6 months - addendum

We had our 6 month appointment last Friday and I'm just now getting a chance to update this. She cried more than any of the previous times with the shots, but she also received more than ever (4 since she got the flu shot also). It still wasn't bad crying. Maybe for a full minute versus the 10 seconds it usually is. She was a trooper :)

Weight: 16lb 15oz = 70th percentile for age but 19th for length (so still long and lean)
Length: 27.5in = 96th percentile
Head: 43cm = 67th percentile (I think she got Danny's big head, hehe!)

I was surprised by the length. I thought she might be longer than that! I guess she hasn't technically outgrown her infant carrier then but she looks (and feels) way too big for it so I'm still glad we switched to the big seat!

I had a great birthday yesterday! My dad and his girlfriend baby-sat (and loved every minute of it) while Danny and I went to dinner with some friends. And the day ended with a great surprise! My friend/photographer (Kelly) sent us a sneak preview of our photos from our session a few weeks ago :) She's still working on editing but I love what I've seen so far! You will also see another one when you get our Christmas card this year - Kelly was nice enough to send me that one the same day of the shoot so I could get the cards out on time!

Click below for the preview:
http://kellygarveyphotography.blogspot.com/2010/12/ruffle-butt-custom-photography.html

The first picture was actually when she fell backwards while sitting - she still teeters around after sitting a while. I felt sooo bad when it happened but it sure did make a cute picture! And she got over it quickly :)

I probably won't get a chance to post again until after Christmas. I'm a little nervous about how Madison will hold up with all the traveling (driving) around we will be doing but I'm excited to see family, some of whom haven't even met her yet!

Happy Holidays!!!!

6 months old!!!

It's so hard to believe Madison was born 6 months ago today! Time really flies and I'm still amazed when I look at pictures from over the last 6 months and see how much she has changed! Her little personality has certainly presented itself in full force and is so much fun! I'd be lying if I said it wasn't challenging at times but it's so worth it!

So I was really convinced last week that she was teething, and maybe she was, but still no teeth. I guess it's the same concept as my wisdom teeth (that have never come in completely and have never needed to be pulled). Sometimes they bother me but usually they don't. Doesn't mean there's nothing going on in there! I guess only time will tell! I only had a few teeth by my first birthday and Danny had none (only 1 at 15 months in fact). I'm not looking forward to when they really come in considering how clingy and fussy she was last week, with nothing to show for it!

Last weekend was great! Danny's mom had some time off and offered to come visit to give us a break and boy was I glad! Not so much for the break but because we took family pictures/her 6 month pictures and it was definitely nice to have her there! I think it was a pretty successful shoot, but I don't know that it would have been without her there to help get smiles out of Madison. She was pretty tired towards the end but I think we got some cute shots. Haven't seen them yet but will definitely post on flickr once I do!

She still loves to sit up, but still topples every once in a while :) we actually tried a bath without the baby support bar for the first time today and she LOVED it! She splashes all around with both her hands and legs! She definitely likes to stay in the tub longer now too. I think we have a water baby for sure! I can't wait to take her to the ymca's indoor pool!

She's napping better now. She usually takes one super long nap mid-day and a few more short ones. But I've been keeping her home because I have noticed a difference in her home naps based on how much time she spends in day care. I'm also starting to seriously look at day care starting at 1 year. At least a part time program. I just can't dedicate enough time away from work to really give her all the attention she needs and obviously the social skills she would get there. I'm starting early in my search this time!

We've introduced a few more solids and I'm starting to think she only likes sweet potatoes! green beans are okay, she likes bananas but they do not like her, she didn't like pears, plums, or turkey. I think I will try peaches next. I'm kind of surprised that she is being a picky eater since she still takes any and all medicines, simethicone; etc like a champ! She is definitely starting to get jealous when she sees us eating or drinking though. She stares and reaches for everything! Sometimes she gets downright angry, lol! This week at day care one of the workers was eating some gold fish and Madison was trying to grab them. We joke with mary that she has moved from "princess" stage to "diva" for sure. The same day at day care she screamed in anger when the caretaker wouldn't let Madison put the workers badge in her mouth!

We just switched in to 6-9 month clothes (well pj's. She can still fit in to onesies and pants, they are just a little tight in the shoulders and barely long enough). In the 6-9 month pjs, her feet are already pushing at the bottom! I have feeling she won't be in this size long! We have her 6 month appointment tomorrow. I'm looking forward to getting her length and weight! I will post an update then with her new stats :) it's funny- before becoming a parent I never understood or cared about stats when people talked to me about their kids, but I totally get it now!:)

Will post new pics soon also! Writing this blog mobile-y! :)

Sitting pretty!

The weekend after Thanksgiving was another big one for Miss Madison! We went to the Miller Family T-Giving gathering in College Station. She was great the whole day and even napped a bit in her pack 'n play for the first time. The naps were not that great but part of it probably was all the noise in the house. Wish I would have remembered to bring her sound machine, but oh well! I think she enjoys "people watching," so she seemed to have a pretty good time! And of course, she wasn't lacking attention for 1 second :) She showed off her rolling skills and vocal abilities for everyone! I think she especially enjoyed tugging on her Uncle Eric's beard! :)

The week leading up to Thanksgiving, you could tell she was getting close to sitting up unassisted and she finally got it down on Sunday! She still topples to the side every once in a while (or backwards if she decides to look way up at something) but I can tell she's getting stronger every day). She got to sit outside in the grass for the first time while we watched Danny finish putting up the Christmas lights. I think she really enjoyed it :)

So, a few weeks ago when we started giving her more solids, I cut a few oz of formula off her daily intake and she didn't seem to mind until this week. She's been extra cranky after meals like she's still hungry and waking up between 4-6am (usually she wakes up at 7am on the dot). Up until Thursday night, she would wake up babbling at that time, and babble for around 30 minutes before finally falling back asleep, but Thursday night I actually had to go to her around 5:30am (so, technically Friday morning) and give her the pacifier and rock her back to sleep. Then Saturday morning was BRUTAL! She woke up terribly upset at around 3am. I changed her diaper, and after 45 minutes of rocking with the paci I was finally able to get her back to sleep. Then she woke up again at 5:30 - just babbling this time - so I decided to give her a little formula then rocked her back to sleep again. Thankfully, she went back to sleep until about 7:45am so I was able to get a little more rest. Danny worked intake that night so we were both beat on Saturday during the day! So, I'm not sure what's going on. She's also had some issues with the solid foods this week. She loved bananas but they didn't love her :( And she didn't like pears but I don't thinks he had enough to cause any tummy issues. Last night was better (we gave her extra formula during the day but she's still wanting to eat sooner between bottles than usual). I really think she's either going through a growth spurt, teething, or both. She's been biting down and sucking like crazy on EVERYTHING she can get in to her mouth - more so than usual!

"Aargh! Sooo hungry!"

Napping has been, well, interesting this week. Day care has been brutal! I usually take her 2 days/week for about 5 hrs at a time. Both days this week, she napped a TOTAL of 45 minutes the entire stay at day care (one 30 min nap, one 15 minute). If I keep her home, she will usually nap at least 45 minutes-1.5 hrs at each nap (and she would probably take 2 naps over that 5-6 hrs I would leave her at day care. She's had several great sleep days this week - especially today but I think that may be related to this growth spurt or whatever is going on - but days where she goes to day care are just plain awful. I think part of the problem is she doesn't go often enough to really get used to it and she's at the age where she wants to be involved in everything around her! I think the social aspect is really important but I can get more done if she takes solid naps at home than when she has crappy naps at day care, because once I do get her home she is CRANKY!! I tried taking her in the afternoon one day this week so she could nap well at home in the morning and once I brought her home I'd be off the clock so I wouldn't have to worry about her crankiness, but she was so tired at day care she wouldn't let the workers put her down, so I felt bad that they had to carry her around for hours! When she naps well, she's much happier when she's awake, meaning she will play by herself long enough for me to take a phone call if necessary. She's very clingy when she's tired! So, I think I need to resume my search for a babysitter a few days a week and I need to go ahead and put her on some waiting lists for part time day care once she's old enough (which I think is 1 yr). We went to a party this weekend where someone brought their 18 month old and as cute as she was, she made me realize working from home with Madison is going to get more and more difficult. This little girl was FEISTY! LOL!

