Maddy's rocking chair

Actually this is April's rocking chair from when she was a baby. Maddy
seemed to like it after she figured out what was going on. I wish a
captured video of her bobbin her head trying to make it rock by herself.

Maddy's 9 month checkup

Maddy had her 9 month dr appt yesterday. Everything is looking good. She is still off the charts for both weight and height. She weighed in at 23lbs 9oz. and was 29 and 3/4 inches tall. She had an ear infection

a couple weeks ago and that has gone away. She is eating everything in site these days with her 6 teeth, with 2 more getting ready to come in. She even tries to eat the other kids food at the table at school. She was started walking with the assistance of her little push car. April said she tried to take her first unassisted step last night but fell. She got to play in a sandbox this past weekend in T-town. She was amazed at how it falls through your fingers. She is all over the house these days. She very fast in the crawl and pretty much follows us around the house. She is very excited to walk and do things herself, like eating finger foods and holding her bottle. She is at a pretty fun stage right now and April and I are trying to enjoy it as much as possible. Here are a couple recent pictures.

Where to start?

So a lot has happened since the last time we posted to the blog. Maddy got to meet her great grandmother Vivian from Massachusetts and spend time with her grandparents Barbara and John and her uncle Andrew down in Thomaston. Her grandparents Jack and Robi from San Antonio also came to visit.







Our friends Mike and Brenda came to visit. We had a great time as usual. Mike and Matt got a chance to taste the Double Coronary By-pass from the Vortex (the buns are grill cheese sandwiches)

Click here to see all of Madalyne Mae

Maddy started eating solid food. So far I think her favorite has been the apple flavored Yobaby yogurt. She has had numerous foods including real avocado, bananas, pears and apples.




Maddy' is sitting up like a big girl and she has her first tooth coming in. We couldn't really get a picture of it yet, its still a bud.

We are getting ready to celebrate Maddy's first Christmas. Here are some pictures of us setting up the tree, and Maddy trying to pull it down.


Maddy has her 6 month doctor's appointment on December 22, so we will update everyone on her progress. She has been to the doctor a couple times, but they have been more to reassure Mamma that Maddy is fine. She has been sick, but nothing major, just the sniffles and the coughs. You wouldn't be able to tell she is sick. She is always in a great mood...unless she is hungry!  If that's the case, you need to get her food stat!!
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Here is a little video I made a couple weeks ago, but forgot to post. Enjoy!

Eskimo maddy

Maddy first swing ride

Maddy and Emmie at the park

It was such a nice day out we decided to head to the park. Maddy and
Emmie got to take their first swing ride.

Maddy's First Time

It's been a few weeks since our last post and so much has happened. Maddy has experienced a lot of firsts.

Maddy's first time visiting the Bank (July 31) was fun. Momma got to see her co-workers who she misses very much and Maddy got to meet everyone. We got some great shots with India, Lauren, and Danielle. Maddy was very well behaved and enjoyed seeing new faces. She slept in Lauren's arms and appreciated all the love.
Her first time in a restaurant (July 31) was at the Pig N Chic with her friend Emmie. Maddy slept through dinner which made us very happy. Momma was worried that she might start screaming and bother the other patrons, but she surprised us once again.

Maddy's first game night (August 1) with the girls Emmie, Ada, and Avery. Basically the girls took turns sleeping and eating while the adults tried to make it through a game. Momma will admit that we played 10 rounds of catch phrase (moms vs dads) and the dads dominated. The moms are still blaming it on "pregnancy brain" and being sleep deprived. We had a great time and got some funny shots of the girls. Maddy is the one that is dressed like a boy. I will say she had on a pretty dress for most of the night, but as soon as I put her "magic" jammies on, everyone decides to take pictures. The sweet, magic pjs are the pjs that I came home from the hospital in 31 years ago. These were the jammies Maddy was wearing the first night we got her to sleep for 6 hours and that's how they got their name "magic jammies". She has now out grown these and they have been retired...again!

Maddy's first time with a baby sitter (August 8) was with Aunt Karen. Matt and I attended our friend's, Matthew and Laura, engagement party and Karen agreed to keep Maddy so we could go. Karen and Maddy had a great time going for a stroll around the park. I must say I wasn't worried about her, but I did miss her which surprised me. You spend all week wanting a break and then when you get one, you can't wait to get back and hold your little one again. It's crazy!! Karen sent us a picture of Maddy napping on her chest to let us know that Maddy was happy and doing just fine. Thank you Aunt Karen! We will take you up on your offer to babysit anytime!


