Madeline's Blog

After careful consideration, some of my fellow "31st" mommies have decided we'd celebrate our children's monthly progression on the last day of each month, since not all months have 31 days. So that means --

MADELINE IS ONE MONTH OLD!!!

I can't believe this month has gone by so FAST. It seems like yesterday we brought Maddie home but at the same time like she's always been here.

Her one-month birthday has gone rather well. She slept for several long stretches last night, so Mom and Dad got more rest than usual, and she woke up this morning in a great mood. She took Daddy to school and then came home to nurse, after which she baptized her crib and bumpers (thankfully they're very washable). My goodness, sometimes it seems like she's marking her territory with that stuff. Well, her next activity was a bath, which, on the whole, she enjoyed. Mom thought there weren't any clean sleep-n-plays left, so she grabbed a new 3-6 month one that she thought would be way too big -- NOPE! It FIT! Our little baby is wearing even BIG 3-6 month clothes! After her bath Maddie and Mom had some tummy time, and then played on the play gym, which you can see a video of below. All in all, Maddie is much more alert, interactive, and mobile than she was a month ago!

Notes from Maddie:
Things I have mastered:
Tracking objects side to side, up and down, and in a circle.
Holding my head so it looks straight up while I am lying down.
Turning my head to follow objects and people as they move.
Turning my head towards a sound.
Grasping/holding on to people who are holding me.
Making eye contact.
Focusing on objects 12 inches away.

Things I am working on:
Holding objects.
Lifting and holding my head at a 90 degree angle while on my stomach.
Holding my head up while someone holds me in a sitting position.
Batting at objects.
Focusing on objects as they move from 6 inches to 12 inches away.
Remembering and anticipating events and activities: for example, now when I cry to have my diaper changed, I stop crying when I'm placed on the changing table. I'm learning that this is where my diaper is changed!
Growing, growing, growing!!

You can really see the difference 1 month makes.

Here's Madeline crying right after we brought her home:
Crying 2.22 MB, approximately 9 seconds

And here's Madeline playing earlier today:
Playing 9.88 MB, approximately 30 seconds

INSTRUCTIONS: For best results, right click on the link and choose 'save target as'.

This was after a LONG day's battle with acid reflux. But eventually, EVERY baby has to sleep.

Some cute outfits (Thanks Mammaw and Pappaw for the fleece jacket and pants, and thanks Grandma Lea for the pink suede shoes!) --

We have to confess- we didn't take Madeline to church the first Sunday she was here. We were pretty much exhausted. However, the next week, she was there with bells on. It was the day before Valentine's Day, and she dressed for the occasion. (Thanks, Grandma Julie, for the Valentine's dress, and thanks Grandma Debbie for Mamma's pearls!)

Maddie's first Sunday at church:

The next Sunday, she wore a dress given to us by our Sunday School teacher, shoes from her Aunt Daron, and socks picked especially for the occasion by Momma.

We took these pictures a couple of weeks ago, and just got them developed. Sorry we're a little bit behind, but we didn't want to bury them in the older posts. Some of them have the wrong date-stamped on them; disregard that part.

Grandma Debbie

Grandpa Joey and Grandma Julie

We found a couple of pictures of her first sponge bath:

And, here are some more pictures of her third tub bath:

Well, three times since Maddie's cord stump fell off at the end of her second week, she's experienced the grand adventure known as the real tub bath (Grandma Lea was nice enough to get her a bathtub with a stopper and thermometer -- fancy!). Surprisingly, she really seems to like bathtime! She really hated sponge baths, but something about being immersed in the warm water quiets her down. During her first bath she did cry some, but she cried less through the second bath, and not at all during her third real bath. Daddy washed her this time, as you can see in the pictures below, and she was so good for him even when he was washing her face and hair. Mama liked watching Daddy give Maddie a bath, too. He was almost as cute as his daughter. It must've taken five tries before he got the water to a satisfactory temperature, and then he was as careful as he could be, talking to her and singing to her -- "Rubber Duckie, you're the one. You make bathtime so much fun!" Maddie, for her part, just watched everything that was going on with her great big eyes, like she was just amazed and shocked by the whole thing, and -- sorry Maddie if you read this when you're older -- made her first toots in the bathtub (Dad and I were on pins and needles hoping the toots wouldn't turn into something more). We are trying to bathe her more often (you can always tell it's been a good day when Dad and Mom have the energy to get out the bathtub and all its accoutrements) since she likes it so much and because we want to get a bedtime routine going (she seems to go to sleep faster and easier on nights when she's gotten a bath). We'll see how it goes, though. Maddie kind of likes to set her own schedule.

