Maddie wears jeans ... and other interesting stuff

Well, like always, the week kinda flew by in a blur. On Thursday Maddie and I attended the mom group in the afternoon. Because it's hosted by public health, they have a scale there so I plopped our little Madds on it and she now weighs around 12 lbs 10 oz (I say around because I didn't strip her naked for the scale like my Dr's office usually does - maybe that added some ounces? not sure) - anyways, any concerns about our little one not gaining weight fast enough are definitely waylaid - over a pound in 3 weeks, that's not bad!

After seeing everyone's babies in actual "clothes" at the mom group (even a 1 month old that was there was wearing a proper outfit - yikes) ... I got inspired to actually start dressing my baby. Not like she was going around naked or anything, but I was happy keeping her in the footed sleepers for the rest of her life - cozy, comfy and convenient. But yeah, I have a tonne of little outfits for her, and I figured I might want to revisit them as with all this growing she's doing, they may not fit her much longer (and unlike the first couple of weeks of life when I thought I needed to dress her everyday - she may now actually FIT the clothes!) ...

So on Friday we considered a few outfits, and jointly decided on her new flower power jeans that Grandma Vallier gave her at her last visit, paired with a lovely long sleeve tee shirt (onesie) that Grandma Thompson gave her. You don't have to say it, I know she's adorable... ;)

Saturday we had a girls lunch planned - headed over to Mississauga to visit my friend Sandra, who was cooking up a feast of Thai food for the ladies. And since Madds is one of the ladies now too, she was allowed to come - haha. Seth stayed home and (finally) organized the basement so that it's not a mess of half unpacked boxes and random tools lying everywhere. Now the half-unpacked boxes are piled neatly in a corner and the tools are all put back in their respective original packaging! Haha.

And since we had started the trend of getting dressed in big girl clothes on Friday, Maddie got properly dressed for lunch - wearing an adorable fuzzy outfit from her Grandparent's friends - the Laverty's. Don't you just love the beret? Too bad we couldn't find a paint brush to go in her hand...

Saturday night we (Maddie and I) were supposed to go to a friend's house for dinner, but since their little one had developed a nasty chest cold, it ended up being cancelled (for her sake, and Maddie's). Which bummed me out a bit, but we stayed in and ordered a movie from Rogers instead. Seth had a 30th bday party to go to in the city - his friend Andrew - so he got a "night out on the town" - which resulted in a bit of a hangover the next day. Needless to say, the bookshelves (those blasted shelves, the neverending project) are still not put together, which means my plan for getting that room finally organized is still on hold... lame!

Like I mentioned, Sunday turned into a bit of a lazy day - but I did manage to go grocery shopping and we finally hooked up the chest freezer that we got for Christmas from my mom - so it is now filled with all sorts of healthy frozen goods. I'm trying this new thing called cooking this week - hopefully getting us off the take out/delivery/frozen pizza diet that we'd fallen into of late.

So that was our week in a nutshell. Today's been pretty productive for getting some chores done around the house - and of course taking pics of Maddie. She's really into playing with her toys now (started getting interested in some toys a few weeks ago and now just wants to play constantly when she's awake) - and I've started putting her on her stomach to play more and more - helps develop those muscles (tummy time!) and gives her a bit of a different vantage point I guess. Here's a cute one with her chilling out on the bed while I put away laundry - playing with the awe-inspiring links!

Last update I have for you is her latest in vocalization - she's really found her voice of late and her newest noise is sbbbrrrrrtttttt (which translated - is her sticking her tongue out and spitting) - she uses it to get your attention, to respond to questions, and just to make conversation. She uses it so often that instead of crying or fussing when she wakes up from a nap, we now hear her spitting over the monitor instead. Sitting in her cradle, spitting away, happy as a clam. I will try to upload a movie of her doing this spitting thing soon - we have a bunch of video to upload, just have to get some time to do it ... and since Madds is getting a little agitated (read: crying) right now I gotta run ... talk to you all later!

S&S

Loving the sleep!

Our little Madds slept from 10:30pm last night until 6am this morning. Got up for a quick feed and went back down until 10am. Got up again for about an hour and then went back down for another 2 hour nap.

