I survived the night

Last night I sent my baby girl with my mother for her first overnight visit. I was hesitant and her absence left an unusually large hole in the pit on my chest. At nearly 3 months it is pretty early for sleepovers, but it was necessary. It had been nearly 10 weeks since I'd had a full night's sleep. Mom was elated to get to take Addison home and spent the next day showing her off to her friends. From what I hear, Dad and Addison spent a good bit of time just napping together. After it was all said and done, everyone turned out just fine. Addison was well cared for. Mom and Dad had a blast. And I slept nearly 10 hours!!! I felt like I could conquer the world this morning...it was great.

Christmas

Look at what I found in my stocking this year! What a wonderful Christmas present.
I think it's pretty neat that she fits in the stocking that will one day hold all her gifts from Santa.
Of course, we have an outfit for Christmas as well. Michael discovered that there is a "burst" setting on our camera that takes continuous pictures as long as you hold down the shutter button. That meant sifting through no less than 150 pictures of Addison in this outfit. It was difficult, but I managed to pick a few favorites..lol. Hey, it was a difficult task.

First set of shots

Last Tuesday, we went back to the Dr. to get our first shots. Addison has grown exponentially in this last month and now weighs 11lbs 11oz., and is 23 1/2" long. She is in the 75th percentile of her age group in both categories meaning she weighs more and is taller than 75% of the girls her age. I like to look at that as my girl being above average.

In addition to the check-up, we had to get our shots. Oh what a torcher it is for the mother to have to sit there and watch that happen. I swear to you the needle was as long as my finger! Yes - I cried. I think I cried more than she did. But Addison? She was indeed a trooper. A short burst of tears and then - she was content...just like she always is. A really happy baby.

2 month news bulletin

We have had our first smile...I repeat, we have had our first smile. Daddy got it. He also got the second one. I'm just not that funny looking I guess. Addison is two months (8 weeks) old and she's still nearly perfect! Here she is in her "summer" dress - since it's nearly 80 degrees in December here in Augusta.

I call this the many faces of Addison.

Addison being mellow.

"Hey Ma, that's kinda funny."

"I think I'll take a nap."

Pouting?

"I think you really don't know what you're doing."

"If only you were as cute as me."

"I'm a girl, of coarse I'm right."

"Close your eyes and think - bottle, Mmmmm."

This I love......

Priceless

My big girl outfit

We are still trying to get over this cold...it's been over 2 weeks!! Some mornings my princess is even hoarse. So, I'm busting out all the warm clothes these days to try and keep my baby warm and sniffle free. Here's her big girl outfit. I half expected her to get up off the couch and run around the room - she looked so grown in it.

7 weeks..still no smile

What a horrible cold!

We had to go to the doctor Friday because my little Addison was running a temp of 100 degrees. She felt so bad and it literally broke my heart. Michael walked in to our room to find me holding her and in tears. I was so overcome with worry for her that I was beside myself. Hearing her struggle to breathe and just praying that the fever wouldn't get any higher took up most of Thurday night. We did get the ok to take tylenol and some antihistamine drops which improved her condition exponentially. She is sneezing and stuffy..but there's no more temp.
That's it...I'm going right out and buying her a bubble. No more germs for us!..LOL

6 weeks

Today Addison is 6 weeks old. Unfortunately for her, she's spending it with a pretty icky head cold. Poor poor baby with the sneezing and the stuffy nose...it breaks my heart to see her not feeling well. Not to mention, she's really getting tired of me coming at her with that suction bulb. I really hope she feels better soon. In the meantime, here's some more photos.

This is Michael and Addison dancing

the "Daddy/Daughter" dance at my cousin Joel's wedding.

He was tickled that he finally fell into that category.

Here's "The Family" all dressed up for Joel's big day.

Addison and her Grandma - who by the way,

is totally in love with her granddaughter.

Thanksgiving

Here's our cutesy outfit for the holiday.

As you can see, Addison wasn't thrilled with posing for another picture.

Things that change when you have a baby

Addison Michael

Angela

1. You finally stop to smell the roses, because your baby is in your arms.

(Wow, have I! I look at every little feature on her body, notice every little action and thank God for every single moment I have with her whether daytime or middle of the night.)

2. Where you once believed you were fearless, you now find yourself afraid.

(Who knew that you could be so scared for someone else..and she's not even crawling yet.)

3. The sacrifices you thought you made to have a child no longer seem like sacrifices.

(In-vitro? What in vitro? All I know is that it worked and she's HERE.)

4. You respect your body ... finally.

(Even moreso, you forgive the way it looks after being pregnant. I treasure my stretch marks as a right of passage in my life.)

5. You respect your parents and love them in a new way.

(So this is how mom felt at 1:30 a.m. when I wasn't home from my my first date with Michael, even if I was 26!)

6. You find that your baby's pain feels much worse than your own.

(Have you ever hurt your child accidentally? OMG, I've never felt so small and horrible.)

7. You believe once again in the things you believed in as a child.

(People are essentially good. I've witnessed the beginning of life and it is good.)

