Friday, July 29, 2011

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

Friday, July 8, 2011

Pic of the Week - Hugs!

Dear Maddie,

I know that our pic this week is a tad late, but we have been SO SO busy. With a wedding, a baseball game, and a holiday all over the weekend we decided to spend the night at Granny & Papa's house since they were closer to everything. So I'm a little behind on things this week, but no more excuses...

When I pick you up to hold you now, you almost instantly put your arms around my neck. It's like you know that I want nothing more than a hug from you! I love this! Doing things like this make my heart melt because they are just little ways that you show me that you KNOW I am your mommy and you just want to be held by me.

One night when I was at working missing you, Daddy sent me this pic. It was as if you knew I wanted nothing more than a hug from my baby girl!


Hugs & Kisses

Mommy!

PS: You are 4 months old today!!! OH MY! How has the much time went by already?! So next week we will have another 'month'date with all your latest milestones and pics! :)

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Pic of the Week - Playtime

Dear Maddie Cakes,


In the past few weeks as you've become more and more alert, you are loving to play more and more. Some of your favorite toys have become the kick 'n play piano, your crinkle page book, and your little buggies with crinkle wings. Additionally you are now loving your play gym. Since you love moving your arms and legs and you can finally reach the hanging toys, you are having a blast! You really get those toys swinging! Here you are playing over the weekend!



Love you always!

<3 Mommy

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Pic of the Week - Daddy's Day

Dear Mads,

Sunday was Father's Day - your Daddy's first Father's Day. Unfortunately, I had to work the weekend so we weren't able to do anything too exciting. We gave Daddy his gift first thing in the morning (some golf stuff and a canvas picture of US Cellular Field for the man cave) and then you were able to spend some quality time with him during the day and that evening. Here's a pic of the two of you enjoying his day!

Happy Father's Day Daddy!
Love you Baby Girl,

Mommy!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Working Hard

Dear Maddie,

Well we are successfully making the adjustment to Mommy being back at work. Two weeks ago was the first dreaded day back. It's hard to believe that 12 weeks went so fast. It's hard to believe that you're already 3 months old!





The worst part about going back to work is the leaving. Once I'm there, it's so busy I can easily distract myself. But I sure do love talking about you and showing off your pictures! I definitely miss being home to put you to bed every night and watch you spend some time with Daddy, but I also think it's good for Mommy to be working. Not only will it help provide a better future for you, but I hope that it gives you something to admire about me.

Being a mommy is definitely hard, being a working mommy even harder, being a working mommy who works midnights is extremely hard! It's the perfect solution for us right now, and so far, I have to say you have done great with letting Mommy get some sleep during the day. You usually take good naps or at least like to snuggle and relax with me. So we are definitely making it work so far. However, I do know the time is approaching where you will want to be up a lot more. So we are just going to figure things out as they go.

Now, moving on from me working, let's talk about you working! You have been hard at work this past month. You are now cooing and babbling a lot, smiling tons, and I've even gotten 2 giggles out of you! You are slowly starting to like tummy time more - especially since you've learned how to roll over! You're becoming an expert at holding your head up, both when on your tummy and sitting up! Speaking of which you are also loving to sit propped up or in your Bumbo! I think the big thing is that you just are loving to explore your world now. So hear are so pictures showing your hard work this month!

Holding your head high


Sitting pretty




 Tummy time!


All smiles!



Aw that smile just makes me melt! Your favorite time to flash it - when we come to get you from your crib, no matter what time it is you always give us a big old grin! Love you baby girl!


<3 Mommy!

PS: To see some great smiles, check out the link to Maddie's 3 month pictures on my Facebook page!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Pic of the Week - Da Bears

Dear Madeline,

As you will quickly learn, our family is huge sports fanatics! So this is sure to be just the first of many sporty outfits you will be "sporting". Now I know it is June and no where near football season, but since the Bulls and Hawks disappointed and the Cubs and Sox are clearly nothing to brag about this season, we are moving on! Besides, this cute onesie won't fit you come September.

13 Weeks
Also note that the back of this onesie does say Bernard and has the number 1. Unfortunately, we were unable to capture that in a pic due to an explosive diaper shortly after this picture was taken...better luck next time!

Love you peanut!

Mommy!!!

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Pic of the Week - Rub-a-dub-dub

Dear Maddie-

This week is all about bath time! You're slowly beginning to like bath time more and for some reason you love for Daddy to give you your bath. Here are a couple precious pictures of you all wrapped up after your bath - I just love how you can see your smile in your eyes in the second one! :)

Twelve weeks old

Twelve weeks old
Kisses...

Mommy!

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