Baby Pollock (Week 22, Day 7)

Another week has passed, and our daily routine has seemed to become more, well, routine. However, there were three key points to the week that I wanted to make sure to not forget:

1. At daycare this week, they taught Madeline to paint. At 5 months! Now, I’m not saying she is a Picasso - she’s probably more influenced by Pollock at this point - but more importantly, she had a blast. There is another child in the daycare her same age, and the nannies decided to set them up in a mini highchair, give them some paint, and let them go to town. They took pictures and sent them to me (one thing I love about these ladies!) and said they could barely stop laughing because they were having so much fun. I loved that they did something I never would have thought of doing with Maddy - heck, I didn't even think she could sit up in one of those chairs! I love that she got to have new experiences with the other babies, and I love that they saved her “artwork” and we now have her first piece prominently hanging on our refrigerator.  I of course would have liked to have been there to experience the whole thing with her, but have to remind myself that it’s good for her to have fun times and experiences with others, and it will help her to grow and become more independent.

2. This week, one of my dearest friends Gina had her second child (a beautiful little boy Jack) and I was able to visit them at the hospital. She delivered at the same hospital that I had Madeline in, and it was my first time being back there since she was released. It was a somewhat surreal experience, to be in the maternity ward visiting, and all the emotions and experiences of those first days of motherhood come rushing back. Holding Gina’s healthy little boy, he felt light as a feather - he was born a month early, but was bigger than Maddy at birth, and I found it absolutely amazing how quickly you can forget how small your child was at birth - Maddy is so much bigger today than those first days at the hospital, but it seems like no time has gone by. Being there and sharing this special time with Gina and her family, it brought back how wonderful those first few days are with your new addition.

3. Maddy has really started to understand who Mommy and Daddy are, and loves to be with both of us, and we love our time together. Phil and I drop Maddy off together at daycare most mornings - so far it’s worked out with both our schedules, and we love spending the mornings together as a family. Also, with her sleep habits, she is usually asleep by the time Phil gets home from work, so it’s a nice time for him to get spend time with Maddy.  

Today we did our usual routine, getting ready to go, packing all our bags up and heading out to daycare. Nothing was different, nothing was out of the ordinary. But for the first time, as Phil and I were leaving the Infant room waving goodbye to our sweet baby girl, and Maddy was doing tummy time and smiling up at us, she realized we were leaving and started to cry. She has never done that before - not once. She’s actually barely acknowledged we’d left. But today it seemed to click that we were leaving and not coming back for a few hours. And she didn't like it. It only lasted for a few seconds - Miss Sarah was there with a hug and a toy to play with, and Maddy quickly moved on to her next area of focus. But Mommy didn't. It was hard to see my little girl cry when I left, and harder to realize that it won’t be the last of it - whether it’s to go to work, have a date night, or who knows what other incidents will come up, there will be times when I have to leave my baby, and she will not like it. And I don’t see it getting any easier.

Taking Tummy Time to a Whole New Level(Week 22, Day 3)

It's 9:30 PM, and it might as well be midnight, as I'm the only one in the house up. I know I should be sleeping, and that Maddy is going to wake up any minute wanting to nurse, or cuddle, or just protest sleep in general. Phil and I have taken turns trying to soothe her this evening, and after finally getting her to sleep, decided staying up to a normal bedtime was just too much effort, and gave in to exhaustion.

Except now I can't sleep. Why, you might ask? Because Maddy has hit another milestone. This one is called "I like to sleep on my stomach". It's a new one, and tonight is Maddy's first test drive of this recent preference. And so now, after months of worrying about SIDS and having the saying "back to sleep" rammed into my head by every doctor out there, my baby is peacefully sleeping on her belly. And my options are either to wake her up and move her, or let her sleep and lay here watching the baby monitor for signs of movement, and worry about her breathing habits. I know her neck is absolutely strong enough now to support her head, and that she is perfectly capable of rolling into whatever position she chooses. However none of these facts are currently helping me sleep. So here are lay, watching my baby sleep, and knowing this will be another first that is going to worry only mommy.

5 Month Old (Week 22, Day 1)

I have a 5 month old! Who would believe it - the time has flown by, and our little girl is longer than ever before. At 5 months, she is already stretching the limits of some of her 6 month clothes, and it won’t be long before I’m having to change out her wardrobe once again (FYI - I just changed out her last wardrobe last week - I’m starting to feel like this will be a frequent routine). It seems in the last few days that she has stretched even more, and the baby fat on her legs is morphing into lean limbs that are getting ready to crawl and move very soon.

Her 5 month milestone coincided with Grandparents day at daycare, and it worked that Madeline’s grandparents that live close by were free to come down to the city and spend the afternoon with her. I was admittedly a little bit nervous for them to be at daycare for the first time, and worried that I could not leave work early to spend time with them and help show them around. Luckily everything went very smoothly, and they were able to find the daycare, and the staff there was helpful in showing them around. When I arrived at the end of the day Maddy was happily playing with Grandma and Grandpa. The only snafu was that Maddy’s cute little pink dress I had dressed her in that morning was long gone - Maddy had a diaper leak first thing in the morning and was wearing her backup clothes by the time the grandparents had arrived, but no one seemed to mind.

In honor of her 5 months in this world, we once again carted out Darth and Yoda to celebrate. She is becoming more aware of her little friends, and said hello to Darth Vader by sticking his hand in her mouth. I think she is really taking a liking to them both ;)

Maddy and her buddies