At Four Months Hailey:
- Is “talking” to anyone/everyone who will listen
- Rolls over front to back – She rolled over for the first time the day she turned four months.
- Loves her O’Ball rattle and her activity mat
- Is wearing size 3 diapers
- Is wearing 6-9 month clothing
- Is sleeping a six hour stretch at night, but sleeps for 10-11 hours total at night.
- Loves her bedtime routine with a bath, massage, pjs, swaddle and a feeding.
Christmas was so much fun this year. Madison absolutely loved everything about Christmas. Clyde, an Elf on the Shelf, came to stay with our family this year and report back to Santa if Madison was being good or bad. It was great to watch her try to find Clyde every morning and to watch her report to him about her good behavior. We also baked cookies, decorated and did Christmas crafts together.
We spent Christmas Eve at Heather and Mackenzie’s house with our whole family. The girls got to spend time with all of their aunties, uncles and cousins and were both spoiled with lots of presents. We spent Christmas Day at home and Grandma and Grandpa spent Christmas morning with us. Once again, the girls were spoiled by Mommy, Daddy, Grandma, Grandpa and Santa Claus. Hailey got a few stuffed animals, books and clothes. Madison got a bike, an electronic reader, books, games, magnetic dolls and stuffed animals.
Christmas seemed to fly by this year. I’m already counting down to next year.
- She came home wearing size 1 diapers and moved to size 2 diapers at 2 months
- She was in 3 month clothes at 1 month
- She was in 3 and 6 month clothes at 2 months
- She was in 6 month clothes at 3 months
- She loves to be swaddled when she’s sleeping and falls asleep almost as soon as she’s wrapped up
- Smiled for the first time around six weeks
- Loved to smile, laugh and talk to Mommy, Daddy and Madison
- Loved her activity mat
- Moved to her own room around six weeks
- Did not want to take a bottle her first few days at daycare, but figured it out after three days (and several brands of bottles)
- Weighed 8lb 4oz at her 3 day appointment (Madison was 7lb 15oz)
- Weighed 9lb 15oz and was 22 inches at her 2 week appointment (Madison was 9lb 22 inches)
- Weighed 14lb 10oz and was 23.5 inches at her 2 month appointment (Madison was 11lb 5oz and 23.5 inches)
We found out we were expecting Baby #2 in January 2011. We were super excited and Madison was thrilled that she was going to be a Big Sister (even though I’m 95% sure she had no idea what that meant).
I had a fairly easy & uneventful pregnancy. I did have terrible morning sickness for the first few months , and I had trouble with carpal tunnel syndrome in my wrists until I was around four months pregnant, but nothing too terrible.
We went in for our “big ultrasound” the day after our anniversary on April 29th and found out we were having another little girl. We were really excited for Madison to have a sister.
Madison talked to my belly every day and even shared her toys with her sister by shoving them under my shirt. At the end of my pregnancy, Madison would yell at my belly “HAILEY! COME OUT AND PLAY!!” Too stinkin’ cute!
Hailey, like her sister, decided not to arrive on time. On Monday October 3rd, I had my weekly doctor’s appointment. I was already 5cm dilated and 90% effaced, meaning Hailey would likely be making her appearance very soon. My doctor and I discussed having me go in on Friday the 7th for an induction, but she decided to call Kaiser South Sacramento (where I would be delivering) to see if they would take me that afternoon. Sure enough, they were slow and wanted me to head over any time after 3pm! They were willing to just break my water to try to get things started since it worked with Madison and since I was trying to avoid medications/Pitocin.
I called Matt and told him that we were going to have a baby very soon. Madison and I headed down to Matt’s work to have lunch while he wrapped things up and then we all headed back to the house to get Madison settled with Grandma, get our stuff together and head out. It was so surreal at that point since I thought I had at least a few more days to wait.
We kissed Madison goodbye (I was really emotional about leaving her) and arrived at the hospital around 6pm. We got checked in around 6:30 and let family know that they could head over any time, but that it would probably be awhile before anything started to happen (HA!). I met with my midwife and decided not to have an IV. She broke my water at 7:15pm. By 7:30pm I was having contractions strong enough that I wasn’t able to talk/walk through them, and I was ready to get into the (super awesome) birthing tub. My dad, Aunt Lori, cousin Heather, cousin Nicole, Mike & Kain arrived right after the broke my water, and they set up camp in the family waiting room.
I labored in the birthing tub for about 45 minutes before I started feeling pressure and wanted to be checked for progress. I headed to the shower to labor (thinking I was probably around 6cm). They checked me and I was complete and ready to push! I headed back to the bed and pushed three times and Hailey was born. She weighed 8lb 14.5 oz and was 21 inches long, almost identical to her sister.
They put her directly on my chest, and I was able to start nursing her right away. She nursed for almost an hour while everyone came in to meet her. We were moved to our postpartum room after about two hours and got settled in for the night. We didn’t get much sleep since Hailey was considered a “big baby” by .5oz, so they came in every two hours to check her sugar levels by doing a blood test L Everything checked out great and since she was nursing well we were able to head home around 4pm on the 4th. Madison was in love with her sister at first sight and loves giving Hailey hugs and kisses.
It was a great experience and we are so, so happy with our family of four.
I’m hoping to keep the blog up to date from this point forward, but here are some things that have gone on/are currently going on in Madison’s world:
- At her two year appointment she weighed 27 pounds.
- She has a huge vocabulary – Her teachers tell us they are amazed by how verbal she is.
- She loves her class and especially her teacher Ms. Tiffany (or Ms. Tiffy as Maddie calls her)
- Her best friends are Travion and Naomi.
- She still carries her pig aka Ms. Pigerson with her everywhere she goes.
- Her favorite foods are Mexican food (quesadillas and beans) and chili.
- She can count to fourteen.
- She knows her numbers, letters and colors
- Her favorite television shows are Olivia & Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
- Her favorites movies are Tangled & Beauty and the Beast
- She loves anything and everything Princess
- Her favorite place to be is the park – We have two that we visit regularly and she has named them: Castle Park is a park in Vacaville that has, you guessed it, a castle & Maddie’s park which is the park next to our house. She loves to swing on the big girl swings and go on the slides.
- For her birthday last year we had a Madison’s Sweet Shop themed party (thanks Auntie Jen!) with cupcakes and lots of candy. She was in heaven!!
- For Halloween 2010 she was a cow & Halloween 2011 she was a bumble bee. She was so much fun to take trick-or-treating this year now that she understands the concept. We even went ToTing twice – Once in downtown Davis (so fun!) and once around our neighborhood.
And of course - Lots of pictures
I’m sure I’m leaving out lots of important details, but I’m so far behind with updating. Thank goodness I’ve at least been updating facebook!
She runs through the house, tells us what she wants, feeds herself, entertains herself and even throws a tantrum in from time to time when she doesn’t get what she wants.
We’ve had so much fun watching her figure out how things work. She loves her BuckleyBoo and is getting good at hooking the buckles. She’s also learned to use a fork and now insists on feeding herself. We try to help her, but it usually leads to one of the tantrums mentioned above.
Stats:
Madison’s typical schedule:
