November 10, 2011
Three Months!
And just like that, we are a quarter of the way through Madelyn’s first year. Holy, dirty diapers, the time has fah-lown by! And my, has she changed! November 9th marked Madelyn’s third month of pure deliciousness.
At three months old, Madelyn now…
- holds up her head like there’s candy on the ceiling! Her neck control has always been good, but she is fully holding her head up now.
- is eating about 5 ounces per bottle. And usually she needs a top off to seal the deal of fullness. She is a little piggy and we love feeding her.
- costs us more money that we thought she would. Let me explain. She’s eating tons of formula (yay!) but it’s the most expensive formula on the market (boo!). Madelyn has a milk protein allergy (not a huge deal in the longrun, so no worries), and it requires her to be on the most sensitive formula available. It can only be special ordered through a mom-and-pop pharmacy and a 19.1 oz can costs — are you ready?? — $54! She goes through about two cans per week. Yeah. Ouch. Baby girl better get a scholarship to college!
- has a beautiful, crystal clear tushie! Remember that awful diaper rash? She had it on her bum for about ten weeks! YES! Ten weeks! We tried everything! And nothing made it disappear. It was the most frustrating and heartbreaking sight to see. Finally, the pediatrician decided to try her on the super-expensive-but-super-important formula and by golly, it did the job! Because her tummy was working so hard to break down the old formula, it was overproducing acid to break down her food and then she’d have acidic poop and well, you know where the acid-poop sits. It was eroding at her skin! So sad. Within 48 hours of switching to the super-expensive-but-super-important formula, her rash went away, the skin healed, and now it’s the most beautiful bottom I’ve ever seen. Whew!
- is sleeping better and better! Just before she turned three months, her long through-the-night stretches of sleep got a little wonky. I was panicking that she was not making progress and our once-awesome sleeper was waking up two to three times per night. Unfun. But we are reading a book called Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth, and we have learned that at three or so months, the baby becomes more aware and social of her surroundings and wants to participate instead of sleep. I can’t really blame her. So instead, we are making sleep a positive thing for her! And now she is back to sleeping nine to twelve hours per night! She goes to sleep around 6:30 p.m. and we start our day around 8:00 a.m. She has two hours of awake time before going down for a nap. She doesn’t fight her sleep now and is rarely overtired so she gets a good night’s rest. Happy baby, happy parents!
- can hold objects! She isn’t necessarily reaching and grabbing yet, but if I put a toy in her hand, she’ll grip it strongly and fling it around. She used to have no interest at all in objects around her, but now she seems to be aware of colors and textures. It’s very cool to watch her explore.
- can turn over! On the monitor, we watched her squirm around like a rolie polie all night, and by the time we woke up in the morning, Madelyn was on her tummy! It’s only happened once, but we no longer swaddle her just in case she turns over again. I was nervous about how she’d adjust to being freeeeee, but the unswaddled bebe seems to be just fine!
- smiles ALL. THE. TIME. Somebody get a mop, because I am such a puddle! When she smiles her cute gummy smile and raises her eyebrows with delight, I seriously melt. It is probably the best thing my big brown eyes have ever seen and I spend my days doing the most ridiculous things trying to make her smile again and again.
Love our little Madelyn! Happy 3 months, babygirl!
Havin’ A Cow
It’s only been nine days since Halloween. This post isn’t overdue at all. Nuh uh.
Oops.
Things have been crazy at the Friedman Abode. The Halloween costume is still draped over the dining room chair, so naturally, a recap of Madelyn’s first Halloween is a bit tardy as well. I even questioned doing Halloween at all. Madelyn was less than three months old on October 31st, and she’ll never remember it, and obviously the only candy she gets to enjoy is her formula which is her breakfast, lunch, and dinner as well! Let’s face it, though, Halloween for babies is more for the parents than it is for the little ones. It’s all about the photo op, and we definitely got them!
At first Madelyn was going to be a strawberry for Halloween. I saw a cute costume on Old Navy’s website and ordered it, but when she tried it on, it was too big and baggy. She looked cute in red, but it wasn’t even obvious that it was a strawberry. Quite a bummer, too, since the selection was in honor of her daddy’s favorite food!
