New Outfit!

Madeline received a package today. An outfit from friends in Florida and we LOVE this outfit and she will certainly be able to wear it this winter!
Thank you Jim and Frannie, we hope to see you in March while we're there!

So strong!

Look everybody, I'm starting to hold my head up all by my big, strong, self!

I spent about 2 hours holding my head up last night...the time when I should have been in bed asleep! Oh well, my mommy and daddy can't be discouraged. I'm growing afterall!

Newborn Photos

Please take a moment and click on the link here to see our photographer's blog about and photos from Madeline's newborn session earlier this month!

http://janakunz.com/blog/

Titled "Sweet Tiny Newborn"

Enjoy!

New Kicks.

My friend Meredith stopped over to meet Madeline last night. With her, she brought Madie her first pair of Nike's. Aren't these the cutest shoes you've ever seen? She's sure to have the coolest kicks in the neighborhood.....when her little feet finally grow into them!

1 year.

Happy Anniversary to us!

One Month.

Madeline has officially been in the world for one month. She has grown so much and continues to develop her own little personality.

Here's an idea of what's been going on, among other things:

• she continues to challenge us on a daily basis
• she is finally starting to fit into her cute newborn clothes and we're packing away the premie sizes!
• she can focus on objects and faces
• she can move her arms and legs simutaneously without appearing confused by those strange extremities
• she will smile, if we're lucky, while she's awake and appear interested in the strange faces we make at her
• she continues to work on lifting her head all by herself
• she is beginning to hold onto her toys but I'm afraid that with the way she throws her arms around in curiosity that she will bop herself in the head with it, so we are careful

Note: she was out late partying last night, so we could only capture her in nap mode. And yes, that's a photo of her thumb. For some reason, her thumbs are my favorite finger on her little hands.

Daddy's View: Scheduling

After three weeks of living with the newest addition to our family, I’ve learned several things as we adapt to her and vice versa. When a new born takes up residence in your household, you can throw conventional scheduling out the door. Black Berries? Forget about it. Franklin Planners? Don’t bother. White board calendars? Waste of time.

The reality of the situation is that she waits for no one. She is the ruler of our domain and, to be honest, my wife and I really don’t mind. Don't get me wrong, routines are nice and need to be part of a baby’s life, but the reality is our baby isn't even a month old. She sleeps, she poops, she cries, and she makes weird faces when she’s awake. She’s awesome!

Don’t worry about my wife and I. We’re doing fine. We’re getting (some) sleep. Mom’s been busy during the day while dad’s at work. Little by little we’re getting the hang of this thing. We can’t overstate the help we've received from grandmas and grandpas either. They’ve been a tremendour helpful in our transition.

I give much of the credit to my wife, though as she's got this schedule thing down. In the first few days of Madie's life, she had her nights and days mixed up. This was painstaking. Now, days have become days and nights are used for sleeping (and eating). Here’s a typical evening schedule for us now:

9:00 p.m. Pre-bed diaper change and breast milk feeding.
9:30 p.m. Lights out and go to bed.
(Personally, I never thought I’d be able to fall asleep so early. Well, have a baby and you’ll find out.)
12:00 a.m. Baby cries. Wake-up groggily. Mom changes diapers. Dad warms bottle and feeds. Mom burps while dad pees.
12:25 a.m. Back to bed.
3:30 a.m. Baby cries. Mom changes diaper. Dad warms-up bottle. Mom feeds and burps. Dad goes back to sleep.
(Having a baby is like have an alarm clock with a 3-hour snooze button.)
3:55 a.m. Mom goes back to bed.
6:00 a.m. Dad’s alarm goes off and it’s time to get ready for work.

It’s beginning to be like clockwork.

3 weeks old!

I'm three weeks old today! A few things I've learned to do in the past week; I have several cries. One means I don't want to be sitting, I want to be held, but you must walk and bounce when you hold me. Another means I need my panties changed and the another one means I'm hungry. One for when I have gas and I can't get it out and the last one is for when I'm SO tired but I really just don't want to sleep yet. My parents are getting smart though, they're getting this parenting thing figured out. My dad does a good job changing my diaper's, but he puts them on a little too tight. I'm not as small as I was in the hospital. Lighten up daddy! My mom kisses me way too much, but I like it. Sometimes I'll even smile at her. And my most favorite thing to do with my mom and dad is to lay on the couch with them and stare at the ceiling fan, it just goes round and round. So cool!

Photos.

Madeline had her newborn photos yesterday (same place we had our maternity session). She was such a trooper. She slept through the majority of the session, which allowed our photographer to put her in all sorts of poses that were absolutely adorable. We'll share some of those as we receive them. Of course, when we take photos at home (see above), we don't get the good angles. I'm sure that as a teenager she wouldn't appreciate the first photo here- double chin! I love her little grin though, at least I know she's having sweet dreams. And the second photo is precious- she often sleeps like this. Little Miss. Dainty.

I'm going to work on adding video to the blog, so our readers have a chance to see her in action. Most of our photos are of her sleeping. While precious, it would be great to have more showing her big blue eyes!

2 weeks old!

Madeline is 2 weeks old today. At the pediatrician we found that she has been quite the little gainer since her last check up. She weighed in at 7 lbs 4 oz and she's grown about one inch! The doc says she a perfectly healthy baby!

Tummy Time.

In an effort to strengthen those neck muscles, I introduced Madeline to her Boppy last night. She seemed quite content for several minutes, lifting her head to look around, then resting again. In the end, she seemed not so amused and so we did something else for a while.

Resting.

After a feeding, she sleeps. Lately though, we've been trying to keep her awake a little bit after her feedings. She's much happier when she's got a full tummy and that's when we see all of her facial expressions at their best, even an occasional smile. Watching her observe her surroundings and focus on her momma and daddy is such a joy. We do notice that she likes the ceiling fans, as an infant I imagine they would be quite interesting to watch.

We love having visitors, so if you haven't made an effort to call or stop over to meet her, you should! Among those that have, the most popular question asked by them is "Who do you think she looks like?" That's difficult to answer. When we compare baby photos of both of us, we see both of us in her. John and I just answer simply, "She looks like Madeline." She has the best of both of us in her, after all WE created this little miracle, seems like the obvious answer to me.

Either way, she's our little peanut, our little squish.

Nuk.

For only being 12 days old, she has a firm grip. She already knows how to hold her own nuk, with a little assistance of course. She's smart too. If we try to give it to her while mom is getting ready to feed her, she knows that the nuk isn't going to give her what she wants and promptly spits it out. It seems the only thing that provides immediate comfort for Madie is when she's snug against her momma's chest, feeding or not...probably the skin on skin contact and hearing my heartbeat (reminds her of the womb, maybe?) That makes momma feel so good! Of course her daddy does a wonderful job calming her by rocking her in his arms, too! She loves her parents and we love her!