This was Madeline's third tub bath. Her mom says, "She smells so good after she has a bath!" There weren't many tears this time; all-in-all, she was a well-behaved baby.

All clean!

Madeline is 3 weeks + 1 day old. As you can see, she much more alert.

10. An endless supply of diapers. Heaps of them. Mountains of them. Diapers, diapers, diapers, enough to make midnight trips to Walmart forever unecessary.

9. An empty/full gauge on the baby, so that anxious new moms can know for sure that their baby is getting enough to eat.

8. A Finished Pooping/Peeing Indicator. Matthew would be most in favor of this one. With the help of this handy-dandy little device, the rocket-propelled poop and fountains of pee that babies seem to save only for those mid-diaper-change moments would be a thing of the past.

7. Food. Who has time to fix dinner? We've been lucky enough to have a fabulous Sunday School class bring us dinner for many nights. But eventually you're on your own, and waffles for supper night after night gets old.

6. Sleep. Need I say more?

5. Time to go to the bathroom and/or shower. Those of you who have ever tried to comfort a screaming baby (by words or yes, even by touch) while sitting on the toilet know what I'm talking about. Those of you parents who haven't, congratulations, your bladder is stronger than mine.

4. Scotch-guarded everything. Chairs, clothes, carpet, everything needs to be scotch-guarded. In fact, why do these things even come NOT scotch-guarded?

3. An in-house pediatrician. Forget house calls. New parents, I believe, want a full-time, live-in doctor to consult day or night on issues such as projectile vomit, the consistency of baby poop, and whether one of baby's ears is bigger than the other and, if so, whether it will affect baby's hearing.

2. A maid. House work? I don't even have time to go to the bathroom.

1. Every moment perfectly preserved. I was telling my dad the other night that I can take a million pictures and videotape every first, but I can't preserve for all posterity how soft Maddie's skin is, how it feels to have her head cuddled up under my chin, or the wide-eyed wonder she shows when she looks at something as simple as a sunny window. I'd trade all the other nine things if I could just have this one.

For those of you who would like to know more about our little Madeline, here are a few fun facts:

Favorite Activity: Being held by mama or daddy.
Least Favorite Activity: Being put in crib to sleep.
Favorite Toy: A yellow teletubby that talks when you squeeze her. Her name is "LaLa." Thanks Grandma Lea!
Favorite Thing to Wear: Comfy duckie sleep-n-play.
Least Favorite Thing to Wear: Nothing. Maddie hates being naked or wearing only her diaper.
Favorite Food: Milk.
Least Favorite Food: Baby Zantac, the peppermint flavor. Maddie makes the worst face every time she has to take it.
Favorite Thing to Look At: A window on a sunny day. Mama keeps the blinds closed so the sun isn't too bright, but the way the light shines through the blinds is just too interesting.
Things Maddie has Mastered: Getting mom and dad to pick her up out of the crib. She has a cry that makes you think a cat is being killed in the other room. She can also track objects from side to side and up and down really well when they're held within her range of vision.
Things Maddie is Working On: Holding her head up while laying on her tummy; she can hold it up at about a 45 degree angle consistently now, but has only made it up all the way to 90 degrees to look at mama a few times. Maddie is also working on focusing on objects. Mom has noticed that she can focus on things that are farther away now, so you have to be careful Maddie doesn't see you as you approach the crib. It was a lot easier to check on her a few weeks ago when she couldn't see you there! Maddie and mom continue to work on nursing. It's getting better, but we definitely still have our moments!

Here are some pictures we took around feb 3 or feb 4. I'm just getting around to uploading them. Several people have commented about how there are so many more pictures of ME with Madeline. Not sure why that is- Darla is better with the camera, I suppose. I will try to correct that situation soon.

Her first snow!

