Sisters are best friends forever!

When I found out I was having another girl I was soooo excited! I love having little girls and I have a sister so I know what kind of relationship sisters have. I knew from the beginning that no matter if we had a boy or a girl, Ryleigh would be an excellent big sister... and I was right!! She has adjusted very well to the arrival of her baby sister. She doesn't always like to share her mommy and daddy and there have been a few (but VERY few) issues with this. The only major thing I can think of that Ryleigh has done is the day she threw a bottle of bubbles at Madison because she was mad that we wouldn't let her play with them in the house. Other than that, Ryleigh has done great. She absolutely loves Madison. She is very motherly to her and tries so hard to take care of her. She helps in every way that she can and always so delighted to see Madison. We are very proud of Ryleigh for handling this huge change in her life so well. And we are proud to watch the way she is with Madison. Ryleigh and Madison will be the best of friends their entire lives and it melts my heart to see how much they love each other. Madison thinks Ryleigh is the coolest. She loves to watch her and smiles from ear to ear when Ryleigh talks to her. Sometimes, though, Madison does get a frightened look on her face when Ryleigh is bouncing off the walls (but I think daddy and mommy do too). They are amazing together and we love them so very much! Here a few pictures of Ryleigh and Madison that were taken the first few weeks after Madison was born.

Trash Day

Today is trash day, one of Ryleigh's favorite days. She LOVES to sit on the front porch and watch the trash truck. She gets so excited and I hear a lot of "Look Mommy!" and "Oh Wow!" while she is watching. She will even talk to him. This morning she heard it and ran to the window. She started yelling "mommy trash truck". So she sat and watched it. Then I hear her saying "poopy" over and over. (About 5 minutes before the truck took our trash, I took her poopy diaper out to the trash so it didn't sit in the trash can in the house all day.) Then I hear her say "thank you". So I peak around the corner and the trashman is taking our empty trash cans back to the driveway. So I am guessing that she was saying poopy because she knew he was throwing away her diaper and then said thank you because he dumped the trash. It was so cute, she sure is polite. Then after a few minutes she started talking about her poopy diaper and was upset that he took it. What a nut!!

Look what I can do!!

This is Madison's latest milestone. She is holding her head up so good. She has always had great head control and a strong neck (both of the girls were this way), but within the last 3 weeks or so, Madison has started holding her head straight up while laying on her belly. She looks around like it's a whole different world. But this is what happens when she tries to go to sleep sometimes, her head just pops up. Theses pictures were actually taken after I put her to bed. I went to check on her just a few minutes after I put her down to see if she had fallen alseep yet and this is how she was when I walked in.

Ryleigh's School Pictures

Ryleigh had Spring pictures taken last week at school. Here are the proofs (they are not the best quality because they are scanned proofs). She didn't smile in any of them, but she really HATES getting her picture taken. It's usually a very stressful time for me. They said she did fine, she just wouldn't smile. She is really bad when I take her, she cries and screams and just plain refuses to sit down. I think these turned out really cute even though she wasn't smiling.

Pictures of Ryleigh

We can't forget about Ryleigh!

I have been trying to play catch up on the blog and wanted to share some of Madison's first 3 months, so I haven't shared much of Ryleigh.

Ryleigh is growing up so fast. She is looking like a big girl and doing big girl things. The only baby left in her is her binkie! She is learning so much, she amazes me everyday. Sometimes she will do things or say things that just blow me away. I have to stop and ask myself, when did she get this big? Her language and vocabulary is increasing so much. Her sentences are getting longer and her ability to carry on a conversation with someone is amazing. She can count, although she tends to skip numbers. She is working on her colors and shapes. But it's the everyday stuff that just amazes me, things that I don't ever recall talking about or teaching her. Like the other day, she said something about boys and knowing that I have never really taught her the difference between boys and girls, I asked her if she knew what a boy was and she said yes. So I asked her if she was a boy and she said, no I a girl. I went through the list asking her what everyone was and she got them all right. She is also using past and present tense with a lot of words. She is just amazing. Her personality is awesome. She is so polite and so compassionate and such a clown. She is a great helper with her baby sister and wants to do everything like mommy and daddy. We are VERY proud of her and feel really blessed to have her as a daughter.

BUT, Ryleigh is also TWO! She takes a lot of patience on most days and tends to get in trouble at least once a day. She is miss independent these days and that can cause some tantrums when it just doesn't go her way. She likes to say no and not always listen, she likes to throw the world's loudest tantrum in the middle of Wal-Mart or a restaurant. She gets frustrated easily which usually turns into whining and then frustration for us. But all in all, she is a great kid! And when I think she is being a brat, I just have to talk to another mother of a toddler and I am reassured that she is just a normal 2 year old.

