Sleep Sold Separately

I saw that on a onesie this morning. It perfectly sums up our lives right now. 

Madeleine finally fell asleep for good around 4:30 this morning.  Teething combined with a growth spurt and a wonder week is not a good mix!  

For the record, I'm not complaining. I love snuggling with my M&M, even in the middle of the night. I just want people to know that if I'm a little less patient it's because I'm a little short on ZZZZZZs.  One day I'm going to wish that I could solve all her problems by rocking in a glider.  One day I'm going to wish that I was up in the middle of the night because Madeleine can't sleep instead of being up wondering what she's doing, where she is, and who she's with. (BTW, Madeleine's not dating until she's 25)  

Here's my favorite snuggle bug snoozing this morning:

iCloud Posting

When you have a newborn baby, you take a million pictures. What do you do with them?  How do you send them to your mother-in-law?  What about videos that take up lots of memory space?

Since many members of our family have Apple Products, I set up an iCloud photo stream when Madeleine was born. I quickly discovered that we would need several, so I organized them by date. 

My family was enjoying all the photos I sent them, but some of them didn't know how to add their own pictures. I made a tutorial for them and thought I would share it with you!  I hope you enjoy sharing pictures and videos with your family, too!

How To Upload a Photo or Video to the iCloud

1.  Open up your photos. 
2. Click on a picture to open it. It will look like this:

3.  Click on the blue box with an upward arrow at the bottom.  You will see this screen:

4. If you want to choose other pictures to upload as well, click on them so the circle turns blue. 

5.  Click on the blue icon that says iCloud.  It will show you this box:

6.  If you want to choose a different photo stream, click where it says photo stream and click on the one you want. 

7.  Press post

That's it!  Happy sharing :)

May First!

May has been a month of firsts. On Cinco de Mayo, Madeleine found her feet. She now has 2 toys that travel with her everywhere she goes!

We attended our first food truck event at St Margaret Mary this past Friday. 

Madeleine wore her first pair of shoes.  (Yes, they are espadrilles -  eeeee! So cute!!)

But the big first was our very first road trip!  One thing you should know about me is that I am not a good packer.  I almost always pack too much or leave something important at home (one time I forgot to pack underwear. We were going to be there for several days. Joseph blessedly took me shopping!)  The first time packing for a baby is a nightmare.  It might give you a mild panic attack. We were going to a hotel and wouldn't get there until almost midnight, so there would be no quick trips to the store if I forgot something vital for Madeleine.  Here are some tidbits of advice:

1.  Make a list 

Not in your head. On paper. Make it a week ahead of time and keep it out so you can add to it. Ladies, allow your husband to add to the list. Daddy's know  things, too. Cross things off when they go in the bag. 

2.  Put toys in the car. 

If you are the only source of entertainment, baby will be bored. Bored babies cry!  

3.  Rest stops are free!

The Florida Turnpike has a rest stop every 45 minutes. You don't need to buy a soda to use their restrooms or nurse on the parking lot. Of course, if you need to stop between rest stops you might end up somewhere sketchy. Poor Madeleine ate her Sunday lunch at the Osceola Flea Market. 

4.  Focus on the Main Event 

The highlight of the weekend was celebrating with my brother. He graduated from Law School!  Seriously?  I feel old and extremely proud. He is incredible!  The amount of work, endurance, and fortitude necessary to complete law school is beyond me. Jack, you are impressive!

5.  Don't try new things 

Madeleine had formula for the first time in Miami while we were stuck in traffic. She gulped it down like it was a chocolate milkshake. Her tummy didn't like it. Nough said!

6.  Be in a good mood

I firmly believe that you can choose what kind of day you're having. Yes, we stopped 3 times driving from Miami to Orlando. Yes, Madeleine was teething and screaming in the backseat. Yes, it could have been the Mother's Day from you know where. But you know what?  It was actually a pretty good day!  Put a smile on your face, sing a silly baby rhyme, and suck it up!

I am already looking forward to our next road trip!  

Since I started planning this post, we have had 2 more big firsts!

Wolfie brought Madeleine one of his toys (an orange frisbee) to play with.  He really is a sweet puppy. 

Mom and I took Madeleine to the pool. She played in about 2 inches of water and had a great time!

10 Years

Is there anything more magical than your senior year of high school?  Think about it - all the hope, ambition, and idealism you can imagine is all wrapped up into one little person, staring the world head on with a naive smile and a miniskirt. 

Today I went to part of my high school's 10 year reunion celebration. Due to some scheduling conflicts we were only able to attend the Family Picnic part. Only one other member of the class of 2004 was there, but that was ok. We had a great lunch. Madeleine played and watched other kids. It was a good time.  Being back at Trinity left me feeling nostalgic and contemplative. I spent the rest of this afternoon thinking about the last 10 years and how my life is completely different than I would have imagined.  I'm glad it's different, by the way. I love my family and my job!

