Back to Work!

Yup, that's right....I'm back to work! It actually feels kinda good. I'm sure it won't take long for that to wear off! I got a part-time job at MUSC Children's Hospital and just finished a week of orientation classes. It will definitely be an adjustment getting back to work, but I'm excited. It will be good for both Madi and me. It was hard leaving her, but comforting to know that she is staying with either Scott or people we know and trust. Jessica, who is a Child Life Specialist and works in the ED with Scott is watching her some and Fran is also keepin her. We are very lucky to have such wonderful people to offer to keep her when needed.

Being away from Madi was definitely harder for me than her! She would be happy and squealing when I would get home, and Jess and Fran both talked about how great she did during the day. As for my job, I will be working whenever needed on the different inpatient pediatric units. I make my own schedule, which is great and allows Scott and I to work my schedule around his, Fran's, and Jessica's. I sign up for the days and shifts I'm available and they place me on a floor that needs me. My only requirement is to work/sign-up for 24 hours in a 4 week period.

I'm a little nervous about going back to the floor, but ready to get back in to the swing of things. It's een 7 1/2 months since I've worked, which is kinda hard to believe! I have my first days on the floor next week, so we'll see how it goes :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

How lucky are Scott and I to have this beautiful baby girl to love and watch grow and develop?!!!!

Bubble Bath Fun

Madi's 1st Beach Trip

What better way to spend a beautiful spring-like day in Charleston than at the beach--especially when it's only 10 minutes away from the house!! I took Madi out to Isle of Palms and she loved being outside at the beach. She didn't even mind the sand! I sat her down on a towel in the sand and she played with her toys, laughing and squealing. When I sat her in the sand for the first time, she just sat there looking at the sand then she began to pick it up in her hands and drop it all in her lap :) Too cute! We didn't stay for long cuz it was cool down at the water, but she did enjoy herself so very much!! :)

7 Months Old

It's so hard to believe that Madi is over 7 months old now! She gets more and more personality every day. She's laughing out loud more and still loves to blow "bubbles" :) heehee. She's getting so strong with standing and will pull herself up to stand while holding my hands.
It's funny cuz she's trying to be so moblie without really being mobile! haha. She squirms in your arms and reaches and falls over all the time, but as soon as she hits her stomach she freaks! :) She wants to move so bad but just can't stand to be on her stomach long enough to figure out how. haha. I guess she's just gonna have to wait till she's strong enough to walk :) Oh boy, the craziness I am in for!

This is pretty funny...So, Madi thinks she is a big girl and can eat with the grown-ups these days! haha. She DEMANDS food when we are out to eat so I have had to start bringing something for her to munch on when we are out! haha. She loves biscuits, so that's what I usually take. She's becoming a conesseur(I know I didn't spell that right! haha) of food. She loves to munch on french fries. I gave her my applesauce at Cracker Barrel when we were visiting Montogmery! haha. PawPaw gave her honedew melon that she absolutely loved!! My dad couldn't get it to her fast enough without her letting him know about it! haha. She's very persistent when she wants it. We gave her a apple piece a few nights ago when we were at Fran and John's having dinner. She loved gumming that. Then the other night we went out to dinner and I didn't have any thing for her. I tried letting her "munch" on some waffle fries, but those don't have enough mush for her to get out and she was very unhappy to not have anything to eat with us! So, I had to ask our waitress if we could get a small thing of mashed potatoes for her! That's all I knew to try! She was great and had them make a small, saucecup size of potatoes for her! haha. She LOVED them! It was so funny. I had some sandwich pickle slices that came with my burger too, so I decided to see what she would do with it. She loved it too!! HAHA. She sucked on the pickle slice and got all the pickle juice out. Crazy kid!! I hope this contiinues when she really gets to the table foods! Who says you have to wait to feed your baby table foods!! This kid thinks she supposed to have them NOW! haha.

We now have a stock of biscuits and mashed potatoes in the house to make real quick to take with us whereever we go! haha.

Madi is still doing awesome at night and continues to go down regularly about 8:30 no matter where we are. She sleeps right now till about 7-7:30 each morning. I definitely count my blessings at how well she does at night!

She's so cute when Scott comes home from work. She just smiles and kicks and giggles when she sees him. It's great. I've started letting her listen to Scott on the phone when he calls and he will talk to her for a minute. Her eyes just light up when she hears him on the phone. It's soooo sweet!

I can't think of anything else big right now to add to this. One day I'll get better at updating and then these entries won't have to be so long! haha. I hope everyone has a wonderful week!! Take care!

Another Mommy/Daughter Road Trip

Hello! Well, since it's been a month since I last updated, I figured it was time for another one! Haha. I guess I'm just gonna have to accept the fact that no matter how hard I try, I'm not gonna be as good at updating as I want to be! :) I hope everyone is doing well. We are doing good here.

