Madison's Big Girl Bed

It has been about 10 days since Madison started sleeping in her "big girl bed" and she is transitioning like a champ! We took the front off her crib and added the toddler rail. We also started giving her a big pillow, which she loves! 

June and July were interesting months for sleeping for Madison. We were gone on vacation for about 13 days total, in which she was sleeping in her pack and play. The week before and the week after vacation, we had a few days both weeks that Madison had a 101-102 degree fever, which also messed with her sleep. We have spent many nights sitting in her room as she falls asleep, which never happens. Despite these disruptions, she has done amazing at transitioning and is very proud of her big girl bed. 

The first night, I sat in her room for 1.5 hours. I kept telling her lay down, close your eyes, go night night. Each day since then has gotten a little better. She knows we don't sit in her room during nap time and she falls asleep just fine. We are down to sitting in her room for about 15 minutes at night, then leaving whether she is asleep or not. If she cries, I get on the monitor and tell her "go night night, mommy and daddy love you". It usually only takes once and she goes right to sleep! 

The funniest part is that Madison doesn't realize she can get out of her bed on her own. She will call us every morning when she is ready to get out of bed. I think we will keep this little secret for as long as we can. ;) 

Gender Reveal

               💙💗💙 It's a... 💗💙💗

  

              💗💗💗 GIRL!! 💗💗💗

Madison is going to have a little sister! We are so excited to have 2 sweet little girls. 

Funny story about the reveal... Eric and I did not know the gender ahead of time.  We found out with everyone at the party when we cut the cake and saw pink icing. We both cut at the same time and when Eric pulled out his knife, I saw blue. When I pulled out my knife, I saw pink...I was so confused! It turns out Eric cut through a blue icing dot on the side of the cake. As soon as we pulled the slice of cake, we saw pink icing and knew it was a girl! 

When we went for the ultrasound, the tech said she was 70% sure of the gender...we will find out on July 31st if baby girl is still a girl!  

Norwegian Getaway June 2015

In late June, we flew to Miami and set sail on the Norwegian Getaway for a week long vacation! My parents, Eric, Madison and I had an amazing vacation. I will admit, I was nervous about taking Madison on a cruise and also being 23 weeks pregnant. I was nervous how she would behave, if she would sleep well and if she would go stir crazy not having her toys. I am happy to say that all my reservations were worked out just fine!  There were many times that she was nervous with all the new things.  We decided to not fight the fight and let her have her Wubbie whenever she wanted.  I'm not sure there are many pictures where she doesn't have her Wubbie in her mouth...

We joked that she had narcolepsy because she would be talking up a storm and then fall asleep a minute later. On the runway, in her stroller, on the boat to the beach, in her bed...#wheremadisonsleeps

We flew into Miami on Friday, June 26th. It was a long travel day and we flew through lunch and nap time. Madison slept for over half the flight and then played on the iPad, colored and ate snacks for the last hour. Once we landed, we got to the hotel, ate an early dinner and all slept very well that night. 

The next morning, we left the hotel around 10:30AM to head to the cruise terminal. We had a relatively easy boarding, partly due to having a toddler and being pregnant. Once we got on the ship, we went to eat lunch at a pub style restaurant that Eric had read about online. It turned out to be yummy and we are there a couple times during the week. Madison loved the booths.  When we got back to our room that night, Madison had a surprise in her bed from Lolli and Pops! Her bed was decorated with a SpongeBob good night gift.  {Norwegian contracts with Nickelodeon, so there was a lot of SpongeBob and Dora the Explorer}

As we set sail that night, we then had 2 sea days, stopped in St Thomas, USVI and Tortola, BVI, had another sea day and then stopped in Nassau, Bahamas before returning to Miami on July 4th.

On our sea days, we had a routine of spending a couple hours on our balcony in the morning, eating breakfast, then heading to the splash pad. We would then eat lunch, take a nap, explore the ship, spend time on our balcony, eat dinner, walk around outside, then finish up the night on our balcony before bed. Madison was up by 7:30AM each day and stayed up until around 10:00PM each night. She was such a trooper each day!

Madison loved sitting on the balcony with everyone. We were able to open the door between our room and my parents, so we had a large balcony. It may seem silly, but I think my favorite part of the trip was getting to spend time together on the balcony.

The splash pad area was perfect for Madison to be able to run around and splash.  She even got brave a few times and wanted to go in the big pool.

In St. Thomas, we walked around for a while, shopped and took a taxi downtown to walk around and get good pictures of the ship. The weather was not terribly hot, so we stayed off the ship for a few hours. 

Tortola ended up not being very developed at this time. There weren't any areas close by to walk around, so we didn't stay off the ship long. We headed back and let Madison play at the pool. 

In Nassau, we did an excursion to a nearby beach called Blue Lagoon. It was a private beach in a cove, so the water was calm. Madison had a blast playing in the sand, walking in the water and looking for rocks. It was a long day and we were tired once we got back to the ship. 

It was such a special week to get to spend time with my parents, Madison and Eric. It was a different vacation than usual, but I wouldn't have changed anything. We all balanced doing things together and splitting up/taking turns watching Madison so everyone got to do what they wanted. 

I think one my most special memories will be our mornings on the balcony. We drank coffee and juice and relaxed in our pajamas with Madison.