Laugh Out Loud

My folks were in town for the weekend as they began their Spring Break road trip through Michigan, the Upper Peninsula, and back down through Wisconsin. It was nice to spend a couple days with them. Carrie and I got to go on our second date since becoming parents.

Madelyn had some fun firsts while Grandma and Grandpa were with us. She was asleep in Carrie's arms on Saturday evening and she started laughing out loud. We were all in the room when it happened. We all got quiet and stared at her as she giggled to herself in her sleep for about 15 seconds. It was adorable. Her first smiles were in her sleep as well, and now she does that all the time. We're hoping this means we'll be getting some awake laughter out of her soon.

She also found some uses for her hands aside from just being substitute pacifiers. She is starting to bat at toys that are dangled in front of her. She also started gripping her bottle and even managed to hold it up by herself briefly.

The bedtime routine works really well. I can put her to sleep pretty easily now. Our new problem is that she is now waking up earlier in the morning. I was thrilled to get her down at 9:30 pm, until she decided it was time to get up at 5:30am. Our new target bedtime is 10:00pm. We'll stick with that for a while.

March Pictures!

Just wanted to let you know that I added the March photos to Mady's photo album. Enjoy!

Bed Time

Madelyn is still growing and changing, daily it seems. Her regularly scheduled evening crankies have finally passed. We haven't had to use the hair dryer to calm her in over two weeks. Yay! Her hunger strikes have also gone away. Of course, this could also just be that Carrie and I are getting better at discerning her needs. Either way, life is gradually becoming a little more harmonious. We're not there entirerly, but we are certainly moving in the right direction.

It took Mady a while to learn to appreciate her pacifier, but now she is officially hooked. It helps us soothe her and put her to sleep at night (much less obnoxious than the hair dryer). We're trying not to give it to her every time she fusses so she doesnt' become a total binky junkie. If she can't have her binky, she'll ususally settle for her fingers. I've seen her with all eight of them in her mouth at once. She still hasn't discovered her thumbs, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time...

The bedtime routine seems to be working pretty well. We give her a bath, then feed her and put her in her pajamas, then we play lullabies and walk her around the bedroom with the lights dimmed until she drifts off. The whole things usually takes about an hour. We're trying to gradually start it earlier so we can get her to bed sooner. Last night I had her out by 10:30. My target for tonight is 10:15. It is nice to have even a brief moment at the end of the day free.

Carrie is still watching Mady during the day while I work and finishing up her disertation in the evenings. It is a pretty tiring routine, but she'll be all done in just two months! She is making an effort to take a walk with Mady once a day now that the weather is getting nicer.

That's the update for now. We hope everyone is doing well.

Erin Go Bragh!

Happy St. Patricks Day! Madelyn is now nearly 10 weeks old! Mady's Godparents, Matt and Sarah came to visit over the weekend. It was very exciting to see them again. They got to learn how to change diapers and they even helped give Madelyn a bath. We got to play games, go for walks, Chris and Matt got to play racquetball, and we even had a surprise birthday party for Sarah. Good times were had by all.

It seems that Madelyn is changing every day. She is getting much better at focusing on objects. Her mobile has become a big hit. It runs for twenty minutes then stops. We can put her in her crib and turn on the mobile, which will keep her entertained and quiet for exactly twenty minutes. She lets us know as soon as it stops. I've been tempted to push the button again and let it go for another twenty, but that idea got vetoed. It's probably for the best. :)

Other than her mobile, her other favorite toy is little stuffed ducky that is small enough for her to grip. I put a rattle in her hand last week. I was really excited to see her gripping it and waving it around, until she bonked herself in the head with it and started crying. Now only soft toys go in her hand, and the ducky is the only one that fits. She likes to suck on it, but doesn't yet have the motor control to navigate it up to her mouth, but sometimes it will accidentally find its way there.

In the last week we also promoted Mady a few weeks early up to the "3-6 month" outfits. She seemed to be getting too long for the "0-3 month." She had her third visit with the doctor today and we found out that she is 24" long. She has grown 3" since being born, which puts her in the 90th percentile for length! Her weight is 11.5 lbs, which is exactly where she should be. She is just a very long baby. She also got some vaccinations today, which she wasn't very happy about. The doctor suggested that we start developing a bed time routine, which we will be able to use to put her down much earlier than she is going to bed now. We'll start working on that later this week after any discomfort from the shots wears off. Hopefully we'll have some positive results to report with the next post!

On the Mommy front, Carrie completed her pre-oral defense last week. Her defense date has been set for 5/27. She has been working very hard in the evenings to make the final revisions to her dissertation. The end is in sight! Yay!