While at Costco, I saw costumes by Carters and they were adorable! They must have been all the rage this year, because according to Facebook photos, it looks like most babies and kids wore a variation of a Carters animal costume for Halloween. Color us trendy, because Madelyn looked moooootiful in her cow costume!
Although, I have to wonder, is it a little meta that Madelyn drinks milk while she’s in her cow costume? She seemed to enjoy her bottle of formula with extra zest that day. I wonder if she finally understood “you are what you eat” in its truest sense.
Since I haven’t cared about Halloween since college, I really got into the spirit this year since I now had a reason to participate. I baked Halloween cupcakes and made yummy Oreo cookie bars. I even made Bryan dress up with me as Madelyn’s little farmer/cowboy caretakers. I couldn’t decide if we were farmers or cowboys, so I interpret us as a hybrid of such noble professions.
Oh, and we decided that the cowboy farm specialized in pumpkins as well as cows. Hey, it’s two ingredients in to having a full-blown pumpkin pie.
I couldn’t wait to bring her over to her friend Brielle’s house (who made the cutest ladybug!) so we could have a mini Halloween party with our families. We enjoyed good food and lots of playtime. We ventured out to a few houses in Brielle’s neighborhood which is in the same community as my elementary school. I went trick-or-treating there as a kid, and it was fun to carry the tradition over for Madelyn as we started our own new tradition with Brielle and her parents! The babies, um, we got some candy and just before dusk, we came back home and 7-month-old Brielle went to sleep.
We always have such a fun time with Brielle’s mommy and daddy. I’ve known Brielle’s mommy since we were kids and we are having so much fun with our baby girls!
Thirty
Believe it or not, since pretty much the day after my 29th birthday, I’ve been dreading my 30th. To me, turning 30 somehow meant that I would have to officially be an adult now. I know that turning 18 or 21 (or 25) or whatever means you are an adult in the legal sense. But for me, the idea of turning 30 always felt like some sort of symbolic ending to my youth — no more staying up late, no more eating whatever I want, no more crazy nights out with friends…basically no more fun. (In retrospect, I think most of this “fun” ended closer to my 25th birthday anyway.)
So when I saw my 30th birthday fast approaching, at first I thought I’d rather not celebrate it at all. “Let’s just forget this is even happening,” I thought. But of course, that would have been silly, so I decided instead that it was best, as always, to surround myself with everybody that I love and everybody who loves me… …so I can share with them the misery of me turning old. And that’s what I did. (Well, that, and I ate a whole bunch of overly yummy food made by former Top Chef-testants.)
On Saturday night, Alison and I went out with some of our closest friends to Stefan’s at L.A. Farm in Santa Monica. Some of the food that was served to our table is easily some of the best food I’ve ever had in my life — from appetizers, to salads, to entrees and dessert, it was just an exquisite meal. After it was over we even went out and [sort of] partied hard at an Irish Pub. It was almost like college again, only we had more money and we got tired a little early.
On Sunday, my actual birthday, Alison took me to brunch at Eveleigh in West Hollywood for more awesome food followed by a surprise helicopter tour of L.A. Such an awesome surprise, and we got to see some really cool sites from 500 feet in the air.
Finally, we finished up the night with our families, including Baby Madelyn, with a seven course dinner at Cafe Firenze in Moorpark from Chef Fabio. It was a real treat and the best way I could possibly think of to end what turned out to be just about the perfect 30th birthday weekend for me.
So anyway, it happened. I’m 30 now. I’m old. My 20s are officially over. It’s the end of my youth.
Thankfully, however, I have some truly incredible friends, an extremely awesome family, and an even more incredible and awesome wife and daughter. By sharing with them some great food, good laughs, and fun times during my 30th birthday celebrations, I came to a realization. I guess it took the whole weekend (or probably the whole year) for me to figure it out, but I know now that 30 is not the end of something, it’s the beginning of something. I think my “youth” was probably over longer ago than I’d like to admit, and while my 20s definitely had there fair share of wild times (“wild” is relative here folks…), my 30s will most certainly have their fair share of wildness too, albeit a wholly different kind of wild.