Maddy's first time with a nighttime routine (August 9) was a result of Laura's sister Debra telling us how she got her son to sleep through the night. We took great notes and started it with Maddy and it has worked wonders! Maddy does tummy time with daddy from 6:30 until 7pm; bottle at 7pm; bath after that; massage from mommy; daddy dresses her in pjs; daddy rocks her while mommy reads a nighttime story; and then we put her down awake and turn on the awesome lullaby cd that Amy Rossi got us. Maddy has started putting herself to sleep and has been sleeping consistantly 6 - 8 hours a night! It only took her two nights to fall right into the routine. It is great! She is now in her big girl bed and seems to love it. She out grew her Moses basket and her pack-n-play. She started waking up because she was getting caught when she would turn herself around. Now she can turn around all night and never touch the sides! Maddy is also sitting in her bumbo now and holding her head up really well. Go Maddy go!
Next we have Maddy's first shots on August 20 and her first day at daycare on August 24. I look forward to updating you on how it all goes. Matt is attending his first school meeting tomorrow night. How cute is that! He promises to take lots of notes.

Until next time...

Maddy's One Month Doctor's Appointment

Ms. Madalyne had her one month appointment yesterday. We had her weighed last Thursday at the lactation consultant and she had not gained any weight (still at birth weight of 8 lbs. and 1 oz.). We had our fingers crossed that she has gained some since we started feeding her with bottles and measuring her intake. We are happy to report that she gained 7 oz. in just a few days and is now at 8 lbs. 8 oz.! She also grew an inch and is now measuring at 22 inches long. Her head went from 33 cm to 37.4 cm.

The doctor said she was doing great and all her metobolic screening came back okay. She got a clean bill of health! Our next visit will be for shots at two months. Yikes. I hear that visit is harder on the parents than it is on the kids.

Thanks for keeping up with our family! We appreciate all the support, concern, and advice.

We made it to a month

Maddy made it through a month!!! She had a lot of visitors during the last week. Below you can see some of the people that have came to see her, as well as, her stylin' and profilin' model poses for her 1 month photo shoot. My favorite picture is the legs crossed with the hand behind the head - she's a natural. Next thing you know she'll be busting out the "Blue Steel"...Magnum is still far from ready.

We have had some recent developments this past week that we are proud to announce. Our friend Jamie Robinson came to visit and recommended that we visit a lactation consultant to see if they could help us find out why Maddy never seemed satisfied and she never stopped crying. We were afraid she may have acid reflux or something. We visited the lactation consultant on Thursday. We learned a very valuable piece of information. Although it seemed Maddy was nursing for an hour at each feeding she was actually eating for about five minutes and playing for the rest of the time and using mom as a pacifier instead of eating. So her crying was due to her being hungry. We assumed that since she was eating for an hour she couldn't possibly still be hungry. Man were we wrong. We started using bottles so we could tell how much she eats...averaging 28 oz a day (wow). We are also topping her off with formula if she is still hungry after eating 3-4 oz of breastmilk (Momma can only make it so fast). She is eating like crazy and now is sleeping like crazy. A tornado could come through the house and she won't wake up. We are very excited to find that problem was due to her not getting enough to eat because that's an easy fix!

Maddy is now spending a lot of time alert and looking at herself in the mirror. She is making sweet little noises and has started smiling. It is the cutest thing you have ever seen - or at least it is to us.

Daddy had a really great time on Sunday around 5 am. Let's just say when it goes in with the bottle really fast, it comes out really fast. I have a couple pretty interesting pictures for anyone that would care to see. I didn't want to post them for those with finicky stomachs.

Mom and Dad had a chance to get out of the house. Matt's mother was kind enough to allow us time to go see the new Harry Potter movie and grab a beer. We have Matt's mother here for one more week and then we will be on our own. We are slightly nervous, but now that we figured out the eating thing we feel much better.

This is just a random video of Maddy doing her daily exercise!

Almost at a month!

Its been a while since we updated everyone of pictures.

Pre 1st Month

Maddy is doing wonderful. She is very strong and can hold her head up most of the time. When she is having tummy time she gets really frustrated when she kicks her feet to move but doesn't go anywhere. Vera (April's mom) has been with us during the week for the last 3 weeks. Barbara (Matt's mom) is here helping this week. We really appreciate all the time and effort you guys have given us. It makes being new parents that much easier.

Maddy to her first trip to Thomaston this past weekend. She got to see the cabin where she will hopefully be spending a lot of time...so daddy can fish ;-)

She has been gaining weight really well and is eating all the time. She has had numerous visitor the last couple weeks. Thank you everyone that has visited and helped out with food and what nots.

Thank God for Momma

I haven't had much time to blog, but I want to make sure my mom gets a huge shout out! My mom, Vera (a.k.a. Grammy), came to the rescue on Saturday afternoon. I called her and asked her to come up early because the lack of sleep was really starting to get to me. She came with arms wide open and doughnuts in hand. After soothing me, she took to soothing little Maddy Mae and let Matt and me get some much needed sleep. Grammy has been taking the night shifts so I can get up to feed Maddy and go right back to sleep. What a difference it has made to my mental and physical well being.

