Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Madison: 8 months

Now that she's 9 months old, let me tell you about the past month...


She loves to play "tag", she loves opening and closing doors, she loves standing in her car seat (still), she LOVES climbing anything, and she loves shoes, especially with shoelaces.  She is fascinated spending time with other babies her age.  She knows how to wave hi (but doesn't always do it when you want her to, of course), we're working on teaching her how to kiss.  She has been making faces back at me furrowing her brow and scrunching her eyes closed.

I love all of her faces.  She's so expressive.
She has her 2 bottom teeth! May 5th and May 15th they popped up.

Such a happy girl.

On the move.  She is a fast crawler.
She is so fun.  I love this age.  She is so interactive.  She's still such a content baby.  We're told this all the time.  She never cries in nursery.  I've only seen her cry once and reach for me...when I was on the plane back from NC and an older woman behind me offered to hold her so I could eat a snack and have a break.  Madison was fine when I handed her off, but when I turned around to check on her (she was doing fine), she started crying and reached for me.  Which, by the way, is so cute when they start reaching for you to pick them up.  She is so good at playing by herself.  She is a busy girl.  Always playing with something, going somewhere, or looking for something new to check out.  Believe it or not, I work 4-5 hours a day, during her naps, and then anywhere from 1-2 hours when she is awake.  She does really well while I'm trying to get work done.


Look at that hair!

I love getting her right when she wakes up because it's the one time she really cuddles.  She hugs me and nestles her head on my shoulder close to my neck for about a minute until she is ready to go.  It is so cute.

Look at those teeth!  And those beautiful dark eyes.
Eating
Biggest change is in eating.  I went down to nursing only 1-2 times a day this month.  Mostly just once first thing in the morning.  She is eating more and more finger foods and we're letting her try more of what we're eating.  She loves bread and anything sweet.  I usually give her 2 meals a day.  So, she wakes up in the morning and I nurse her right away.  Then exactly 2 hours after, she is ready for a nap.  She goes down with a bottle of 4-5 oz of formula.  When she wakes up, I give her oatmeal and a pureed fruit mixed in, bananas, peaches, apples, prunes, whatever I have.  I've been using Gerber baby food purees.  Then about 3 hours after, she is ready for her afternoon nap.  So everything really hinges on what time she actually wakes up.  Everything else is pretty consistent.  After she wakes up from that nap, usually mid/late afternoon, I give her a pureed vegetable, usually sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, or mixed vegetables.  She still does not like green veggies.  She also likes any squeezable baby food.  Those are awesome for traveling.  If they were cheaper, I would have them on hand all the time.  Things like that allow mommies to spend extra time running errands!

She loves to eat.  
Sleeping
She goes to bed around 8pm and wakes up around 6am.  She takes 2 naps a day usually between 1-2 hours long.  Of course, whenever there is something different in the schedule, it changes, like if it's a weekend, for some reason, she gets thrown off.  Maybe because of church, Bryce and I doing things like errands or outings.  She really got thrown off after traveling and being sick.





Monday, June 10, 2013

Gone to Carolina

*Get ready for a lot of pictures!*

In the beginning of May, Maddie and I went home to North Carolina for 8 days.  The main reason we went home was to see this handsome guy graduate.


Sweet "little" brother with his 3 big sisters

The trip was so fun and unfortunately a little stressful and tiring, too.  The night before his graduation, Maddie and I ended up at the children's hospital in Raleigh.  She got her first tooth a couple days before we left and had had a low fever the day before (when we were at the beach).  So I kept saying that she was just teething.

Not acting like herself.  Aren't they such a cute couple?
Sweet Uncle Aaron.  Not acting like herself.  Friday morning before the graduation events began.
Well on a Friday night around dinner time, after Aunt Judy babysat her all day so I could attend graduation, we took her temperature and it was 104!! She had all the signs: super fussy all day, not acting like herself, not eating well, wanted to be held all day, not very active.  After putting cold washcloths on her, we took her temperature again 15 minutes later and it was 104.2 so we got in the car.  If you haven't gone to the hospital for a baby before, let's just say it is really scary.  Only because they are so helpless and you don't really know how bad it is because they can't tell you.  Did you know it's possible for them to have seizures and get brain damage with a high fever?  I didn't know that either.  Aunt Judy stayed with Maddie and I at the hospital from 9pm until 1:30am.

Right before we left to go.  So sad!
Aunties were there with us for a little while in the waiting room.
Pretty content once the ibuprofen started working.
After a chest x-ray and a catheter, they found that she had bacterial pneumonia.  She was on amoxicillin for 10 days.  So sad.  The next day, she took a 3.5 hour nap.  After 2-3 days of medicine, she started acting like herself again and we were able to fly home on schedule.  I just felt so bad for her.

The day after going to the hospital.  Poor thing.
Aside from the whole pneumonia fiasco, we had so much fun visiting with everyone, playing with Nana, playing with cousins, sitting out on the deck enjoying each other and a glass of wine (and pimiento cheese, of course!), catching up with friends, and celebrating Aaron's graduation!  So thankful that we got to be there.




Hanging out in the awesome playroom.  Don't you love how they framed large prints of each grandchild?



Wait for it...

So.cute. 
Happy cousins!
Babies in jammies are so cute
Just hitchin' a ride

Love these two.
It was so nice to have help.  Aunt Judy babysat on Friday so I could go to Aaron's graduation.  Then Kim babysat on Saturday so I could go to the celebration lunch with everyone.



Had to take the iphone away for a sec to get little mister to smile at me!
Adams girls

Just a sample of delicousness that we enjoyed for lunch in downtown Raleigh
Some more from our weekend...


This is the perfect scene.  Beautiful day, everyone together, food, coloring, family...does it get better? (if Bryce were there...)

Papa with his little girlies

Pretty Aunt Amanda

Playing with Aunt Emily


Momma and baby...don't get enough pictures of her and I
Goof ball
Kisses
Sweet


Little poochy lips when she's not smiling.  Looks like an Adams
Admirer
Sweet Nana