So let's compare 2004 to 2014:

Favorite color:                    Pink                              Green

Favorite TV Show:              Gilmore Girls                 Grimm

Favorite Book:                    The Davinci Code         I don't have time to read books :(

Saturday afternoon:            Studying                       Playing with Madeleine

Cutest thing a guy can do:  Southern accent           Wear Madeleine   

Most looking forward to:     College!                         Nap time 

When I graduated high school, I was excited to go to Furman, become bestest friends with my freshman roommate, join a sorority, and I infamously said, "I want to meet a guy who makes Nancy 5 syllables long!"  That would've been a serious accent!  My life plan went like this: perform in New York (obviously this would be easy because I'm fantastic, and no I would not be waiting tables, thank you very much), retire from a life of performing to teach high school choir, never have children (they take up your precious time, the planet is overpopulated, etc), and somehow I was going to play a large role in world peace.  I hope you're laughing with me at my former self!  It's a good thing that college happened, so I could grow up and change.  I'm pretty sure my ego needed a sift kick in the behind, too!  

But there was something about being back at Trinity that made me swell with a little pride today and have that "I can conquer the world" feeling again today. Who knows? Maybe I will help find world peace!  I'll start by nursing my child (my second favorite person in the world), having dinner with my husband (my favorite person), and treating everyone as kindly and fairly as I can throughout the day at work.  Would I change any of that? No way.  

Date Night!

Last night Joseph and I went on a date. Why is this news worthy, you ask?  It was our first date since Madeleine was born in December. She'll be 4 months old on Sunday, so it's been quite a while!  We dropped off Madeleine with my mom and dad at 6:45 and headed to Funky Monkey Wine Company.

Last December, my brother asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I told him that we wanted a date night and that Joseph loves sushi. Funky Monkey is one of Jack's favorite restaurants, and I can tell why!

We had a wonderful meal of sushi, goat cheese bruschetta, and a great salad. (Any time there are nuts and apples in a salad I'm a happy girl!)

Our wonderful waiter shared with us that his girlfriend was due with their first baby, a little boy, last night.

After dinner we headed back to my parents' house to pick up Madeleine and have GiGi's cupcakes. Their Oreo ones are amazing!!

The Nursery

Shortly after we moved into this house, I started imagining what a nursery would look like in the second bedroom.  I had this light teal, ocean-themed room planned out in my mind.   Above the crib, I'd hang  whale decal with his/her name spelled out in the water splash coming from its blow hole.  You can see one here.

Well, once I found out we were having a little girl, my delightfully unisex nursery plan came crashing down amongst the excitement of tutus, ruffles, and pink polka dots!  (Really, who can resist pink polka dots??)  So I came up with a new plan, centered around a tutu crib skirt.  My mother-in-law, Chris, had been asking about making something for the nursery.  What she really wanted to make was curtains, but I felt that curtains would make her window look too busy since it already has blinds and a cornice box.  Then, I saw a pink tutu crib skirt on Pinterest.  Of course, it came from Pottery Barn and cost about a bazillion dollars!  Chris made an absolutely beautiful one for us that I think looks even better and can stay on Madeleine's bed through her toddler years until she needs a big kid bed!

Over the course of the next few months, we gathered together the usual supplies: a glider from Babies R Us, a changing table/dresser I found at Once Upon a Child, and a Whatnot bookshelf from my old bedroom.  My Aunt Sally gave us two cute pictures that matched our bedding set (Cocalo Taffy).   I used Cocalo Taffy wall decals to decorate the cornice box and the dresser.  One of my favorite pieces in Madeleine's room is the horse clock.  Our friend, Peter, carved it with his grandfather as a boy!  It's very sentimental and beautiful!

After Madeleine was born, I pulled out a few more things that I wanted to hang on the walls.  I even pulled out the hammer and nails to hang them up!  This was in January, people.  Guess what?  I JUST put them on the walls this past weekend!   I'd like to thank two people who are responsible for helping me do this - Aunt Sharon and Lucy MacLeish.  Aunt Sharon and Uncle John popped by for a visit and weighed in on where to put the pictures, which was helpful since I am not the best at visualizing.  Next weekend, Lucy will be taking some professional photos of our little one.  Her work is amazing, and I can't wait to see all the photos of our cutie!  You can check out her work, here.

And just because...
Here's our little M&M - 100 days old today!

We Survived!

Well, we did it - One week back to work. One week at "school."  And now it's the weekend!  Two entire days to spend with Miss Madeleine!  