Another change this weekend was we put her in to her big girl car seat! My Dad got it for us for Xmas but gave it to us early. She seems to like it just fine but I think the real test will be tomorrow since Danny won't be in the car with us and we have to drive all the way to Texas Children's hospital and back (another dermatologist check-up). The only think I don't like is it isn't recline as much so when she falls asleep her head slumps really bad :( I think I'll try a rolled up towel tomorrow.

Finally, Madison met Santa this weekend! He was at our local Ace Hardware! I was super pumped about this because the last thing I wanted to do was take Madison to the mall around a bunch of kids when she's already caught so many colds. It was a real low-key thing, which I liked! You got to take your own picture. She, of course, had NO clue what was going on but she didn't seem to mind it! Getting a smile was difficult but we managed! This was actually the first shot, but the ONLY smile :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Can't believe the holidays are already here! Time really flies! This is certainly already 1000x better than this time last year - Dad was in the middle of cancer treatment and I was in the first trimester of my pregnancy, feeling miserable, so I certainly have a whole lot to be thankful for this year :)

Madison has always been fun but I think she's in a really fun stage right now! Everyone says this is the best part. She just babbles and squeals all day long. The past few days she's even woken up WAY early (like 3:30am and 5am this morning) just babbling to herself!! It's slightly annoying but she goes back to sleep eventually on her own so I think it's kind of cute :) When it's time for her nap or bed, she will lay there "talking" for about 10 minutes before finally drifting off to sleep. And she's OBSESSED with grabbing your face, especially when you're trying to put her to sleep. She especially loves chins and noses :) She's just such a happy baby! We were at dinner at our favorite restaurant last night and we seriously had people from like 4 or 5 separate tables come up and tell us how cute she was and what a good and alert baby she was. At one point she squealed (in delight) very loudly and I was worried it would bother people but they would just look over and smile! She also joined me at a "girls night" dinner at olive garden one night where she was a perfect angel! Danny came by and got her on his way home from work so she could get to bed and I could have some adult time, but I love showing her off so I was glad she came for a little while.

I mentioned in my last post having success with naps by taking away the pacifier and letting her cry. Well the day after that post, Sunday, she had an almost 3 hr nap but on Monday we regressed again. I think it's because I had to take her to day care. She just doesn't sleep well there and therefore gets overtired. When I was able to keep her home she did great, and especially after I came to the realization that she sleeps best when shes still in her footed pajamas. I went back to the wearable blanket for those occasions when shes not already in her pj's and that seems to helping also. We still have some nap times where she wakes up still tired and won't go back to sleep on her own but overall things are better. It would be awesome of she would have more days like she had last thurs/Friday. They were the perfect naps days! Two 2-2.5 hr naps and one short one in the early evening. I can get A LOT of work done during a 2 hour nap! Unfortunately I think those two days were great sleep days because she was getting a cold. She woke up Saturday morning with a super runny nose and sneezing. Fortunately Mary was visiting so she was able to prescribe something to help and we put her back in the angled hammock thing to help her breathe. She was still in a great mood so we all had a great weekend. We took advantage of the extra help with her and out up our Christmas tree. We even went to garden ridge together to get some more decor :) she loves the lights on the tree!

As of this past Tuesday, she finally accomplished rolling from back to tummy and now does it over and over again! She seems to be trying to "scoot," and is getting closer to sitting completely on her own. She gets super excited in her jumper now - kicks those legs like crazy- and still loves her clip on chair at restaurants as long as shes not sleepy. She's started dropping things (purposefully I think) repeatedly, especially while in her chair, lol! And I realized yesterday that her infant car seat isn't going to last the full first year as I had hoped! It will hold her up to 22lbs, which is fine, but only 29in. Well she was 26in at her 4 mo appt so I doubt she will make it another 2-3 months in her current car seat. I was hoping we could wait to go to the convertible seat until she could ride forward facing because with Danny and I being taller I'm not sure we would be able to put our seats in a comfy position with that big ole car seat in the back. But I guess we will figure it out! It's not like we carry her around in the seat anymore -she's too heavy- but I did think we would get a little more use out of it. Glad I got a neutral color scheme - next baby! :) they just grow So fast! We are also down to 4 feedings/day (7-8oz every 4hrs during the day) so that has been nice, and we have introduced green beans. She definitely prefers the sweet potatoes (who could blame her) but I think she likes the green beans more than the cereal.

So my only - I don't want to use the word regret - disappointment on this thanksgiving is that we aren't able to see/introduce Madison to most of our extended families. Danny has to work intake tonight/tomorrow morning (12-8am) so we can't really travel. It was just the three of us at home today but it was nice. We finished getting the lights up and made one of our favorite dishes, which included sweet potato fries so we got a little bit of classic turkey day fare in there! M dad is coming over tomorrow and I'm trying my hand at my late grandmothers lasagna, which used to be a holiday tradition. Then Saturday we will go to college station for the miller family gathering. So all in all it's been a pretty good holiday so far!

Also --- Gig'em Ags! Maddie was able to watch a few minutes of the game before heading off to bed. She LOVES football :) I would have put her in her cheerleader outfit but this one was easier to nap in throughout the day, and I'm not sure she would still fit in the cheerleader one!

Forgot to add!

Few more things:
- madison has entered the super-grabby mode! Hair beware! Not that I have been taking the time to style/leave my hair down before but now it's definitely going to stay in a pony-tail! I even cut it shorter recently but that doesn't matter. She will grab little fly away hairs! She also loves to grab and swat at my face, especially when trying to put her down for nap time! It's kind of frustrating at times but adorable at the same time :) she also reaches out to touch the dogs, and dashall loves to lick her (gently of course)!
- she's starting to giggle more but she's still a tough audience on the comedy tour!
- she loves to look at the TV! This has been another trick when we eat out. If there's a TV we put her chair looking at it. Her favorite is football and sesame street!! :) I've recorded a few episodes and she will usually sit in her bouncer watching it for a solid 30 minutes! LOVE me some sesame street!

Okay I think that's it! This is why I need to post more often.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Back in the crib again!

Since my last post things have been going well for the most part...

She's still got a bit of congestion and sneezing (and I still think her eyes itch). The pediatrician still thinks she's too young to have developed allergies but I'm convinced it is (whether it's dust or whatever). Well, he put her on antibiotics just in case...it seems to be getting better but I don't know that it's because of that.