Not sure why I felt the need to document this - but I'm loving the new sleeping (and happier) Maddie. I doubt it will last as I think this is just the tail-end of a growth spurt (they say babies always sleep lots for a couple days after going through a growth spurt) - but regardless, it's great. It's actually hard to remember those days when she hardly slept at all - not days that I would like to live again that's for sure. I'm sure she probably feels the same way - she's definitely loving her sleep nowadays, she's soooooo happy when she wakes up. Even happier than normal.

We're so lucky. :)

S&S

Roadtrip weekend

Wow, what a week. It started off with a bang - knowing that we had our long weekend/2nd Christmas trip to Kingston starting this Thursday, I had about a million things on the 'to do' list for the week. And how did I get the week started? By busting up my back!

So here's a handy tip for all our readers out there - when you sneeze, don't turn your head. It puts all this strain on some muscle that I can't remember the name of, that runs from your neck down to your ribs. I learned this the hard way - standing there changing Maddie at 8am, I had the sneezes, and kept turning my head to the right to let these monster sneezes out. After I was all done sneezing, my nose was dripping, and while stretching my right arm above my head, I did an almighty sniff and all of a sudden my neck/back/shoulder seizes up. Luckily Maddie was still on the change table (at waist height) so I didn't have to bend to lift her - I carried her into the bedroom and deposited her down onto our bed (the first time I think I was thankful for our mammothly tall bed). As she was getting hungry, I knew this was going to get tricky and my back was continuing to spasm - yikes. I called Seth and left a desperate message on his phone and managed to get myself laid down beside Maddie to feed her before she really freaked out.

Seth called back a few minutes later, and I think, hearing the panic in my voice, made the decision to leave work (on a Monday morning - their busiest time) and come to help me, as I honestly didn't know what I was going to do - I had finished feeding Maddie at this point, and laid down on the bed on my side, could now not get up. Nightmare.

Luckily, while Seth was making the hour drive back home, I was able to 'shush' Maddie to sleep while I laid there in agony, using my labour-breathing-techniques to get myself through the pain of my seizing back muscles. Once Seth got home it took us almost an hour to get me up off the bed and into the bath (which I also learned is a bad bad thing to do for pulled muscles - ice people, you should use ice, not heat). Anyways, to make a long story short, I lounged in the bath trying to feel a bit better while Seth took care of Maddie and called his mom to ask her to come up and help around the house for a couple of days. Thankfully she was able to and she was at our house by 2pm taking care of Maddie, and Seth was on his way back to work.

I was able to get myself in for a last minute appointment with a Chiropractor here in Whitby that afternoon - and he actually really helped to get me on the road to recovery. I can say that I'm now a big believer in Chiropractors - the cracking of the back is still very weird, but I felt tonnes better even after just one appointment - really!

So the rest of the week I took it pretty easy while Debbie helped out tonnes with cooking and taking care of Maddie. I managed to get the rest of the Christmas shopping done (for my family Christmas we were attending that weekend) and get us prepared for our road trip. We left Thursday afternoon and were in Kingston by 2pm - Maddie slept the whole way - such a sleeper! Since Thursday was my bday, my mom came over that evening to visit us and we all had some cake - good times.

Friday was an early morning as we had plans to be at Stef's (in Inverary) by 10am - we visited with her and her little one, Quinn for a few hours that morning. Maddie had a blast watching Quinn play with all her toys (he loved the Glo-worm especially!) - here's a pic of me and Stef with our little ones. Quinn is 9 months and huge, especially next to our tiny little Madds - she looks extra tiny in this pic!

After leaving Stefanie's we headed over to my Dad's place where we visited for several hours and exchanged Christmas gifts. Maddie started to get pretty tired (and cranky) so we headed out around 5pm. We got to Debbie & Shorty's by 5:45 and after feeding Maddie, we let Grandma do some babysitting while we went out for a dinner on our own for my birthday. Ended up downtown at Megalo's - a restaurant that used to be one of our faves, across from the theatre. Dinner was good - we had a few seafood dishes and (with the exception of the paper napkins) it was really nice. Too bad when we got home Maddie was having a bit of a fit. Apparently she was good all evening and started to cry just 5 minutes before we got home. I wasn't too bothered as it only took me a couple of minutes to calm her down, but I think Seth was a little disturbed, he just kept saying "I've never heard that cry before." Oh well, I guess we have to realize that she is going to cry sometimes and while we won't like it, it's not always going to be something we can avoid. Especially when we're not around.

