All smiles and growing like a weed

Maggie turns 8 weeks old on Wednesday and she’s smiling and growing so fast. She’s like a different baby from when she was born. She’s starting to lose a bit more of her hair – it’s like she has a receeding hair line. Her eyes are still blue but they are lightening up a bit. She’s smiling more and more, and it’s just so fun when she smiles. She still smiles mostly at her dad and is a little flirt with him too. I will work most of the day for one or two small smiles and Matt will come home and she smiles and coos at him a ton. Matt is also responsible for teaching her to stick her tongue out when smiling. We had read and some friends had told us that babies can mimick facial expressions so Matt has been sticking his tongue out at Maggie when he plays with her. Now, she will coo and smile and then start sticking her tongue out at you. I am not too pleased with this because while it may be cute now - it might not be cute in a year or so. Matt, however, couldn't be more proud with her ability to mimick him.
Maggie is also starting to reach for things a little. This week she reached for a toy on her car seat. She batted it and hit it and looked oh so surprised. Matt and I made a huge deal out of it hoping she'd do it again, but she just stared at it. Matt swears that she reached for me the next day but I think she was just moving around.
Maggie has also been sleeping in her crib now for over a week. She's doing great. It was a much more difficult adjustment for me than for Maggie. I tried to push this off for a few days but Matt finally stepped in and told me that I had to just do it so we did. I am going
to have to ease myself into the daycare drop off, especially since putting her in the crib at night was tough for me.
We had our first big outing last week. Matt had to go to Indy for work so Maggie and I dropped him at the Indy office and went out and about for awhile. She was so good – she slept most of the time and when she woke up, she was quite content. She is almost always content unless she is hungry, has gas, or wants to be held. This makes life much easier on us.
She also visited the pediatrician this week. She has been congested since she was born, but it

seemed to have become much worse last week so Matt wanted her to see the pediatrician. Dr. Laughlin was out for the rest of the week so we saw Dr. Moore who we liked very much. He actually switched Maggie back to Similac and we are now giving her some nose drops for her congestion. It seems to be working well so far. Maggie had also gained weight and had grown. She now weighs 10 lbs. 11 oz and is 21 ¾ inches long. So, she has gained about 2.5 lbs and has grown ¾ of an inch since her two week visit. Dr. Moore said her weight gain is right on target. He says this is great because babies need to gain weight to faciliate neuromuscular development. Maggie has her two month visit on Monday and she’ll get her vaccinations then too. It should be another interesting trip to the pediatrician’s office.

Maggie also has had many visitors lately as well. The Reeds visited and it was a fun visit. We also were able to spend some time with the Pedersen clan, and Maggie met her newest little friend Conor. Soon, she will meet her friends Nathan and Cole. Nathan and Conor are both just

a few weeks younger than Maggie and Cole is a few months older.

We are looking forward to many playdates and to her meeting her older friends and cousins.
Maggie will make a few brief visits to my office with me this week, and she’ll be getting a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Miloch this weekend. We hope she will continue her easy going ways. She most definitely gets this from Matt.

Maggie officially met Dr. Trippell at my six week checkup. That picture is above. Joselyn and Ainsley were also huge helps at feeding Maggie during their visit. The picture on the right is Maggie watching the British Open with Dad.
Take care everyone – All our love!

Almost 5 Weeks

Hi again everyone. I don’t really know where to start with this update because so much has happened in the last four weeks. I don’t want it to be too long, and it’s my fault for not getting to the update sooner so I will just try to summarize the last four weeks for you as quick as I can.

The c-section and our hospital stay went well. Maggie did fantastic and my doctor said that it was a “picture perfect” c-section for me. Maggie was born at 8:34 am, weighed 7 lbs. 5 oz. and was 20 ½ inches long. Before we left the hospital on Friday, her newborn panel came back and it showed her bilirubin level was a little high meaning she had a bit of jaundice. So, we saw the pediatrician on Saturday instead of Monday. Because she was not on a regular feeding schedule and because my body was simply not producing nearly enough milk, she’s been on formula since. This almost immediately corrected the jaundice issue, and at her pediatrician’s visit a few days later, she had already gained 2 ounces. At her two week checkup, she weighed 8 lbs. and 6 ounces and was 21 inches long. I am pretty sure she has grown a little taller and has put on some more weight since then.

We think Maggie is a great baby but we also know we are biased. Our first night home was really rough. We didn’t sleep at all and Maggie was fussy and hungry constantly. This, we now know, was a reflection of not having her on a regular feeding schedule. The second night home, she slept from 11:30 pm to 4 am. We were THRILLED. She has pretty much stayed fairly consistent with this pattern. The last three nights, she has slept from about 11 pm until between 5 and 6 am. This again THRILLS us and means we get a little more sleep. Today was especially fantastic because she slept until 6 am; I fed her at 6:30; she went back to sleep at 7 am and slept until 10 am. This meant I also slept from about 7:30 until 10 am so I was so excited.

Maggie is now almost five weeks old and she is starting to show a little personality. A few days ago, she started to smile and coo a bit – mostly at her dad. I totally think she’s daddy’s little girl and although he won’t admit it, Matt is pretty stoked about that. Matt is fantastic with Maggie and they seem to mesh quite well together. They are both easy going (she gets that from him without a doubt). Today she smiled at me and was quite playful when I changed her. She likes to kick her legs a ton – she kicks her legs when she’s happy and when she’s angry. I am slowly but surely beginning to decipher her “Feed me now” grunts from her “I am just playing and making noise” grunts.

She spent a lot of time with Grandma Nance – or Nana as she prefers to be called. Grandma Nance left on July 4th with Grandpa and we think Maggie misses her. Nana held Maggie a ton, and we think Maggie wonders where she is. Nana was also insistent on “tummy time” for Maggie. Maggie isn’t a fan of “tummy time” and it has become what I call a lesson in “how to take a happy content baby and turn them into devil child in less than 60 seconds.” I tried “tummy time” again today and likely won’t be engaging Maggie in this activity ever again. She was happy for 45 seconds and then screamed, grunted, and cried for 30 minutes. She isn’t even supposed to have real tears yet, but she definitely had some working. We will have to find another suitable activity to build her neck muscles because “tummy time” is out.

This week I also used Itunes to download some infant music and burn a cd for her crib cd player that some close friends gave us. Maggie seems to really like music and it calms her down. She has several crib soothers and we use them all – she likes them all. You may remember that she is a fan of the music at Cheeseburgers in Paradise so I have included some Jimmy Buffet on her cd as well – we’ll see if she’s as big a fan outside the womb as she was inside.

It’s been a hectic and exciting four and half weeks for us, and we are thankful she’s a good baby. I promise to update more often. Maggie has the best friends and family in the world. She also has lots of little playmates her age. My friend from swim class had her son last week, another friend’s son is about five months old now, and we are eagerly anticipating the arrival of two other friend’s little ones – one should arrive any day now and the other – a little girl – should arrive some time in November. Maggie also has several little ones very close to her age waiting to meet her in Texas and many little friends and cousins to play with in Chicago. Speaking of Maggie – she is fussing now – so I am going to post this and tend to her. Thanks again for everything!