We are back in the crib again (as of this week)!! She moves a lot less than she did the first time we tried. I think it's because she's on the Zantac again. She does GREAT at night, but her naps still suck for lack of a better word. But they sucked in the hammock thing too. I realize that some babies only need 30-45 minute naps (and just take more naps in a day) but she frequently wakes up screaming bloody murder and is cranky while she's awake. I know she's still tired because she will go back to sleep for 1+ hrs after waking up from a nap - if I hold her. Clearly this is not the best option but I've been giving in just to keep the peace (I've managed to figure out how to do my resume searches with her in one arm quite effectively - sometimes I can even manage a phone call if she's totally out)! I've read the sleep books and they all talk about how you should let a baby cry at this point when trying to get them to fall asleep initially or during night wakings. No one addresses the problem of waking up in the middle of naps. I've already got the room as dark as possible with black out curtains. I've tried letting her cry when she wakes up during the naps but it gets her too worked up. If I try to soothe her (without picking her up) it seems to make her more upset. So I've been at a loss, until today. I've realized the main difference between her night/day sleep routines is that she (seemingly) has to have her pacifier to fall asleep for naps but she doesn't need it at night (and she never wakes up at night). So today we decided we just had to bite the bullet and put her down awake without a pacifier and let her cry. She cried about 15 minutes and then took the longest nap she has had in weeks!! I think it was about 1.5 hrs and she even woke up a few times but would go right back to sleep with barely a peep. She woke up happy and was able to stay up (happily) for close to 3 hrs after that nap. She usually can't even make it 2 hrs awake!! She cried for less than 5 minutes at her next nap :) So, as hard as it is to do - I think "crying it out" when a baby is at an age when they are ready for it, really does work. Hearing her cry still makes me feel physically ill but I know it's for her own good.

Rolling from tummy to back has become pretty easy for her. But she still doesn't like to hang out on her belly for long. She LOVES standing up (with my help of course, but I barely have to hold her). Once she has the strength to sit up completely on her own and finds her balance, we're gonna be in trouble! I know some babies skip crawling and go straight to walking. I have a feeling she might be one of those. Then again, today she seemed to be trying to get her knees under her while on her belly, so I guess we'll see!

At the suggestion of Stephanie, we got this chair that hooks on to the table for when we eat out. It puts her higher up, closer to the table, more in the action - she seems to love it!! We've made it through several meals now without having to hold her :) As long as she's not tired, she's a happy camper in this thing! She's still a bit small for it but we've made some adjustments to make it work...

For the past week, we've been having success with the rice cereal. I'm not saying that it's no longer messy but she seems to have the hang of things now. I think she likes the cereal all right but I can't get her to ignore the bottle in favor of the cereal. Well, today we introduced sweet potatoes and she LOVES them!!! Just in time for Thanksgiving :)

This is an earlier attempt with the cereal but I think it's a funny pic - the face is priceless...

Fun in the jumperoo!

Clean Princess!

BOO!

HALLOWEEN AND THE CRAZINESS OF LIFE LEADING UP TO IT...

Geez - I started this post 1 week ago, saved a draft to come back to and finish and now...geez it's been a long week. And 3 weeks since my last post! I will try to sum things up in as few words as possible but since I'm using this post for my own benefit (to remember things/reminisce down the road) I will give a bit more detail :)

HEALTH:

So, about 3 weeks ago, the same day we started her back in the crib, I also decided to try taking her off the Zantac to see if she'd outgrown the reflux (the pediatrician said I should try it around this time but I don't know why I decided to do it the same time as the crib). Well, each day that week, her feedings became more and more difficult and she her sleeping got worse and worse. By about Thursday (I think around 3:30am) I gave up on the crib, put her back in the bassinet and decided to go back on the Zantac. It took about 1 week for that to really kick back in and I was going to try her back in the crib then but she got another cold :( Ugh! This one didn't come with an ear infection thankfully but we're going on 9 days of congestion now. She's in a pretty good mood considering she can't really breathe through her nose! This week was brutal though! I woke up on Tuesday SO sick!!! I couldn't keep anything down all day and was sooo weak I could barely carry Madison around. Taking care of a baby is extremely difficult when all you feel like doing is laying in bed. I took her to day care from about 9-2 that day and pretty much slept the whole time she was there. I was worried about getting her sick but mostly I just didn't have the energy to do anything for her. Knowing that she still had this cold I wasn't sure if I made the right decision but I had to do it. Well she ended up throwing up a few times over the next 24 hours and we were worried she might have caught my bug but I think it's just mucus build-up. She absolutely HATES the nasal aspirator and now that she's more coordinated with her hands she's quite effective at blocking my attempts. I keep trying to tell her it's for her own good but she doesn't care :)

2 weeks ago Friday, we went back to Texas Children's for a follow-up on her hemangioma. Everything still looks fine - it doesn't appear to have grown any more so that's very good. We also so an eye doctor and he said her eyes are perfect! They even dilated them! So, apart from the fact that we were there FOREVER, it was a good visit. Thankfully she's still willing to nap in my arms so she handled the trip pretty well.

We had her 4 month check up last Monday. She did well with the shots again - cried for a minute but fine afterwards. I just let her sleep in my arms when we got home (I'm a sucker)! Her stats (at 18 weeks): length was 26 in (90th%), weight 14lb 12oz (for age: 50-75%, for length 10-25%), so she's long and lean!

MILESTONES:

She's rolled a few more times (both ways now). She seems to be a leisurely roller, often hanging out on her side for a while (whatever way she's rolling - tummy to back or vice versa) before completing the motion. Video is posted on Flickr (tummy to back).

She's REALLY found her "voice" in the past week or so. Her favorite is squealing (screaming really, but in a happy way) and making this gargling noise, with the occasional razz, and "bluh" type sounds with a random giggle here and there (we don't have consistent giggles yet - she's a tough audience and I haven't been able to find a tickle spot yet). She clearly amuses herself with her new abilities. The problem has been that with all that drainage, when she squeals she sometimes gags on the mucus in the back of her throat :( That usually doesn't stop her from continuing to do it though!

Just in the past few days, she's been putting pretty much all her weight on her legs when you hold her up, and will stay that way for a while. Even recently, she would only put weight on them for a second then bend her knees (she didn't seem to enjoy it too much) but now that she realized her own strength she loves to stand up!

We've tried rice cereal a few times. She will open her mouth and likes to grab my hand/the spoon as I bring it to her mouth but she hasn't quite mastered the fine art of swallowing, lol! I guess we have to keep practicing :) She's also become more interested in watching us eat/drink. I guess I should clarify - she's been watching us for a while but she looks more curious now.

Eating out has become more difficult. She just hates staying in her car seat! She wants to be out so she can look around at everything! She pulls herself forward as much as she can right now (we undo the harness in her seat at the table) but she still wants to be held which makes eating quite difficult. I'm hoping once she's able to really sit on her own (and we can use a high chair) things will get a bit easier again). It might be part our fault since she knows I'm incapable of letting her sit there and cry in her car seat at a restaurant. I understand why some mom's do it but I just don't want to be that mom, lol! I've always hated hearing other people's kids cry at restaurants so I don't want to disturb anyone. And yes, she has us wrapped around her little finger already!

I mentioned the hammock/crib situation earlier. Well, now that she's found the strength in her legs she's starting to push down on her feet when she's sitting in her (reclined) high chair or laying in her hammock to the point where she pushes her butt/back upward. She's also SO close to grabbing the edge of the hammock. Once that happens she's not going to be able to stay in that hammock any longer or we are going to have to start strapping her in to it (which would be a pain with a sleeping baby). So, I think by the end of this coming week we are going to have to go back to the crib - whether or not she still has a cold. Cross your fingers that things go smoothly with that transition!