She is going through a bit of a separation anxiety, which I believe is due to the fact that she has to share her mommy and daddy now. She has her days where she is very clingy and wants to be right there all the time. She also sleeps with me every night. And after some time I came to realize how loved it made her feel "to be by mommy" (as she would say). She has been sick a lot lately. Which is also why she got in the habit of sleeping in the bed with me, we had her in her bed after Madison was born, but just as it was working and she was in there several nights in a row, she got sick and back in my bed.

Anyway, Ryleigh is an amazing little girl and we are very proud to be her parents. She is growing fast and we are just trying to enjoy every moment with her. Here are a few pictures taken of her lately. ENJOY!

I can't upload pictures for some reason, I will get them on here as soon as I can though.

THREE months old

Madison turned 3 months old last Wednesday. I just can't believe how fast it's going by. She is growing so fast. I was looking back at my blog and reading the posts I wrote when I was pregnant and it made me feel sad. I miss being pregnant, yet I am so happy to have her here, healthy and happy. I miss her newborn stage and I feel like it has gone by so fast. I look forward to each stage and enjoy it in the moment, but I always miss the stages before. She is really starting to develop a personality and it's so neat to watch this happen.

She had a very eventful month. She is developing and learning so fast. She rolled over for the first time, from her belly to her back, when she was 10 1/2 weeks old. Madison sleeps on her belly ( I know it's a huge no no), but when you spend 5 weeks not getting any sleep because your baby doesn't sleep well (or at all) on her back, you just take the plunge and then at some point you confess it ( you would be surprised at how many moms do this too). I started putting her on her back at 5 weeks and we have both slept so much better since. I waited until she had great head control and was able to move her head from one side to the other. Anyway, one day I went in to get her from her nap and she was lying there on her back, kicking and crying. She rolls from her belly to her back a lot, but hasn't yet rolled from her back to her belly. She has come really close a few times, but just hasn't made it all the way over.

She also laughed for the first time around 10 1/2 weeks too. The first sound that resembled a giggle happened at work. I was getting ready to feed her (she always gets so excited when its time to eat) and she started smiling and I said something to her and this little giggle came out. It was so cute and I started laughing out loud. She just looked at me with those great big eyes and had this look like what is wrong with you. It was just a couple of days later, we were visiting daddy at work and Scott was imitating his daughter and out of nowhere Madison had this deep down chuckle. It took us all by surprise. Daddy was the only one that could get her to laugh after that. Ryleigh thought it was the funniest thing ever the first time she noticed her laughing. Her laughs are still hard to get out of her, but I did finally get her to laugh at me today. It's just the cutest sound ever and it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.

She has started taking interest in toys and can play with them now. She loves anything she can squeeze and chew on. She loves putting things in her mouth... her hands (this includes her fist and fingers), her blankets, her toys, pretty much anything she can get her hands on. She has certainly discovered her hands and her feet. She loves to look at herself in the mirror.... she loves it when the baby smiles back at her. She is cooing like crazy, she will talk to you for as long as you will pay attention to her. And if you are not paying attention to her and she wants to talk, she just starts crying until you look at her or talk to her and then she is all smile and coos. She LOVES lots of attention. She sometimes gets so excited and will let out squeals as she scrunches up her face and smiles at you. She has developed great head control (well if you ask daddy, he thinks she jerks too much and makes jokes about it... not nice daddy) and can hold her head up really well when she is on her belly. The only problem with this, is now that she can hold it up high and look around, she doesn't realize she can put it down and has trouble falling alseep sometimes. I have to put her head down for her every now and then and help her to fall asleep. She slept through the night 2 nights this month!! I can't really complain about her sleeping at night time. Anyway, it was another wonderful month with Madison. Here are a few pictures.

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter this year. The Easter Bunny left lots of goodies for the girls. They went through their Easter baskets Sunday morning (well Ry did). Then we got dressed and went to church. When we got home from church, the Easter Bunny had hidden some eggs downstairs the night before (he couldn't leave them outside it was too cold). After Ryleigh's nap, we had her Easter egg hunt. Then we went to Mimi's for Easter dinner and another Easter egg hunt. Ryleigh had a blast hunting eggs. I have posted just a few pictures of the girls, but I will have to put all the Easter pictures in a slideshow and post later.

A day at the park

One beautiful afternoon in March Ryleigh, Madison and I met Aunt Sarah, Andrew and Ella at the park. We had a picnic, let the kids play and fed the geese. The pictures of Ryleigh and Andrew turned out so cute that I had to share a couple.

TWO months old

Madison's 2nd month flew by just as fast as the first. It was a busy month her too. She started cooing a lot more and smiled a lot. She started recognizing faces and voices and would get excited to hear voices or see faces she knew. She started grasping objects and held her toy for the first time 7 weeks old. She slept through the night for the first time just a little over 6 weeks old. She has always slept good at night and luckily for me she only wakes up one time in the early morning hours and goes right back to sleep as I am feeding her. She had her first trip to the mall at 6 1/2 weeks. We took Ryleigh to Build-A-Bear (that is a whole post in itself). We also took a couple of trips to the park. When she was 5 1/2 weeks old, I had to go into work to meet with the accountant and she stayed the entire day with just daddy and Ryleigh. They had a really fun day together. I went back to work when she was 6 1/2 weeks, she comes with me everyday.

