shell_and_doug

 Livejournal is a wonderful thing, however it's not like other blog sites where if you don't know the link, or see a link on another blog, you don't know the website address.  Livejournal is a community, and while I LOVE it for my personal journal, I don't love it so much for a public place for my family.  I'm getting a little uncertain about people I don't know adding this journal as a "friend" when I have no idea how they found it.

So, on that note, I will be moving it over to another location.  Anyone who I care about actually reading this will be notified with a new website once it's up.

Thanks! :D

I'm definitely a number person. I remember birthdays as if they're my own. I've never had a problem memorizing a phone number or address. I remember license plates numbers as I see them, prices of items, anything really.

As I drove home yesterday afternoon from work, I just started rattling off numbers in my head. Then I began to count out loud in Spanish, over and over again until I got home.

These are the ones that ran through my head:

2756256. My old home number.
6584635. The number we had after we moved.
90113. My first public school bus.
424. The trip number I had after they stopped going by the actual bus numbers.
2736747. My middle school best friend's number.
6570935. My elementary school best friend's number.
2818227. Another friend from middle school.
2818229. Easy to remember since it was almost the same as the one above.
PBY74Q. My mom's license plate on the van I grew up in.

I remember anyone's birthday that's ever vocalized it to me. I was with the same people all through elementary school, since the school was so small, and to this day, I know each of their birthdays.

Every address I've had I know, which I guess is important. But I've moved every year with the exception of 1 since 2002.

I know the date of every medical procedure I've had, which comes in handy when I have those forms to fill out. I also know most of the exact date of which family members have died. I'm always able to pinpoint exactly what year something has happened throughout my life. I make random connections and never forget them.

Last 4 of SSNs for any pertinent member of my family.

When I was in 7th grade I memorized the first 30 digits of pi. .... Ha.

Number sequence puzzles never seem to actually puzzle me.

Random? Yes. I take it as "easy to entertain myself." But, I consider myself lucky since there are people who can't even remember their own birthday. :)

(Posted by Shell)

I promise that the lack of updates does not mean a lack of activity! Maddie has now mastered rolling both tummy to back and back to tummy. She even managed to roll 4 times in a row Saturday morning within the span of me walking into the kitchen to check on breakfast and walking back out to the living room!

She growls like a pro (thanks to Granny). I need to get this on video. She also mimics noises, if she can make them. If you growl, she'll growl back. This can go on for quite some time. She also does this with sounds like "ohhh" and "aaahh."

She's mastered the I-caught-you-looking-at-me-so-I'm-going-to-be-shy smile. She smiles VERY big, throws her head to the side with her hands by her mouth and bends down just a tiny bit. It's adorable.

She's grabbing at things like crazy, especially hair. I now make it a point to have it up when I'm holding her, otherwise it may be pulled out.

She's finally big enough to fit on my hip, which is doing wonders releasing my wrist from carrying a 13lb baby around.

She gave me a great mother's day present. We were nursing, and I looked at her and told her I loved her. She lightly touched my cheek with her hand. It made me cry; it was so sweet.

She's the best, and makes our hearts melt every day!! :)

It's been an interesting couple of weeks. I went back to work last week; I've been working 4 hour shifts so far. I'm still not ready for a full day, but I'm easing in.

BB had a seizure Friday night and last night. Friday night's lasted only about 30 seconds or so. Last night's was much longer. Sassy (his mom) and Spitty (his uncle) both had the same thing, and it's tied to a thyroid issue. My mom had medicated both of them, but it really didn't do much for either. We are taking him to the vet tomorrow morning to put him down. I'm in chambles. He's my baby. He'd be 13 this July, so the timing is almost exactly when it happened for Spitty and Sassy. :( My poor kitty. I'm going to be a mess for a while. He's my cuddle bug, and has been since he was born. I told him what was going on before I left for work this morning and cuddled him. I'm going to miss him like crazy. It just won't be the same without him.



Maddie's doing great. She loves books with big, bright pictures. She especially loves one in particular that lights up and sings nursery rhymes to her. She's getting much more deliberate with her movements. She's grabbing at things and even holds her bottle up without realizing it. I have pictures to upload, but the computer crashed, so I'm having to reinstall all my programs. Luckily, I had all my pictures saved on my external hard drive.

She discovered herself in the mirror of her play mat and coos away!


Katie (Trina's daughter) gave Maddie this cow while we were in the hospital. She's finally figured out the noise it makes, and it allows for fun morning amusement.


Maddie rolls with the interruption of Nemo...


Maddie rolls again.

Maddie's growing so fast.

Quick highlights:

She has rolled 5 times front to back! Four times Saturday, once Sunday.

We had her two month appointment. She's 10lbs. 10oz. and 23 inches long.

She's talking up a storm.

