Maddie is 3 Months!

That's right, Maddie Grace is 3 months old now. Where has the time gone? In the past month, she's changed so much. She is such a happy baby now, and is so close to erupting into belly laughs all the time. She still hates tummy time, so we haven't made much progress in the rolling over department, but she has super strong legs and can support her weight as long as we keep her balanced. We got her a bumbo seat since she loves sitting up, and she is a big fan!
She's also still got a head full of hair, and her eyes are starting to lighten up a bit-we may end up with another blue eyed baby. The jury is still out on which one of us she looks more like though.
In other milestone news, she's been sleeping in her bed for over 2 weeks now! Yay! We still get our snuggle time in at naps, so I'm not suffering too much. :)
She is eating about every 2.5-3 hours (although she went through a growth spurt earlier this week that changed that) and when I'm at work she is eating 6 ounces from her bottles. Pretty soon, we'll be starting rice cereal, which I have a feeling she won't love like Kiley did, but we'll see!

As you can see, she definitely has quite the personality, and she is loving stuffed animals!

Something I'm Passionate About....

...is homemade baby food! When I had Kiley, at the young age of 21, I didn't think much about feeding her Gerber jarred baby food. After I found out I was pregnant with Madelyn, I did some research on it and decided to do homemade baby food-it's better for babies, as well as more economically and environmentally friendly. I am not one to judge people who do use store-bought baby food, just to be perfectly clear. I am just explaining my choice this time around. The best resource I've found for baby food recipes is Wholesome Baby Foods. Great recipes and feeding guidelines. I still want to get a cookbook of baby food recipes to keep in the kitchen, too. Yesterday I went ahead and made my first batches of baby food, since they can be frozen for up to 3 months. I made applesauce from some Granny Smith apples we had, and green beans from some frozen ones we had (frozen is the next best thing after fresh).  So with minimal effort and very little cost I ended up with 8 ounces of applesauce and 4 ounces of green beans. Next on the agenda-sweet potatoes and carrots! Pretty soon my it'll be time for my little princess to try these out:

Family Movie Night

It was a beautiful Saturday here in Nashville yesterday, or so I hear. I was stuck inside the pharmacy for 8.5 hours of it, ugh! But, today is supposed to be gorgeous too, and we're going to the park to see Bill, Jill, Kayla, and Cason. Hopefully I'll be able to finally get some pics of the babies together.
Even though I did spend most of my Saturday at work, I still had a fantastic night with my family. I got home around 6:30 and made a "16 minute meal" recipe I got from the Pioneer Woman....Bowtie Lasagna. Side note: I didn't have bowties, so I used macaroni noodles, and it was still delicious! I think this would work well with any type of short pasta.  This is the second Pioneer Woman recipe I've made, and I'm definitely a fan. They're yummy and don't require a lot of fancy ingredients that you wouldn't usually have in your house.
After dinner, we did movie night with the girls. We've had ET recorded for over a month now, so we watched that, and Kiley LOVED it! She laughed, she cried...it was a hit. I liked it too-much more than I did when I was a kid (it scared the living daylights out of me back then).  This was the first successful whole family movie night we've had since Maddie was born. Yesterday we switched her to 5 ounces per bottle, and she seems a whole lot happier and is demanding to be fed a lot less. Definitely a good move.

Watching a movie together

Just another manic Monday

What a day!!! Casey woke up this morning feeling sick but went on to work anyway...only to find out he had a fever around lunchtime. Right after he sent me that message we started getting hit with severe storms and tornado warnings, which I hate under the best circumstances. Today though, Kiley and Casey were at school, Maddie was at home with my parents, and I was at work. Hated being split up during such bad weather!
Thankfully my parents stayed at my house until I got home from work so Casey could rest and (hopefully) not infect the girls. Also last night I made The Pioneer Woman's meatloaf (AMAZING!!!!)to cook today so thankfully I didn't have to worry about making dinner. Ever since I got home I've been in a whirlwind of taking care of the girls and getting all of Kiley's stuff ready for lunch tomorrow and poor Casey has just been passed out on the couch.
I hope he's feeling better soon!

