Thanksgiving

...was almost a month ago? I am just now getting/making time to update.

This year for Thanksgiving we had my side of the family over with some of Johns side of the family. It was so nice to not have to go anywhere for once. Also, first year taking on the task of cooking. It turned out really well and super yummy. I was nervous about the turkey, the rest I knew I could do and it was just the timing of it all. The turkey came out awesome too, and it was an awesome looking one. Bummed that we didn't get a picture, haha! I believe I have made two new staples for the thanksgiving meals---homemade mac and cheese and corn casserole. YUM! Also, my mother in law made an awesome cherry cobbler that is amazing and my moms sweet potato souffle will ALWAYS be a regular after last year!

What I learned from cooking a Thanksgiving turkey: *cook 25 mins for each pound
*if you like more of a crispy skin unwrap it and let it sit in the fridge the night before you cook
*it has to have many days to thaw (ours took 6days)
*you have to pull out the nasty stuff from the inside of it
*the skin is super thick and if you put some butter or whatever you prefer, underneath it then you have a much more moist turkey
*you have to get up super early to put in the oven

Madison was a little crabby that day. At this point I think that she is just not a huge fan of big gatherings? Although, she loves going to stores and the mall because she is perfectly content (I know we are creating a monster on the shopping deal).

Overall we had an awesome thanksgiving filled with tons of food and the people we love minus a few. :)

I did get some pictures of the food after everyone diged in in order to make up for it.

Let the Laughs Begin

I just wanted to share this post of Madison laughing. She started this last week. Now every time she laughs at something we repeat it over and over. A few mintues in I realized I kept saying Dookie Butt. Whatever it takes I guess! Now she likes the noises I make while acting like she is boxing.

Enjoy! Laughing Talking

Go To Sleep Little Baby

So the past few weeks I have been thinking about moving Madison to her crib. I told myself I was going to at 2 months old, that didn't happen. Then I said I was going to when she was 3 months old and that happened by accident!

Every night I give Madison a bath around 8ish or 9ish. I usually wait until she has just ate or right before she is going to eat, that way she is nice and full after her bath. Well on Tuesday while I was setting up her humidifier, I laid her down in her crib with the mobile going. After reading the directions and getting it running I went back to get her to bring her downstairs with me for a little bit. She was asleep! I ended up leaving her in there, but she did wake up shortly after and I ended up putting her in her bassinet to sleep.

The next night I did the same while I changed the water in the humidifier after her bath. She was on the border line of sleep, so I sat in the glider to make sure she was actually going to go to sleep. She did and she slept in her crib that night for the first time. She also slept in it last night and she is currently sleeping in it tonight. Granted her crib is still technically in the room with us, just over in the little nook area, but still it is different not having her next to me in her bassinet.

Also, Madison has slept through the night as early as a little before she turned 2 months old. The first night she did sleep through the night I was up checking on her and a few nights following I still continued to check on her in the middle of the night. It is nice now though, because I can really enjoy a good nights sleep or atleast more than 4 hour naps. One night she slept from 10pm to 7 am and this was before she was 3 months old. Her typical schedule is 10ish bedtime and she wakes up around 5am at the earliest and 8ish at the latest. Occasionally she will wake up at 2ish if she doesn't eat enough before bed.

I am for sure thankful to have such a good baby. She is so happy in the mornings and I am known to be the opposite. We balance each other out! :)

Update on MOV

I feel so behind. I am trying my best to stay on top of updating this blog. I don't want to all of a sudden stop, like the many of times before. Madison is my reason for this blog now. I want her to be able to go back and read these post about her life if she chooses to. I know I would love to have something like this to look back at and read.

Madison is hitting so many milestones on a day to day basis. It is hard to keep note of them all. She is smiling now and it is so heart warming, especially when she smiles directly at you. I find myself making the craziest sounds and faces just to get a grin or smile from her. She has had a few out loud laughs, but the laughs are still happening on accident and mainly in her sleep. She has also started the adorable cooing noises. No matter what sound comes from her it is nearly impossible to not smile. She is usually all smiles in the morning and the most alert then as well. It is usually around bath time that she begins talking up a storm. I try to get the noises and smiles on camera or video. It is tough because once she sees the lens in front of her face she just stares at it and it is usually hard to get her attention back.

Lately I have been trying to get in tummy time when I can. When she is in a good mood she will stay on her stomach for longer periods of time before getting fussy. The very first time I put Madison on her stomach she actually rolled over (10/23/12, exactly 2 months old). I was super shocked because I was not expecting it and I was way excited. It is crazy what things make me excited these days. I never imagined a baby rolling over would be so exciting to me, but I absolutely love it. I think it goes without saying that I love her so so so much.

