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Friday, October 31, 2008

Move Over Cinderella!


A friend of mine gave me this onesie for Madeline, and it's too cute not to share!


Happy Halloween from our little Cinderella!



I don't know if you can read the onesie or not, but it says, "Move Over Cinderella", and the pink tutu goes all the way around her just above her fanny.











Tuesday, October 28, 2008

So Sad

Today I had my last hair appointment with my hairdresser, Arlene. She's decided to retire after 35 years of doing hair. Now I have the ultimate chore of finding a new hairdresser that makes my hair look just as good as she did. I'm happy for her to have the opportunity to travel and do all the things she'd like to do as a retiree, but I'm so sad for me (and all of her other clients) who had such fab hair because of her.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Pumpkin Patch and Pumpkin Carving

When Eric and I were dating, engaged, and first married we started a tradition of going to the pumpkin patch every year to pick our perfect pumpkins and carve them together. We always picked a short, fat one for me and a tall, skinny one for Eric. This year was no exception, and Sunday we loaded up the babe and off to the pumpkin patch we went to pick our perfect pumpkins. This year we chose three--our two usuals: a tall, skinny one for Eric, & a short, fat one for me, and a little one for Madeline!

Madeline seated up and ready to go to the pumpkin patch! Doesn't she look excited?



Madeline at the pumpkin patch. Isn't she festive in her pumpkin shirt?

This tradition we began for our family always prompts us to talk about when we were kids carving our pumpkins at the kitchen table with our respective families. What great childhood memories we have of carving pumpkins as children, and we hope to instill these same kinds of memories with our children. As usual, Eric chose a very intricate design to carve on his pumpkin while I always do something silly and simple. We stuck with a theme for Madeline, so her pumpkin coordinates with her costume.

Of course the evening would not be complete without testing the finished products out with candles and a photo shoot! What a fun family evening we had!

The finished products!














Sunday, October 19, 2008

Early Mornings are for Bunny Slippers and Relaxing


We LOVE Dabo Sweeney! Go Tigers!







Friday, October 17, 2008

Two Months Old Today!






This morning was the first morning that Madeline sat in her vibrating/bouncy seat. She LOVES it! At first I put it on the automatic setting that plays music and lights up continuously, and then I put on on the setting that requires her movement to make it light up and play music. Her little feet move constantly, so she was making it light up and play music all morning.


Madeline in her most favorite sleeping position!



Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Spa Days

Madeline loves what I like to call "baby spa day"! Spa days include getting a relaxing hair washing in the kitchen sink. Her body just completely relaxes when I lay her up on the kitchen counter on her thick, fluffy white towel. She's all smiles.







Next up, the baby facial. Madeline's little face has broken out into baby acne, so Dr. Kapp told us to rub baking soda on her problem areas to help clear it up. And, she loves having her face rubbed.


Finally, her bath. This little lady loves a warm bath, and the massage she receives as we dry her off.


And, how I love a clean, happy, and relaxed baby when spa treatments are all over!
8 Week Well Check


Today, Madeline had her 8 week well check and shots. Technically, she is not eight weeks until Friday, but I'll go ahead and update her second month along with our visit to the doctor's office. She received a clean bill of health from Dr. Kapp. We have quite the proportional little girl.

Her stats:
height: 22.5 in (78%)
weight: 11 lbs. 8 oz. (80%)
head: 38 cm (75%)
On our way to the doctor this morning! Sleeping peacefully not knowing 3 shots await her!




Waiting patiently for Dr. Kapp


The shots were not as bad as I thought they were going to be. Her daddy held her arms while she received them, and I didn't get terribly upset. Madeline handled them as expected--lots of crying! Poor baby. However, she settled down rather quickly after she got some snuggles from me. The nurse that gave her the shots was so sweet and emotional, and her eyes welled up with tears when she was done when she saw how upset Madeline was. What a sweet lady, and wow, she must tear up an awful lot working in a pediatrician's office that gives shots on a regular basis!! Unfortunately, it did not help that it was past her 9 am feeding, so her grumpiness continued until we got home to have our mid-morning snack. She was pretty fussy the rest of the day, but I guess that's to be expected. Post shot snuggles with Daddy! (Daddy is in his lounging clothes today because he's a little under the weather, so he took the day off to get some rest and recharge.)