The next day was our big Christmas get together with my family - Mom, Walt, Aunt Reta, Derek, Amy and their 2 little ones. So we of course had to Maddie all dressed up for the occasion. Here she is in the crib at Grandma Vallier's right before we left - don't you just love the boots?

We picked up an ice cream cake and headed out to my Aunt Reta's in Harrowsmith for the festivities. Gifts were exchanged, I played with my nieces a tonne with some of their new toys, and of course we all ate until we were ready to explode on all the nibbles and appetizers that Aunt Reta and Mom made. Maddie got a little cranky a few times, but hey this was her 4th major visit in 2 days so she was getting a little tired of all the attention I think. How priceless is this pic though, with her cousin Rebecca ...

We decided that we were going to head back to Brooklin that night instead of waiting for Sunday morning - so with a quick visit in with the Vallier's and one last stop at my Mom's house, we were back on the road and home by just after 1am. Thank goodness Maddie was out for the count and didn't wake up when we took her out of her carseat and into bed.

It was a great weekend and we enjoyed visiting everyone, but it was tiring for all of us - especially Madds. She's been sleeping a tonne ever since!

S&S

Maddie giggles

This weekend wasn't too busy for us. We relaxed on Friday night - not doing much of anything. On Saturday Maddie and I headed into the city with Auntie Liz while Seth worked in the morning - we shopped a bit in the mall (I bought leggings - I'm such a mom!) and then headed over to Lisa Deir's new apartment for lunch and a visit. It was 6pm by the time we got home and found Seth sprawled out on the couch napping - he had gotten home from work around 2pm and spent the afternoon hooking up our new home theatre system, eating some nachos and watching some football before crashing out.

To break in the new system, I went and rented us a couple of movies to watch that night - the Simpsons Movie and Superbad. The Simpsons movie - it was okay - not great in my opinion. Superbad? Super-hilarious. Seriously - rent it. Soooooo funny.

Today I just got all the Christmas decorations taken down finally and did a small grocery shop. Just enough to get us through the next couple of days as we're headed to Kingston on Thursday morning for a 4 day weekend. While I was putting away the decorations Seth was holding Maddie - and for some reason (we still can't really figure out why) she started giggling her head off - so I ran to get the video camera to get this little milestone on tape. After an hour of trying to figure out how to transfer the files from our camcorder to the computer, I've finally got it uploaded. She's laughed and done small giggles before - but nothing like this, so we wanted to share with everyone - it's too cute for words...



S&S

Evil Mommy

I am horrible. I bonked my little munchkin in the head with the tv remote (by accident of course) while she was nursing. There was a delay and then she cried her little head off. Then I cried my little head off. Then I managed to pull myself together enough to get her back nursing and we both calmed down eventually.

I've checked a million times - she doesn't have a bump on her head - so shhhhh, we won't tell Seth. :)

S&S

Sleepaholic

This week has been amazing for sleep (that is, when we finally convince her to go down - a little more fussy in the evenings than usual) - last night Maddie slept from 10pm - 6am. And if I had actually gone to bed when I put her down, that means I would have gotten 8 hours. Too bad I didn't get to bed until half past midnight...

She didn't escape from her swaddle last night (for the first time in like, ever) - which makes me wonder if that's why she slept longer? Or if she was just so worn out from yesterday (it was a bit of a tiring day - she fussed A LOT, although she did take 2 proper naps in her bassinet) that she didn't wake up enough to try and escape her swaddle. Not sure, but definitely trying to swaddle her extra tight tonight.

The other thing I was thinking is that she has had a bit of a cough (started yesterday - the day AFTER the doctor's of course), and maybe she's got a small cold which made her sleep longer? Who knows - let's just hope this is a trend that continues - and she's in a great mood this morning - all smiles and coos - currently staring at me from the swing while I'm typing this with eyes that say, you're supposed to be eating breakfast ... eat up mom so you can take me out of this...