She's starting to grab at things. She especially loves pulling her pacifier out.

( Read more... )

I also think I finished the Parts Poster...

Maddie met my grandfather last week, oddly enough on the 7 year anniversary of my dad's passing. She loved his hat and just smiled and cooed at him like crazy!



( +5 )

I still have a couple of older ones to post, but this is from this weekend when we went to the park Saturday.



And this is from this morning. Yesterday was a long day, during which she slept a LOT, so we woke up at 3am. Sorry it's dark, but it was only 4:30. She does this every morning and on the changing table. She gets even more lively when there's actually music on. It's adorable.

We had Maddie's one month appointment yesterday. She's gained almost a pound (9.0) and grew an inch and a half in a week and a half (21.75). She's been SUPER gassy and fussy lately; yay colic. We got a prescription for an antacid for her tummy and got the okay to use an infant probiotic as well. The antacid is going well and helping her belly a lot; today was MUCH better than yesterday. We're picking up the probiotic tomorrow. Feeding is going better, the issues most definitely stemmed from a lack of water and food.

She loves bath time. I took some pictures tonight of her just chilling out in there. She just sits and loves the water. She's getting way more smiley and giggly and loves it when we change our facial expressions and copy her noises. She also prefers to be up on our shoulders if we are holding her so she can see everything, and she has great head control, so it works out well.

Sorry I don't have anything else to talk about... my life only consists of her lately (not that I mind :).

( pictures )

It's amazing how much more aware she is now. She coos and smiles and is seems very sure of what she wants. I'm having some issues with breastfeeding. Some days I have plenty, other days I can only get about an ounce out at once. It's really frustrating. I hate giving her formula. :( I found some LLL meetings around here though, and plan to start going next month.

She's crying... time for mommy!

Wow. The time has flown by. I can't believe my maternity leave is almost half over. That makes me so sad. I'm going to have the hardest time going back to work. I absolutely adore spending all day with my little cuddlebug! She's smiling now, but I haven't been able to catch one on camera yet. She loves to watch us make faces and kiss her. And she loves when daddy walk around with her and lets her "fly."

( development )

( Pictures!!" )

I have a couple of videos to post, but she just woke up...

So, that window I had during labor that wouldn't take the epidural strikes again. The last couple of days, I've had the same type of pain in the same spot, a sharp, searing pain over the right side of my pelvis. I went in today, and Lindsey ruled out my uterus completely. The pain is directly over my right ovary, and I have to go back on Monday to get an ultrasound to rule out an ovarian cyst. Fun.

Maddie is doing wonderfully. She's starting to smile when it's not gas related, which is really fun to see. She also loves looking at herself in the mirror on the floor gym and makes the sweetest happy noises when she's laying there. She hates to lay down or be cradled though. She'd much rather sit up and be able to see everything head on. I can't believe it's been three weeks! It's gone by so quickly!

Two weeks old yesterday!

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Her two week appointment was yesterday. She's still not at her birth weight, but she is gaining.

Maddie is sleeping, and I'm sure that she's going to wake up relatively soon since it's been about two hours, so I need to type fast.

She's 12 days old today. I can't believe she's already been here that long. There haven't been too many picture opportunities between all the sleeping and nursing... She's nursing practically all day every day, and I'm hoping that it subsides a little bit after the three week growth spurt. She's one very hungry baby, but it does mean I get lots of mama-love time, and I love that.

She's quite feisty. She ended up punching herself in the head last night when I tried to move her hands out of the way to nurse. She hasn't figured out yet that the milk comes from the boob and not the hands. :) She makes amazing faces though, and has incredible deep blue/grey eyes right now. I hope I can capture the majority of them and put them all together in a parts poster face only style.

She's starting to wake up...

These are from the day after she was born.

Things are a little crazy, but bearable. I'm currently nursing and typing with one hand. Her first doctor appointment at 2pm today.

After her birth my blood pressure shot way up, and I had the shakes pretty bad. I was better by the next morning. Feeding went splendidly in the hospital and great yesterday. Today it's been about an every-hour-on-the-hour thing. The first night was ROUGH, we were up for about five hours straight with a very hungry baby who was screaming, my boobs were insanely sore by the end of it, but we survived. The past two night have been much smoother. She's been really even tempered and very clear about telling us what she needs.

Before we left the hospital, Doug was holding a sleeping baby and his eyes got teary looking at me, and he proposed saying there wasn't anything more he'd want than what he had. It was super low key and super sweet and perfect. :)

Videos (I had to make a youtube account due to file size, but I think they can only be viewed 25 times with them marked as private. Tell me if you can't see it):

Her first bath in the hospital:


Baby Ninja with Daddy (it's a little dark, but adorable) at 4 days old:


Pictures are coming; I need both hands for that.

The best I can do until I can get on my own computer! This is our little princess!