Here we are on her first day of school:

You know the pudding commercial where the boy comes home from kindergarten and says, "Man I'm wrecked." When his dad tells him he has to go back the next day, the little boy asks for more pudding?  That's how I felt this week!  But we made it through!

Everyone at work was incredibly kind, supportive, and helpful. I truly appreciate working with such great people. They made the transition a lot easier.  We also love Madeleine's teacher, Miss Millie. She is very sweet, and Madeleine lights up when she sees her in the morning!  Miss Millie writes sweet notes for us each day on Madeleine's behavior report, too. Her favorite things to do this week were listen to her teacher sing and playing on the activity mat with Alex. I'm not sure how I feel about all the time she's spending with this Alex!  I thought we had a few years before we had to worry about that - haha 

During the week, Joseph was able to visit Madeleine at school during the day. He sent me these pictures to cheer me up :)

On Wednesday night, Madeleine and I went to Mass together. She was awake for the service and made it to communion with minimal fussing. I was so proud of her!  

Here she is all dressed up for school on Friday.  Happy 10 weeks little one!

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Welcome to the Church!

On February 16, 2014, Madeleine was welcomed into the faith at St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church.  It was a beautiful day and a perfect weekend!

The weekend before, we tried on her christening gown.  My mom and I were both baptized in this gown, so it was very special to share this with Madeleine.

The night before, we had dinner with our family and the godparents at Alphonso's.  This was Madeleine's first trip to a restaurant, and she did great!  And by that I mean that she slept through the entire meal :)

At the end of Mass, Madeleine was not happy.  My wonderful mother-in-law and I did everything we knew to help her out, but Miss  Fussypants wanted none of it!  She got it together for a little while during the baptism ceremony, and shortly after Father K. finished pouring water over her head, she got the cutest hiccups ever!

Here are a few pictures from the ceremony at the church!

Madeleine is blessed to have wonderful godparents - Jay and Annemarie.

We were thrilled that so many of our friends and family members could join us at the church and for lunch afterwards!

7 Weeks

I can't believe Madeleine is already 7 weeks old.  49 days of life. In 49 days, she has learned to make noises, grab things, roll over, lift her head, and she could definitely beat me in a staring contest!  Her favorite things to look at are lights, especially her bird night light. There are times when she wants to look at it so badly that she won't even nurse!  (Is that a stubborn streak developing already?
 Haha)

On Tuesday, we took Madeleine to the pediatrician for her 2 month appointment.  We needed to do this early so she could get her vaccines before starting daycare. Poor baby girl was very cranky for the next day and then slept a lot for the next one. She didn't feel good, which meant I got lots of snuggles!!  We are proud to report that she is very healthy, weighing 10 lbs 15 oz and measuring 21.5 in long.

Wednesday evening, we went to my parents' house to watch Downton Abbey and have dinner. It was a great visit.  Madeleine loves snuggling with her Grandmama!  She found her ears that night and kept grabbing and twisting them. It was so cute!

Thursday afternoon we drove out to where I work, and Madeleine got to meet a few of my coworkers. She was on her very best behavior and snuggled right up with my boss!

Friday was Valentine's Day. I got an idea from The Dating Divas at the beginning of this month.  Every day it wrote something I loved about Madeleine and Joseph on a heart. Then I taped it to their bedroom doors. (Cheesey, but loving, right?). Here is Madeleine's closet door:

Madeleine and I made cards for some of our family members. She even wrote them a note!  Her Daddy was very pleased with his!

Check back soon to read about Madeleine's baptism this past Sunday!

  

Six Weeks and Six Things

Mommy-hood is a whole new adventure, and as you know, when embarking on any adventure you need to have the proper gear. While technically all you need are diapers and a place for baby to sleep, there are some things that have definitely made the last six weeks easier and more enjoyable.

1.  Fisher Price Soothing Motions Glider
Without this rocker, M&M would not sleep at all. I am serious. We don't even have to turn it on, although the gliding motion is nice sometimes. She will sleep in this tilted position even if she's had a fussy day.  Last night she slept for 5 hours!  Woohoo!! (Added bonus: it's sold at Buy Buy Baby, and you can use all those Bed, Bath, and Beyond coupons there!)  There are many different versions of this glider. Some of them are insanely expensive. I'm not sure what these do that is so necessary - do they change diapers for you?

2.  Cetaphil Restoraderm
Madeleine has seriously dry skin, and her Aveeno and Johnson & Johnsons baby soaps were causing eczema flare ups.  Thank goodness for Cetaphil. It changed her poor, scaly, and red face back into the beautiful, velveety one she had at first!

3.  BOB Revolution SE
Honestly, I don't jog, and M&M is too little to be jogged with, so until Joseph can take her jogging, it's being used as a regular stroller. We got ours in bright orange, so cars can see us at dusk/night time!  We use this stroller all the time. I get nervous about putting M&M in the car (I will get over this soon, right?) and we live in a highly walkable area.  We can go pretty much anywhere I need to go by walking in our stroller. Also, it's great exercise!

4.  iPhone
I can take all the pictures and videos I want, edit them with free apps, and share them with my family using photo stream.  I can also entertain myself when M&M will only sleep while I'm rocking her at 3 a.m.  Yes, I know, you might be thinking, why do you need to be entertained?  Aren't you holding your beautiful angel?  Yes, I am, but I've also only slept for like 3 hours in the last two days. My phone is keeping me awake. I can also use my phone to go shopping (I <3 Amazon and don't love driving) and keep in touch with friends so I'm not too out of the loop!

5.  Baby Wearing Device
Before M&M was born I thought baby wearing was a weird thing for hippy moms. I have a Facebook friend who always posted pictures of herself wearing her daughter. I judged you unfairly; baby wearing is awesome!  My sincerest apologies...
Baby wearing enables you to do things during the day. You see, after several days when I insisted my husband come home during lunch time because I hadn't been able to set M&M down long enough to brush my teeth, I knew there had to be another way.  Dental hygiene demanded it!  My sister-in-law called during this time and offered to let me use her Moby. Wow!  M&M can feel close and snugly. We can bond through closeness, and I have two hands!  We even got to go to Mass on Monday night.  I also have a baby sling that I L.O.V.E.  I'll write about the differences in a different post.

6.  Family
Technically it's not a thing. You cannot go buy my family on Amazon.com with your iPhone while breast feeding your baby in the middle of the night.  However, the last 6 weeks would have been literally impossible without them. They have answered numerous questions, provided many meals, and watched M&M so I could nap/shower/clean my house. Love you guys!  Keep up the good work!

I'll leave you with a few pictures of this week.

One Month

On December 27, 2013 at 5:03 a.m., we welcomed Madeleine Mary into our little family. Since then we have had many adventures, smiles, laughs, and a few tears.  Here is her first month in pictures:

December 26: I had just woken up from a nap and was playing around on My computer when my water broke at 4:30 in the afternoon.  We walked Wolfie, quickly cleaned up a few things, threw our bags in the car and headed to Winnie Palmer. Around 8:30, I was in the labor and delivery room, had received an epideral, and was feeling much happier.

December 27:  Madeleine was welcomed to the world weighing 8 lbs 10 oz and measuring 20 1/4 in long. After meeting her Mom, her Dad, Anny the nurse, and our favorite doctor ever, Dr Fritz, she passed all of her newborn tests. Her grandparents came to visit during her first nap around 7 a.m.  It was a fun day!

December 28: we had a few visitors today - Mimi, Pop, and Uncle David came in from Atlanta, and Debbie,Leslie,and Annemarie stopped by!

December 29:  We got to go home!  Jay came over to visit, too.

December 30:  Grandmama came over and took some adorable pictures!

December 31:  We rang in the new year at my parents' house. It was a fun night!

January 1:

January 2-10: This time is sort of a blur.  Joseph went back to work and started classes, so things got busy in a hurry!  I'm not totally sure what we did except for eat and sleep!  Here are a few pictures!

January 11-17:  This week also went by very quickly. We did have a few very short outings. Thursday was Joseph's birthday, so we went to Old Navy, Publix, and The Dollar Tree to get prepared. We also registered for day care.  On Thursday night, Joseph celebrated his birthday with the guys at Alfonso's, a great place for pizza and beer. Madeleine and I stayed home, since she was still too little for outings and had an eye infection!

January 18-24: Joseph's family came to visit this weekend from Atlanta!  Madeleine was so excited to meet her Aunt Rebecca, Uncle Sean, and cousin Anna!  It was a very special weekend for all of us. My mother-in-law stayed until Thursday afternoon, which was great!  I got to take a few naps, and we all went on several walks around the neighborhood. Wolfie enjoyed all the walking, too.

January 25-31: This was a rough week for us. Madeleine decided on Tuesday to go on a sleeping strike - night and day!  I'm hoping I don't jinx us by saying that it's over!! (At least for now)  It's hard to believe that our baby girl is one month old already. I started the morning of the 27th off with an impromptu photo shoot to commemorate the event!  Luckily, our model was very cooperative!

Here are a few of the highlights from this week:  

- Madeleine smiled on the 29th

- Mom and I got pedicures :)

- We had lunch with Aunt Frances and Amy

- Joseph learned how to wear the Moby wrap

- Madeleine rolled over from her tummy to her back

- We got ice cream at The Soda Fountain, twice!  I highly recommend the triple dark chocolate :)

We are so in love with our little girl and can hardly wait to see what she does next!