SPECIAL OCCASIONS

1 week ago Friday was a "daddy-daughter" day. I had to work a conference all day (I had to be downtown before the day-care even opened and since I pay by the hour it would have been very pricey), so Danny took a day off to be with her. It was the longest I had ever been away from her and the longest he had been with her alone! I was a little worried for Danny but he handled it very well! They had a good time together :)

Last weekend (1 week ago) was great in spite of her cold. We got up that Saturday morning and went to breakfast then took her on her first trip to Ikea. She slept the whole time :) Then we went to see my Dad's new house - Grandpa got to hear her squeals, and she christened his kitchen counter with a diaper change since he hasn't actually moved furniture in yet. Then we had an unplanned (but very welcome) visit from her Mimi (Danny's mom)! She had just finished up a couple of hectic weeks and missed her Princess so she came down mid-afternoon on Saturday and left mid-day Sunday. She brought a bunch of cute "Princess" stuff and this adorable little stuffed doll with a dress that says "My first doll" and Madison LOVES it!! She and Mimi had a discussion and decided to name the doll "Dinky," hehe! They've been inseparable ever since! Then, that Sunday, we put her in her Halloween costume and had a little photo shoot at a nearby pumpkin patch :) I think she cooperated pretty well considering it was kind of warm out and the costume didn't help. She didn't seem to mind it too much - just wanted to gnaw on it :)

Then this weekend (Halloween weekend), the weather was gorgeous so we decided to go to Hermann Park (near the Medical Center in Houston) which is also where the zoo happens to be. Anyone that knows me and Danny knows how much we love the zoo, so we've been dying to take her there for a while now but we know she's not going to get anything out of it at this point. I had convinced myself that we should just go to the park but not the zoo that day (especially since there's the "Boo at the Zoo" event this weekend which usually = craziness). Well, when we got down there it actually wasn't as bad as we expected and since we've moved to Katy it's not like we head that direction on a regular basis anymore so we decided to just go for it! :) As expected, she didn't really get much out of it but at least she didn't get upset. I had to carry her for a while then she finally got tired and fell asleep in her stroller. Danny and I had fun!! :)

Then, today (Halloween day), we didn't do anything special during the day but managed to get her fed and in back in her costume for about 45 minutes while we handed out candy sitting in the front yard (it's a nice night and we didn't want to deal with the dogs going crazy every time the doorbell rang). She seemed pretty content in the costume - she kept rubbing her fingers on it like it was a "lovey" :) This is the first time we've given out candy. Don't know that I'll do it again - we didn't get a ton of kids and we even had a group of kids completely snub us! We bought a lot of candy. I wanted to get rid of it so I called out to them "hey do you want some of OUR candy??" They just look right at us and walked on by like they were too good to come to our house, lol! Punks! Hehe!

Well, I think I hit all the high points. I hope this week is better than last (health-wise). She woke up about an hour after I put her down tonight crying and I can hear her congestion over the monitor. I hope this crap goes away soon - poor thing :( I'm exhausted! I recently added some pics to Flickr (including the rolling video). I have a few more to offload from my camera but I will never get this darn post online if I keep trying to do too many things tonight! So those will have to come later.

Rolly polly in the crib!

It's been a big few days for Miss Madison! I know I usually go forever in between posts but I'm so proud of my baby girl and couldn't wait to brag :) hehe! On Monday, she rolled over for the first time (tummy to back)! I've been trying to catch it on video but so far it hasn't happened again. You have to catch her at the right moment - not too tired, too full, or too hungry. With a baby those moments can be few and far between! She's also SOOOO close to rolling from her back to tummy and seems to be trying so hard. With this good also comes the (sort of) bad - as her Mimi rightly says - I will have to keep an even closer eye on her now that she's learning to roll. Apparently her Daddy used to roll all over the house to get at whatever he wanted :)

The other big news is she's finally sleeping in her crib (as of yesterday)!!! I've been trying the occasional nap over the past few weeks but I guess she just wasn't ready since she's been so used to sleeping in her snug, inclined hammock. I was also trying to get her to fall asleep in my arms and then put her in the crib and that never worked. So, yesterday for her first nap, I turned on her mobile with the projector on it and she eventually fell asleep on her own!! The next few naps, she needed her pacifier to fall asleep but she woke up happy and smiling (would even hang out awake in the crib for a good 10-15 minutes before calling for me). I was nervous about trying it overnight (I've become so used to solid sleeping) but I figured it was going well during the day and I would have to try it at night at some point so there was no time like the present. Well, she woke up more often but I still never had to go to her (stayed in there from 7:30pm-7:15am). Sometimes she would cry out but only once (never full on cry) and was always able to go back to sleep on her own. But, MAN, did she SQUIRM!!! LOL!! I saw it happening during her naps. This picture is from her video monitor during her first nap - while she was "soothing" herself to sleep she would kick her legs and squirm around and ended up in this position.

(That thing in the corner is a positioner I tried before she started rolling but it didn't seem to work and has since been taken out of the crib). I put her lengthwise in the crib with her head at the far end. Well if that happened during a 45 minute nap, I'm sure you can only imagine what a nearly 12hr night brought on! With the video monitor I was able to observe (yes, I woke up several times last night to look when she woke up) she went from one end of the crib to the other, made several full rotations, and even kicked the wall a few times :) Yet, she still woke up with a smile on her face!! Sometimes she would sleep on her side and even got close to sleeping on her tummy a few times, but I suppose if she rolls on to her tummy she's capable of rolling back now. The only negative was she woke up with several scratches on her head from flailing her arms about (I guess?). I cut her nails yesterday but I guess I need to do a better job of smoothing them with a file afterwards.

I also think she may be starting to teethe. She definitely has been drooling for a while now but she's taken to full-on biting/knawing on her own or our fingers and there are times when she's downright angry if she doesn't have something to knaw on (her favorite is her burb rag but she's not so great at putting it in her mouth - it has to happen by accident). The thing that's weird is she wants to knaw on her side gums - not the front - but first teeth usually come in the front, so I'm not sure if she's teething. I've bought her a few teether toys but she's not interested because they are too hard and too big to put in the side of her mouth. She doesn't seem to be in any pain though, so that's good!

Well, I'll keep trying to get video of her rolling over and post it here when it do! Until next time...

Busy, busy, busy!

I swear, 2 weeks fly by SO fast sometimes!! I just haven't had time to post.

Well, to start, we are very happy with our little remodel (new playroom, coat closet; etc). Although I haven't really had time to organize things. I fully utilized the closets to stuff crap in to just until I have time to organize it :) I need to figure out a solution for all of our cable/internet stuff in Maddie's playroom. It has to stay in there due to the layout of the house and it's just sitting on the floor for now but this is obviously not going to work when she starts getting around. I had thought about putting it inside the closet but there's not enough space under the door (between the carpet) to put cables so I need to find some sort of lockable cabinet I guess. I'm open to suggestions! It's amazing how quickly her stuff fills it up. We also had to go ahead and get a gate for the archway in to the room because the dogs will not leave you alone when you're on the floor playing with her in there. It's been really nice to be able to get down on the floor with her comfortably! Here's a pic - the before pic was taken back when we first moved in - the whole room was red and the closet from the guest bedroom ran the entire length of that wall behind the desk. We took about 1/3 of that closet and dedicated it to the playroom, put shelves in instead of clothes rods and both closets are still a very good size!

before: after:

playroom: guest:

Our sinkhole ended up taking up about 3 days to completely resolve when we got back from Clifton to find it had re-emerged. I seriously didn't have the time to deal with it alone. Thankfully my neighbor's brother (who also lives in the neighborhood and is retired) came over and helped to supervise and keep things moving. Turns out our sewage lines were cracked (our side was completely severed - I don't know how we didn't have any back-up issues). So the water company had to completely dig up the 3 holes on my street (our hole was by far the worst), repair the pipes and put the dirt back in. At one point, we had to have had about 5 water company vehicles (including a tractor) at our house! But I'm so glad we got it taken care of - properly this time. I was prepared to fight!! Now, we are just waiting on landscaping to come back and put sod back down, which may take a few weeks.

