Well, shoot.

Apparently I am not posting enough pictures of Little Miss for everyone's liking.  So, here are a couple from the last few days:

Inside Joke Bib - Thanks Grandma!

Not only is she starting to hold her paci in her mouth, but she's starting to try to hold her bottle.  I think it's adorable.

A couple pictures of her in our favorite outfit:

And finally, hanging out with Great-Grandpa, and his girlfriend Betty, on his 92nd birthday!

PS - I absolutely love the picture of Jack & Maddie.  I hope she treasures it one day as much as I do!

Blue and Pink Love

My best friend and I ended up being pregnant together.  I was wonderful to be able to bounce pregnancy symptoms and different questions off of each other to know that what we were going through was absolutely normal.  I relied a lot on her, The Bump, and a few other websites to answer my questions.  I thought pregnancy was confusing...yeah, that was a piece of cake compared to parenthood!

Jenny approached me a while ago about making a new mommy blog.  Something we wish would have been around when we were getting ready to welcome our little bundles of joy and on every day we've spent raising them.  I loved the idea and signed on immediately.

It's obviously still a work in progress, but please check it out:  http://blueandpinklove.blogspot.com/

We would love to hear you comments, suggestions, critiques and most importantly let us know what topics you'd like our input on.  We definitely plan to dedicate a whole post to baby products -- must haves, have nots, and things that have come in really handy with our particular baby!

Lucky...

I realized today after reading some comments on Facebook that Maddie and I were incredibly lucky with our medical care.

I knew my OB was good from the start.  The practice I see was started by the OB that delivered my sister and I.  My OB (whom I've been seeing since I was 16) performed my mom's surgery.  We've known him for a long time and I have always been comfortable with him.  It wasn't until I became pregnant and had complications that I realized what an amazing practice it truly is.  I was cared for by 5 OBs, whom I had to rotate through for all of my prenatal appointments.  Every single one of them took time with me to explain things and answer any and every question I had.  Every single one of them came to see me every day I was in the hospital.  One of them in particular told me about her own complicated pregnancy and small baby.  I could not have asked for better care from any of them at any time.  Each and every one of them really went above and beyond with me to make sure I was comfortable, informed, and at peace. 

When I was diagnosed with GD, I was referred to a Maternal Fetal Medicine (MFM) doctor who specializes in high risk pregnancies at Henry Ford.  While I was not necessarily a fan of her "worse case scenario" approach to things, I was thoroughly impressed with her always swift action and strict monitoring schedule to make sure that baby and I were safe.  My OBs were always updated on my appointments immediately after I left her office and a group approach was always taken before making any decisions about our care.  In the end, it was my MFM that decided it was time for me to go on bedrest, leave work, and ultimately be admitted to the hospital.  She came to visit me several times while I was in the hospital and even briefed her colleague on my case before going on vacation.

I also lucked out on my hospital.  I delivered at Henry Ford W. Bloomfield because that is the hospital my OB works out of (and also my MFM).  I have never in my life been to such a nice hospital with fantastic nurses.  I had a private room, my own bathroom, a refrigerator, TV w/ cable, internet access, room service, daily cleaning service, and the ability to have spa services in my room.  Honestly, in some ways it was like being in a hotel instead of a hospital.  I think I met every nurse on staff in L&D while I was there and they were all fantastic.  I heard on more than one occasion that the nurses got into arguments over who was going to get me for the day or night.  Shoot, I even had the hospital president come to my room and ask me how I was being cared for and if there was anything he could do for me.  The food was fantastic...restaurant quality in most cases.  The facilities and people there truly made hospital bedrest a lot better than it probably would have been.  The NICU was state of the art, private rooms with pull out couches, and again with wonderful nurses and doctors.  I was always kept abreast of what was going on with my baby and the nurses were all very helpful in answering my questions and teaching me how to care for baby.

I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Maddie and I both received the best care possible.  I have no doubt that Maddie needed to be delivered when she was, and I have no doubt that without the extraordinary care I received that Maddie would have been born much earlier than 34 weeks.  We had the best outcome I could have possibly hoped for under not-so-great circumstances.  I had a complication-free c-section and a baby that needed nearly zero interventions while in the hospital.  We are both thriving, and I know it's because of the swift, caring, and informed care I received.

I also stumbled into an amazing practice of pediatricians.  I put out an open call for friends and family to recommend their peds in the area.  A very good friend of the family gave a glowing review of the ped that he takes his girls to, and could not recommend her highly enough.  I called and tried to get Maddie in with her, but she was closed to new patients; I think that probably attests to how wonderful she is.  So, I decided to look into the other doctors in her practice and found one I thought I was really going to like.  I couldn't have made a better choice.  Maddie's ped is fantastic.  She honestly called us the first Sunday Maddie was home to make sure that everything was going okay and to see if we needed anything/had any questions.  She always makes plenty of time for our appointments and answers every questions I could possibly have.  She was even thinking of Maddie when she saw an explosion of RSV in the office and wanted us called to come in for her Synagis shot!  At her two month appointment, I honestly don't know who was more excited about Maddie's progress...me or her ped.

We are both very lucky to have such wonderful doctors.  I rest easy knowing that my little baby has the best care available!

2 Month Appointment

Maddie had her 2 month appointment yesterday and we got wonderful news.

She officially weighs 6 lbs 2 oz and is 19 inches long.  That's a gain of 1 lb 7 oz in just over 2 weeks, and a gain of 2.5" in 3 weeks.  Maddie also jumped up from being completely off the growth charts to the 3rd percentile.  Dr. Becker was thrilled with her progress and told us to keep doing whatever we're doing because it's working wonders!  She was surprised to see that Maddie jumped up to the 3rd percentile, because usually IUGR babies will stay "off the charts" if they start out that way.

