I scream...you scream... at least we get some social smiles, too!

Tuesday, September 18, 12

Maddie is not 6 weeks old and she is growing and changing just like the weather.  It is beautiful outside with fall approaching, but the nippiness in the air brought me to realize how little cold-weather clothes I have for Maddie. I will definitely need to go shopping soon.

Mads is looks bigger and bigger every day and I am noticing recently how strong her neck is.  She is holding it up on her own for short periods of times when I pick her up and she turns it from side to side when playing in her gym on the floor.  She is mesmerized by the toys.  Phil has also noticed how much she loves nature – just like her mom! He brought her outside yesterday when she was crying and she was transfixed by the sky and the trees in the backyard.  I can’t wait to take her on another walk so she can become more familiars with the sights, sounds and smells of the outdoors. 

Another really exciting development is that Maddie is beginning to smile socially now! We are so excited and it makes playing with her even more fun. 

The past week has been very difficult in terms of fussiness, though.  I found myself driving around in the car in the afternoon with Maddie in tow on Friday because she wouldn’t stop screaming.  The car ride was the only thing that would calm her, but by the time I finally strapped her in and went out on my way, I was distraught.  I couldn’t help but think to myself, “Why does this little girl not like me? I am trying everything to comfort her. Why am I not enough?” The screaming continued long into the night and Phil and I ended up driving her around at around 11:30 PM again.  I feel like people don’t really warn you about this part of having a baby.  You hear about fussiness, gassiness, sleeplessness…but no one really talks much about the screams and how heartbreaking it is.  We are getting through it now and Maddie is quieting down more at night, but we have experienced some very difficult days. 

Phil and I are trying, now, to get Maddie into a bedtime routine and it seems to be working great! We started giving her a bath every night, which seems to really soothe her.  I then feed her and rock her a little bit.  Most of the time, I wait until she is asleep to lay her in the crib, but there have been a few times when I was able to put her down when she was still awake.  Remarkably, she self-soothed and drifted off to sleep on her own.  She is still sleeping for 6-7 hour stretches at a time (with one 8-hour stretch which felt like heaven!), so we are well on our way! 

I may scream during the day, but at least I sleep at night

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

My little girl is 5 weeks old! She is definitely more alert and wide-eyed, so we can tell she is developing mentally.  We took Maddie for a short walk yesterday evening and she, for the first time, was very interested in the trees and other things around her.  She has often become frustrated and over-stimulated, so Phil and I holding her and comforting her as much as we can to help ease her fussiness.  Although she still is screaming bloody murder in the evenings (when Phil gets home from work), she has started going to be by 11:15 or midnight and….are you ready for this??....sleeps through the night! She has gone from waking up every 3-4 hours to sleeping for either 6 or 7 straight! We are feeling much more rested theses days.

Babies’ fussiness apparently peaks at 5-6 weeks and then starts reducing, so we are really looking forward to her becoming more and more happy.  She is definitely learning more about smiling and has even imitated us sticking out our tongues.  I am so excited to see what will come next but am trying to focus on this special time in Maddie’s young life, as well.  

(Side note about my life: Parenthood starts back up again tonight and I am SO excited!!! Also, I am down a total of 29 pounds since I had Maddie.  Only 4 more to go and I am back to my pre-pregnancy weight! I also started using Mederma lotion on my stretch marks, so I am hoping to see some improvement there soon, too.) 

Diaper explosion and a one-month check-up

September 8, 2012

Maddie is one month old! I can’t believe it! We have been having increasingly more fun playing on the floor together and snuggling during the day.  Mads was settling into a little routine at one point and going down for a 2 hour nap in the late morning, but now she doesn’t seem to want to be in the crib.  She prefers to hang out in mommy’s arms and sleep.  Everyone says that you can’t spoil a baby by holding her too much, so I am happy to snuggle with my little girl. 

Maddie went in for her one-month check-up this week and the doctor was very happy with her weight gain.  She is only 22% for weight (8 lbs, 4 oz), but the doctor said that this is the range she has been in since she was born, so it’s nothing to worry about. 

