ONE month

It's crazy to think that our girl is already ONE MONTH old... (one month down, 17 years and 11 months to go!)

... but then again it's not THAT hard to believe; between the sleep deprivation and my newfound bad hygiene it has been a long month. At the same time, it seems to have flown by. It is crazy to think that a month ago we were in the hospital, just getting used to being a little family.

I am so bad at updating this blog, and I was dumb to think that I would have more time to update it once she was here... HAHA. I am lucky if I have time to wash the spit up out of my clothes or just get a shower in. Mike went back to work when she was almost 2 weeks old, and I had plans to go back to school. After trying to go to school and juggle being a new mom, we decided that it would be best for our family if I took the semester off. At first it was really hard for me to not return to school, but now I have accepted it, and I am loving all of my time with Madeline! Mike is jealous. He shouldn't be though, because she absolutely adores him. It's so obvious she is going to be a daddy's girl. It REALLY pisses me off! I mean, I destroyed my body and went through "torture" for her... and that's how she is going to repay me? Ungrateful. Oh and can we talk about how all outfits for little girls are like "I love daddy" or "Daddy's girl", but then the outfits for mom's just say "Mommy loves me". Why can't they say "I love mommy"?! So unfair! With all joking aside, I LOVE how sweet they are together.

They both have the same facial expression

Mommy and Madeline just hanging out...

She got to meet her great grandma!

Over the past month we have watched Madeline become much more alert and responsive. She is such a strong little baby, and can't stay still for a second. However, she is still tiny. At her doctors appointment on Friday she was 21 1/2 inches and weighed 7 lbs 8 oz. Who would have thought that at a month old she would still be in newborn diapers? We really underestimated how many newborn sized diapers we would need. She is also getting better at sleeping at night, last night she slept for 6 hours! That's my girl! I could go on forever, but I think it's safe to say that we are LOVING her to death.

Oh BABY!

So BIG NEWS! Madeline Grace Hayes was born exactly a week ago on December 28th at 5:31 p.m.

Our sweet girl weighed in at 7 pounds and 3 ounces and 20 and 3/4 inches

It is safe to say that most of the weight I have been carrying around these past couple of months was not due to her.

This picture was taken while I was in labor and moments away from starting to push. As far as labor went, We went into the hospital at around 8pm on Tuesday night and spent the night there. The nurses monitored me and kept an eye on my blood pressure. At 5 am the nurse came into start prepping me for my induction, at 6:45 a.m I was given the pitocin and at 7 am my water broke. After being in labor for almost 10 hours, the doctor came in and decided it was time to push, after pushing for just around 30 minutes we were able to meet our beautiful daughter.

This is our first meeting. The moment was unreal. I couldn't believe that Mike and I had made something that seemed so perfect... and so hairy! We were both in love instantly and it was an extremely emotional moment for Mommy, Daddy, and Madeline. Our first meeting was pretty brief however, because Madeline's breathing was not exactly  perfect and she was whisked away to the NICU to be monitored. Luckily it was nothing major and we were reunited with our sweet girl about 4 LONG hours later. Both of our parents were able to be at the hospital and welcome Madeline into the world. 

As the week has progressed I have absolutely loved watching Mike interact with our daughter. It is unreal the amount of love he has for her. She has only been around for a 7 days and already has him wrapped so tightly around her tiny little fingers. I am so excited to see what an amazing dad he is going to be.

Finally around 8 p.m on Friday night our little family was released and we were able to go home and settle into our new life style... we are still settling in.

After spending a little time at home, it was time for Madeline to go to her first pediatrician visit. It didn't go so well. She was given a shot and also had to have blood drawn. Seeing her cry so much really upset me and I almost started crying, but I didn't. What stopped me from crying you ask? Well, our little girl started farting uncontrollably from crying so hard and it was too funny not to laugh. Don't worry, we hugged her and loved on her immediately after. The results came back from the doctor and her bilirubin levels were so high, so the doctors recommended that we keep her in a UV bed at all times unless she is feeding or being changed. This has been really hard for us, because it is almost impossible to look at this sweet little girl and not go over and sweep her up in your arms, but we are dealing with it. She will be in the bed until Friday and hopefully after that I can report that we have an extremely healthy and happy baby.

This past week has been a very emotional and rewarding week for us. As much as I hated being pregnant, I wouldn't take back a minute of it, because the love that I have for this little girl is unreal. I never knew I could love someone this much, and I never knew I could love Michael more than I did, but I do. We are so excited to see Madeline grow. We look forward to sharing this little journey with everyone else.