She has a very tiny umbilical hernia, which is common in babies, and will resolve on it's own.  It doesn't seem to bother her at all and you can barely see it:

See the little purple part in the middle?  That's it.  I blame it on her incessant crying for the first few weeks at home :)

Maddie also had what I thought was a nasty diaper rash, but after not getting better for days I called the pediatrician and they said it was probably a yeast infection and to try applying Lotrimin to it for 3-4 days.  That combined with changing her over to cloth diapers help clear it all up!  Dr. Becker checked to make sure she didn't have Thrush (she doesn't) and said that her little bum looks wonderful.  Here's Maddie in her very first Fuzzibunz:

As for her milestones, she seems to be hitting some at her actual age (8 weeks) and it looks like some we're going to have to adjust for her prematurity (she's only 2 weeks adjusted).  At 8 weeks she should be smiling, but she's not doing that yet, so that looks like something that will come somewhere in the next 6 weeks.  At 8 weeks she should also be getting better head and neck control, which as you can see, she is doing VERY well with:

Dr. Becker is happy with how she's hitting her milestones and we'll just keep watching to make sure she's not falling behind.  I can't wait to see her smile (and not have it be because of gas).  That is one milestone I'm really looking forward to!

The end of the appointment was time for shots!  First and foremost, the incidence of RSV has skyrocketed in the last week in our area and Dr. Becker had left a note with reception to get us in asap for her Synagis shot.  She felt it was more prudent to give her the shot this month and have her go without in April.  But, turns out, no need to choose because BCBS approved us for three *additional* shots.  So, she'll be protected from now thru the end of RSV season, YAY!

Maddie also got her normal 2 month vaccines.  She did really well while getting the shots.  There, obviously, was crying when she got them.  But, she quieted down pretty quickly after it was done.  However, last night was rough for everyone.  There was a lot of hysterical crying, a failed Tylenol attempt, not much sleeping, and a lot of eating.  So far today she seems to be a bit better with the Tylenol in her system.  I think it's her little legs that hurt.  I know when I got the Pertussis vaccine it felt like someone punched me in the arm for 3 days after.

In closing, here is one of my new favorite Maddie pictures:

2 Months Old!

Just had to post this article.

I love this article.

And honestly, I might throw the next little old lady off the mountain because newborns suck and I can absolutely tell you that I will NOT miss the newborn stage.  There, I said it.

Don't Carpe Diem

Life Around These Parts

First, I'd like to apologize for not being on the ball with the blog.  Part of the reason is that having a newborn is exhausting and the other part is that not much is going on beside taking care of a small baby. 

Madeleine is 7 weeks old today.  She's over 5 pounds and finally fitting into newborn clothes AND diapers.  So, what do we know about Maddie?  She loves to sleep on her belly.  I know I'm going to be in for some sleepless nights once she's able to roll over and decides to sleep that way.  I'll probably be checking her every 5 seconds to make sure she's still breathing.  Maddie is doing a fantastic job with her head control.  She can hold it up by herself for quite a while now!  She's also working hard on rolling over.  She can get rolled up onto either side, but then doesn't know what to do, gets upset, and cries for help.  She's eating almost 3 oz a day and definitely prefers Playtex Drop-Ins to any other bottles.  The Soothies are her favorite paci.  Maddie has become quite the messy eater in the last couple weeks; she sucks so much into her mouth that she can swallow it all and it squirts out the corners of her mouth.  She love, love, loves hanging out in the Boppy during the day on the couch.  Oh and she absolutely hates the Geico commercial with the squealing pig; every time that commercial comes on, she wakes up all Angry Pants McGee.  She likes being swaddled at night and if it's done just right she'll give mom and dad 5 straight hours of sleep.  Maddie received a little fleece blanket from Aunt J and Uncle Louis and she loved it so much that we went out and bought 3 more; they are used every day and every night.  She's a grunter.  She makes noises all day and all night whether she is awake or asleep.  She also makes a LOT of faces (I wonder who she got that from).  Maddie likes to look at mommy while she's eating until her eyes get heavy.  She is a very alert baby and loves to look all around; if she's awake those eyes are darting all over the place taking it all in.  She knows the voices of momma, daddy, and grandma.  She poops a LOT and they are all rocket propelled out.

Maddie has daddy's lips and his birthmark on the back of her neck.  She has Grandma Winslow's ears and my hands.  According to her father, she has the Winslow head shape.  She has the same triangle toe nails that Aunt Ashley had when she was born.  She has two strawberry birthmarks, one on her left shoulder blade and one right smack dab in the middle of the top of her head.  She has dirty blonde hair and blue eyes (although that may change).  She has big feet and really long fingers.   

We're in Newborn Sized Clothes!!!

My 5 pound chunky monkey fits into newborn clothing now!!!!

Trina's Tea Party

Trina decided she wanted to have a "real" tea party.  So, she busted out her brand new Easy Bake Oven from Grandma & Grandpa.

Baking Red Velvet Cupcakes:

Look how small the cupcakes are compared to the cupcake holders!

Frosted and Sprinkled!

Tea Party all set up and ready for it's guests (dad and me).

Ryan was actually surprised that the cupcakes tasted good.  I guess he never had the opportunity to play with an Easy Bake Oven while growing up!

Ringing in the New Year!

As per our usual, and likely now a sort of tradition in our family, we headed over to my parents' house for NYE.  We started out the evening playing the Kinect.  Then the neighbors from across the street, Don & Amy, came over to see Maddie.  Afterward, Ryan and my dad grilled some steaks for dinner and we gorged ourselves on steak, shrimp, salad, potato salad, and then topped it off with some delicious cheesecake!  Some more Kinect playing and then it was time to ring in the new year!

Here are some shots from last night: