Mother's Day

My first Mother's Day was FANTASTIC!! Ryan surprised me on Saturday night with a sweet card & a BEAUTIFUL bracelet. He had them hidden underneath my pillow when I went to get into bed. He picked out the bracelet on his own - the stones are her birthstone - *SO* sweet and thoughtful! He really did GREAT!! On Sunday, Madison slept until 4am (I think as a special mothers day gift to me!) and I snuggled up with her in the morning when Ryan brought her down to me. We went to church and then to our favorite sushi place for lunch. Lauren was with us and it was great fun. I felt very special and loved. As I've said a million times before, I love my sweet husband to death and feel blessed beyond measure with his love! I also love my sweet baby and pray that God will give me guidance & wisdom as I am a mother to her now & in the years to come.

Visit with Lauren & Heidi

We had a great weekend visit with Lauren & Heidi! Heidi is celebrating the big "30" this Friday so we celebrated together just the girls on Saturday night. Ryan kept Madison Claire while we went to Pei Wei for dinner, saw Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, and hit Whole Foods for some Gelato to cap off the evening! I am so thankful that God led me to GACS where I could meet Lauren & Heidi and that we have remained such good friends. Even though we don't see each other often, we are always able to pick up where we left off. I pray that Madison Claire will have friends like them when she is in high school!!

Auntie Ash

We just took Auntie Ash to the airport and are *so* sad to see her go! We had a great visit that of course included lots of Calypso - 3 times to be exact! We had fun visits with the Morrows, Jenny, and Cyndi for Madison's newborn pictures (I'll post them once I get them from Cyndi!) I've been so spoiled the past week as Ash changed diapers, gave the bath, swaddled, calmed down, and took the first night feeding so I could get a little more sleep. I feel like a horrible friend in return because I was NO such help when she had Ellie! Anyway..Madison loved snuggling with Ash! Ashley left Ellie at home with Chris & the Bradshaws and we missed her!! I can't wait for Madison to be old enough to meet her friend Ellie!!! THANK YOU Chris, Sharon & Cecil for keeping Ellie so Ash could come and visit. I *wish* that they could all move to Nashville - we'd have a blast! I'm looking forward to Ash having her second little one (that I totally claimed as a boy with 100% conviction yesterday) so I can return the HUGE blessing that she was to me this week!

A great weekend!

Ryan and I had a great weekend with Madison Claire! She has returned to her angel baby self - praise the Lord! We have made some progress on her sleeping habits - especially during her naps in the daytime! We can put her in her crib awake and she can get herself to sleep in a matter of a few minutes - sometimes immediately! It is such a blessing to me to be able to just walk in and swaddle her and then leave and know she can get herself down...it feels like it has multiplied the hours in my day because I don't have to spend as much time getting her to sleep! She has been doing this for one week now so we feel like it is finally something that has succeeded, not just a one time thing! Needless to say, as first time parents we are very proud of ourselves...and of little Madison for learning so quickly! Now if we can just get her to work on her nighttime sleeping we'll be good to go!!

We also got a new washing machine and it was delivered on Monday so we finally have clean laundry! Here are a few more pics of the angel - enjoy!

Visit with Kate

We had a great visit with Auntie Kate! She was here for 3 nights and it was such fun! Ryan and I wish she lived here...she cooked dinner every night, helped with the baby (even the late night feedings so we could sleep!), organized our closet - what more could we ask for?!? More importantly, it was so nice to be able to spend time together and introduce her to our sweet Madison...of course she fell in love with her! Madison even wore all of her cute clothes from Auntie Kate...and how precious is the big puffy white coat from the Lincolns?!? Chris Jones, our old boss at Stockamp, was in town and came over for dinner - it was great to all be together again and we had a lot of fun reminiscing about the good old days! THANK YOU, Kate for EVERYTHING!!! Come back soon...we miss you!!

Weeks 3 & 4

Well - we survived our first 2 weeks at home alone with just the 3 of us.  It is still strange to think that Madison Claire belongs to us and isn't going anywhere and it BLOWS our minds to think that she will be one month old tomorrow! 

