Catching Up...the first ER visit

It's been awhile since we have posted...Maddie has been keeping us busy. Maddie made her first trip to the ER. On September 20th (the day of our cousin Troy's wedding) Maddie wasn't feeling very well. She seemed warm, and her "bodily functions" weren't normal. She seemed warm and slept most of the day, so we gave her some baby Tylenol and hoped she would be better by the time we had to leave for the wedding. When that time came, she still felt warm, so I told Matt to go ahead to the wedding and I would stay home.

Maddie slept most of the day and about an hour after Matt left, I took her temperature and it was 103.6. Needless to say, I began freaking out and called Matt to tell him we were going to the hospital. I got her dressed and drove to the hospital. The down side? The closest hospital is in Lake Forest, which is about a 1/2 hour drive.

Making a long story short, after waiting over an hour and a half for the ER doctor to come in, it turned out that Maddie had a throat virus, which caused the fever and the other symptoms. Since it was a virus, there was nothing that they could give her, just motrin for the pain and tylenol for the fever. Of course, easier said than done. It hurt Maddie to eat, talk, and swallow, therefore, it hurt for her to take her medicine. She was up the next few nights crying and screaming, and of course we felt helpless because there was nothing we could do. Luckily, she's over the infection and feeling much better.

Nine Months Old Today

Madeline is 9 months old today. She is growing up so fast...we don't know where the time has gone. She is crawling everywhere and is getting faster by the day. She is able to stand on her own and has begun to walk sidestep along tables and window sills. We know that it will be a short time before she's walking on her own.

We took her for her 9 month check up today and she didn't have to get a shot, which was a bonus. Matt and I were betting with the doctor how much she weighed, and Dr. McGowan was a lot closer than we were! She is now 22 pounds, 12 ounces, and is 29 inches long. She has grown 2-1/2 inches since her 6 month check up. The doctor said that she's doing very well and is in the 90th percentile for both weight and height. He doesn't doubt that she'll be walking soon.

Life continues to be busy with work and Madeline. She absolutely loves daycare and there are a few kids her age that she plays with. Pat says that she's the easiest of all the kids to take care of. She's always in a good mood and she's eating her solid food well, etc. She's not a fan of veggies, but loves sweet potatoes and squash. We can get her to eat peas here and there, but she's getting better. She loves bananas and pretty much every kind of fruit.

Here are some recent pictures of her that we took at the park last week, along with some pictures from today.

She loves to swing at the park

She also is rid of her fear of grass

I found these pj's and thought they were so cute!

Have a great Labor Day!

Eighth Month Update

Life has been busy around here lately! Our weekends have been full of parties, BBQ's and family visits.

Madeline is now 8 months old if you can believe it. Where does the time go?!? She gets more mobile by the day. Less than a week after crawling, she was pulling herself up to a standing position by pulling on mom or dad's clothes. Now she can crawl up to anything (couch, coffee tables, stairs) and she can pull herself into a standing position. She now lets go of the furniture and stands for a brief second before falling on her butt. The cutest...she gets excited when mom or dad stands across the room and she smiles, crawls to you, and uses your pant leg to stand up.

She's been learning so much lately. In the past three weeks she has crawled, pulled herself into a standing position, sits up from a lying position, and claps her hands. Our daycare person said that Maddie is a people watcher, and when Pat plays patty-cake with the other kids, Maddie watches. Next thing we now, she's clapping herself!

We hate to admit that she's growing up, but we had to accept it the other day when we had to completely lower her crib mattress. She is able to stand in her crib and has learned that she can jump and bounce on the mattress.

Another update...she now has two lower front teeth!

Here are some newer pictures of our little one...

She loves cell phones. Her favorite toy is Matt's old cell phone.

Of course, the one in the picture is mommy's current phone.

She loves popsicles...cherry is her favorite

Maddie is able to balance on her knees without holding on.

She's going to be walking before we know it!

We had to completely lower the mattress on her crib.

She loves bouncing on her bed.

Madeline's On The Move...

Madeline has now begun to crawl. Over the past month or so, she has been able to get into the crawling position, but instead of moving her arms and legs, she would rock back and forth and then get upset that she wasn't moving forward. Over the past week, she has been able to get some smaller crawling steps in. But Sunday, she took some bigger crawling steps. She is becoming more consistent, but when she wants something, she'll still get on her tummy and army crawl. Today, she crawled across her room to get to a toy. Now comes the fun part - baby proofing the house!

She has another cold, this is the worst yet. She has a runny nose, cough, and a fever. To add to it, she is also teething, so she's been a little crabby...but who can blame her. She still smiles and plays, but she spent most of today sleeping. Matt was able to watch her since he could work from home, and I will be taking her to the doctor tomorrow, and taking the day off. I'm sure it's just something that needs to take its course, so hopefully she'll be ok in a few days.

Low Key 4th of July

Sorry for all the posts! I've got some catching up to do...

Since last weekend was so busy, and the next coming weekends are going to be super busy as well, we decided to have a low-key 4th. It was nice having a three day weekend (and the best part...we still have tomorrow!)

Friday was spent shopping in Vernon Hills. Matt said that "We need to buy Maddie a toy" so we stopped at Babies R Us, and of course we had to get her 2 toys...not just one. Amazingly enough...I didn't buy her any clothes. This is hard for me because there are so many cute outfits. But, Maddie has a ton of clothes, so I didn't even look. I think I even surprsied Matt! We were out shopping for about 4-1/2 hours...Maddie loves shopping and looking at all the items on the shelves.

When we got home, we took her to the park. We found out at my company picnic that she loves to swing in the baby "bucket" swing. She laughs and scunches her nose. Luckily there are a few parks in our area that we can walk to!

What we've been up to lately...

Things have been very busy with us lately. I can now officially say that I'm used to working full time again. I really like my job and my boss is super nice. It's still hard to drop Maddie off from time to time, but she really loves the kids at her daycare, and I know that she's well taken care of.

The past couple of weeks have been so busy! Last Friday (6/27) was my company softball/BBQ outing. Matt and Maddie came with and got to meet everyone that I work with. Maddie was so good, she only cried once because she was hungry. I was surprised she did so well since it was so warm and humid. She slept through a large part of the party, which was surprising because everyone was so loud.

The 28th was another BBQ with a co-worker of Matt's. There were a lot of kids at this party...I think there were more strollers than chairs! We got rained on a little, but the weather cleared up and it ended up being a nice day. Luckily Maddie slept in the car to and from the party, so she was in a good mood most of the day.

And then the 29th was Matt's birthday. He went for a motorcycle ride in the morning, and then Peggy came over and we went to a nice steakhouse for dinner. We kept it pretty low-key since our weekend was so busy to begin with.

Seven Month Update

Madeline turned 7 months old on June 28th. We can't believe how big she's gotten! She is now 20 pounds, 3 ounces. She is talking more and more, and laughs all the time. Matt and I are very lucky that we have such a happy baby.

Madeline is almost crawling. She can get into the crawling position, and then she rocks back and forth. She took 2 crawling "steps" the other day, but we know that she'll be crawling before we know it! She still doesn't have any teeth, but we're expecting those any day now as well. She's been sitting on her own for quite awhile now, and has very good balance. She can't get herself into a sitting position if she's laying down, but we know that will be coming with time as well.

She has been doing great at daycare. Everyone there just seems to love her. One of the ladies that works with our daycare person came up to us at Chili's the other day and told us what a great baby she was...always so happy. Madeline loves to people watch, and she also loves to giggle at our dog.