 Today was my third full day at work and Maddie was so happy to see me when I got home. Makes my heart just lift after a long day of nothing but prescriptions :)

Hope everybody had a fabulous Monday and here's to a wonderful week!

Kiley loves reading to Maddie

Don't believe everything you read...

Last night, I decided I had hit my breaking point. From all I've read, by 2 months, babies no longer "need" to be fed in the middle of the night, they just expect it. So after Maddie woke up at 2 am, I decided it would be best for all of us if she went to sleep in her own bed, because according to what I've read (once again) babies tend to sleep better on their own.
Ha. I put her in her bassinet, and she was not having it. I remembered though that Kiley never enjoyed her bassinet either, but did pretty well once we moved her to the crib. So I thought, ok, I'll do that with Maddie.
Once again, ha! To make a long story short, at 4 am I had finally rocked her to sleep to the point that she did not seem like she was going to wake up. I turned her mobile and nightlight on, put her down, went back to my bed, and turned on the baby monitor....and could not fall asleep!!! Maddie was sound asleep, the only noise coming from her room at all was the lullabyes from her mobile, but I was wide awake. Finally, after about 15 minutes (I know because her mobile automatically turns off after that time and it turned off while I was still awake) I fell into a very light sleep, until 6:00 when Maddie woke up ready to eat. I brought her to bed, fed her, and here it is, almost 11:00 am, and she's still sleeping soundly...in my bed!
So, moral of the story: don't believe everything you read. Neither Maddie nor I slept better or longer with her in her own bed. I'll try again soon....promise.

Cosleeping

...and why I can't give it up just yet! As most know, Maddie has been a more "challenging" baby than Kiley was. One of these unique challenges is that she HATES her bed. Her beautiful bed that Casey and I picked out so lovingly:

When we brought her home from the hospital, she was napping in her crib if we chose to put her in it, and she slept every night in her bassinet. Then she started fussing if I put her back in the bassinet after feeding her during the night, and not soon after she started screaming if we attempted to put her down at all while she was napping during the day. I admit, I didn't push her too hard in the middle of the night. With me nursing, it's a lot easier to just have her right next to me in bed so that when she wakes up I can basically just roll over to feed her. I know all the pros and cons of cosleeping and honestly, they seem to cancel each other out. If I'm being completely honest, I also have a more selfish reason for continuing to cosleep:

Just look at this sweet baby in her pajamas relaxing in bed with us!

She's just too sweet! Maddie is the biggest cuddle bug, and I love snuggling up with her at night. Plus, we have a king sized bed, so she isn't really taking up any room.
Long story short, I think I'll let her stay awhile. I'm going back to work tomorrow, so cuddle time at night will become even more precious to me.
And besides, it's not like she'll want to sleep in bed with us forever...right?

It's amazing what you can accomplish while holding a baby...

The title pretty much says it all. It's a lesson I'm learning every day. As most people know, when I had Kiley I was fortunate enough to still live at home with my parents, so I had almost constant help with her. Fast forward 5 years and I'm married, living out on my own, and I have a baby. It's definitely a lot different scenario! Last night, Casey went out after work to get some candy-making supplies for his new business, Sugars and Spice (more on that later, I'm sure). He took Kiley with him, so I was left home with Maddie. No big deal, since I'm home with her every day right now. However, 5 o'clock rolled around and Casey had not returned. I knew I had to make dinner, but I have a very clingy baby who usually cries if I put her down for even a second. I "manned up" though, and managed to get a pot of spaghetti boiling and a homemade marinara sauce simmering, all while holding Maddie! Go me!
In other big accomplishments, Maddie also let me put her in her bouncer while I finished off the meal, and she even stayed in there for most of the time we ate dinner. I can't tell you the last time Casey and I got to both enjoy a meal without holding a baby. Maybe this super clingy phase is coming to an end...only time will tell.

Maddie at 2 months! What a stinker!