I can't believe she's been in our house for 8 weeks already, and although we are exhausted, it's such an amazing experience. As Eric said the other night, "Madeline sure is fabulous, but she's a lot of work." I don't think I could agree more! Time is flying by, and I say that all the time, but it's amazing to me how fast she's growing and changing. Madeline is quite the morning baby. When I go into her room at 6 am to start her day, she's all smiles. It's so cute--that big gummy grin, and it warms me to know that she's smiling in response to me! I love to talk to her to elicit that adorable little grin, and I hope to get it on camera soon. She loves her swing, and the mobile that is attached to it. The brightly colored fish going around and around just fascinate her all the while the side to side motion lulls her to sleep. She usually takes one of her many naps in the swing, and it's a lifesaver when I want her to be "safe" and happy while I take a quick shower or am running around the house doing chores. Madeline has discovered her hand/fist just this week, and it cracks me up how intently she will stare at it. Her little eyes almost go cross-eyed while she's studying it. It's almost as interesting to her as the ceiling fan in our den. She has great aim when it's time to shove the whole fist into her mouth. Previously, I believe it ended up in her mouth on accident, and now it definitely seems intentional. It's the small things in life that she enjoys. She loves to go on walks, sit on the deck and take in the world around her, lay on her activity mat for short time periods throughout the day, to be read to (I read to her from everything--blogs, picture books, even Glamour magazine! It's the teacher in me!), "spa days" (see post entitled "Spa Days"), and snuggles with her Daddy! I've started to give her small periods of "tummy time" to help with her neck strength. She does pretty well, but I'm not convinced she really loves her "tummy time." She definitely lets me know when she's had enough.

Madeline is on a great schedule, but we are definitely still hoping for that middle of the night feeding to go away. Madeline is eating every 3 hours during the day starting at 6 am. She will eat anywhere from 4 oz. to 6 oz. at one feeding. Every now and again, she'll wolf down 7 or 8 oz., but that's very rare. After her 6 pm feeding, we put her down between 7 and 7:30 for bed, and unfortunately, she still doesn't like to go to bed. We endure anywhere from 10-20 minutes of whimper crying just reminding us that she is not happy to be in the bed. I tell her each night that she's not missing out on anything exciting just grown-up talk! However, she's always fast asleep by 8 pm. Here is when her sleep schedule seems unconventional to me, but it seems to be working, so we'll stick with it. We used to wake her for a 9 pm feeding, but it got more and more difficult to wake her. We called her "coma baby" because she had no interest in waking or even half waking to have a snack. Eventually it was dropped (Only my daughter would drop another feeding before the middle of the night feeding!!), and she sleeps until midnight or at the latest 1 am. She takes a great feeding at that time, and unfortunately doesn't sleep until 6 am. She usually wakes about 4:00 or 4:30 am to eat. This is where it gets tricky because I've established that her day "begins" at 6 am. I hate to disrupt that because we are on such a great daytime schedule that works for BOTH of us, so I hope that in the next couple of weeks I can push her to at least 5:30 am or even better 6 am. So we shall see, but I feel good that we are getting closer and closer to a full five or six hours of sleep. From there, I'm not sure how to stretch her to the 9-10 hour range, but I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. I don't want to get ahead of myself here!

As always, I look forward to what the future holds for us as we embark on this path of parenthood, but I try to savor each moment along the way as Madeline continues to enrich our lives in ways we never thought possible!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

A Visit with Nana and Papa
Eric's parents came to visit us last weekend to spend some quality time with Madeline! They really enjoyed their visit with Madeline, and I know Madeline loved being snuggled by her grandparents. Eric and I were even able to get out for a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon while Nana and Papa were in charge! And, a huge bonus for Eric and I--Nana and Papa got up with Madeline on Sunday morning for her 6 AM feeding. We got to sleep in until 8:30! When we got up, Madeline had been fed, bathed, and dressed in fresh clothes! What a treat!!


OOPS!!!

