Baby Acne

Madalyn, like her mom, has acne. From my understanding 70% of babies get baby acne. There is no treatment for it. It is caused from MY HORMONES. (I know Jamie and I thought the same thing; OH NO!) They say you can clean her face everyday, and try to keep milk cleaned off after a feeding. They also suggest changing laundry detergent. I guess its only supposed to last a couple of months at the most.
I find myself very protective if someone looks at her different. I guess this is where the learning comes in for me. I have to learn not to care what other people think, and to teach her that. She is still the most beautiful baby I have ever laid eyes on.
As my husband said, "If angles snore, I know what it sounds like."
And I would say, "If angle have pimples this is what it would look like."

To Selby from Grandma

Grandma Leigh sent this to Selby and I thought I would share it with you all.

Dear Selby,

Your must be very confused. Your parents have brought a noisy, messy "thing" into your home. (Yes, "it" is going to stay.) I know you don't understand but your parents still love you; they're just a tad busy right now. On the plus side, you can now blame everything on her. Who peed on the carpet? Must've been Madalyn. Who threw up on the couch? Not me! You get the idea.

How do you like being a big sister? One of my other granddaughters, Amber, likes being a big sister.

I am at work now so I have to go. I just didn't want you to feel left out.

Luv Nanny

ITS A BLOW OUT

Jamie and I have started to take a family day. This week was the first week and we were both sick so we did not do much. But we did tackle what we thought would be an easy project. At my baby shower we received a gift of plaques of Madalyn's hand and foot prints. The problem being that you have to put the prints on the plaques. I thought how hard could this be? At the hospital it was a piece of cake. Well as you review the pictures below you will notice it ended up being a whole ordeal. If you look close, ink ended up every where. She looks like a little coal miner.


Then it happened. The blow out! She said " you put paint on me, I'll put paint on you"

This picture looks a little funny. It looks like I am playing in her poop, but I am not. I covering up the goods for the camera.

Then to the bath we went..

On a different note... have I told you how excited I am for our family coming out in Feb! And we are going to DISNEY! Now, I know it looks like Madalyn isn't as excited as mom is, but she is actually just resting so that she has lots of energy for Disney.

How we became bff's

Mallory was a woman that I couldn't stand. In fact you could say that I hated her. In high school she fell in love with my idle.. my brother. This relationship between Mallory and my brother proceeded into a whirl wind of love. Naturally I got pushed to the back burner. This is when the hate began. At the time I did not know it, but I hated her for "taking my brother away." Michael (my brother) moved out to Colorado with her and left me here in Florida all alone. My bitterness blinded how amazing this woman my brother was marring was. It wasn't till I became a Christ follower that the healing began. I remember the night very clearly. I was in my apartment by myself and was praying about my bitterness, and just that fast I was broken and began to cry. I knew exactly what I needed to do, ask for forgiveness. And still crying, I picked up the phone and asked the one women I hated to forgive me. And without hesitation she said yes. She didn't think about it, or stab me when I was so vulnerable. She simply said yes. (I deserved worst. I deserved to be chewed out and not welcome as her friend, much less family) And it Began... healing.
My mom's good friend Kellie was getting married, and at this beautiful wedding Mallory and I proceeded to get very tipsy together and began to call each other BFF's (Best Friends Forever) Neither one of us knowing that one day this label would have great meaning and truth.

Mallory, I have to thank you. Thank you for being who you are and for forgiving me that one day on the phone. Thank you for being so excited about my life's events. Thank you for caring. Thank you for being the best wife to one of the best guys in the world. Thank you. Thank you for listening. Thank you for not judging when most would. Thank you for encouraging. Thank you for accepting. Thank you.

God, thank you for Mallory.

Everyday life

I must say that I am SO BOARD! Being trapped in side all day is driving me crazy. I cant wait for my best friend to come in (my sister in law), than we will be able to do lots of fun stuff. I am trying to wait to take Madalyn to the beach or pool until they get here, that way we can all do it together for the first time.
Madalyn went to the doctor on Monday and doc said everything looks good. She was up to 9lbs 1oz! She grows so much so fast! It makes me want to stop time!
Jamie has started his new job and is really enjoying it. They moved him from hourly to piece work... meaning he gets paid by the piece, no matter how long he works, its the same pay. This could be really good or really bad. I think its God's way of seeing if we trust Him with our finances. Its been kinda hard on me being trapped in the house and then Jamie getting home late, but its really nice when he gets home early!!

Its official....

