Madison's 3 Month Birthday {Christmas Pajama Style}

Madison–- All of a sudden you have developed quite the personality!  You love to squeal and smile.  We have had so much fun playing with you this month.  We love you so much baby girl!

 

Date: December 6, 2013

Weight: You weigh 14 pounds and are 23.5 inches long! You are long and skinny. You are still wearing 0-3 month clothes but starting to fit some 3-6 month clothes.  You are still in size 2 diapers.

Sleeping: You are a great sleeper!  For most of the month you went to bed at 9:30pm, woke up at 3am to eat and went back to bed until 6:00am-7:00am.  The last few days of the month you had 3 nights when you slept from 10:00pm-8:00am!  You got a little fussy around 3:00am, but went back to sleep quickly.

Eating: you are still such a good eater!  You usually eat 4 oz every 3 hours, but have some 3.5-4 hour stretches. 

Milestones: You are so close to rolling over!  You can roll to your side from your back, but not all the way to your stomach. You have started to grab the toys on your playmat, suck your hands and laugh a little.  You still love the car and your bath.  You like to listen to books and look at the Christmas tree.  You still love to sit in the bouncer and look at the lights.

Special Moments: This month we celebrated Thanksgiving at Uncle Michael and Aunt Heather’s house.  We also celebrated MowMow and PawPaw’s birthdays.  Mommy went back to work at the end of this month. Lolli and Pops stayed with you during the day while Mommy went to work on Thursday and Friday.  You start daycare on Monday!

 

Now, we don't usually wear hair bows with pajamas, but we figured might as well get a 2 for 1 special and take pictures of Madison in her Christmas pajamas for her 3 month pictures!  I was having the hardest time finding Christmas pajamas in 0-3 month size that were cute and didn't look like they were for a boy.  I finally found these adorable Mud Pie pajamas at Buy Buy Baby and knew I had to buy them.  They look so adorable on Madison! Since they don't really look like pajamas since the top is so fancy, Madison had a pajama day on Sunday! Here are some of the pictures of sweet Madison in her Christmas pajamas:

 

 

It is so exciting when you discover feet!

{Five on Friday}

Happy Friday friends! Today's 5 on Friday was late...this mommy went back to work yesterday!

 

1. Guess who's 3 months old today?!?! I can't believe I have a 3 month old baby! The past 3 months have forever changed us and our family. Madison is so perfect and such a sweet girl. She has grown so much developmentally this week. Since Monday, she has began to grasp things, notice toys when she lays on her play mat and roll to her side. She is so close to rolling from her back to stomach!

       

        

    

   

2.  Other big happenings...I started back to work yesterday.  It was a wonderful 1st day back.  My parents watched Madison the past 2 days and she will begin daycare on Monday.  We feel wonderful about the daycare we chose, but this momma's heart wants nothing more than for her teachers to know what a special girl she is and be able to learn her personality quickly.  Overall, Madison is such an easy baby and I think she will love daycare.

I started my day with flowers from Madison (my parents) and coffee in my new mug from Leslie.

                  

We were very happy to see each other at the end of the day!

                  

                  

3. We are having some cold weather in Houston right now! The highs are not supposed to get out of the 40's for a week, which is very unseasonable for us. On Wednesday, the temperature was 82 degrees and yesterday it was 45 degrees by dinner time...welcome to Texas! We are looking forward to staying warm this weekend and wrapping some Christmas presents.

4. It's hard to believe Thanksgiving was just a week ago! I tried out two Pinterest desserts during Thanksgiving week and they were both delicious! I made German Chocolate Bars and Pumpkin Crunch Cake. The nice thing was that we were able to take the desserts to other people's houses so we didn't eat the whole thing ourselves!

5. She's her momma's girl...

Christmas Traditions

Now that we have Madison, I have been thinking a lot about Christmas traditions that I want to start for our family of 3.  As a kid, I always remember putting up our Christmas tree as a family.  While this is not necessarily a tradition, one thing I remember was that there were many years we would go to Marble Slab afterwards and get ice cream.  Not sure how the tradition got started, but it was always fun.  I also always remember when my parents would get out the Christmas books and put them into a wooden book holder my mom had that was shaped like a house. Lucky for me...a few weeks ago my parents surprised me with all our the Christmas books from when I was a kid.  I also remember going to Christmas Eve church, eating at Black Eyed Pea afterwards and listening to the Boston Pops radio show on the way home. 