So, Scott has to take his Pediatric Emergency boards on March 30th, so he's been doing LOTS of studying! I'm very proud of him and the dedication and hard work he's put into his studying these past couple of months. Well, to give him some uninterrupted good study time, Madi, the dogs, and I took another trip to Montgomery for a week at the end of February. The dogs and Madi did GREAT with traveling! We all enjoyed seeing my parents. Granny and Paw-Paw were extatic to see Madi and how much she's grown :) We also enjoyed our brief, but fun visits with Scott's parents on either side of the trip to Montgomery and back to Charleston. They are always amazed at how much she's grown. It's such a blessing to have them in Atlanta!

While in Montgomery we got to visit Auburn and surprise my Aunt Liz with a visit from Madi :) I also went to Birmingham for a day. We went over to Bethany's and got to see family and Cie and her little girl Berkley came over to see us as well. We appreciated that very much! Berkley loves seeing Madilyn. It's so cute. I miss all my friends there and wish I had the time to see more of you! We stopped by the ice rink before heading home that day and I got to take Madilyn out on the ice for the first time. It was great to be back out there! It was so surreal for me to be taking my baby girl out on the ice :) heehee. She enjoyed "flying" over the ice and touching it. It was really cute. We also got to see Aunt Jessica in Montgomery before we headed home and I got to see my friend Amity for lunch when I was headed back to Atlanta. It was a great week!

The week before we left Madi had learned how to blow bubbles with her mouth. It's so stinkin' cute! She purses her lips together and justs spits everywhere. She thinks it's soooo funny and great! :) haha. We love watching her do this.

Everyone please keep Scott in your thoughts and prayers as he continues to study hard for his upcoming boards! I know he will do great, but this is really BIG for him. Just pray that he goes in prepared and focused for whatever the test brings his way. He has to fly to Chicago to take them. They don't have/offer a test center here for them.

Here are pics of our fun trip...

6 MONTHS OLD!!

Can you belive it?!!!?!! Sometimes I can't! What a whirlwind it's been these past 6 months. It seems like just yesterday that we welcomed Madi into the world and moved to Charleston and everything else we did!! Watching her grow has been a BLAST!!! She's growing so fast and doing new things daiily it seems like.

At her 6 month check up she weighed 15lb 6oz and was 26 1/2 inches long. We are still not sure that her height is accurate (haha)! She doesn't seem to be tall, but we will go with it :) Madi is sitting up all on her own now! She does very well and loves playing with her toys. She's starting to reach for things that she can't quite get to. She absolutely HATES being on her stomach!!! haha. She hasn't liked this from the get go, but to see it now is a little funny. She will be leaning over to get a toy, then fall over. She ends up on her stomach, and as soon as she realizes it, she just starts wailing!! She won't even try to turn over. She's so funny. She can roll from tummy to back, but only if you catch her in a good enough mood to play on her tummy for about 10 minutes. She absolutely loves her feet and loves kicking! Those little legs go to town all the time! She still loves bath time and has started to play with some of her bath toys.

CHALLENGE....That's one word that can be used to describe 5 1/2 - 6 months so far. For the past couple of weeks she's been waking up in the middle of the night and taking about an hour to go back to sleep! It's usually around 4am. I would try and see if she would go back to sleep on her on, but she would just get louder and louder on the monitor! She gets excited when she sees me come in the room, so I would sneak in her room on my knees and reach in and put her paci back in her mouth. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't. She's a stubborn little girl. I pat her butt and figure out anything to do before I pick her up to put her back to sleep. She puts up a good fight in her crib before she goes back to sleep! She had been sleeping through the night great ever since we started solids at 5 months, so this kinda trhough us for a loop. Well, a couple nights ago, I fed her more than I had been at bedtime and the past 3 nights she has slept through the night, going back to her regular schedule of going to bed about 8:30 and waking up around 7:30 or 8. Poor baby has been hungry maybe!! :) Bad mommy! :) haha. I had increased her night feed some when we went to stage 2 foods, but apparently not enough for her growing little body! :) We will see if she continues to do well.
She has also entered a phase where you can't put her down at all!!! She plays so well usually and loves her exersaucer, but she's gotten to where at least once a day as soon as you put her down on the floor or in the exersaucer she just starts screaming!!! We are where she can see us, but that just makes it worse, I think! So, she now has a crying fit daily, usually, that lasts about 45 minutes. We put her in her crib sometimes or leave her where she is playing. As soon as you pick her up she stops crying and starts smiling and laughing, so we know nothing else is wrong....SPOILT little girl!!! :) I don't know what else to do for this. It's really hard to hear her cry that hard, but I know it's the right thing to do. Every now and then she'll cry herself to sleep, but she's pretty stubborn! haha.

Scott and I still could not be happier with our beautiful little girl! She amazes us every day. We are learning together how to weather the storms and enjoying together all the little smiles and laughs she gives us. We feel better when we hear that we are doing the right thing and hear from others that they have gone through some of the same things we are going through. Overall, we know what a GOOD baby she is. We are very fortunate with how well she adjusts to different enviornments, how well she does with foods, and how well she continues to do at night(she has always done so well since birth with sleeping at night!).

Here are her 6 month pictures I had done
(Yes, she already has her first pair of ice skates! haha. My coach in Montgomery bought them for her :) hee hee)