Bond. Ava Bond.
Now that I'm done with medical school I've got some good quality time I can spend with Ava all day every day. She wakes up - I'm here. She goes to bed - I'm here. She takes a poop - Dang - I'm here. Most of the time during medical school I was able to schedule my rotations such that I wouldn't have to spend too many evenings or weekends away from home, but there were times that I had to do those things. Some days she would still be sleeping when I left and down for the night when I got home. Those days sucked. Unfortunately there are sure to be more of those days in my future. Let's just hope I can keep them to a minimum.
It worked out well that I was off last week because Ava wasn't feeling too well. Doni got a bug at school which she passed along to Ava a couple of days later. As these things are prone to do, I picked it up another couple of days later. We are a sharing family if you cannot tell.
After having a runny nose and coughing for a few days Ava started to wheeze. It was perfect timing really. Not only did she start to wheeze on the weekend, but she started to wheeze on Saturday night. She must have conveniently planned this because our doctor's office only has open hours for walk-ins on Saturday mornings. NO APPOINTMENT FOR YOU! (ala the "Soup Nazi"). I ended up calling the doctor that was on-call for Ava's doctor that night. I have worked with him before as part of my family medicine rotation, but I'm not sure if he remembered me. Regardless, he phoned in a prescription for a nebulizer and some meds.
I went to pick up her prescriptions around 9PM (everyone's favorite time to go to the pharmacy). We have had to give her nebulizer treatments before (see post "When it Rains it Pours"), but that time we rented a nebulizer instead of purchasing one. Our reasoning was that the price difference was about $70 and her need for treatments was probably just a one-time deal. We were wrong. This time I was planning on ponying up the extra money to actually purchase the nebulizer machine. I figured that, if she needed treatments twice, she was much more likely to need them in the future. Turns out the nebulizer at this pharmacy was just over $200. Rental? Yeah, they carry those, but they're all out. There goes Ava's portion of the economic stimulus package.
The next week Ava was doing better. She still wasn't feeling well, but at least she wasn't wheezing. One day, forty-five minutes after laying her down for her afternoon nap, she woke up. Forty-five minutes? Really Ava? I can barely get to sleep in forty-five minutes when I lay down for a nap. Peeking in on her, it looked like she was having trouble breathing through her nose from her congestion. I picked her up and started rocking with her in her rocking chair. No go, she was just too squirmy. Plan B: The couch.
I'm not sure what I was expecting when I took her into the living room to lay on the couch with me. She has never fallen asleep on our couch and we have never even tried it for her before as a nap location. The living room is where she comes AFTER her nap, not during. But maybe, just maybe she'd fall asleep laying next to her daddy (you're only fooling yourself when you think this).
I laid on my back with her on my chest, facing me. My goal was optimal nasal drainage and breathing ease, even if it meant snot on my shirt. No go. Next, I laid her on her back next to me while I laid across the front of the couch so she couldn't fall off. I told her, "It's time to go night-night. Go to sleep," closing my eyes so she'd get the clue. It seemed to be working because she laid down quietly and covered her eyes with her hands.
She rolled over onto her stomach and adjusted herself a few times. Peeking out from my barely open eyelids, I could see that she wasn't just getting comfortable, she was moving further and further from my head towards my feet. She would move, then stop. Hold it, then move, then stop. Ava was pulling a James Bond in trying to sneak away while I slept! I decided to go along with it to see how this would play out. Eventually she got more brave and sat up with her hands still covering her eyes, peeking out from between her fingers. If I were to "wake up", I wouldn't be able to see her eyes clearly and thus not be able to tell that she wasn't asleep. Clearly, the diabolical mind of a two-year-old.
Eventually she got brave enough that she let her hands down. Deciding to "catch" her, I stirred a little bit, slowly opened my eyes the rest of the way, and quietly told her to go to sleep. Caught, she covered her eyes and laid down. I "went to sleep" and thirty seconds later she was back making her clandestine movements.
She never did fall back asleep that afternoon. She played me. I played her. We played with each other. It's good to be home to play.
It worked out well that I was off last week because Ava wasn't feeling too well. Doni got a bug at school which she passed along to Ava a couple of days later. As these things are prone to do, I picked it up another couple of days later. We are a sharing family if you cannot tell.
After having a runny nose and coughing for a few days Ava started to wheeze. It was perfect timing really. Not only did she start to wheeze on the weekend, but she started to wheeze on Saturday night. She must have conveniently planned this because our doctor's office only has open hours for walk-ins on Saturday mornings. NO APPOINTMENT FOR YOU! (ala the "Soup Nazi"). I ended up calling the doctor that was on-call for Ava's doctor that night. I have worked with him before as part of my family medicine rotation, but I'm not sure if he remembered me. Regardless, he phoned in a prescription for a nebulizer and some meds.
I went to pick up her prescriptions around 9PM (everyone's favorite time to go to the pharmacy). We have had to give her nebulizer treatments before (see post "When it Rains it Pours"), but that time we rented a nebulizer instead of purchasing one. Our reasoning was that the price difference was about $70 and her need for treatments was probably just a one-time deal. We were wrong. This time I was planning on ponying up the extra money to actually purchase the nebulizer machine. I figured that, if she needed treatments twice, she was much more likely to need them in the future. Turns out the nebulizer at this pharmacy was just over $200. Rental? Yeah, they carry those, but they're all out. There goes Ava's portion of the economic stimulus package.
The next week Ava was doing better. She still wasn't feeling well, but at least she wasn't wheezing. One day, forty-five minutes after laying her down for her afternoon nap, she woke up. Forty-five minutes? Really Ava? I can barely get to sleep in forty-five minutes when I lay down for a nap. Peeking in on her, it looked like she was having trouble breathing through her nose from her congestion. I picked her up and started rocking with her in her rocking chair. No go, she was just too squirmy. Plan B: The couch.
I'm not sure what I was expecting when I took her into the living room to lay on the couch with me. She has never fallen asleep on our couch and we have never even tried it for her before as a nap location. The living room is where she comes AFTER her nap, not during. But maybe, just maybe she'd fall asleep laying next to her daddy (you're only fooling yourself when you think this).
I laid on my back with her on my chest, facing me. My goal was optimal nasal drainage and breathing ease, even if it meant snot on my shirt. No go. Next, I laid her on her back next to me while I laid across the front of the couch so she couldn't fall off. I told her, "It's time to go night-night. Go to sleep," closing my eyes so she'd get the clue. It seemed to be working because she laid down quietly and covered her eyes with her hands.
She rolled over onto her stomach and adjusted herself a few times. Peeking out from my barely open eyelids, I could see that she wasn't just getting comfortable, she was moving further and further from my head towards my feet. She would move, then stop. Hold it, then move, then stop. Ava was pulling a James Bond in trying to sneak away while I slept! I decided to go along with it to see how this would play out. Eventually she got more brave and sat up with her hands still covering her eyes, peeking out from between her fingers. If I were to "wake up", I wouldn't be able to see her eyes clearly and thus not be able to tell that she wasn't asleep. Clearly, the diabolical mind of a two-year-old.
Eventually she got brave enough that she let her hands down. Deciding to "catch" her, I stirred a little bit, slowly opened my eyes the rest of the way, and quietly told her to go to sleep. Caught, she covered her eyes and laid down. I "went to sleep" and thirty seconds later she was back making her clandestine movements.
She never did fall back asleep that afternoon. She played me. I played her. We played with each other. It's good to be home to play.
posted by Jeremy @ 9:02 AM
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