On Friday, the doctor said that Maddie is doing much better. She went from 11 lbs 4 oz (on Feb 11) to ll lbs 11 oz- a gain of 1 oz per day, which is average and healthy. She is vomiting much less, though we still have long periods of irritability. The doctor said she may eventually mature into her tummy, but for now just keep trying. She is nursing better, though never for very long. (Sometimes, it hurts her throat and tummy to nurse.) So that's somewhat of a relief.

Last night and the night before, she did very well- she only woke up to nurse, and that happened every 2.5-3 hours. (That's a big deal for her, too, because she normally wakes up because her tummy hurts, and prefers to nurse for 5 minutes every 1-1.5 hours.) Today, however, was a tough day- for her AND for me- because her tummy was hurting her so bad from around noon to six, and she wouldn't really eat much during those hours. We're both recovering, and hopefully it'll be a good night!

Thank you, Lord, for baby Zantac- - and for little Madeline.

This is based on a post about Madeline's birth I wrote for another site.

On Sunday the 30th I woke up around 3pm from a nap with some pretty strong contractions. I got up and Matthew started timing them while I got ready. We cleaned the kitchen top to bottom, while Matthew ran and stared at me every time the clock said it was time for a contraction. Sure enough, they were regular, and by 5pm they were 4 or 5 minutes apart and I was having to lean on him or the birth ball to get through them. At six or so we left for the hospital, dropped by the store for some food (for Matthew), and then checked into the hospital. I was at 4.5cm, so I got hooked up to everything and the whole ordeal got underway. I used all the "natural childbirth" techniques I'd been taught, but was having a lot of trouble because by 8pm the contractions were 2-3 minutes apart and were lasting over a minute and a half. So I felt like I couldn't catch my breath or rest between them. BUT, I wasn't dilating anymore. My doctor had been called to come in and break my water so that I'd progress, but he hadn't come yet, and after being told by a nurse that it was my fault that I couldn't progress anymore because I was too tense (after another nurse told me the baby was turned the wrong way -- back labor -- who wouldn't be tense?), I asked for an epidural. (so much for natural childbirth! At least I tried.) It took another hour to get it in, and after that I still felt things on my right side, but it was much better than before. Matthew and I went on through the night like this, and my doctor never showed up. One of the nurses said he was just "cozy at home." Another doctor came and broke my water at 7 the next morning, and 4 hours later I was at 9.5cm (yeah, it would have been nice to have had that done the night before when it was supposed to have been done. I now ask myself -- could I have been saved 12 hours of labor?). I pushed past 9.5 -- I never got to 10, and only about 30 minutes later Maddie was crowning. I was supposed to hold back because the doctor was performing a c-section for another patient, but I couldn't. They'd lowered the dosage on the epidural so I felt the contractions, and I couldn't help but push. The doctor showed up just in time. As I was pushing, he said, "This is a seven or eight pound baby." Then, after her head came out and he tried to get the rest of her out, he said, "My gosh, her shoulders are HUGE!" When Maddie was finally born, at 2:14pm on the 31st, the doctor, Matthew, and both nurses in the room gasped. "She's at more than 10 pounds!" the doctor said. Yep. 11 pounds, 3 ounces, to be exact. My big girl.

Anyway, she did great in the hospital and now, almost three weeks later, is doing fairly well. She had some pretty significant acid reflux that made her vomit A LOT, but the baby Zantac the doctor put her on has helped that if not the irritability (which may be the dreaded C-word). We have another doctor's appointment today to talk more about how her poor little tummy is doing.

Regular readers may notice "old" posts (like this one) popping up that you haven't seen before. I try to edit the timestamp so it reflects the approximate time the pictures were taken. Hopefully, the "pictures" category is somewhat chronological. No real order or theme to these...

Grandma Debbie

Grandpa Joey and Grandma Julie

Grandma Lea and Grandpa Darrell

Here's some pics of Madeline with family.

First, Grandma Lea:

Next, Great Great Aunt Lois (a.k.a. Auntie):

That last picture, with my Dad and I, is four generations.

Here's some pictures of Madeline in the Crib.

Here's some pictures from the hospital:

Madeline Grace was born January 31, 2005 at 2:14 pm. She weighed 11 lbs and 3 oz!