Visit with Oma

We went to visit Dave's grandmother a couple of weeks ago. She lives in assisted living in Dallas. Madelyn had fun getting to see Ty (Dave's dad) on our little Sunday afternoon trip. Thought I'd include a pic of Dave and me, since we rarely take pictures together just the two of us these days.

Month 5

Madelyn is now sitting up which is so much fun! She loves riding in the grocery cart and looking around. I am looking into buying a new car seat for her, because I think she will like sitting up higher in the car and she is about to grow out of her infant seat. Any suggestions? I need a convertible one, preferably one that sits really tall so she can see out of the window.

Highlights from Month 5:

Sleep: Goes to bed around 7 pm, wakes up at 7 am. Some nights she wakes up once in the middle of the night. I usually feed her and she goes right back to sleep. At night I have to rock her to sleep most of the time as she really cries if I just put her in her crib, but each week is different. Some nights she falls asleep on her own, just depends. Naps are pretty regular now. First nap is from 9-10:30 or 11. Second nap from 1-2:30 or 3.
Eats: Every 4 hours, no solids yet. Planning on making her own baby food so looking into this for next month
Achievements: Sitting up, can now spin herself around while on her tummy toward a new direction. She is really reaching and grabbing for everything. If I am drinking water she dives toward the cup and tries to grab it from me. She sometimes will dive toward the floor when I am holding her if she wants down. :) She really likes tummy time now, today she stayed on her tummy and played for a solid hour! She is starting to stand more, and has done this especially in her exersaucer. She has started saying "mama" when we put her down at night. Mostly says it when she cries in her crib when I am not there. It is the saddest thing, I usually always give in and go rock her to sleep when this happens. She can now put her feet in her mouth and does this often when I am changing her diaper. She really likes messing with things now, loves to try and figure things out. Makes me think she is going to be like her Daddy and like to know how to put things together and how "stuff works". :)
New things: She gets a kick out of hearing people talk, breathing loud, chewing gum, singing, and funny sounds. I think she is going to have really good ears because she always looks at me with a concerned face if there is a new sound outside in the distance. She is much more hyper now and is always wanting a new toy or something new to play with. I have been taking her to the park and putting her in the infant swing which she really likes! She is such a joy and we are so thankful for her!

Month 4

Madelyn started going to bed earlier and napping longer which was great. Goes to bed at 7, wakes up around 7. Around 3 nights a week she starting waking up in the middle of the night and just laughing and playing. I usually go in to cover her up after she kicks the covers off, then she really gets excited so I would usually get her up and feed her then she would fall right back to sleep. At 4.5 months went to 2 naps/day which lasted about 1.5-2 hours. Eating every 3-4 hours

Achievements: Really started working on sitting up, enjoying tummy time more, started napping on tummy. Laughing and smiling even more. She also found her feet which is really funny. At 4 month check up she weighed 17 lbs 10 oz and was in the 98%tile for length and weight. Doc said we will probably be needing a new car seat sooner rather than later. Crazy how all of the things she has- exersaucer, carriers, swing, bouncy, etc all have a 25 lb wt limit! She will probably grow out of all of these before too long. Try to spend most of her day on her tummy anyway, though, to increase muscle strength! She is liking this more and more and can stay on her tummy and play for long periods of time.

New things: Started letting me rock her to sleep some! :) Gave her a taste of banana and she really liked it, but holding off on solids till 6 months.

Month 3

Madelyn started sleeping through the night at 3 months, would sleep 10-12 hours straight at night, was still not wanting to go to bed until 9 or 10, but no complaints as she was sleeping really well. At 12 weeks old she started sucking her thumb which in turn allowed her to fall back to sleep if she woke up in the middle of the night without needing a feeding. I was honestly really glad she started sucking her thumb, it is just the sweetest thing. I sucked my thumb so I guess secretly I liked that this little part of her was like me. :) Especially since everything else about her seems to be just like Daddy! She took 3 naps a day that were still pretty short ~45 minutes each. She was mostly falling asleep on her own for naps, but at night she liked to be nursed to sleep. Still eating every 3 hours at this point. She started lifting her head while on her back like she was trying to sit upright. She also started sitting in her bumbo. This month she enjoyed Christmas in Frost and in the Woodlands. She started saying some consonant sounds like lala and baba. Also started buzzing her lips this month which was hilarious.

Month 2

At two months old Madelyn was eating every 3 hours, sleeping 6-7 hours straight at night, waking to eat, sleeping 4 hours, waking to eat, then sleeping another 2 hours. She didn't nap for very long at this point, would mostly take 30 minute naps every 2 hours. We had trouble getting her to bed before 10 pm, she really liked to stay up late at night. She never really liked to be rocked, would mostly fall asleep nursing, with a pacy, or walking her up and down the stairs which was definitely a work out! We finally transitioned over to the crib when she turned 2 months old, she did really well but definitely needed to be swaddled since it was a much larger space than the bassinet in our room. She still did not like tummy time at 2 months, but started to do better when a boppy pillow was placed underneath her. She rolled over for the first time from tummy to back at 11 weeks old. This month we spent the night at Grandmama's house and Madelyn slept really well. I am pretty sure she slept longer than she ever had before while out in the country in my mom's 40 year old crib!

