baby shower for Ava and I the Sunday before we left to go back to the UK. It was really great to see everyone and show the baby around. She got so many gifts that I actually had to leave half of them behind! When I finally packed everything into my suitcase and weighed it, it came out to 60 pounds and I'm sure that about 55 pounds of that was all Ava's stuff.

Here are some pictures from the past month:

In Blackpool at Pleasure Beach theme park

Having a look out over the water in Blackpool

This is one of my favourite pictures :)


They had some sort of light festival going on

I think they called it the Illuminations or something

At some point in time this was the largest rollercoaster in the world

This was the hotel we stayed in. The rollercoaster actually went past our window, only about 6 feet away.

The biggest disco ball I've ever seen.


~*~

Ava's first trip to Canada
Ava doing her best Daddy impression

My highschool friends at the baby shower

(L to R) My Grandma Bowman, my neighbour growing up Edith, and my Grandma Reid.

(Great) Grandma Bowman

My Aunt Debbie

Me with my good friend Jenny

(L to R) Christina, Jen, Me, Saba, Lisa, Sarah and Carli


Saba and I with our babies. Her little guy Rayyan is 8 weeks younger than Ava

Mom (a.k.a Grandma Karen)

(Auntie) Ruthie, Edith and (Great) Grandma Bowman


Ava and a very sleepy Rayyan

We had a great time in Canada and are very much looking forward to going back again at Christmas, and this time with Daddy!

3 Months

My little Ava Bug is 3 months old! I can't believe how fast the time has gone and how big she is now. She's going to be walking before I know it and then going to school... driving... moving out... and having babies of her own! Yikes. I feel very old all of a sudden.

Ava sitting with the teddy bear Grandma B gave her