I’ve heard it said that “life begins at 30” and I guess that’s true. I have a beautiful and caring wife that I love, a perfect baby daughter…I now have the most wonderful family any 30-year-old could ever ask for. Forget my “youth” anyway! This is what life is all about. I think I like 30 after all.
Madelyn’s First Moments
We all enjoyed a lazy family weekend at home and enjoyed spending quality time with Madelyn. She’s really aware and curious now, and loves to be held facing outward so she can see the world. She’s a little baby Yenta already. We watched her explore on her new play mat and discover the adorable baby looking back at her in the mirror. It’s so clear that she’s becoming a real person and it’s fun to be surprised by her new changes.
I got a little nostalgic and looked through the zillions of photos from her first few days with us in the hospital. She was so little and puffy and fresh. Her features weren’t very pronounced and her interaction with us was minimal. Still, we fell deeply in love with her then. And now? Well, now, forget about it. We’re mush!
I came across a video that Bryan took with his iPhone while he was in the nursery with her. I was still getting stitched up, and he got to escort her to be poked and prodded before her first bath. I had no idea Bryan took this video until yesterday when I found it in the pile of hospital photos, and I am so glad he captured her first minutes after she was taken from me in the O.R.
And now, after seeing this, it’s obvious just how far Madelyn has come in her almost-12 weeks. She’s been changing right before our eyes, and these first recorded moments mark the beginning of our lifelong happiness with our daughter. Not going to lie — I totally teared up when I watched this for the first time yesterday. Daddy of the Year, my husband.
Pumpkin Patch Kid
Last week mommy and daddy took me to this place they called a punkin patch. I guess it’s part of this holiday thing…Hollow Weenie I think? Something like that. Uncle Kevin came with us and Lisa too. Daddy brought his big picture-taking thingie, the Dee Esselar I guess? He and Uncle Kevin were snapping away, but he kept complaining about bad light and shadows and stuff like that. I don’t know what he was whining about. I think I look pretty darn cute.
Anyway, the punkin patch was pretty cool. There were all these different sizes of punkins, from really small ones like me to really giant ones. They were all this really interesting shade that I’ve never seen before. The only real colors I know are pink, yellow and green because I hear mommy talk about them all the time in my room. The punkins weren’t pink or yellow, but they were kind of something in between only brighter. Daddy was using the Dee Esselar to try to take all these artsy pictures of the punkins, except I thought the whole point of that thing was for me to be in the pictures. What’s the point otherwise?
This place even had a petting zoo with goats and sheep and duckies, but mommy and daddy said we couldn’t go inside to see the animals. Maybe they’ll let me get closer and pet them when I’m older. From a distance they just reminded me of my brother Princeton. As for the punkins, daddy picked out two of them to take home – a little one for me since I’m still small, and then a bigger one for mommy and daddy.
I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with this thing though. Daddy told me that when I’m older I can help him carve it, but that seems kind of silly. Mommy said she likes punkin pie and that does sound pretty good. But then she didn’t even use them to make the pie. They just got put outside on the doorstep and then she made the pie from a box of powder, just like my formula. Why did we even have to go to the punkin patch if they have this stuff in a box? Parents are so weird.
So this Hollow Weenie thing is only a couple of days away. I keep hearing all this stuff about dressing up and looking so cute, but that seems like every day to me, so I don’t really understand what’s special yet. It sounds like I get to see my friend Brielle on Hollow Weenie though, so that should be really fun. She’s older than me so she can show me what I’m supposed to do that day.
Every day is something new for me but all I really care about is eating and sleeping so I don’t know what all the fuss is about. But I guess the punkin patch wasn’t so bad. It was fun being outside and checking out all the colorful stuff there is to see. I bet it will be way more fun when I can walk around and pick stuff up. I gotta get on this moving around thing. Maybe Brielle can help me when I see her. Last time I saw her she said she was thinking about crawling soon. I hope she does so I can see what it’s like. Hmmm…now I can’t wait for Hollow Weenie.
Have a fun 1st Happy Halloween 2011! You are going to look so adorable dressed up in your 1st costume.
Love, Mimi