I did pretty well my first week on my own.  Luckily, she was still in her "angel baby" stage and I was able to get a shower most days and even took her out on errands to the grocery store, Target, etc. during the day.  Ryan is able to come home for lunch which is a huge help - it is so nice to have the extra set of hands, even if just for 30 or 45 minutes so I can eat my lunch and have a break.  We weighed Madison Claire last Tuesday when she was 3 weeks old and she was up to 9.5 pounds!!!  I guess that means that she is eating well and my milk is helping her grow!  We'll weigh her again tomorrow on her 4 week birthday - we think she might be at the 10 pound mark!

We also had a few other firsts.  We gave her an actual bath in the baby tub.  She was a little shocked at first but after about 30 seconds really liked it!  I think she is going to like the water!  We also introduced the bottle (with my breastmilk that I pumped) and she took it like a champ!  She drinks so much when we give her the bottle...we have to pull it out of her mouth sometimes so she doesn't choke.  It is nice for Ryan to be able to help feed her and it has also given us much more flexibility for when we leave the house.  She also started to breakout with the baby acne that most babies get and it makes us so sad.  She has about a million pimples all over her sweet little face!  The early ones have already gone away but new ones pop up each day so I'm not sure how long it will last.

This week has been a lot harder.  We have noticed a change in her disposition (hence my last post about who stole my angel baby) and are hoping it is a phase and not permanent!  She is very unhappy when she is awake and will not go to sleep unless she is on your chest.  The minute we put her down anywhere - the crib, moses basket, car seat, she wakes up and cries and cries.  It's been pretty hard because we just can't help her!!  Please pray with us that whatever is upsetting her goes away!!!

We are planning to follow the Babywise method and started to put her  on this schedule last Thursday.  The basic premise is that she will eat, then have her awaketime, and then sleep in that order so she doesn't become dependant on eating to fall asleep.  You also put them to bed before they are fully asleep so they can learn to fall asleep on their own and self soothe.  The first day was pretty rough - everytime I would lay her down she would start crying so I would go pick her up and then she would stop so I'd lay her back down and after 5 minutes she would cry again so you can see the cycle here.  I must have gone in her room 7 times during one nap!  But it paid off and by Friday and Saturday she was doing much better at naptime!  We thought we had a breakthrough but then on Sunday she just had these crying spells and we were happy if we could just get her to sleep anywhere.  I actually had her sleep in the bed with us (bad I know!) last night from 10pm - 1am because I could not get her to go down anywhere and I was *so* tired!   I'll keep you posted on how this week goes - hopefully it will be okay!

We've also had a lot of great help.  Cheryl came over last Wednesday for the day which allowed me to get some things done around the house and run some errands.  Mom & my Aunt Debbie came up on Tuesday and spent the night.  They actually kept Madison Claire upstairs and fed her a bottle so Ryan and I got to sleep all the way through the night - what a treat!!  Ryan and I also had a treat this past weekend.  We took Madison out to his parents house and they kept her while we went to dinner and a movie.  We feel so blessed to have such great family to help us!

The next 2 weeks will be busy for us.  I have my OBGYN appointment tomorrow so am hoping to get a good report.  My boss, and great friend Kate, will be in town Thursday through Saturday and then Ash comes Monday through Thursday and then Lauren & Heidi come Friday through Monday.  I am so looking forward to seeing all of them and for the extra set of hands.  I hope that Madison Claire is on her best behavior for our visitors but for some reason I'm not feeling so lucky at the moment!!!

Oh - one more thing, our washing machine broke last night...right in the middle of a load of laundry!  So, as I write this, I'm sitting at the Morrows house doing my laundry relishing a few minutes of quite time as Madison sleeps soundly (praise the Lord) in the car seat here next to me!  I know I will look back at these days and miss them so am trying to keep that in perspective!!  

Thanks for your love & prayers...we need them!

Lauren & Ryan

More Pictures

I'll still plan to upload my favorite shots to the  blog but if you want access to all of our pictures of Madison Claire, check out our online gallery:

http://gallery.me.com/lmcswain

There are some cute ones out there!  I'll take some more this week!