Here was the hole before they fixed it (deeper than it looks here - not really sure a picture does it justice):

We went back to CS for the day last Sunday to celebrate Danny's Granny's 76th bday. It was great to see everyone - saw a lot of family that hadn't met Madison yet and also met her 8 week old 2nd cousin named Daniel - he was a cutie! She took the opportunity to wear her cute aTm cheerleader outfit (thanks Steph)! We had both Aggies and Longhorns at the party but everyone thought she looked cute :)

This week has been CRAZY!! Work had been slow for a few weeks up until this week and we got about 15 new jobs to work on and had a big client meeting on the other side of town on Tuesday. So, with the client meeting and just the every-day time that Madison takes up, my work time was limited, but I managed to have a pretty productive week (somehow). I guess I'm learning to work better under pressure, but it sure is exhausting!!! The nice thing is Madison has been pretty routine - sleeping 8pm-7am (no waking - yay!), and pretty regular (albeit short) naps. I've been trying to get myself motivated to wake up early and work out, but I have to admit I've been staying up later to try to get work done and therefore can't seem to drag myself out of bed until she wakes up. I also got a true taste of what it will probably be like when we have a 2nd kid. Wednesday night, I was doing some searches for candidates in bed and I noticed Bismarck kept licking his foot and when he stood up he wouldn't put any weight on it. Sure enough, he must have snagged his nail and it was barely hanging out and bleeding. I bandaged it the best I could and considered waiting until morning to take him to the vet but it seemed to be hurting him and since it was bleeding we were worried about infection. Plus, if I waited until the next day that would be even less time I could spend working and I would have to put Madison back in day care to take him to the vet by myself (until he got the nail pulled off we had to carry him since he wouldn't walk on it). So, at 10pm, we headed off to the animal emergency hospital (the closest one about 20 minutes away) and didn't get home until 1am. Ugh! And then, after 1 day of the pain meds they gave us for him, on Friday he had diarrhea (caused by the meds) and it was ALL OVER his LONG hair on his backside and tail. So I had to get her down for a nap and throw him in the tub and give him a quick bath - he hates baths by the way. It was just...crazy. And my old cat (18 years) has been a whole new cat since we took her to the vet a few weeks ago. She's now on Pepcid AC and hasn't thrown up in 2 weeks and is now hungry every 2 hrs!! We've always had trouble getting her to eat and keep it down so I'm happy it's working but every time I walk in to the kitchen she's begging for food! I swear it's like I have 5 kids with all these animals, lol!

As far as Madison updates are concerned:

- we have not been able to get any more full on laughs out of her although the girls at day care claim they have (jealous!). She will squeal with delight and "talk" to us, and give us huge grins all day long, but I can't get her to laugh! I think it's still a little early to be expecting it but I'm really looking forward to the day we get some consistent giggles :) They are just too cute!

- She doesn't need the pillow or anything anymore under her jumperoo - her toes just barely reach!

- I think she's really trying to roll over!! She's also enjoying tummy time more now that she can raise her head/chest high enough to be able to see all around (although she still doesn't want to stay on her tummy for long).

- I've, once again, tried naps in the crib but haven't been successful. Day care said she napped in the crib for an hour straight the other day!! I think their mattresses are softer so part of me thinks she doesn't like ours because the mattress is too firm but they say it's super important to have a really firm mattress at this age. I don't know what to do. I guess I should really just wait to transition her until she starts rolling and then maybe she'll find a position that she likes. But she's getting so heavy it's hard to get down that low to put her in/out of the hammock!

- She has been sucking on her fingers for the past few weeks but has progressed to putting her entire fist in her mouth this week. Sometimes she tries to put both hands in :) It's pretty funny! She also likes to stick one hand in her mouth and grab a foot with the other and just hang out like that for a while! Whatever makes her happy :) She also likes to suck/knaw on our fingers - could this be the early signs of teething??

- We tried introducing a spoon this week, which was hilarious! We would put a little formula in the spoon and she would open up but didn't quite understand the swallowing part. We've done it a few times and she seems to get better each time and regardless, she seems to have fun with it!

- Her hair is finally growing more!! It's kind of funny looking in the back but at least it's coming in!

- Finally, I guess the final update is she really seems to love watching sports on TV - especially football! She's sitting on Daddy's lap watching the Texans game as we speak :)

I take her back to TCH on Friday for a check up on her hemangioma with the dermatologist and to see the eye doctor, but it looks like it may have gotten better since our last visit (definitely has not gotten worse. I'm not worried about it but we'll continue to keep getting it checked out as long as the docs deem necessary.

I think that's all the high points from the past few weeks! I'll try to post more often - sometimes it's hard to remember what happened 2 weeks ago, lol!

Eventful two weeks

So, it's been awhile since my last post but it's been a little hectic in the Werlinger household. In fact, I am blogging from my phone right now on our way back to Houston from Clifton (Danny is driving) because I know I won't have time in the next few days.

We will start with 2 weeks ago, Monday. I had to take madison to the dermatologist at Texas childrens hospital in the medical center to have this bluish lump by her eye looked at. We noticed it almost 2 months ago now. It hasn't gotten better but it hasn't gotten worse either. Well, turns out it is a type of "birth mark" called a hemangioma (the name makes it sound worse than it is). Its apparently very common in girls and on the face. They usually show up several weeks after birth, grow rapidly the first 6 months or so, and eventually fade over 2-3 years. Its not harmful but we need to keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't effect her vision since its so close to her eye. I don't think its grown anymore over the past few months so hopefully its done. Going to TCH really puts things in to perspective though. If that's the worst we have to deal with then we are so lucky!!

So throughout that week, madison's sleeping was getting increasingly worse, both day and night. I think she went through a major growth spurt because she was eating like she was starving!! Then, by that Friday night she was awful!! She wouldn't stop crying and would wake up every 10-15 minutes after we put her down for the night. By Saturday morning she was clearly not feeling well - congested, coughing, low grade fever - she ended up sleeping a lot that day but Sunday was the worst, especially that night. She sounded awful and woke up 6 times from 6:30PM-1:30am. Took her to the doc on monday (12lb 14oz by the way!!!). She definitely had a cold and we think an ear infection (her ear canals were so small he couldn't see well enough to tell for sure). So she's on her first dose of amoxicillin (pink bubblegum meds). She takes it like a champ though! Don't even have to mix with miilk.

So on top of her being sick, so have I! I guess she gave it to me so we've been going through this all together this week. She was doing much better by mid-week. I still have a runny nose and my ears have been constantly popping the past 4 days. At least I'm capable of blowing my nose though. She won't let me suction hers.

We've also had some good and exciting things happening!! I mentioned that we are in the car as I write this. We left town because we are finally having our floor fixed and turning this extra room in to a play room for madison!! There's a large closet that runs behind the room. We are breaking up that closet and dedicating part of it to the play room (put a door in) with shelving instead of clothes rods. My friends dad is a contractor so since I trusted him I felt it would be easier on all of us if we left town for th weekend while he worked. It should all be done (except carpet will be laid tomorrow) by the time we get home so I'm super excited to see it :)

We had a great time in Clifton! Madison did really well in the car (I sat in the back and entertained her). And the other exciting news is she has slept all through the night (9-12 hours) the past 4 nights straight!! I'm so proud of her! And this is without crying! She soothes herself to sleep and wakes up happy :) I'm trying not to get too excited since I know it may not last. But its a step in the right direction. Also, on the way home today we stopped in Calvert to give her a bottle and as I had her bouncing on my leg, playing a little before she went back in her car seat, we got our first little giggles!! It was so exciting! I'm so happy we were both there to witness it :) we've been trying to get more out of her ever since but haven't had any luck. I'm sure it will be a regular thing soon though!