At her 2 month check up she weighed 10 lbs 15 oz and was 22 inches long. I have posted a few pictures of her 2nd month.

What a pretty smile!

Madison started smiling when she was just 2 1/2 weeks old. Real smiles too!! I was so suprised when she started smiling because I didn't expect it for another couple of weeks or so. Her whole face lights up when she smiles! Now, she smiles all the time!! All you have to do is look at her and talk to her and her whole face lights. It's such a pretty sight. I posted a couple pictures of the first smiles I captured with the camera. She was almost a month old before I was actually able to capture a good smile with the camera.

ONE month old

Madison's first month went by so fast. They are days that I still daydream about and wish I could get back. She was so tiny, so new, the moments were so surreal. We spent our days napping (well when i could, it's hard when you have a two year old too, luckily she sleeps in), playing and making wonderful memories. Madison had her first smile before she was a month old and began cooing. The first time she smiled was just so amazing and felt so good. It was the most beautiful smile ever (well right next to Ryleigh's). As she began to coo, it was so cute, she would try so hard to make the sounds come out. She got better and better each day. I took her shopping for her first outfits for pictures and had her first pictures taken at almost 3 weeks. We were on the go a lot too, we would hang out with Aunt Sarah, Andrew and Ella and would visit daddy a couple times a week. It was so amazing to watch her adapt to the world around her. Ryleigh did great adjusting to the change in her life. She loves her little sister and does wonderful with her. She tries to care for her and nuture her. Ryleigh will be a great mommy someday. She has to be the world's best sister ever. Madison just loves her too!

Madison had her one month check up on March 3, she weighed 9 lbs 10 oz and was 21 1/2 inches long. She grew so fast!!!! Here are a few pictures taken right around 4-5 weeks old.

Madison's First Tub Bath

She had her first tub bath the day after her cord fell off. She was 2 weeks and 3 days old. She HATED it, as you can see in the pictures. But of course, we had fun and big sister was right there to help. She didn't like her first 2 or 3 baths, but now she loves bath time.

Valentine's Day

Here a couple pictures of the girls on Valentine's Day. This was Madison's first holiday. We went to dinner that night and took the girls with us. That night when we got home, I put Madison's p.j's on and her cord had fallen off. She was 2 weeks and 2 days old. The next day she had her first tub bath. (Pictures in next blog).

Where has time gone?

I haven't updated this in a long time. Madison is already 3 months old and growing so fast. Ryleigh is doing so many "big girl" things and growing into a little girl so fast. Life sure is busy with small children. There is so much that I want to update, but there just isn't enough time. I will try to break up the last 3 months so I can show a few good pictures of the girls and talk about Madison's big milestones.

These few pictures are of her first few weeks in the world. She is an amazing baby and her first few weeks were a blast for us. We did so much on maternity, I sure do miss those days. Anyway, here she is as a tiny baby.

Madison's Hospital Pictures

So, here they are... only 2 months late.

ENJOY!!

Click for slideshow

Madison Louise

I know this is so late......

Madison was born January 29 at 12:56 pm. She weighed 7 lbs 3 oz and was 20.5 inches long.

I was scheduled to be induced at 4:30 am that day. We arrived at the hospital and got into my room right away. They started the pitocin around 5:30 am. It took about 20-30 minutes for the contractions to start. They started off slow and mild and gradually increased as the morning went on. At around 8:00 Dr. Glover broke my water. I was doing good until around 11:30, but I hadn't dilated passed 2cm, so I couldn't get my epidural yet. Around noon my mom and Ryleigh left to get some lunch and Tom went down to get a snack. I asked the nurse to check me again because I was in so much pain, I had finally dilated to 4cm and she ordered my epidural. Tom came back and we waited and waited and my epidural never came. I had Tom go find the nurse again to see what the deal was because the contractions were so strong. She checked me again and I was dilated to 7cm. She called for my epidural again and for the doctor. Finally they show up with my epidural and attempt to put the epidural in my back but couldn't get it in. The nurse had him stop and she checked me again and I was complete. She laid me down, got Tom and the doctor and I started pushing and just a couple minutes later Madison was born. I couldn't believe how fast everything went and that I had actually given birth naturally. It was the worse pain ever, but so worth it.

She was just beautiful and looked so much like Ryleigh. We only stayed one night and was able to come home later Friday afternoon. She weighed 6 lbs 15 oz when we were released. We took her to the doctor the following Tuesday and she looked great. She weighed 7 lbs 1 oz and was 20 inches long. (so I am uncertain as to what her actual birth length was because she couldn't have shrunk).

I have a ton of hospital pictures that I will post. I have them on a disc, so I will need to bring it to work. I will be working on getting my blog updated and pictures up over the next week now that I am back to work.