Month 1

From the very beginning Madelyn was a really content baby, always slept very well which makes it easy on her mama! Don't get me wrong, there were many nights spent walking her up and down our stairs trying to get her to sleep, but overall she was really content baby. Every time she would cry I was convinced she was hungry so seemed like that first month all I did was feed her. I should have spaced her feedings out a little more, think it would have been better on the both of us. Finally my mom convinced me feeding her every 3 hours would be just fine, and that really made things go a lot smoother. I was so worried about getting her on a schedule, little did I know babies make their on schedules and there is very little you can do to influence that other than make sure they do not get overtired. I really did not know about this whole overtired phenomenon the first month. Dave would get home around 6 and we would just keep Madelyn up until we were about ready for bed. Well that was just dumb, let me tell you. After figuring out babies needed to sleep every 2 hours that really helped in getting her to go to sleep!! The first month was mostly spent at home other than trip to West for cousin Kirk's birthday party. Madelyn always smiled in her sleep, officially smiled at us while awake on October 8th. Dave was leaning over the balcony telling me he ripped his jeans and she looked up and smiled at him. :)

Birth Story

Our sweet girl was born on Monday September 12, 2011 after one of the hottest summers in decades. She was due September 5th, but wanted to wait an extra week before making her grand appearance. Dave and I moved to Irving in June 2011 and decided to deliver in Waco. We loved our obgyn and most of my family lives in or around Waco, so we decided a 1.5-2 hour drive was doable as long as we immediately went to the hospital when I started to have contractions. Thankfully, our prayers were answered and we did not have to speed to Waco in the middle of the night (we had an emergency roadside delivery kit ready just in case). Dave had Army Reserve training in College Station the weekend before Sept 12 (I went with him to this), so we had the car LOADED up with everything we would need for College Station and just in case I went into labor somewhere in between Irving and College Station. We spent the night with my parents in Frost Sunday Sept 11 after getting back from CS, just so happened I had a doc apt in Waco the Monday after his Reserve training, so we stayed with my parents Sunday night instead of heading back to Irving . I had a feeling Madelyn might arrive on the 12th, because my Dad (who is very wise when it comes to predictions) thought this would be the day as there was a full moon on the 12th! Dave and I woke up early in Frost to get ready for my doctor's appointment. I was having mild stomach cramps that morning and hoped this meant Madelyn's arrival was close. When we got to the doctor I was 3.5 cm dilated; however doc said that didn't necessary mean labor was close. They hooked me up to machines to monitor Madelyn's heart rate, since I was a week overdue. I was having contractions at that point, but not consistently or close enough to warrant staying at the hospital. Dave and I were so thankful my sister, Kristi lived only 10 minutes away from the hospital. We decided to grab some lunch at George's of all places, lol, I wanted one last excuse to eat fried pickles while still pregnant, but have to admit that probably was not the best pre-labor meal!!! After that, I really wanted to keep moving to try and speed things along if Madelyn was indeed on her way (I was still a little unsure at this p0int). We went to Baylor to visit my dear friend and professor, Jane Damron. We visited with Jane for a while and went to Chick-fil-a at the sub to grab Jane lunch, as she was stuck in her office for office hours. While walking back to her office on BU campus I stopped for a second... I never would have thought all my years at BU I would be walking across campus having contractions anticipating the arrival of my first baby! It was on the way back to Jane's office I knew for sure this was the real thing! We told Jane goodbye and headed back to my sister's house so I could take a shower. Haha, seriously, I was so paranoid I was going to go to the hospital too early and they were going to send me home, so we just kept trying to occupy our time. When we arrived back to my sister's house she took one look at me and said you better skip your shower and head to the the hospital! I assured her I would be fine, after all Dave was timing my contractions with his iPhone contraction app, and the app had yet to tell us to go to the hospital. After my shower, my sis snapped one last preggo pic of me and we were off! We literally pulled into Hillcrest parking lot at 5:30 and the app said, "congratulations you are officially in labor" or something to that degree. We checked in and doc said I was 5 cm dilated so obviously I was not sent home. My parents were there in no time followed by Kera, Kristi, and Whitney. I waited a bit to get the epidural, I think until I was 8 cm dilated, just didn't want to slow down the process, but looking back that was pretty dumb! I am so thankful my sister Kristi said, "you better get that epidural" or I might have just waited too long for one. Everything went way faster than I anticipated! Madelyn was born at 9:57 pm. She was absolutely perfect and so alert! She literally came out with her eyes wide open. We were so thankful for our precious little girl. Needless to say we did not sleep a wink that night!

Hello!

I finally jumped on the blogging bandwagon! I have been keeping a baby book for Madelyn and decided a blog would also be a fun way to record her life. I figured it would also spare facebook friends from my endless picture posting, which is mostly to keep the fam happy and up to date! So here goes, I thought I would start by doing a little "catch up" on the first five months. More to follow later...