Well, we are home and 5 hrs later I'm finally finishing this blog update. We came home to find that our yard caved in again. Water company is coming back tomorrow. Hopefully they fix it right this time!! The remodeling turned out great! Can't wait to get the carpet in and get the house back in order again :)

Pics to come (of madison and the house) as soon as I get more time again! This mom is beat!
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tummytime

tummytime
Originally uploaded by jesswerlinger

She still doesn't like tummy time but I know her neck is getting much stronger. If you catch her at the right moment (not too hungry or tired) she can hold her head up for probably 1 minute straight. I know the video is sideways (I can't figure out how to rotate it) but you get the point :)

smiles

smiles
Originally uploaded by jesswerlinger

Best video I've been able to get so far of her smiling and cooing! She's often much more animated but she's more interested in looking at the camera when I have it on :)

3 MONTHS (basically)!!

So, if you go by day of the week, last Wednesday was technically 12 weeks! However, I guess I'm supposed to go by date now, so in that case we still have 4 more days, but whatever. We've made it through the missing 4th trimester as some like to call the first 3 months (since babies are more like fetuses during this time, things like swaddling and white noise tend to soothe them so well because it's like they are back in the womb). I really started noticing a difference in her a few weeks ago though. She's at the super-alert and observant stage of her baby-hood for sure (much to my chagrin at times)!

For a "short" week, this has been a really long one! Tuesday was pretty good - got a report from day care that Madison is THE most easy-going baby they have :) She has never cried once while there, so that makes me happy! She really is a pretty easy baby, with the exception of naps. She's still not napping well. I'm afraid if she doesn't get better I may have to consider full time day care. I can't lose my job!! She wakes up 30-45 minutes in to every nap and is usually impossible to get back down. About half the time, she also wakes up about 1 hour after going to sleep for the night. All the books talk about how you should (at this point) let the baby cry herself to sleep when trying to put her down. Well, getting her to go asleep is not our problem at all! It's getting her past that 30 minute mark. Over the weekend, we knew she was so tired, so we let her cry one time after waking from a nap. We barely made it to 30 minutes (most books I've read say allow 1 hour of crying during nap time). That was with Danny blaring football and me re-organizing the pantry to distract ourselves :( We couldn't do it. I'm not doing the "cry it out" thing again until my pediatrician tells me to, and even then I'm not sure how I will be able to handle it. Sure enough, she showed how tired she was by sleeping from 6:30pm-5am Saturday night. That's the first all-nighter without having gone to day care! I think she just wants to spend time with her amazing parents, and who could blame her?? hehe! :)

Wednesday was a "Murphy's law" kind of day in the Werlinger household, for sure! It rained heavily all day on Tuesday and that night. So, first we woke up to a large sink hole in our front yard (the soil had eroded underneath the grass and it collapsed down in to the ground). I wish I would have taken a picture but that still wouldn't have done it justice. This whole was about 2x2.5 ft on top, but wider underneath and about 3 ft deep! I bought little caution flags to put around it because I was worried about one of the neighborhood kids falling in. Turns out the water line easement ran right through there so I called the water company to come take a look and, sure enough, they determined it was their problem and fixed the hole the next day! :) So glad we didn't have a bigger issue on our hands. Now, we have a big dead patch of grass but that's easily fixed! Then, because of the rain, Dashall would not go do his business (well he peed but wouldn't stay out longer) so at some point during the night he decided to finish his business in our study (which I discovered about 1 hr after we found the sink hole). Thankfully we have wood floors so it was easy to clean. Well then, when I went to pick up Madison from day care, despite the clear instructions I've left with them (and that they have been following just fine for weeks now) they gave her a full bottle of water instead of her milk bottle. I send some water in a bottle because sometimes she likes to sip from it while trying to fall asleep for her naps when she's already finished her bottle. Well, I'm not sending water anymore. Apparently the girl couldn't find the milk even though I had given it to them to put in the fridge that morning. Argh! Most of the girls there are great but there are a few I worry about...I was so upset because there is clearly no nutritional value with all that water, plus excessive water can be dangerous! So, when I picked her up, her stomach was FULL of water yet she was still starving (and cranky at that point). Thankfully, she was able to keep the bottle down when I gave it to her but then I was all paranoid for the next 12 hrs or so. If something like this happens again I may need to re-evaluate my options (or maybe just figure out when that girl works and not take her then)!

Also, during the day this week, she's been wanting to eat every 2.5hrs! I can't get her to make it to 3 much less the 4 she should be going (she still usually does 5+ hrs between feeds at night thankfully). And even when she's drank an amount that usually fills her up she seems hungry again 30 min later - she gets really fussy and/or she starts sucking her hands. I know that could be a soothing thing but usually when that happens feeding is the only thing that calms her! She now weighs 12.4 lbs on our scale. The average baby should be eating 2-2.5 oz per lb (which puts her at a max of 31 oz/day) but she usually tries to take closer to 34 oz/day! I'm hoping she's just going through a growth spurt. I worry about over-feeding her and since she's got chubby genes on both sides of her family, I feel it's important to keep watch over her eating habits from the beginning. Don't worry, I'm not putting the girl on a diet already, but they say that healthy eating habits are established very early. She's still in the 90% for her height so even though she seems kind of heavy, as long as the height/weight move up proportionately I guess we are all right! Now that she's reached that 12lb mark, we are also supposed to start weaning her off her mid-night feedings. We've started slowly cutting back the amount we give her at those feedings so we'll see how long it takes... I still cannot get her to sleep in her crib, although that is my last concern at this point. If she's happy in her hammock/bassinet thing, she can stay there! It will hold her up to 25 lbs :) I think it's more because she feels so snug in the hammock (it sort of hugs her) but she feels the vast emptiness of the crib.

A few other fun tid-bits this week...she got a new toy bar which she LOVES! It attaches to the car seat, the high chair, her swing, her bouncer, and probably also her hammock (haven't tried that yet) - it's so versatile! She will sit there and stare at it for a long time and then usually reach out to try to grab the hanging toys. She's definitely using her hands a lot more now :) She's also got really good neck control now so we got her a stationary jumper. It's still too big but with a pillow underneath and a rolled up blanket under her arms/around her chest, it will work. She only lasts about 10 minutes at this point but she seems to love looking at the flashing lights, the sounds/music, and bouncing up and down a bit! She's also taken a few short strolls in her stroller without the car seat. As much as she likes to look around right now, I thought it would be more entertaining for her looking out from that perspective since I usually have to pull the shade right over her line of sight when the car seat is in the stroller because of the sun. She does just fine until you stop! :)

Bismarck wants in on the fun!


OOOH!

She loves her dragonfly toy also...

bath time - in her cute kitty robe Mimi gave her


Well, I think that's about it for this week. Next week I will attempt to get her in to her Aggie cheerleader outfit! :) Do we even have a game next week? LOL! Yeah, I'm a bad 2%'er Aggie, I know! Well, if we do, it will be a good excuse to put it on her, even if only for a little bit!

Moving in the right direction...

So, this past week has been a pretty good one. I've still got my eyes out for that "perfect" nanny but I'm realizing that the flexibility that this hourly day care offers me cannot be matched with any kind of baby sitter. I like most things about the day care and the girls that work there really love Madison. The only issue really is the sleeping one but I'm thinking once she goes more often and starts to get more used to it, she will eventually get better sleep there. The good news is that her night time sleeping still isn't being affected (at least not in a negative way) by her lack of naps during the day. She slept through the night again one night this week (after day care) but otherwise she's been pretty consistently waking up to eat between 1-2am and 5-6am.