S&S

PS - trying the mini-posts this week, as I never remember these little details for the longer ones - and it's the little details in life that you usually wish you could remember ...

Weight update

We had a doctor's appointment today and I'm happy to report that our little Miss Maddie is now 11 lbs 4 oz - she's gaining weight right on the 25th percentile curve (which is smaller than average, but so was I, so I guess she's her mother's daughter).

S&S

PS - Would also like to update that she is her Mother's daughter in more ways than one. Yesterday we were listening to Madonna together and while smiling up a storm, I swear she giggled a few times (and maybe I was dancing like a maniac in front of her)...

New Years and New Things

Well the weekend after Christmas went by in a bit of a blur. On Saturday Seth invited over a friend of his that he used to work at Enterprise with - he and his girlfriend live nearby in Whitby and also just had a little girl - so it was nice to sit down and chat with a couple of newbie parents and meet their little one. They brought Maddie a present (small toy) which of course made me feel like ass, as we hadn't gotten Farrah anything - how can you be THAT on your game right after Christmas, come on! I didn't even have cheese and crackers to put out, much less gifts to give. Oh well...

Sat night Seth and I just stayed in and cleaned up the house a bit - watched a movie and just chilled really. Sunday my mom arrived at noon (she had volunteered to come up and take care of Maddie so we could actually go out on New Year's Eve). Our friend Brian came over (in town from Alberta) to tour the house, then the boys left for Greg's to watch some Sunday afternoon football. Left to our own devices, Mom and I just relaxed and played with Maddie - not really doing much at all. On Monday Seth had to work until 3pm, so Mom and I headed over to Walmart to pick up a few things (including some yarn and needles so I can try to knit a little toque for Maddie). When we got home, Mom made a yummy Shepherd's Pie out of the left over prime rib roast that we had from xmas dinner - great pre-party stomach base!

My friend Sandra was also staying with us that evening - so we got Mom set up in the living room on the couch (her choice, we certainly didn't force her to sleep there - but it was easier for access to the kitchen for warming bottles etc) + the bassinet set up for Maddie. I showed Mom how we usually tucked Maddie in at night - swaddled and with another blanket tucked around her, receiving blanket up at her head for softness etc - she really does prefer a soft bed and most bassinets/cradles have such thin, hard little mattresses - no wonder she wasn't sleeping all that well in the beginning. And yes, I realize that you're not supposed to have "loose blankets" on a baby when they're sleeping anymore, but I guess we've found something that works - and compared to the sleepless nights (and days) we were having before...

Anyways, Mom patiently kept the eye-rolling to a minimum as I explained her bedtime routine, how to put her down, when she likes to eat/wake up etc. You'd think I was leaving her with a 12-year-old babysitter, not a mom (nurse) with years of practice...

Honestly though - it was hard for me to leave Maddie. I was feeling mainly guilty, but also sad that I wasn't going to be with her when the new year was 'rung in'. We gave her her bath before we left, so she was all swaddled up and ready for sleep and we were finally heading over the party around 8-ish. I think Seth would have liked to be heading to the party slightly earlier (to hang with the boys), but that was the earliest I was able to feel like I was ready to go - bedtime routine accomplished, we headed over to really party for the first time in almost a year (for me).

It was fun seeing everyone and letting loose a bit. We played some games, some guitar hero (that's me rocking out with Sarah Price - yeah, it's a video game, but you totally feel like you're playing the guitar, it's fun!) and had several cocktails (I did talk to Mom at midnight - to wish her a happy new year and thank her - and Maddie was up eating when I called - so she rang in the new year with Gram instead of Mommy). By 3am I was more than ready to get home, rounded up the troops and headed home (thank you DD Todd!). Maddie was asleep when we got home, and after pumping we headed to bed as well. A solid 3.5 hours of sleep for me and I was pack up Mom's car and get her on her way - with snow in the forecast, she wanted to get on the road early in the morning. So feeling a little under the weather (but not as bad as I expected - just tired really) I was back on parental duty, and our babysitter was on her way home as planned. With the snow worsening, I woke Sandra up to warn her (who had a drive to Mississauga ahead of her) - so she was gone by 8:30.