Funny story time: I learned why it is that everyone I talk to says that Pampers diapers are so much better than Huggies.  I had a sample Huggies diaper, so I decided to try it out.  Not too long after I put it on, I went into the nursery to change Mads.  I unbuttoned her onesie to find poop halfway up her back and all over her clothes! It was everywhere. There was no way around it; I had to give the little girl a bath.  Ew! I guess we are sticking to Pampers! 

One more month until we can start to get out of the house a little bit more.  I’m looking forward to having a little bit more freedom and being around other people. I am so glad that Sandy is right next door so that we can chat and/or exercise when we are both free. 

Developmentally, the only real thing to report is that it seems like Maddie is reaching for toys and swatting at them with her hands with jerky movements.  It’s precious and exciting to watch.  I’ve also been noticing that she likes to keep her head to the right, rather than the left, so I’m going to work on breaking this pattern with more Tummy Time and trying to put her down to sleep at night on the other side. 

Things are going well, though! We just love Maddie so much and are so excited to get to know her personality more day by day. 

Baby is home! Oh, how I love my 17-day-old.

Friday, August 24, 2012 

(Maddie is 7 lbs 6 oz as of her 2-week check-up.  2 ounces more than her birth weight! She is growing!)

Today, Maddie is 17 days old! Yay! She is the love of my life.  I just love gazing into her precious little face every day and I wouldn’t trade these moments with her at the beginning of her life for anything.  I wish I could capture every expression she makes on film.  Phil and I just love when she stretches. She lifts both arms above her head and, with a look of pure contentment, stretches with all of her might.  It looks like she just woke from the most fulfilling nap of her life and then she lays her arms back to her sides, rolls her head towards my chest and falls back asleep.  Priceless moments.

Maddie has been struggling with gassiness at night and it is so sad to watch her suffer.  She screams at the top of her lungs to the point that I am afraid she is going to damage her vocal cords and have a smoker’s voice for the rest of her life.  We finally broke down and bought some Mylicon last night and gave her a few drops.  It seems to be working.  Within a few minutes, although she still seemed visibly uncomfortable, she was able to release some of the gas.  Rather than screaming, she was only whimpering.  Poor little girl. 

The sadness aside, it is hilarious to watch her poop.  It is so loud and sounds almost explosive.  I didn’t know that a baby could make such outrageous noises! But, what are even more hilarious are the expressions she makes when she is pushing.  She lifts her eyebrows up as high as she can and does what we call the Zoolander face.  She makes her mouth into a tiny little ‘o’ and the next thing we know: explosion!

Phil is back to work now and he texts me everyday to see how “his girls” are doing.  He misses us when he’s away (and we miss him, too!) and we wait expectantly every afternoon for his car to pull into the garage.  Phil drops his lunch back and rushes straight to Maddie, gives us both a kiss and takes her in his arms.  He is so good with her.  He sings to her (Disney and Christmas songs –haha) to get her to stop crying and does a “figure eight” move to rock her when she’s fussy.  This consists of him opening his stance very wide and cradling her in his arms while rocking her back and forth and up and down.  He’s a pro at baby-calming. 

We feel so blessed with our happy little Mads.  She is such a content little girl with the exception of her gassy periods).  She does really well about sleeping at night. It seems that once we get her to sleep at night, she typically stays asleep except for when she wakes to eat.  There have been some nights when she hasn’t wanted to fall back to sleep after eating at 2 in the morning, but it doesn’t happen all the time. So, we are feeling pretty rested and learning to function with less rest and more interruptions.  We also have adjusted to going to sleep at around midnight instead 9:00 like we used to.  Yes…we are very lame. 

Oh, there she goes! Maddie is grunting away upstairs right now! She is probably smiling in her sleep and covering her face with her hands.  She always covered her face when we saw her in the ultrasound pictures so it is so funny to see that she still does this now that she is out of the womb.

Oh, one last little update and I will end this: Maddie’s belly button fell off last night.  Yay!! We aren’t sure if she has an innie or and outie yet, but whatever it is, it’s adorable – just like the rest of her.