Two Month Check Up

Madeline is now two months old! Where does the time go?

She had her two month visit with her doctor yesterday. She is now 12 pounds, 2 ounces. She is happy and healthy, but had to get two shots today...one in each leg. She was not thrilled at all. Later on in the afternoon Matt was giving her a bottle and her legs began to hurt. She screamed for half an hour straight (until the baby Tylenol kicked in). She's feeling better now, and was nothing but smiles today.

Cute As A Button

We both feel so blessed to have Madeline in our lives. In the past few weeks she has begun cooing, laughing, and smiling. She brings so much joy to our lives. Even after crying for hours, if she gives us one smile, it's all forgotten. Here are some pictures from the past two weeks. We can't believe how much she's changed!

Thanks for the pajamas Aunt Lauren!!

Madeline loves her baths!

We will be keeping up with posting going forward, so check back soon!

One Month Check Up (A Little Late) – January 7, 2008

Since Madeline was one month old during the holidays, it was impossible to get her an appointment. We took her in on January 7th for her one month check up. Madeline had been fussy all morning, as she has been for the past few weeks. She cried at the doctor’s office for an hour. The doctor took a look at her again and stated that she has reflux.

Basically, there is a sphincter at the top of the throat that opens and closes for food to pass through. Some babies don’t have a mature “open and close” reflex, so she would choke when starting to eat because the sphincter hadn’t opened, and when laying her flat after eating, the sphincter wouldn’t close, so she would spit everything back up. Babies eventually grow out of this, but to help Madeline, the doctor prescribed Zantac. It’s in liquid form and she takes 1 ML twice a day. This helps with the reflux so it doesn’t hurt her as much.

Since she’s been on the medication, it’s like night and day. She doesn’t love taking the medicine (which smells like peppermint), but she’s doing better swallowing it.

During this visit, Madeline is now 11 pounds 2 ounces. The doctor measured her and said that the length is still 20 ½, but he thinks that there may have been a mistake in measuring her at the hospital. Other than that, she’s happy and healthy!

Maddie’s First Christmas

We decided to keep Maddie’s first Christmas low key, so we only had Peggy and Lauren over. Vicky made a ham, and Peggy and Lauren were nice enough to make the side dishes and bring dessert.

Peg and Lauren bought Maddie some adorable keepsakes…a pewter rattle with her initials and birth date engraved, and a pewter cup with her name and birth date. They will go in the nursery as soon as we have shelves up.

Maddie slept through most of her first Christmas, but she did have a cute Christmas outfit on!

Vicky’s mom and sisters came over for Christmas a week later. Vicky’s youngest sister Jessica is 7 years old and was so excited to meet her niece. She went to “Build a Bear” and made Maddie a teddy bear. She helped Matt change her diaper and wouldn’t leave her side for a second. Unfortunately, Maddie was very fussy this day, and cried most of the afternoon and evening. (Reflux reared its ugly head).

Second Doctor Visit – December 18, 2007

We noticed that Madeline was crying and screaming at certain times during the day (usually 2 pm and 11 pm). There was no consoling her and she refused to lay flat on her back. She would scream and cry and end up throwing up. She also had been making noises in her throat that sounded like she was spitting up, but nothing would come out. We weren’t sure what was going on, so being new parents, we took her to the doctor. Luckily our doctor is great…they were completely booked the following day, but squeezed us in and sat and talked to us for over a half an hour.

The doctor said we were doing everything right, that some babies are just fussy. He said it was too early for colic, so he thought that it could be reflux. If it got worse, we were to let him know, as he didn’t want to put Madeline on medication unless we absolutely had to. We left the doctor’s office feeling better knowing that we were doing everything we could.

First Doctor Visit - December 11, 2007

We took Madeline to the doctor today to get her Hepatitis shot. When we left the hospital, she weighed 8 pounds 4 ounces. She was weighed today and is now 9 pounds! She is still 20 ½ inches long. She is doing great (except for the shot, she screamed louder than we’ve ever heard her scream before).

Going Home - December 2, 2007

Vicky and Madeline were released from the hospital on Sunday morning. It was nice to finally be leaving the hospital, as we were all going stir crazy from being cooped up in the hospital for that long period of time. It was nice to be in our own house, using our own shower, etc. Matt had stayed with Vicky in the hospital for 2 of the 3 nights, and it was nice to be home with our little bundle.

Of course, less than 12 hours after we were home, our heat went out!! At 9 pm on a Sunday, there aren’t many places you can go to get a part for a furnace. We were without heat for the entire night; luckily we were able to keep warm with a small heater in our bedroom.

Luckily, Matt went out first thing Monday morning and was able to get the part we needed and fixed our furnace. Not how we wanted to spend our first night home, but we managed!

Aunt Lauren Visits - December 1, 2007

Lauren had previously scheduled a trip to Chicago hoping that Madeline would be born while she was visiting. She got her wish! She and Peggy came to visit us in the hospital. She was able to come and visit us a couple of times in the hospital before she left, so it was great timing!!

On Time Arrival – November 28th

Madeline was born right on time! Vicky’s due date was November 28th, and Madeline was born November 28th at 1:38 pm. She was 8 pounds 14 ounces and was 20½ inches long.

We were both surprised that Vicky went into labor so fast! She didn't have any contractions during the day, but at 1:45 am she woke Matt up and they began timing the contractions. Within 45 minutes, they were 5 minutes apart. By the time we got to the hospital, they were 2 minutes apart. After a few hours of monitoring, Madeline wasn't moving down, so it was decided that Vicky would have a c-section. Both mom and baby did well and we remained in the hospital for an additional 3 days.