Warning: Sappy Content

This will likely be a slightly emotionally charged post. If you're one of those people who is only interested in baby antics and not the dramatic ramblings of a sleep-deprived new mother, you may want to stop reading now.

(Cue violin music...here).

When Maddie was born, we were given a CD by one of my mom's co-workers of what are essentially lullabies. The CD is structured so that it starts off a little more lively, then lulls baby to sleep as each consecutive track gets slower and softer. I thought, oh, that's cute, and put it away with a bunch of other baby gifts deemed, "We're probably never going to use this, but whatevs. It was FREE." Well, Maddie is constantly changing and growing, and something that worked to put her to sleep last week now has no effect on her. So, while putting away yet another mega-haul of garage sale clothes, I found this CD. Again, laid it aside. Until today.

We've recently discovered that Maddie really likes music. I don't think this is too surprising to too many people, considering her parents and what we do for a living/hobby. Tonight my parents took us to Applebee's, and as we were sitting right under a speaker blaring, "Love Fool" by the Cardigans, I look over at Maddie's car seat, and she's asleep. Not just kind of asleep, but unconscious. And she stayed this way for the entire meal. So, we got home, and when it came to be time to put her down for the night, I thought, oh hell. Let's give this CD a whirl. Not even 2 minutes into the first song, she was asleep.

As I rocked my sleeping daughter, I began to stare at her little face. I studied it, all of the little eyelashes, the way her forehead wrinkles, even her silly little cowlick. And it made me cry. Okay, I should be more specific. The cowlick didn't make me cry. The realization that she's not going to stay little like this for much longer, that someday, she won't need to be rocked, we won't need a CD of lullabies, made me a little emotional. And while I will be grateful for a night where I can have 8 uninterrupted hours of sleep, for now, I will cherish these moments when I know she needs me...even if it means getting up at 2am to listen to sappy lullabies. Jay and I are so blessed to have such a beautiful, perfect, healthy baby.

Speaking of baby...she's awake again. Off I go...

The 2 month mark

Happy two-month birthday to our peanut...our very large peanut! Two month stats...

9lbs., 5 oz 21 1/4" long

0-3 mos. clothes
Size 1 diapers

A little small for two months old, but hey, when you're six weeks early, that's the way it goes. She'll catch up sooner than we think!

Here are Maddie's accomplishments as of late:

She now eats about 4 oz. of formula/breastmilk at eash feeding. I tried nursing exclusively, really I did. I made it about 7 weeks. When she hit her first growth spurt, she spent three whole days eating. One day, I nursed her almost nonstop from 7am to 5:30pm. Ugh. All the lactaction consultant appointments in the world probably couldn't help feed this kid. So, I've resorted to pumping breastmilk into a bottle and supplementing with formula. I was HIGHLY resistant to formula at first. NOTHING was as good as what I could give her, and I felt a sense of guilt when I had to give in and feed her something "artificial." My mind started to be more at ease when I saw that she was much more content and sleeping longer at night. This lasted for about three weeks, and then she started having tummyaches, which led to her crying ALL. OF. THE. TIME. Jay came home from work for lunch one day, and I was at my wits' end. If she didn't sleep and screamed one more time, I was going to fall apart. We experimented with another formula, which made things WORSE (that was also a long day), and finally found a newborn formula that works great. We think the other stuff was too harsh for her system. After all, she is technically a 3 week old.

Sleep: about 5 hours at a stretch. Usually she goes down about 10 or 11 (sometimes earlier if we're lucky) and is up between 4 and 5. Most of the time she goes back to sleep after that.

Funny thing...We very rarely call her Madeline or Maddie. Amongst our nicknames are:

Maddie-moo

Peanut

Bug (or Little Bug)

Squiggy (which was her name in utero)

Squidge

Squiglet

Squidgy

I feel like Rob Schneider's "Making Copies" guy with all the derivations of "Squiggy" that we use.

Maddie has also started cooing and lifting her head. She's on the verge of rolling over, but we're not quite there yet.

More to come later...it's bath time!

Let's try this again...

So I did a really horrible job of updating this while I was pregnant. Let's just pick up with recent history and go from there...

Madeline Grace Ramsey

Born March 7, 2011 2:57pm

5 lbs., 7 oz 19 3/4" long

She was born six weeks early, but she's been a strong little girl from the beginning!

First picture shortly after being admitted to the NICU

2 weeks old. She's not jaundiced here - the lighting was just really bad!

5 weeks old

We spent the first three weeks of her life in the NICU, mostly due to her small size. She was never on any oxygen, just had a feeding tube to supplement her when she was too tired to nurse.
Peanut (and we probably won't be calling her that for much longer!) is now 7.5 lbs and 20" long. She's thriving at home, and we're getting settled into our new routine as parents. So far, it's been exhausting, but so wonderful! Maddie is a fantastic little baby!

Normally I'm not one to post pictures of my body, but I thought I'd share a few pics of my baby bump (or more correctly, the baby pushing all of my fat upwards). The above picture was taken at the 14 week mark....And the below picture was taken at 4 weeks, shortly after we found out we were expecting. Bit of a change, yes?

Now that the second trimester has started, I'm beginning to feel a lot more human. Morning sickness is gone (I do not wish that on ANYONE!), and I'm starting to get that surge of energy that everyone talks about. Today after getting home from work, I did two loads of laundry and hung a bunch of posters in the basement. Maybe my nesting is starting a little earlier than it does with most people, but I feel like I need to do something other than just wait for this kid to show up. Although, Daddy and I will have plenty to do once we start on the nursery in a few weeks!

The Importance of Family

Last Tuesday, my Grandpa Lechtenberg passed away. He was the Lechtenberg family patriarch; the rock of our family. No matter what, Grandpa was always there with a smile and an encouraging word. Even toward the end of his life, when his cancer returned and ravaged his body, he was still optimistic. Not that he would beat the cancer, but that his final days on this earth would be good and full. Grandpa was, by far, one of the toughest men I knew. He expected a lot out of his kids and out of his grandkids. Maybe that was part of his military background (he was a lieutenant with an anti-aircraft unit in WW II). But, he had such a soft heart when it came to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We were his light, his reason to smile.

This past weekend, laying him to rest, showed me the great importance and love that my family has for each other. We didn't just cry and mourn his loss. Together, we celebrated his life. We are so excited to tell our baby all about Grandpa Fritz and the love that he had for all of us.

His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ ~Matthew 25:23

Welcome!

Welcome to our blog! Here is the first of what will be many posts featuring the newest addition to our household. We are very excited to meet our little one! We found out we were expecting on August 10, 2010. Baby Ramsey is due April 20, 2011. I'm sure s/he will be the sweetest Easter egg ever!

We had our first real OB appointment today. Everything looked good, or so said our doctor. Blood pressure was nice and low at 102/76, and baby's heartbeat, which we heard for the first time today, was 157 bpm. That sound was music to my ears. :-) Kid you not, I could have listened to it all day. Up to this point, I had been a little fretful, worrying about whether or not everything was okay in there. Well, turns out this little stinker is a squirmer. It took them a few minutes to locate the heartbeat, but when they did, I noticed there were a lot of other bumps and swooshes. The nurse told us that it was the baby moving around, and that s/he seemed to be VERY active. With that, Daddy and I let out a sigh of relief. So, with the first trimester wrapping up, I feel much better about everything. :-D

We will update more in future posts. Thanks for reading!