8. You lose touch with the people in your life whom you should have banished years ago.

(Who has the time to hang with the stragglers? Life is happening and I'm going to be there!)

9. Your heart breaks much more easily.

(She is my heart. I literally gave birth to my heart.)

10. You think of someone else 234,836,178,976 times a day.

(You jump at every little grunt or moan at night as well.)

11. Every day is a surprise.

(It doesn't take much these days to be wowed by the growing and changing of a human in the beginning of life.)

12. Bodily functions are no longer repulsive. In fact, they please you. (Hooray for poop!)

("Do you smell something? No? Oh look, it's a poopy diaper. Did you do a poopy diaper? What a good girl you are!!" Actual Conversation)

13. You look at your baby in the mirror instead of yourself.

(Why on earth would I want to look at myself anymore?)

14. You become a morning person.

(You become a whenever person...whenever she calls.)

15. Your love becomes limitless, a superhuman power.

(It's the only thing that enables you to be that "whenever" person. It's stronger than adrenaline and available at any time once you've given birth. C-section? No worries. Super mom will get off the couch the day she gets home, several times during the night to tend to your every need...no problem at all. She will go for days and days on minimal sleep and still pop up for that 3 a.m. feeding as fast as she can possibly move at that point. She has been endowed with supernatural stamina that will defy explanation.)

What a wonderful, difficult, amazingly important gift it is to be entrusted with such a miracle as a child. I love my Addison.

Look at how much we've grown

One Month old. I'm the mom of a ONE MONTH OLD child. We have such fun around our house these days. Addison spends a lot of her time staring...just staring at stuff, mostly lights and ceiling fans because she's usually lying down. She's still more and more amazing every day. Today we had our first Saturday alone as a family since she was born. We all stayed in our jammies and snuggled in bed all morning on this really chilly day. It was nice. Here's some shots of my wide-eyed beauty - Click HERE.

Meet Tigger

Here's Addison in motion.

Bye Aunt Pat

Today we said goodbye to dear Aunt Pat, Michael's aunt from Vegas. She has been with us since 3 days after Addison's birthday. It was a lifesaver to have her here. There were many a morning that I got some much needed sleep and she was there to care for Addison. We tried our hardest to get her to move here, but alas, she had to go home.

The stump is no more

I have won the battle with the belly button stump!!!!
I thought that thing would never fall off. I've been dying to give Addison a real bath and now I can.
She is now three weeks old today and I have taken bunches of pics of our girl, but I don't want to bore my readers with countless pictures of my baby just lying there. "Oh look, her eyes are open. Oh look, they're closed. Oh look she's crying." So I thought I'd just put one or two on at a time so as not to bore the public. LOL
Since my life is 24/7 baby these days, that is my only subject lately so bear with me until we enter the real world again.

Grandpa and Addison Sleeping

This was too cute to pass up.

Where does the time go?

I'm pretty terrible at keeping up this blog these days. Between recovering, being Bessie for Addison and frequent diaper changes, I've not found the time to do much. Today marks the day that she is 2 weeks old. We went to her pediatrician Tuesday and she was back up to 7lbs, 7oz. and had grown 3/4 of an inch. He said she looked great and he'd see us back in December for her 2 month visit. Since our first outing, we've learned that we must have purchased the magic carseat because time we put our girl in it, she immediately falls asleep. It's a really neat phenomenon.
Today everyone gets to see Addison's first photo shoot. We enlisted the services of Lindsey Leland Photography (she has a blog link under my blogger buddies) and in a matter of minutes, she managed to capture my little girl at her best. I love these pictures!!

Halloween

Well, we've made it through 10 days of being parents. We are fatigued, but we are not deterred. Aunt Pat is visiting and she has been a life saver by allowing me to take naps while knowing that my girl is in safe hands. I must say that our front door has been a revolving door since last weekend...and we love it. I guess we're socially hungry, but we've loved every minute of our visitors.

We did go on our first outing on Saturday. Lunch at Logans and a quick run through Target. It was exhausting and it took me an extra hour to get ready just because Addison had to be weatherproofed and have a diaper bag packed. Whew! How am I going to get up early enough to do all that?!? It makes travelling seem very uninviting at this point.

Here's Addison's Halloween outfit..which is very fitting since we refer to her as our little pumpkin.

Try again

I fixed the link to the pics in the previous blog. Goodbye Kodak Gallery, hello Picassa! Also, I put up a shorter slideshow on the main page under my picture. Enjoy!

She's here, she's here!

God has really blessed us with a beautiful baby girl... even moreso than I could have ever imagined. With each time I get to hold her, look into those dark little eyes - the ordeal of actually getting her here seems less and less significant. She's amazing to me - every move, every sound. And her father...well he's in love. Smitten to the fullest, I've never seen Michael so enthralled with another human. We are proud proud parents.

New link for pictures is HERE - cross your fingers it works. Be warned...there are 138 photos! ;)

It's crowded in there.

Here's me in my last week of pregnancy. I don't look half as bad in these pics as I thought I did.

Here's baby girl's last sonogram.