The Joneses

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Mary Had A Little Lamb

Things are getting better!! Here are some highlights from the last week:

Madeleine slept for 5 hours or "through the night" a couple of times. During the other nights she woke up every 3 hours on the nose! I've heard that once you feel like you have a routine down, things will change so I try not to get too excited about her sleeping 5 hours.

Madeleine is grabbing toys with her fists and tries to bring them closer to her so that she can stick them in her mouth. (The toys are hanging from her little jungle play mat).

I've started to notice that she is making her own schedule when it comes to naps. She has taken a nap each day around 10 am, noon and 4 pm.

We've started a bedtime routine. It's nothing major but it's a start. At 8 pm, we put her in some pj's, swaddle her and usually have her asleep within 45. For the last 4 nights I have nursed her to sleep. I have mixed feelings about this because I don't want Nick to have a hard time putting her down if I'm not home but it's been VERY nice not having her cry for a straight hour or more at night. I've been going back and forth about a bath before bedtime. With my schedule, I'll be getting home around 7 pm which only leaves an hour of awake time with her. When the weather is nice, I would really like to get out and go for a walk as a family. There's also the issue of dinner. Do we wait to eat dinner until after she's asleep? Or do we eat during that hour of time that we have as a family?

I'm back to work a week from today. I'm looking forward to it but am worried about how I'm going to function at work on very little sleep. When I wake up at night 3 times and each time I'm up for an hour (feeding and pumping) it really takes a toll on me. Oh well... I might just be a zombie for the next few months. It gets better, right? ;-)

Here are some pictures from the last week. Enjoy!

We tried to get Maddy to look at the camera but she really didn't want to.

It was a very bright, sunny day outside. She was probably wondering who the hell turned the light on!

The first thing Nick said when he saw this outfit was that the skirt was WAY too short. My favorite part of this outfit are the tights!! They are 6-12 month size but I couldn't wait to try them on her. Yes, I love changing her outfits.

This is what I love waking up to every morning, besides my husband. ;-)

Look how long she's getting!

Daddy makes me smile - that's what the onesie says.

I got a great picture of her with this onesie on with my phone.

Aunt Julia came over for a visit!!

Lovin' the tongue.

Nick took Maddy with him for a few hours running errands.

Happy Valentine's Day.

I shot this picture with the macro lens.

Chester was hiding from me while I was making triple coconut cupcakes from scratch with a coconut butter cream frosting.

Chester playing hide and seek again.

Playing it again! This is one of his best hiding places so far!

Gizmo thought it was nap time since I left the door to Maddy's room open.

Nick was working Maddy's legs for some tummy work

and....

well....

it worked!!

I was in the kitchen working on my cupcakes and Nick called me for help!

I could NOT stop laughing and of course.. I had to grab the camera AND my phone to document this. Way to go Nick!!

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Frère Jacques

Maddy is 2 months old and she's growing so fast!

Here's the update from our visit with Dr. Call for Maddy's 2 month check-up:

She now weighs 12 pounds 10 ounces! (She weighed 8 pounds 13 ounces at birth)

She is 23.75 inches long - WOW! (She was 20 inches at birth)

She took all 3 shots like a champ. I made Nick come with me for support and had really prepared myself for the worst. When she got the shots, her face turned really red as she worked up a good cry but it wasn't the worst cry we've heard and she didn't cry for long at all. I'm not sure if the baby Tylenol that we gave her about a half hour before the appointment helped but I'm hoping it did. She was pretty sleepy for the rest of the day and didn't end up running a low grade fever.

Dr. Call did suggest I cut out the decaf coffee. It could be causing her to be fussy at night. If that doesn't work he suggested to go with the process of elimination on other types of food that I am eating. Chocolate and now decaf coffee?!? It's been a rough week for me but we have seen a difference with her in the evenings which makes it all worth cutting out the decaf! Dr. Call also said that she could be a little colicky.. but not to worry because babies out-grow this around 3-4 months. He gave us a couple of suggestions on how to get through the 3-4 hours during the evenings - strap her into her car seat and put her on the dryer while it's running and go for a car ride.

After the visit with the doctor, I was convinced that she was old enough to sleep without being swaddled. Gosh, was I wrong! We put her to bed with a sleep sack on without the swaddle and she ended up waking up every 20 minutes for 4 hours straight! By 1 am, she was swaddled and she slept for 4.5 hours. After talking with some friends and family we have learned that sometimes it's "normal" for a baby to be swaddled for at least a few months if not up until a year or more. Needless to say.. She's going to be swaddled for a while. She's such an active baby that while she is sleeping she throws her arms up and/or around which ends up waking her up.

Madeleine and I got out on a few more walks this last week! I really enjoy the exercise as well as the time outside. Total weight loss for me so far is 42 pounds from when I got pregnant!