Madelyne makes a visit

Really, since Madelyne has been born, I've kind of taken up residence on the couch. First it was just recovering from the C-section, then it was because every time Maddy would sleep, I just wanted to lay down and doze myself. Finally, on Monday, Ash said I should probably get out of the house. I appreciate him thinking of me. He said if it was him, he would be going nuts by now. Honestly though, it hasn't bothered me. I've been out a couple times for Maddy's doctor's appointments and mine. And really, I'm just living in this hazy twilight state that comes from not sleeping except for the occasional 2-3 hour snatches that I can catch when Maddy is asleep. Getting out of the house is actually pretty far down on my list of concerns. Sleeping totally takes priority and I can do that without going anywhere.

I figured he was right though and should probably make an effort to get out, so Tuesday, we went to Mom and Dad's. It was fun. It was Maddy's first, non-medical related visit anywhere. Dad had a good time holding the baby.



I had a good time sleeping on the couch while mom took care of the baby. And, the cats were completely confused by what the little stinky thing in the car seat was.



There have been several suggestions as to what Zorro is thinking at this point. The general consensus is that he is disappointed that this comfortable looking seat is full of baby. Madelyne was not impressed.

Swing, swing, swing

Madelyne's starting to have more furniture than I do. Yesterday, Ash went out and bought her a swing. It is a really cool swing too! It's got and AC plug in to power it or just a battery option should you not be anywhere near a power outlet. It has six swing settings, 10 different classical music tunes it plays, and like 5 different nature noises. The best part is that it's perfect for Madelyn. She's a funny sort of baby and I can tell her's Ash's daughter because she doesn't really like it to be just quiet. She is a lot calmer if there's music playing or just sound going on around her. She also likes to rock, so she's pretty happy in her new swing. And really, if Maddy is happy, I'm happy.

Babies one, babies all, let's all do the baby call... wah, wah, wah, wah

Maddy had her one week check up today. She passed with flying colors. The doctor said unless I noticed her getting yellow again, that we wouldn't need to recheck her bilirubin (hooray!!). And, Maddy weighed in at a walloping 5 lbs 4 oz. She has to go back next week to get weighed again to make sure she keeps gaining. The goal is to get her back to her birth weight by next week or by week 3. So we've got 6 oz to go. Baby's got to bulk up!

Maddy also had some tummy time today. She is lacking a sheep's fleece, which apparently babies just THRIVE on when they lay on it. In fact, we were told by the woman who sold us the fleece for my brother's baby, that it's just like being in the womb (because the womb is fuzzy and fleecy??!). So, Maddy had tummy time on a nice fleece blanket that she got from her baby shower. It has Winnie the Pooh on it and it's cute.



Maddy really wasn't that impressed with tummy time, but oh well. It's good for her.

Glow-worm... You're doing it right

Madelyne was a little jaundiced when we got discharged from the hospital, so for the last four days we have to take her in to get blood drawn so the doctors could monitor the level of bilirubin in her system. First, they said to try to supplement her with formula to see if the extra fluid would help bring the level down. She gained some weight, but her bilirubin levels went up a little higher, so Madelyne won herself a biliblanket. The blanket's not that bad. It's about the size of Madelyne and it's got UV lights in it. So you strip the baby down to her diaper and lay her on the biliblanket and wrap her up tight in a regular blanket and you have a nice toasty baby who's bilirubin is slowly going down... and she looks like a glow-worm.

Happily though, today her bilirubin finally went down low enough that she doesn't need the blanket anymore and Ash is taking it back to the medical equipment agency. I am not sad to see it go. It's nice to be able to put Maddy in clothes again. Here's the problem with dressing Maddy though. All the clothes she got from her showers are huge!! This is Madelyne going to get blood drawn today.



When I found out she didn't need the blanket anymore I went to some garbage bags of clothes from one of the ladies at work. When I first got them from her, there were several outfits that looked like they would only fit a small doll. I figured, why not try it though. Oh my goodness. She now has jammies that fit her perfectly. She almost looks like a normal-sized baby now!

The Many Hats of Madelyne

We had to take Madelyne out on Saturday to get her bilirubin levels checked since she was a little high when we left the hospital on Friday. I don't know what I was thinking. Her appointment was at 10:00. Ash and I woke up at 9:30 and usually bili-checks take all of 5 minutes. So I dressed her quick and all her clothes are huge on her, so she had a pair of soft pink pants on that came up to her arm pits and covered her feet. She was swimming in her onesy and the hat I put on her was just not the right size. And, I forgot to put socks on her because you couldn't see her feet anyways. They were not very impressed when we got to the OB department and we ended up having to stay for an hour and a half because her bilirubin was still high and they had to draw blood and we had to wait for lab work and then the on-call pediatrician. We hadn't even brought an extra diaper or anything because I thought it was just going to be a quick in-and-out thing. Guess I know better now! I blame the Percocet I've been taking. After that, I called mom. I have a mother that knits. There is no reason that her hat should be covering her whole head! So Madelyne went from this:



(Ash says she is making a stink-face here)

To this:



And this:



And life was much better!!

First Bath

Maddy had her first bath today. I'm not positive she enjoyed it, but she tolerated it. She was looking very shifty by the time it was over though. Here's Maddy post-bath. She is swimming in the bathrobe she got, but no less cute!! As you can see, she's still not sure what to think about the whole bath thing.