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

Jaundice

So, the last few post I feel like I have tried to squeeze weeks into a few words--which is why I decided to do a whole separate post on our experience with Jaundice.

It was the day we were leaving the hospital, Thursday, when one of the doctor's from our pediatrician office came into our room to update us on Madison's blood work that they drew the night before. Her jaundice levels were higher than they wanted them to be, but they said they had also expected this because Madison and I have different blood types. This is when they told me to supplement so we could keep up with how much she was eating and to increase more dirty diapers to clear out the jaundice. The ped. updated us on what jaundice was and what the plan was--hoping it would clear up itself without treatment. Her jaundice level was 9 that morning, and they get worried when it reaches the 20's. I thought ok, that doesn't seem so bad then but we were still worried new parents though and freaking out a little bit. It had been smooth sailing at the hospital and then to have that dumped on us just an hour before being discharged was a bummer. We were told to come back to the hospital the next morning for them to draw more blood, which meant poking her little foot AGAIN.

Friday morning we went in, they took her blood and about an hour later the pediatrician called us with the results---12. Since this was such a significant jump, they wanted us to come in to get the home photo therapy which was essentially just a blue light (about the size of an iPad) that we placed her on 24/7. We just slid the light between her back and her onsies. She was also to sleep on it as well. At, this point we were freaking out that we had to go get a light and that her levels were rising.

Saturday we had to go back in for blood work, and got a call stating that her levels had gone up to 15. I was really bummed as I had thought for sure they would have gone down a little since she was on the light. We also had an appointment for her with the her ped on Saturday. Her weight was 7.1 lbs and they wanted us back in next week to check her weight again. They wanted to see her closer to her birth weight, 7.9lbs.

With that being said, we had to go back AGAIN on Sunday. Her levels had gone down to 12 I believe and they said to take her off the light and just to put her in direct sunlight for 15 minutes every 3 hours. They did not want us to do any more blood work, they just wanted her to come in Tuesday for a weight check and examine her for the jaundice. At this point, I could clearly tell it had improved and I had not realized just how yellow her skin was until it got better. You could see it in her eyes though and we were told this was the last to clear up. At this point they were not concerned and I guess they knew it would continue to drop as it did. Her eye's eventually whitened back up.

Looking back at this now, I realize how common jaundice is. We were so nervous about it at the time. You don't want to hear anything is wrong or have any reason for the doctor to have to keep an eye on your baby. We were in good hands though, and Gwinnett Ped's. was very thorough in keeping up with the situation. We are just glad to have it all cleared up and better! :)