And Seth? Oh, he slept in until 3pm. Yes, you read that right. 3pm. He was feeling a little worse for wear you see, and still felt sick once he finally got up. Don't worry - he realizes that next time he gets the 3 hour sleep and I get to sleep in until whenever I want. At least I hope he realizes that...

So that was how we rung in 2008. And here we are with a little 12-week-old monkey. I can't believe how much she's changed over these 3 months - heck, I can't believe how much she changes from week to week! But with her 'official' 3 month birthday coming up in a couple of days here's a quick overview of her latest accomplishments (or quirks!)...

• Her favourite word is "Geeeeeeeeee" - said with a gurgle in her voice - it can mean, "I'm happy, you're happy, the world is great!" and it can also mean, "Geeeee - I'm tired and annoyed and you better cuddle me into a sleep very soon or I will get angry."
• She still hasn't rolled over again since that one time - in fact when we do tummy time she doesn't even seem that interested in putting up her head or trying to roll over all that much. But I guess that's what happens when they're growing or focusing on learning something else, they kind of have a one-track mind, so seem like they 'forget' the other things they were learning.
• And lately she's been focusing on...her hands! Chewing, sucking, looking at - anything to do with her hands, she's all about it. She holds her hands in front of her a lot (like she's praying) - especially if you're holding her in a cradle hold and she's sleepy. And she also is big into grasping things - like your hair if you're silly enough to wear it down, or your earrings, necklace, sweater, the edge of a blanket, Daddy's chest hair - really anything within reach she's grabbing at it and just holding on for dear life.
• Since she doesn't seem to love tummy time anymore, to help her strengthen her neck muscles we have started to put her in her Bumbo instead. She likes it (most of the time) and the gravity of sitting up seems to do something to her guts, because she LOVES to fill her diaper while in it, haha. Here's a pic of our big girl hanging out in her Bumbo, holding up her head like it ain't no thing...
• Her sleep at night is really great. We've gotten into the routine of giving her a bath around 8pm, swaddling her, feeding her and rocking her to sleep - so she's usually in bed by 9-ish and sleeps until 4 or 5am. Then she's up for a feed and back down to sleep until around 8:30am. The only bad habit that I've gotten into is bringing her into bed with me after that 5am feed - because she rarely goes right back to sleep and she will toss and turn herself right awake, but if she's laying in bed next to me, she seems to go right back to sleep so easily. We've been doing this for over a month now (when she's not sleeping well in her cradle, bringing her into bed), but as she gets older, I know we have to start really working at not creating bad habits ... so this week is our first attempt at stricter sleep routines. Meaning Mommy will try to put her down in her cradle for ALL her nighttime sleep and for her daytime naps. (Her daytime naps are often ON me, she sleeps for so much longer when cuddled in, but I know that has to stop as well - for both of us.) I'll keep you updated on our progress with that... we're hoping to have her sleeping in her own room, in her crib, by the end of the month.
• Lastly - she's still a huge morning smiler - LOVES to wake up and get changed and just sit and stare at you (while sitting in her sit-up pillow on the couch). And if she gets enough sleep during the day, her good mood/easy smiles seems to last all day. But to be honest, she's usually got a bit of a fussy period around 6:30 - just in time for when Seth gets home (poor guy). I think she's started to laugh - she makes the high-pitched sucking in breath noise that I think is a laugh, but can't really tell. Definitely no giggles yet - at least awake. This morning I woke up to her dreaming in her cradle beside me - it was around 6am (and yes, she was still in her cradle - I'm doing well so far!) - and she was making all sorts of noise, moving around etc. - but with her eyes closed. And then I see her smiling and making a 'hahahahah' noise which I have to assume is laughing. Who knows what the dream was about - but I'm glad it was a good one - she really seemed to be enjoying herself - it was the most priceless thing - first time I've really seen her dreaming like that (beyond 'sleep smiles').

So that's your Vallier update - gotta run as she's waking up from her nap - 45 minutes in her cradle - already off to a good start for our sleep routines in the New Year!

S&S