On Eric's side of the family, we have developed a tradition over the years of going to Christmas Eve church service and then going to eat Mexican food with his family afterwards. Since his family is so large (15 people with kids, spouses and grandkids) we have also started to do a Christmas gift exchange. Each person brings a gift worth around $30 and we do a gift exchange where you can get or steal a gift.

I have been thinking a lot lately about traditions that we want to start with Madison as we now have our own family of three. One thing I want to do is to buy a special ornament every year.  It will be fun to look at the ornaments each year as we decorate the tree. The teacher in me has always had a love for books. I want to get a special Christmas book for Madison every year. Since I always remember getting out our Christmas books as a kid year after year, I want her to have the same memories. I think our Christmas Eve tradition each year will be that she gets to open her new Christmas book for the year and we were read it together as a family. I also want her to have a pair of Christmas pajamas each year that she can wear during December and also on Christmas morning.  Eric and I always enjoy going to get a Starbucks drink and driving around to look at Christmas lights. I found these two Christmas lights scavenger hunts on Pinterest the other day and thought it was such a fun idea. I'm hoping that we can do one of them this year as we drive around and look at lights.

  

What are some of your family's Christmas traditions each year? Any special ones that we should add to our list?

The Next Stage

Picture overload ahead...don't say I didn't warn you!

 

My maternity leave is officially over and today I head back to work.  I am beyond sad to not get to spend the day with Madison, snuggle, kiss her face and play all day.  I have had the most amazing time getting to spend 13 weeks with her while I was on maternity leave.  It seems unbelievable that she will be 3 months old tomorrow.  I still remember the minute she was born and the doctor put her on my chest.  All I could see was her little face, thinking how little and perfect it was. 

 

 

 

 

 

The early weeks of Madison's life seem like such a blur.  Eric and I were taking a shot in the dark each day to figure out our new normal, a schedule for Madison and what she liked/didn't like in the way of soothing.  As much as we felt prepared for her arrival, we were totally lost when we got her home and I wouldn't change those days for the world.  The first few weeks, Eric would always take pictures of me with Madison and I would always fuss at him because it was right after I woke up.  Now, 3 short months later, I am so thankful to have those pictures of us from her first few weeks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the first month, all of our sleep improved and Madison dropped down to only 1 night time feeding.  This was so wonderful for our night time sleep and daytime productivity.  Madison and I fell into a good routine during the day and started to get out of the house regularly.  I have never enjoyed laundry, errands, cooking and cleaning as much as I have the past 2 months.  We started a good routine to get a little bit done each day so that our weekends could be filled with family time when Eric was home from work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we have gotten into the "holiday season", it has been so much fun to get to share this time with Madison.  October was such a peaceful month, November was full of thanks for our little one and December is already proving to be exciting as we get ready for Madison's 1st Christmas. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I go back to work today, I am excited to be back with my work friends and see all the little faces that fill our school each day.  I have missed everyone and have started to feel very out of the loop the past month, most of which is my fault for really detaching myself from work and focusing on enjoying every little minute with Madison.  Long story short, I love my job!  I work with amazing people who are great to collaborate with.  There are tons of little ones at school that I look forward to greeting this morning as they come into school.  I can't wait to get back into classrooms and see the wonderful things going on, be a part of the exciting after school activities this time of year brings and prepare for next semester.  As sad as I am to leave Madison, I know the people I work with will be there to support me as I move into our new normal.  Only 2 1/2 weeks and then it is Christmas break!

 

 

Mom and Dad- Fill our baby girl full of love, kisses and cuddles the next 2 days!

 

{These are a Few of My Favorite Things: Baby's 1st Christmas}

 

 

We can't wait to celebrate Christmas this year with Madison!  Even though she won't remember it, we will have fun making memories of our first Christmas as a family of 3.  We have already finished her Christmas shopping and I can't wait until Christmas morning so she can start playing with her gifts! Here is what will be under the tree this year for Madison:

 

Nemo Soothing Seas Crib Toy / Laugh and Learn Crawl Around Car 

 

Baby Einstein Car Seat Arch / Rocktivity Mix and Crawl DJ Ball / Books, Books, Books

 

 

 

 

Eric and I have never been big gift givers to each other for Christmas.  He said it perfectly on our date night...we have the most perfect baby girl and what else could we need...and I couldn't agree more!  Last year on Christmas all we wanted was to be pregnant and this year we have the best gift of all.