So yesterday when I got Madeline up for her 6 AM feeding, I noticed her little cheeks were bright pink, and her neck was bright red. I thought that was interesting, but I didn't think much of it and went about my merry way. Well, when I undressed her to change her diaper and put her daytime clothes on, she was covered in red blotches!!! There were blotches on her chest, belly, legs, arms, and even between her little fingers and toes. (I wish I would've take a photo, but I was too busy being a hypochondriac to think about a photo opportunity!) Of course, I immediately began thinking about my day on Thursday--what did I eat, where did we go, what did we do, anything out of the ordinary. Nope, nothing that I could think of, so then I my mind immediately thought about the gym kids care. What could she have caught from one of the other children? You can imagine the things I thought of and getting on WebMd didn't help matters or ease my mind at all. I had prepared myself to find out that Madeline had some awful skin sickness that would require a steroid lotion of some sort. Too bad my RATIONAL husband was out of town with work. So of course I called the doctor's office and made an appointment for later that morning. So I'm trying to go about my normal morning routine, but my mind is racing with what could be wrong with my little girl. Well, then it hit me--not even thinking I tossed in some of Madeline's clothes with our load of laundry on Thursday afternoon. The contaminated jammies that I removed from her Friday morning were a part of that laundry load. So, now feeling a little stupid and very over-reactionary (is that even a word?), I removed her clothes and inspected her body again. Well, she was considerably less blotchy, so deciding that the laundry detergent and fabric softener were the culprits for the awful skin disease that I decided she'd contracted. OOPS!
Off to the doctor I went with a very un-blotchy baby in tow. However, Dr. Kapp was extremely nice and politely explained that the red blotches (the few that were left on her body) were clearly a topical type irritation and be aware of lotions, detergents, fabric softeners, etc. when it comes to Madeline's delicate skin.
On our way out the door to the doctor's office.
Madeline being a good patient on the doctor's examining table. Notice there are no bright red blotches on her skin!

Note to self--Madeline's skin doesn't appreciate Tide and Bounce. Continue the use of Dreft and don't try to save time by tossing in her clothes with our clothes!

Friday, October 03, 2008

Have we reached a new milestone?

It is 6:45 AM, and I have only been awake for an hour and forty five minutes!! Yes, that's right, I fed Madeline at midnight, and she didn't wake until 5 AM!

When I heard her "I'm hungry!" whimper-cry over the monitor, I rolled over to check the clock as usual and was stunned that it read 5:01! What???!!! Can this be real?? Surely, I am mistaken. I rubbed my eyes and again looked at the clock. Yes, I saw it correctly. Did I sleep through the 3 AM feeding? Nope not at all! What a glorious feeling to get 4-5 hours of UNINTERRUPTED sleep!!! Meanwhile the "I'm hungry" whimper-cry has turned into the full on "Hello, I'm starving up here! Come feed me!" yell-cry. I jumped out of bed and skipped to her room ready to greet her with a smile on my face feeling refreshed!!

What a week, two successful days at the gym nursery (a post to come on that later with pictures that scream "I am a first time mom!") AND not waking at 3:30 AM to eat!

My new prayer at bedtime: Please, Lord, do not let these 2 major events be a coincidence. Please let them be real and permanent! Amen.

Thursday, October 02, 2008

Gold's GymReady to Get Back into Shape





Well, as I posted last week how well things were going with the new little one [and, Nancy, I still am waiting for that other shoe to drop!! :-)], I wondered how our schedule would be now that I can officially go back to the gym. I say officially because I think technically I was supposed to wait to get clearance from the doctor after my 6 week check-up, but I've never been one to get permission when it comes to my work-outs! So on Wednesday, October 1st, I had my 6 week post delivery check-up, and I received a clean bill of health, and most importantly, Madeline is officially old enough to stay in the Gold's Gym kids care. Now I am ready to get back into pre-baby shape and head to the gym each morning with my little one in tow. I was a little nervous for this for two reasons--


1. After all, leaving my precious cargo with those very nice ladies in the gym kids care is a little unnerving for me. However, they are the sweetest ladies, and they love on Madeline. They cuddle with her, and each time I go in there to pick her up, they tell me how sweet she is and how much they want to take her home with them. YAY! And, when I walk into the room, the same girl always announces, "Yes, my favorite baby is here!" What more could I ask for?


2. How is this going to affect the feeding/sleeping/breastfeeding schedule I worked so hard to establish? How can I get my 2 full hours at the gym and not have to worry about a hungry, screaming, cranky infant in the kids care? Babywise made no mention of this sort of scheduling procedure!! :) And, gasp, what if she's so upset that one of the ladies has to come find me in the gym, and I have to end my work-out early? (I know, super selfish!) So far, I've been able to give Madeline a 9 AM bottle (that way I KNOW she is getting a full meal), pump, and get to the gym by 10 AM! Perfect......so far......


Selfishly, I am a much happier mommy and wife when I get to go to the gym everyday, so this has been weighing heavily on my mind since Madeline was brought home. It's just my thing that lets me relax and recharge.


The last 2 weeks have been successful--I'm getting my full 2 hour work-out, and Madeline is happy as a clam in the kids care. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this little change to the "schedule" will continue as they have been. Can things really go this smoothly so quickly and permanently? A girl can hope, right? Maybe just maybe, I can sign up for a spring marathon and begin my training in January 2009 after all, but that's another post for another day.