Pic of the Week - Raspberry

Dear Madeline,

Yesterday you started blowing raspberries at Mommy & Daddy! It is one of the cutest things I've seen you do yet.  Love it...Love you!!!

Love always,

Mommy

PS: Please stop growing up so fast!

Half A Year Ago & A Thousand Pictures Later

My Sweet Madeline,

Half a year ago, you made your memorable entrance into this world! It's hard to believe that we are already at this mid-point milestone. It seems as if the last two months have just flown by (hence the slack of an update last month). So here we go...we'll cover the last two months as quickly as possible ;-)

     5 Months

                                           6 Months









Since our last update, you are growing like crazy! At our last pediatrician check up you weighed 15 pounds 5.5 ounces and measured 26.5 inches long. The doctor was so impressed with how well you are doing and how great you look. He said that he predicts your hemangiomas may be gone or mostly gone by your first birthday! :) Speaking of which, thankfully we have had no more problems since our little overnight in the hospital. We did have the abnormal chest x-ray which we had to follow up with a CT scan. That was done and you were such a trooper through the whole experience. Although you had to be sedated and were not your happy self afterwards, that goofy grin was back by the time we got to go home.

Heading home from the hospital

By the way, the results of the CT scan came back that the spot on your lung is a hemangioma. Which, believe it or not, is a good thing. We'd rather that than it be ANYTHING else! There are no concerns about it as it will eventually shrink and disappear just like the ones on the outside. Yay!

So my little lady...what else have you been up to these past couple months?! Food! - we are definitely making advances in this department. You are still nursing and things are going great. My goal is definitely to continue for a full year - let's just hope teeth do not create an issue. We have now added in a variety of baby foods and you seem to like most of them, especially the more you taste them.

Sweet Potatoes!! Definitely a favorite

Peas are definitely the exception though; just like your Daddy, you hated them! To the point that eating them was making you gag! The latest thing in the food department, is the addition of water and a sippy cup this week. Something you picked up immediately, just like a pro!

Sippy Time

Another thing that you have mastered just this past week is sitting up on your own. You have definitely been trying for some time and this week it finally clicked!

Sitting pretty

Next on our list is crawling - but honestly Mommy can wait for that. Our little girl is growing up too fast!! To get around now you are rolling all over the place and you love it.

Now that you are more alert and interested in doing things, we have started to have more playdates! Although lately it takes you a while to get comfortable, once you are, you love playing with all the other babies!

Home Playmate

The zoo with Liam

Cousins!

Birthday Buddies!

One final thing to note this month is that it is the start of Fall, which means football season and that means Da Bears! As you will come to find out, you are part of a huge sports family and you will see that in the pics to follow)

Go Sox!

Go Cubbies!

Da Bears!

Hawks!

And now, to make up for the missed "Pics of the Week" -

Goodnight Sweet Angel!

Mommy & Daddy Love You <3

Sleeping Beauty

Pic/Video of the Week - Screamer

Dear Madeline,

This weeks pic was only fitting if I had the video to accompany it - and I do! I love your shirt because well let's face it, Mommy loves to scream for ice cream too! Soon enough when you scream for it you will actually be able to have some. But anyways, as you will see in the following video, you are definitely becoming more and more vocal. You love your voice and you can just spend hours screaming out in excitement!

I'm thinking this blog needs some more videos of you...I'll work on that.

Love you baby girl!!

Mommy

Pic of the Week - Baby Blues

Dear Madeline,

Well I think we can say that you have definitely inherited the "B"s - the Beautiful Bernard Baby Blues! I know I'm biased 'cause I'm your mommy and all, but even complete strangers tell us how beautiful your eyes are. They are definitely Daddy's color but they have that darker rim and the size like Mommy's - which makes them stand out even more! Plus you've got long lashes like both of us too; funny considering I was so concerned you didn't have any when we brought you home. Anyways, your eyes are the reason I think I love this pic so much, that and the adorable grin of course!

5 months

Gotta run though, because you have quickly rolled all the way across the living room as I tried to type this! Monthly update coming soon...

Kisses!
Mommy

Pic of the Week - Flower Power

Dear Maddie,

So I always said I wouldn't be the mom that put all the big bows and flowers on her little girl...well obviously I proved myself wrong. You just look so cute in them!!

And I figure I should enjoy it before you either start pulling them off or you're old enough to voice your opinion. For now you happily wear them and flash that gorgeous smile! :)

Love you!

Mommy <3

Pic of the Week - Seeing Double

Dear Maddie,

This past weekend you attended your first birthday party - your cousin Brooklyn's 1st Birthday! Obviously we had to dress up for the occasion...