I am a Mom. Last night after our mid-night feeding, it was time for Madalyn's medicine. It takes about 10 minutes for the nebulizer to vaporize all the medicine. After we were finished Madalyn's mid-night meal ended up all over me, her, the couch, and the blanket on the couch. This sucked! Not only getting thrown up on but having to clean it all up, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT! Then not only did I have to clean it up but she was hungry again! This through our whole schedule off. Hopefully we can try to get back on track today. (And for those wondering it wasn't spit up :) it was projectile vomit.)

Madalyn is feeling a little bit better. She has gone from having a stuffy nose to a runny nose. I think that's good. I think that means she is healing. We go to the doctor today, and I will let you know how it goes.

Random Pictures

My belly is getting smaller day by day. And the laundry has gotten bigger day by day.

First bath.... and the belly button fell off on day 10!
Untill then we had to give her a sponge bath.

She no longer fits in this outfit!!

Ah, Selby has lost her rank.

One of my favorites.

Life with a new born

Life has been challenging. We have the perfect baby and yet its still difficult. I think one of the hardest things is being trapped indoors for 6 weeks! She has been so perfect. The first week she would eat every three hours. This past week she has sleped 5-6 hours through the night (from about 10 to 3am or 4am) and every 3 hours during the day. She hardly ever cries and loves looking at everything around her. I couldn't have asked for a better baby. Thanks God :)

This week has been hard on me, as Madalyn has come down with a cold. She doesn't have a fever, just very congested. We took her into the Doctor on Saturday and they gave us a nebulizer to break up the mucus and it seems to be working. We have a follow up apt on Monday at 3pm and hopefully doc will say everything is looking good. (a nebulizer is one of those masked that kids put on and breath in medicine)

Here are some random pics from the last week ...

Recovery Sucks!!!

There are not many pictures of recovery cause it sucked!!! I was completely unaware how miserable I was going to be for the first week and 1/2. I thought that the Labor part was the hardest but for me it was the recovery that was.

This is my first attempt at nursing Madalyn which ended up being bad. I had forgotten from the class that when pulling a baby off the breast you must detach them first. Well..... Not this time I just pulled her off which ended in bloody,cracked, and bruised nipples. I then could not relatch her and had to pump and bottle feed for 16 hours. Luckily she took to breast feeding after that. And since then its gotten a lot better. We are still learning, but its only been 2 weeks and we are doing pretty good.

Nap time in the Mother baby unit.

Finally, home sweet home!

The Labor story

December 15th I started to have contractions at work which lead into disappointment as we were sent home from the hospital in pre-labor. We were told that pre-labor could last anywhere from a couple of hours to weeks. Well, for us it ended up being weeks. I heard so many people say that the last weeks were the hardest, but I always assumed it was the hardest cause you are so big and uncomfortable, but for me it was the hardest cause I was so anxious to meet my angle.

December 28th we were scheduled to induce at 6:00am. I was so excited the night before that I got no sleep. I expected that I would be able to nap before the contractions got bad, but I was wrong. We arrived at 6:10am and they started us on the medicine right away. What I didn't realize was the nurse had to come in every 1/2 hour to up my medicine and check me. So sleep was not an option. My plan was to get as far as I could with no epidural, and I think I did pretty good.

Here is a good friend (one of the elders of our church)that works in the hospital came to visit. This was nice cause you are only aloud to have 4 people visit while in labor, but he has rank and was able to stop in to say hi.

This was a strong contraction before my epidural. The number on the right top corner measures the intensity of a contraction. When going into transition (the last part of labor) they top the chart and go over 100!

This is my nurse. She was the best!!
At about 2:30pm and 4-5cm I requested for an epidural. I was really scared for the epidural but everything went perfect. No pain and no side effects.

CAN YOU BELIEVE DAD STAYED WITH ME THE WHOLE TIME !! Thanks dad, that meant a lot for you to be there. Especially telling me when the contraction was coming down!

This is one of my best friends. Her new nick name..... Leg holder :) What a trooper she was. As I pushed Madalyn out she suffered having to hold my leg up. I am sure her arm was jello by time we were done.

This was my diet all day.. Ice chips. And this was the last picture aloud by me before having to push.

At approximately 8:30 the nurse came in and told me to push a little bit. She said we still had to wait for Madalyn to come down some more. I rolled on my side and 10 minutes later the doctor was being called and it was time to push. 9:59 she arrived.

And so it begins.....

She's here... Madalyn Isabelle Leigh. Arrived 12-28-09 at 9:59pm. She weighed 8 lbs 10 oz and 21 inches long.

For those that know me, I tend to wear my heart on my sleeve but now my heart is fully exposed for the world to see. Never in dreams would I have imagined I could love someone so much.

So world meet my heart......

Heart meet the world...