So, in addition to deciding to stick with day care, I also made the decision to just bite the bullet and hire a maid and boy am I happy I did!! They came on Friday and I don't think my house has ever been this clean :) I was able to relax so much more this weekend not having to think about how messy the house is. Between the normal mess that we make, the animals, and her stuff, it gets pretty bad around here quite fast! And I just don't have time to deal with it so it piles up! I think with someone consistently cleaning (and cleaning well) all of our allergies will be better also!

On Friday, I also decided to try to put her down for her naps without being swaddled (just wearing her "wearable blanket" or "toe sack" as her Mimi likes to call it, lol!) and the first nap was only 45 minutes but the next one was 3HOURS!!! She hasn't napped that long since the first few weeks of life!! So, she has been out of the swaddle ever since :) She's not necessarily sleeping better yet (I think the 3 hr nap was just her being totally exhausted) but she's definitely not worse, so I'm happy! Next goal - the crib!! Right now, I've got her napping in her Moses basket (which she barely fits in anymore!) inside the crib so she doesn't feel the vastness of crib itself. As we speak, this is the first attempt with the basket so we'll see how long this nap lasts. Who knows, maybe by the next post she will be in the crib itself full time! :)

So, this past weekend was really nice! First we got up Saturday morning and went to breakfast at one of our favorite spots. Madison does pretty well at restaurants although she usually won't sleep. She loves to be taken out of the car seat harness (sometimes we have to hold her to keep her happy) and just look around and anything and everything! Then we decided to make a quick trip to the mall since Danny needed a cufflink repaired and we had some gift cards to Baby Gap that we still had not used. We are quickly growing out of the 0-3 month clothes and we don't have as much 3+ months - and definitely don't have any winter clothes - so we got her some cute stuff :) It's hard to believe we're already shopping for a jacket for our little summer baby! Time flies by SO fast!!! Also, we had joked about this before, but we've realized that when you have a baby you are often eating and shopping with the old folks (I'm talking gray hair, retirement home age here so if our parents are reading this, please don't get offended!) If we go out to eat, we have to go super early (if we want breakfast we are usually at a restaurant by 7:30-8am and dinner between 5:30-6:30pm) so we can try to get her back home in time for a good nap, lol! We got to the mall on Saturday before it even opened and seriously 9 out of 10 cars in the parking lot were driven by older people!!!

Also this weekend, Danny's mom - Madison's "Mimi" - came in town to visit. There was definitely no shortage of attention for our little Princess this weekend :) Mimi hung out with Madison giving Danny and I some time to ourselves. We had our first official solo date night since Maddie was born so we got dressed up and went to our favorite little special occasion spot - a fancy italian restaurant downtown called Damien's - and had a really nice dinner and bottle of wine. Of course, we've both gotten so used to going to bed early, after a bottle of wine we were both pretty tired early in the evening. Mary offered to take Madison's night feedings Saturday night so both Danny and I were able to get a solid night's sleep, at the same time! :) It's always nice having Mary in town so I think we were all bummed when it came time for her to leave on Sunday. Maddie just grows so fast! I wish she got to see the rest of her family more often! My dad usually comes by once a week or every other week but even he sees big changes in her with each visit!

As of last Thursday or so, Madison really starting coo-ing A LOT!!! She LOVES funny faces and noises and it's gotten to the point where you can easily sit with her for at least an hour and get big smiles and all kinds of coo's and talking noises. I'm trying to get it on video but as soon as you turn the camera on she's more interested in that bright light on the camera than your face, so it's been difficult to get a whole lot on film :)

So, while writing this, Madison woke up 30 minutes in to her nap. Although I don't think it was because of the basket/crib/laying on her back thing. She almost always wakes up 30 minutes in to a nap - I could almost set my watch to it. It's so frustrating! She may take one good nap a day but most of the naps are only 30-45 minutes max. I've read in to it and apparently it's a pretty common problem. Something about the babies wake up for a second before transitioning in to a really deep sleep and some babies just aren't able to go back to sleep again. But I don't think it's a self-soothing thing. She's able to fall asleep on her own at night. With her naps, I can sometimes pick her up and get her back to sleep or put her in the swing to go back to sleep but not always and it's obviously time consuming (which makes working even more difficult). A lot of people say to just let her cry for a while until she goes back to sleep but I'm just no good at that :( I know we're getting close to the point where we are going to have to start letting her cry it out (like when we wean her off middle-of-the-night feedings). I'm really not looking forward to that...

Well, I think those are all the updates for this week! I'll leave you with some pics :)

I suck at posting...

Life's just been way too busy! So, since my last post, there's been quite a bit going on I suppose.

1 week ago Friday, Madison had to go in for her 2 month appointment (she was actually 9.5 weeks by then but oh well) which meant her first round of shots :( Danny was originally going to go with me to the appointment but since he got sick the previous week and had to take off, he needed to stay at the office that day. I was really nervous! I was told to give her some infant tylenol before hand, so about 1.5 hrs before the appt I gave her the bottle with the meds and off we went. I can't remember the exact numbers because the sheet is in her room and she's napping right now, but her stats were basically: length: 23.5 in (90th%), weight: 11lb 2oz (50/75%) and I don't remember the head circumference but it was 50th%. So, although her weight may be a bit on the higher side, she's long! She's got the standard chubby cheeks and double chin that most babies have but from the neck down she doesn't look too pudgy to me :) So, after the measurements, the doc came in and gave her the look over then we had to wait for the nurse to come in with the shots. Well I guess the Tylenol worked because she fell asleep in my arms waiting for the nurse so we had to wake her to give her the shots (poor thing). She took the liquid medication they gave first like a champ - no problems. Then came time for the scary part. I gave her the paci and leaned over so she had to stare straight in to my eyes, held her down and talked to her. She SCREAMED when the pricked her with the needle (they had to do 3 shots - 2 in one leg, 1 in the other, but they did it fast) but as soon as they were done and I picked her up, she immediately stopped crying! :) I was so proud of her!!! I think I was shook up longer than she was. Then she went back to sleep when we got in the car to go home. She was a little fussy that evening but she usually is that time of day, and then she slept for 7 hrs straight for the first time ever! :) Of course, that was from whatever time she went down to 3-something-am but I was excited!

So, the next day (last Saturday), we took her up to College Station for the first time for Aunt Lillian's b-day / Miller family gathering. She did really well on the ride up there and back (for the most part) although on the way up there we had to stop to give her the rest of the bottle that she didn't finish before we left. She was a very good girl while we were there too! She received plenty of attention - especially from her Mimi! :) Half way there I realized I should have put her aTm cheerleader outfit on her but I know there will be more opportunities for her to wear it!

So, each week it has become harder and harder to get work done, so since she got her shots I decided it was time to start taking her to the hourly day care I found - at least until I found a part-time nanny. The first day I took her was last Tuesday. She was the only baby there the whole time so she received all of the care-givers attention, which was comforting for me. However, she really wouldn't nap for more than 20-30 minutes at a time and she "nibbled" the whole time (only taking a few oz every couple of hours instead of 4-6 oz in one sitting and waiting 3-4 hrs until the next feeding. I guess I need to tell them that she needs to drink most of the bottle in one sitting. Part of the problem with her napping is that she's still sleeping in her angled bassinet thing and of course they only have regular cribs there. When I took her there for the second time on Friday I had them put her in the swing to sleep but she still only cat-napped. Part of the problem on Friday was there was another "baby" in there with her, only he was 16 months old and wailing the whole time. The infant room goes up to 18 months. So, there's nothing I can do about other kids in there with her. She's usually happy when I pick her up - she will start grinning as soon as I turn on her favorite toy in the car - but she seems extra tired and cranky in the evenings when we get home. However, the first day of DC (Tuesday) she slept through the entire night for the first time (about 8:30pm-5:45am)!! She hasn't done it again since then but so far her night sleeping has been very consistent regardless of whether she has a good or bad nap day, so that's great! She usually goes to bed between 6:30-8pm, wakes up around 1am and around 5am. The good thing about this day care is the flexibility - I can take her whenever and if I have to change at the last minute it's no big deal (whereas with a nanny I have to try to schedule work stuff around her schedule and last minute changes may be difficult). It just sucks when you work so hard to get her on a routine and it's thrown out the window when you have to take her to day care :( I also tried out the parent lounge they have next door to the day care. It's a really nice setup, but I realized during the 2nd day that I wasn't going to be able to work there. The first day I was the only one there and there weren't that many kids, but the second day there was someone else there having a meeting and a couple of really loud and angry kids that I could hear through the walls (and apparently so could my boss during our conference call - oops)!

