Wow, it's been a while...

Yeah, I totally dropped the ball on this blog.  I'm sorry dear readers!

So, what's happened in the last month?  Well, Blake, Louis and Jenny came to visit.  I still can't get over how much better Blake was and he's only 6 weeks older than her!!!  Here are a couple shots of the cuties:

Maddie ventured outside for one of our very few snows this year and touched snow for the first time.  I don't have a shot of that, but I think Louis got one.  I'll have to ask.  But, here she is all bundled up for the cold weather:

 And here is Miss Maddie finally fitting in the outfit I originally bought for her to come home from the hospital.  Obviously, this was WAY before we knew she was going to be early and super tiny. 

Maddie has gotten into the habit of staring at daddy when he gets home from work.  He always gets TONS of smiles from her.  I couldn't help but get a few shots of her staring at him in awe.  This is one of my favorites:

 Maddie apparently likes to watch basketball.  There were lots of Maddie smiles while she was watching the Big 10 Tourney.  And here she is supporting her team:

 The weather in Michigan has been absolutely spectacular for over a week now.  Last Friday, Ryan and I took Maddie to the park for a walk and to test out the new Beco Gemini carrier I got.  It's Maddie approved...she loves to pass out in that thing.  It's also mom approved because it is SUPER comfortable.  Here's a shot of us!

 St. Patrick's Day!!!  Here's our little lovebug all excited about her new dress:

 We went to Jill and Aaron's house for a SPD party.  Aaron made some home brew and I must say, the Vanilla Porter was pretty spectacular!  I ate entirely too much...Reubens, Spinach Dip, Guinness Cupcakes, Beef Stew, Cheese & Crackers, etc.  All of the food was delish.  Even Maddie tried a deli pickle (read: let her lick the juice) and she actually liked it, lol.  Here's a shot of the fam at J&A's:

 Maddie loves strawberry juice.  Grandma gave her one last weekend and she must have licked and sucked on that thing for 20 minutes. 

 And finally, we tried her out in her jump-up.  She had a blast, but doesn't understand the whole "jumping" concept yet.  Instead, she just spun herself around in circle.

 Check out those beautiful blue eyes!  I hope they stay this color because they're gorgeous!

And finally, yesterday Maddie had her last Synagis shot.  While we were there the nurse took all of her measurements so her pediatrician can keep up-to-date on her progress.  Well, last night at 9 o'clock our ped called all excited.  She apologized for calling so late, but couldn't wait to tell us....Maddie is officially on the FULL TERM GROWTH CHART!!!  Yayayayayayayayayayay!!!  She didn't give us the percentiles (probably because they're 0.1%, lol), but she did give us her percentiles on the preemie chart.  Yesterday, Miss Maddie was 10 lbs 5 oz (25%), 22 1/4" long (25%) and had a head circumference of 15 1/2" (50%).  My little bitty and doing such a fantastic job of catching up!  We couldn't be happier with her progress.

Also, we got our very first baby GIGGLES last night!!!  <3

Finally, today Maddie is 4 months old.  I can't believe how fast time is going by!!!

Quick Baby Update!

Yesterday, we had a doctor's appointment for Maddie to get her Synagis shot.  Her pediatrician, Dr. Becker, wants to keep an eye on how she's growing at the appointments so we don't go two months in between her measurements. 

At 2 months:

• 6 lbs 2 oz
• 19" long
• 14" head circumference

At 3 months:

• 8 lbs 6 oz
• 20 1/4" long
• 14 3/4" head circumference

Baby is definitely growing!!!  I'm not sure where that makes her fall on the growth curve, she was in the 3rd percentile for preemies born at 34 weeks.  Dr. Becker is supposed to call me next week to go over her stats.

In other Maddie news, she started smiling last week as well as tracking objects with her eyes.  She sort of tries to grab at her owl toy that Aunt Ashley bought her, but it's not frequent enough yet to call it "grabbing."

And here are a couple obligatory Maddie pictures:

Wide Eyed & Bushy Tailed!

Maddie woke up a happy baby today!

March for Babies

This year I have decided to do the March for Babies in honor of Miss Madeleine.

Every day, thousands of babies are born too soon, too small and often very sick. I'm walking in March for Babies because I want to do something about this. And I need your help.

Please support my walk by either joining us in Dexter at the March of Dimes event on April 29th or consider making a donation. Making a secure donation is easy: just click the 'donate now' button on my page:  http://www.marchforbabies.org/mramsayer. Thank you for helping me give all babies a healthy start!

The mission of March of Dimes is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality.  Your gift will support March of Dimes research and programs that help moms have full-term pregnancies and babies begin healthy lives. And it will be used to bring comfort and information to families with a baby in newborn intensive care.

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!