Since my last post, we have also been back to the Doctor for her 2 month appointment. We are actually falling about 2 weeks behind her actually being 2 months when we go, but that is because I wanted Smiley as her Doctor. We had to wait a week later to get an appointment with her and we were a week behind from the very beginning. Anyways, her check up went great. John was able to go with us as well. I was happy about this because she got her shots at that appointment. She did pretty good and I don't think I did so bad myself. I had John stand with her though because I didn't want to see that shocking face. :/ As for her measurements she is still pretty average. She weighs 11lbs and 3 ounces (44 percentile), 23 inches long (58 percentile), and 15 for the circumference of her head (20 percentile). She still has a clogged tear duct, which is very common in babies and usually they open up as they grow. The clogged tear duct just makes her eye water. I asked Dr. Smiley about her dry patches on her skin and she recommend Aquaphor. She said this weather makes the dry skin worse.

I also asked Dr. Smiley about Madison's eyes. I was just curious if it was common or if she has ever seen eyes change colors at different times. I am not sure if I have mentioned it on this post, but currently she has two different color eyes. I believe I posted a picture in a previous post, but I will go ahead and post another. Her left eye began changing from blue to brown at two weeks. It started out with getting darker around her pupil then spreading to the outer edges of her eye. Although, the entire area did not change to brown. There is still a chunk that is blue. Her right eye is completely blue. Anyways, Dr. Smiley said her eyes can change a lot over time and she said you know some people have two different color eye. I am very interested to see what happens! I am totally fine with this and I actually think it is very unique as it is very rare for people to have two different color eyes. If for any reason this were to bother her she could always get contacts if she chose to. From a distance the brown eye just looks greyish blue though. It is only in the sunlight that you can see brown.

Madison's next appointment is in January. Between now and then we will have Christmas and Thanksgiving. I am so excited this year for the holidays. I am anxious to pull out the Christmas decorations and I glad that John has 4 days for each holiday coming up, including New Years Eve. :)

This is her new mobile. The one that came with this bedding looked like pepto pink color, I did not like it at all. I found this one at TjMaxx and it matches better! She loves it too.

She has also been looking back and forth. She does it often, often enough to get a little bald spot lol.

I have been taking her pictures monthly. One just plain and another with a theme for the month.

First Halloween

Here are a few pictures of Madison's first Halloween. We were given a cute outfit for during the day and she wore her custom that night. Halloween day we went to visit with my Granny, her great granny, and we went to K-mart. That night my brother came to help pass out candy with us. He actually sat in front of the door, in a chair wearing a mask giving everyone a little scare. It was fun though to see reactions and it seemed like everyone enjoyed it too..

This was a test run to make sure the pumpkin was going to work out.

We had to settle for the bumbo chair because the second go round didn't go as well.

2 Month's Old

I just wanted to share some pictures that my sister-in-law took of myself and Madison. She needed them to complete an interview for a photography place. I am glad we did them because I LOVE them. Of course I am bias and I never get tired of looking at pictures of my baby either. Below are a few that I have saved on my desktop. When I get the disc I will add more. :)

MOV's First Vacation

At the beginning of October we took Madison on her first vacation. I was undecided for the longest time about whether or not John, myself and Madison were going to to. With Madison being so new I didn't know what to expect and I was still iffy on public places. After having Madison public places were also known as germ infested places with too many people..haha. Well after googling a lot, reading too much, and constantly bringing it up with people we ended up going.

We left on a Saturday and came back on a Saturday. The trip on the way down there was good. We pretty much let Madison make the calls on when we stopped unless one of us had to use the bathroom asap. We rode with my sister-in-law Mary and my nephew Colin in there roomy van---roomy before you pack for a newborn! We had her van packed to the max. I had to take her pack-n-play for sleeping, her bouncer for during the day, her bath since that is part of our nightly routine, her bag, plus our bag, my pump in its travel bag, our backpack with electronics, her diaper bag, and a bag of towels. I think I covered it all, but anyways packing and traveling with a newborn is oh so different!

We stayed in Kissimee, Fl. It is literally 5 minutes from Disney World, which was the purpose of the visit. John and I said we were going to relax at the condo for the week while my in-laws went to Disney World and Universal. Well, turns out we went to Disney World Magic Kingdom. If you have never been, Magic Kingdom has an area called the Baby Care Center. It was a must since I am breastfeeding. I could have changed her in bathroom, but having a quiet get-away to feed her at was awesome. The Baby Care Center has 4 rooms. One is filled with all the supplies that you might need available for purchase, another is a room filled with over-sized changing tables, another is high chairs and the most important one for us was the breastfeeding room. Without the Baby Care Center, I don't know if we could have gone to Magic Kingdom and made it the whole day with the family. Granted it was a lot of work though, a ton of work actually. Madison was great, she couldn't have been better. She slept in her stroller and woke for feedings. At least it ended up being a beautiful day for the most part. John and I also got to enjoy a few rides and Madison rode two with me using the baby carrier. Overall I was glad we went, especially with all the thought we put into. We enjoyed the day and time with the family. Oh, and this was not only Madison's first trip to Disney World, but mine as well!

One day of the vacation we drove to the beach, New Smyrna Beach. It was not hot and it was not cold. The water was very comfortable too. We stuck Madison's feet in the water. At six weeks old she had her feet in the Atlantic Ocean and she loved it. The second we headed back to our chairs she started crying. I like to take spin this into believeing we have a beach baby. :)

The remaining days John, myself and Madison spent them at the Condo. Some days with everyone and one of those days they went to Universal. We decided to take it easy at the condo. We loved the time at Dinsey World, but it was a lot of work and we decided to let them go do there thing. I decided to let Madison and John hang out in the Condo for a nap while I headed to the pool for about an hour and a half. I was determined to get a little sun while in the sunshine state, especially when everyone left the beach with a little sun burn and I got nothing. Me and Madison were in the baby tent for a bit, then she took a nap and it was feeding time again. So, it was a must for me to get a little sun by the pool.

I am so glad that we went. John deserved a vacation after all his non-stop working. Thanks to my sister-in-law and mother-in-law they made this trip possible for us. We are very grateful to have been able to enjoy a vacation. We made some great memories, memories that Madison won't remember by memory but we have the pictures to look back at.

1 Month Appointment

Madison had her one month wellness appointment at Gwinnett Ped's on October 3rd. I was determined to make it to this appointment on time because I had yet to be on time to any. I figured I have had 5 weeks to get a routine down and I could finally atleast try to be on time---didn't happen. We were close, but not still late. Oh well!

We saw Dr.Quisling for the first time and we usually see Dr.Smiley. Before seeing Dr. Quisling the nurse had me undress her and take her to the scale. On the way down the hall I was telling the nurse about the time Madison pee'd on me for one of her weigh ins. Well this time she pee'd on their scale, not me. She didn't pee just a little either, but a lot! Anyways, I had been trying to guess her weight all week. My guess was 9.2lbs, I was off by 12 1/2 ounces. She weighed 9.14 pounds! It was bitter sweet to hear this. Sweet, since I have been exclusively breastfeeding. Bitter, because I have had to put away some newborn outfits already and she has moved up to 1 diapers. Her hands and toe's are not as little either---she is growing so quickly!

When Dr. Quisling came in she did her normal check up routine and she answered several of my questions. She also shared Madison's percentiles for her measurments. She is in the 51 percentile for her weight, 41 percentile for her length, and 22 percentile for her head. Thank you Madison for having a small head! :)

At the end of her appointment they gave her a second Hep B shot. She did very well!

I just wanted to share how her 1 month appointment went. We have also decided to stick with Dr. Smiley. I have nothing negative to say about the other doctor, but we have seen Dr. Smiley for the majority of her jaundice appointments and we just prefer her. It is nice to know for sure that she is the one we want.

1 More Challenge of Breastfeeding

We have had a fussy baby the past few days. Let me start with saying that I feel pretty lucky to have a well behaved newborn. If she fusses we check her diaper, change her if needed or feed her and then she is good. This is how I knew something else was up with her when she continued to fuss after those two things were fixed. She would also fuss while eating which is hard to tell if she is cluster feeding or just not liking what she taste.

I believe she has been fussy because she has had an upset stomach. After a long day of trying to calm her I decided to call the Ped. and run it by them. They told me to always be sure to burp her, which I do. Avoid broccoli, cabbage, diary, limit caffine and avoid onions. Well, I had made chili the day before for dinner and had also ate a huge bowl of it for lunch that same day. I thought to myself that has to be it, it had tons of onion in it.

After talking to the Ped. I had John stop and get some gas drops on his way home from work. I told him to get Mycolin or Gerber, what our Ped. recommened. Turns out they didn't have either, so John decided to get everything they had that mentioned gas drops. He said she is his baby girl and wanted to make sure she felt better. :) haha. Well, I ended up using Little Remedies gas relief drops. We have noticed a difference as well and just glad to get her relief. I told myself, no more onions!

Today she has been great up until later tonight. She began to get fussy again. I had let off giving her so much gas drops just to see if she still needed it. Once she got really fussy I went ahead and gave her some more and it was instant relief for her. She took it and went straight to sleep, poor thing pretty much wore herself out by being fussy leading up to the drops helping ease her stomach.

I kept trying to think about what would upset her stomach still. The ped. told me that whatever would give me gas, would more than likely do the same to her as well. So I started thinking how my stomach was upset this evening and the night before. It then occured to me that I had started eating Fiber One bars. My purpose in eating them was to have small snacks between my meals to increase my milk production. I thought it was a double plus because I check the ingredients and it has oats!--oats are great for milk production which is why I usually eat oatmeal every morning. I am pretty sure it is the Fiber One bars, so I will stop eating those and see if anything changes which I feel pretty sure about that being the problem.

After dealing with a fussy baby that has an upset stomach due to what I eat, I decided to google breastfeeding diet. It says to avoid several types of food, one being citrus foods such as grape fruit--which I ate last night too. Along with citrus foods is tons of others. I like to do the research and be informed, but I honestly feel like stuff I ate during my pregnancy shouldn't get to her as much. I feel ike she should be used to it some what...right? I don't honeslty know, but I just want her to feel better! Let's hope I solved the mystery. I will from here on out not eat Fiber One bars. I will also keep my distance from onions just in case!!

*Side note, maybe TMI for some. At 6am this morning I was convinced that she is getting some type of relief. In the middle of changing her diaper, meaning old diaper off and new diaper not quiet on, she decided that would be a good time to go number two----on my forearm, the changing pad, and everything to the right of the dresser where her changing pad is. In other words, I had wipe the wall, baseboard, Diaper Genie, and two other things that were in that direction. The changing pad cover was thrown in the wash right away! I told Madison that as long she feels better then it was ok! Although, I do prefer it to stay contained within the diaper if at all possible. :)

Milestones

First Bath- September 2nd (the unhappy picture shows more than I want to post--so don't let this fool you into thinking she enjoyed the ENTIRE time in her bath. She did enjoy the majority of it though!) This post is all of MOV's first that I can think of!

*Meeting Maizie! August 30th

*First game day with Daddy! September 1st

*Meeting my first baby friend, Jayde! September 15th

*First family picture! September 29th

*First Photo Shoot

Other Milestones *September 1st- First doctor's visit to Gwinnett Ped's.

*September 8th- unbilical cord fell off.

*September 15th- first visit to Hong Kong Garden :)(My mom went to Hong Kong Garden while she was pregnant to me. It is the best chinese around and I actually went while I was pregnant with Madison as well.)

*September 22nd- first shopping trip with mommy and nana. VERY short lived--my mom knew what she wanted, some jeans from AE and I needed to pick up a few things from VS at the avenue. I was freaking out with the crowds though and her being young. So super short trip!)

Getting Settled In

After making it through the Jaundice and getting settled at home--things have been great. The first few days home were tiring! I have never been able to close my eyes and instantly go to sleep, but that first week I sure could. I was falling asleep in the car on our daily trips to the hospital when they were keeping an eye on her jaundice levels. After that first week, I finally caught up on my sleep for the most apart, atleast enough to fully function. John was home with us that first week, but had to go back to work. He was, and still is such a great Dad to Madison and is willing to help even after his long days at work.

We have had visitors on and off since being home, but has died down. We have also had another doctor visit to check her weight. At her last appointment, on Sept. 4th she weighed 7 lbs and 14.5 ounces. We had reached our birth weight of 7.9lbs and actually exceeded it. I finally felt like I was good to go on exclusively breastfeeding, finally.

Exclusively breastfeeding was a challenge at first. She was used to bottles and clearly had nipple confusion. In order to feed her I had to use a shield in order for her to eat and would not eat without it. She was getting a bit frustrated too, because she was used to the fast flow bottle and not having to work so hard to eat. So, I had decided to go to a breastfeeding group at the hospital that following week after her appointment. It was nice to meet with other moms and have the time to share your exact story. Getting feedback from pro's and those who are in the same situation as you was nice. In result, a few days later she was successfully eating without the shield after weening it away within about 2 days. It was no longer needed after those two days.

Also, since being home we had her pictures done when she 12 days old. My best friends step sister came to our house, which was awesome because I did not want to take her out. I was love them and have been waiting to catch on the blog in order to share them!

Jesi Leigh Photography