So, I've interviewed a few potential nannies and left messages for a few more that have applied (I joined a site called sittercity.com where you can post jobs and people apply - they have background checks and everything). So far, I haven't found anyone I really like. There was this one girl that I really liked on paper but she never showed up for our scheduled interview yesterday! So, I obviously scratched that one off the list!! It's just really frustrating because this whole process is so time consuming. It's my own fault - I should have started earlier - but I really thought I could handle both her and the job. From my perspective, I think I am handling it (I've been back 3 weeks and just got a placement whereas my colleagues haven't placed anyone in many, many months), but from my boss' perspective I'm not as accessible so I guess I have to do what I have to do to keep him happy, right? I keep telling myself, sometimes you have to spend money to make money so hopefully that will be the case. I think I'm also going to have to bite the bullet and hire a maid also. I'm also able to advertise for that on that sittercity site so I'm talking to a few potential maids as well. The independent ones are definitely more affordable than the services. I just don't have the time or energy to take care of cleaning the house right now!

I can't believe it's already (almost) September! We bought Madison's Halloween outfit yesterday! :) We may not go anywhere or do anything but since Danny and I met on Halloween I wanted to make sure we did something. When I saw this at Babies R Us I knew I had to get it since I grew up loving Tigger! It's probably still going to be a bit too big (too long more than likely) but oh well! I hope she will wear it without screaming, lol! Should be interesting :)

Well, I started writing this entry at about 11am this morning and it's now 10 till 8 so I think I will just leave you with some pictures now! Once I hire some help, maybe I will be able to update more :)

Maddie was kind enough to let me take a shower...

All smiles :)

Aunt Lillian's B-Day Celebration - with the birthday girl and Granny Jo

2 MONTHS (plus some)!

Man! It's been a busy week - sat down to post so many times and was never able to! I can't believe our baby girl is 2 months old already (as of last Wednesday, so she's really almost 9 weeks now)!!!

tummy time on the boppy pillow...

We got Madison a new mobile (another thing that her cousin Brittany has/likes that I thought I would try) that plays music/nature/heartbeat sounds and has a projector with cute and colorful animal images that you can have hit the underside of the canopy on the mobile or (later on) take the mobile off and have it project on to the ceiling. She LOVES light so I figured she would enjoy this! She's fallen asleep watching it several times now - in her crib! The first time, I just left her there (it was bedtime) and she stayed for 4 hours until her next feeding! :) I may try to start transitioning to the crib full time soon but I don't want to make too many changes at once.

One challenge we've been faced with lately is the swaddling. I feel like she doesn't like to be swaddled but she won't stay asleep for more than 20 minutes or so without it! So, we have 2 different kind of swaddlers (she won't last a second in a regular blanket wrapped around her). One is called a Halo Swaddler which is a wearable blanket that zips up the front and has these "wings" (as I like to call them) that velcro on and you wrap them around the front and then they velcro to each other. Well she always manages to pull her arms out from under the wings which pushes them up in to her face. Then we have this other one called the "Miracle Blanket" which holds her arms well but she always kicks her way out of the leg pouch. So, now, I've resorted to using parts of both together. I use the wearable blanket so keep her legs/feet covered and then use the top part of the miracle blanket and just leave the leg pouch loose. It looks ridiculous but whatever works, right? LOL!

On Wednesday, I got a surprise call from an old childhood friend (we are actually more like family we are so close) named Sabrina that was in town visiting her parents. She, her Dad - Jeff - and her two adorable kids (4 yr old girl and ~15 mo old son) came over to visit! I hadn't seen either one of them in years and had never even met her son, so that was a GREAT surprise :) Her kids were really pretty well behaved but running around as kids do and it really made me realize that working from home will be super difficult by the time I have 2 (at least until I can put one in pre-school). But I'll deal with that when the time comes!

Friday, Danny came down with a stomach virus so I was "super-mom" that day taking care of husband + Maddie + 4 animals all while trying to get work done! I did manage to have a pretty decent week work-wise so it all worked out in the end. We were supposed to work on our floor issue that Saturday but I called my friend that does handyman work that was going to help and cancelled since I was going to participate which meant Danny was going to have to watch Madison and I didn't want him taking care of her while he was sick. Well, he woke up Saturday morning feeling much better, so I kind of wish I hadn't cancelled but oh well! Thank God it was only a 24 hour bug and so far neither Maddie nor I has shown any signs that we caught it (knock on wood)!

Yesterday was one of my good friends birthdays, so we made plans to go to her favorite sushi restaurant and Danny would meet us there after work - which meant Madison had to come with us. Well, yesterday was the first day in over a week that she didn't nap well for some reason, so I was really worried about taking her. She did GREAT though!! We went right after a feeding - she slept on the way there but of course woke up right as I was looking for parking, and stayed awake through the whole meal. We took her out of the car seat and played "pass the baby" and minus a few fussy moments she was pretty chilled out, looking around at everything! I knew she was super tired, which usually means she will be difficult to put down, but we fed her one more time and got her down without too much trouble and then...she slept from 11pm-5am!!! Longest stretch ever so far!! We are getting closer to all night!! Of course, it was Danny's night (to take care of her) so he got off easy but he's going to take an extra night since I get an extra night when he works intake Thursday.

eating is hard work!

So, right now, I'm trying to decide if I want to hire a nanny to come over 2 morning/afternoons a week for 4 hrs each time to watch her so I can focus on work, go to appt's; etc. On the one hand, I like that I know I will have that time to myself. If I've already accomplished what I need for work I can go run errands or something. I also like the one-on-one relationship between her and a nanny. However, I've been able to accomplish my goals each week (so far) without help during the day (not that it's been easy though). So, do I want to commit to at least $500/month when I may or may not need the help? I found this hourly drop off day care place around the corner from my house that is $10/hr and they take infants. I figure if I go this route I can just take her when I need to (like if I am nearing the end of the week and haven't accomplished anything or have interviews or client meetings to go to). They also have a parent's wi-fi lounge that I could go to (which I probably would the first few times I take her there to make sure I'm comfortable with it). Obviously, she wouldn't have the 1-1 attention that a nanny would provide, or her bassinet thing to nap in; however, it would help her to get used to different people and socialize with other babies. This place is new in Katy, so they've only had a total of 6 babies come in and never more than 3 at a time. If I decide to go that route, I think I want to hire a maid! I've found some potential nannies that are willing to do light housekeeping, but let's face it - I need someone to come in and do the dirty stuff (i.e. toilets; etc). The maid/hourly care is a) cheaper and b) if money gets tight, easier to say bye to (unlike a nanny that I would inevitably develop a relationship with and feel bad for letting go). I think I'm leaning towards the maid at this point...

Well, I have literally sat down and started writing this 5-6 times over the last week, each time saving a draft to come back to later, and now she's starting to wake up again! Sorry it's so long, so if you got this far - thank you for caring!! LOL!! :)