Mom, I love you very much and appreciate everything you are doing for us. It means the world to me. You are making everything easier for us and I can't thank you enough. Thanks for being such a great mom. I only hope I can be the mother you have been.

All my love,
April

First doctor appt

Maddy's first appt was today. She passed with flying colors. She is
back up to her discharge weight of 7 lbs. 9 oz. The doctor helped
settle a lot of nerves for mom and dad. She didn't really mind to much.

Unforgettable

Viacord (Cord Blood Banking)

Friends and Family,

We have decided to store Maddy's cord blood. Some of you may know what this is, if you don't you can find more info here. We are by no means asking for donations but I know certain people asked if there was anything they could do to help. If you would like to help out you can click Contribute. We appreciate all the love and support for everyone and hope you are enjoying watching Maddy as much as we are. She's a sweet little baby and we can't wait for everyone to meet her.

Car ride

We had to get the little green Acura fixed so papa can drive it while
mama's on maternity leave. Maddy did wonderful on her second car ride.
She might have opened her eyes one time but that's it.

To sleep or not to sleep

Maddy did great last night. She slept most of the night in between feedings. Mom and dad both got more sleep last night than in the combined nights since her birth. Daddy did find himself trying to do stuff at night instead of sleeping. That quickly changed after the surge of tiredness hit.

We are trying to get her use to the difference between day or night. We are also reading a great book call "The 90 minute sleep program" that we got from our dear friend and new parent Amy Rossi. It talks about the amount of sleep babies need, why and how to find the signs that your baby is tired because they don't really know when they need to sleep.

We weighed her today and she is down to 7 lbs. We are kind of concerned but I hope that just means she finally pooped out all the black tar. The new poop is much easier to clean up. She has her first doctors appt tomorrow, so we will see how she is doing and if there is any thing wrong.

We haven't really taken many pictures lately, I have a couple videos I will post later.

Mommy's First Blog Entry

It is 11:52 a.m. and today is the first day that Maddy has slept for a 3 hour period in her own bed. Daddy is fast asleep and I can't seem to go to sleep even though I'm exhausted.

I want to thank Matt for being such an amazing support person. He has been incredible and I am really nervous about him going back to work next week. He's been so good about keeping up the blog and keeping all the people that care about us in the loop. I do apologize for the diaper change video - wasn't aware that was going live! ;o)

I know so many of you have called to check on me and left voicemails and emails. I am sorry that I haven't gotten back to all of you. I do want to talk to each of you, but finding time is really difficult right now. Just know that I love you all and I really appreciate you thinking of us. The gifts, the flowers, the food...all mean so much. I will make a plug to give me some time on the thank you cards though.

Life as a new mom is an incredible ride. I can't believe that we created such a beautiful baby, and that nothing in the world matters when she is in my arms. It's amazing that one minute y0u are throwing back the covers, ready to scream because she won't stop crying, but the second you pick her up to soothe her and she looks at you with those eyes, you completely forget what you were frustrated about. How you can love something so much so soon is unbelievable. I thank God everyday that we were so fortunate to have had such an easy birth and a healthy baby. Everything else we just deal with one day at a time.

I love you all. - Mom ;o))

Facebook

So I finally cracked and signed up for facebook. Not really sure how it works, but I guess you can search for Matthew Ledom.

Sweet Baby Girl

So Daddy's has gotten in to the bad habit of letting Maddy fall asleep on his chest. She likes it so much she doesn't sleep in her bassinet anymore. We are working on trying to fix that.

The last couple days have been a blur. It all feels like the same day. We tried last night to sleep when she sleeps but she kept waking us up. Daddy passed out in the recliner with Baby on his chest. He was going to try and put her in her bed after she was in a deep sleep but it was just to comfortable and he was WAAAYYY to tired to be able to stay awake.

Momma and Maddy have this breast feeding thing down to a science. The only problem right now is Maddy keeps falling asleep in the middle of it. She has started to gain weight again. When we left the hospital she weighted 7 lb. 9 oz. and today we weighed her at 7 lb. 10 oz.

Momma and Daddy have been doing a good job acting as a team. We gave Maddy her first bath today and it went great. You can see the video in the last post we did.

We have had a couple visitor come by the house to see our little cutie pie!!! We look forward to seeing everyone if you get a chance to stop by.

First Video Editing

Here is a video I put together 3 video we shot with our Flip Ultra HD mini camcorder. Thanks to all those that gave me gift certs to Best Buy for my birthday!!! I started playing with iMovie on my new Mac and was able to put the 3 videos into 1 with some transitions and a title screen...Hollywood here we come.