4 months

Now, believe it or not, you had a twin at the party! Your cousin Delaney (who is only 5 days older) had the same dress as you - so this was a perfect photo op for the two of you!

Twins!

<3 Hugs <3

I have a feeling you two are going to grow up being very close!

Love you Baby Girl!

Mommy :)

4 Month Fly By

Dear Madeline,

Oh where has your Mama been?!?! Where has this month gone?!?! I apologize for the lack of pics/updates, but as you are growing older (and yes only 4 months is "older"), you are wanting that undivided attention and have kept me busy nearly every minute of the day! So, here we are...4 months, going on 5 months!!

It's amazing how fast you are growing right before my eyes. I live every day in anticipation of what new feat you are going to conquer that day!

In the past month you have reached many new achievements. The biggest one is that you are a rolling machine now! If we put you down you are rolling all over the place - and that includes your crib. I am actually looking at your monitor now seeing how you have fallen asleep perpendicular to how I laid you and you are now on your tummy. This last part I find particularly interesting. For a girl who absolutely HATED tummy time, it appears you now want to sleep on your tummy. Believe me, we do the whole "back to sleep" thing when we put you down. But in the last several nights you have always woken up on your tummy.

The latest feat you are trying to conquer though is sitting. You love to being propped up seeing what is going on. There is no more cradling you; you want to see what is going on!

You have actually managed to now conquer the "tripod" pose when sitting. You can sit without help if you lean forward and support yourself. Today I even captured a quick moment where you briefly held yourself in the sitting position.

I think the fact that you were playing with your toes helped support you up. Which by the way...you LOVE your feet. If they are covered, you want them uncovered - thankfully it's the summer, because you want nothing to do with socks at the moment.

At your 4 month check up, we got the go-ahead to start you on solids! Yay! So we have now started trying cereals with you - we started with rice and today we actually tried oatmeal. You were definitely confused by the whole issue of food coming from a spoon, but you are quickly catching on!

Being the independent girl that you are, you already feel like you should be feeding yourself.

All in all, you are generally a very happy baby! Our only issue lately seems to be going to sleep. You have no interest in going down for naps or going to bed at night. You sleep great at night (once you are actually asleep) and for every 5-6 20 min naps you take, we get a good 2 hr one. But really, I guess your parents are to blame for all this. After all, I work the night shift and Daddy is a night owl. I guess that's just a trait that is being passed on. I will admit though that you and I really struggle with this. I often wish that it was easy as you just wanting to be rocked to sleep, but you really have no interest in that. The only thing that somewhat soothes you, is the sound of the vacuum. And I'm not really sure that it "soothes" you, rather, it appears to put you into a trance! There are often tears of frustration and upset shed by both of us. But once I see these baby blues and glowing grins I realize it's not worth the upset.

So as I try and wrap up the monthly update, I figure it's time for a "medical" update as well (especially after the week we've had).

7 weeks

20 weeks

As you can see, your Angel Kisses are definitely improving! It took some time for the medicine to kick in (even the Dr admitted it was longer than he anticipated), but it is definitely working now. Because of the improvement, we are now only going to the dermatologist every 6 weeks; and that's just for a dosing adjustment because your weight changes so fast! So things were going great...until last weekend that is.

Last Saturday, you had and incident of spitting up blood. It was bright red and tan, and well needless to say it was quite scary. This happened once before, but it was definitely not as much. While waiting for the doctor to call us back and tell us what to do, I changed your diaper and now your poop was black! I immediately knew what this meant - there was blood coming from this end as well!

Thankfully we were at Granny and Papa's house, so we packed our stuff up and headed over to Loyola. By the way, this of course all happened on a weekend where Daddy was out of town with no cell phone service and no car! Anyways, just like I had anticipated, they quickly decided to admit us for the night. The bloody spit up and black poop had continued, so obviously you were bleeding somewhere and they wanted to keep an eye on your blood count.

Thankfully you were stable the entire time and we were only there for 24 hours (Daddy quickly hurried home to be by your side...fyi). The doctors believe that you have an Angel Kiss somewhere in your upper GI tract and for whatever reason it was irritated and started to bleed (just like the others have done). This is now just something we have to keep a close eye on and will see yet another specialist for. All in all though, things are fine.

You truly are a little trooper though. You toughed it out through the IVs, blood draws, and even the tube down your nose. Throughout the whole ordeal, you were your usual happy, smiley self - impressing all the nurses!

However, when the word came that we would get to go home, you definitely crashed and burned. As Daddy and I impatiently waited on the "official" okay and paperwork - you peacefully slept. In that moment, while we watched you sleep, and saw some of the other very ill children around you, we once again took a moment to realize how truly luck we are!

 

Love you Angel!

Mommy <3