And here we go.....

Ok, I admit...we got the Wizard of Oz on Blu-Ray, and that influenced the title.  Did you know that the Tin Man had rivets on his gloves, by the way?  I was skeptical what they could really do with a movie from 1939, but it is absolutely amazing.

Anyway, that's not what this is about.  Maddison seems to be going through a bit of a growth spurt right now.  She's sleeping a good bit more than just a few weeks ago, and is beginning to eat, well, like a hobbit - to steal a phrase from her Aunt Juda.  The "petite little girl" from a few weeks ago is now just under over 14 lbs. and is generally eating about 6 oz. every 2 - 3 hours.

Our first "Halloween weekend" was a really fun time.  We spent some time at the daycare infant room party on Friday.  It was pretty chill, as the infants don't know what's going on, but since she doesn't go to daycare on Fridays, we decided to drop in for a little bit so they could see her dressed up.  As always, you can find all the following pics (and a LOT more in these sets) on the Maddison pics page.

Just a quick update.  We went for Maddison's 4 month appointment yesterday.  While she has pretty much been sick in one way or another since October 2nd, she is doing well.  Actually, she has a cold that both Michelle and I picked up.  Michelle had a rough time with it last week, but is much better this week.  I haven't had much of a problem with this cold, so that's good.

Maddison is sniffling, sneezing and coughing a good bit, but she is pretty much herself right now.  She will crack a huge smile and babble some once a coughing fit or a sneeze is over, and she has yet to run a fever with this particular bout, so it's pretty much let it run its course for now.  She also got her second round of booster shots, even with the cold.  The doc says that she looks good and is right where they expect her to be.

She is now 13 lbs, 13 oz. and 25 1/4".....right on target!

NOTE:  As always, the pictures you see below are part of a much larger set.  All pics can be seen on my personal pics page.

Well, a lot has certainly happened since my last post almost a month ago!  Maddison is growing and growing and becoming more and more aware of her environment every day.  Maddison has begun to laugh little by little.  We really have to work hard to get a little chuckle out of her right now, but we know that giggles will fill our house before too long.  She has pretty much mastered head control and standing strength.  She still resists tummy time, but she now shows the ability to push herself up with her arms for a few minutes before she starts flailing and crying.  I have the feeling that she'll be one of those babies that scoots around instead of crawls.  Only time will tell.  Speaking of scooting instead of crawling, she's on her way to doing that.  She is doing her best to sit up without support.  This sometimes leads to spitting up if she works those stomach muscles too quickly after eating, but that's why we have burp clothes and bibs.  ;-)  She isn't quite sitting up without support, but she'll be darned if she won't try as hard as she can.



Maddison attended her first Penn State tailgate back on September 19.  We didn't go into the game, but we had a great time stopping by a few tailgates (thanks Gene, Kathy, Dave, Renee and everyone!!) on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon.  We did get some good pics to remember Maddison's first outing (of many) to Beaver Stadium.

Ok, so Michelle yelled at me (not really) because I didn't put up a post with Maddison's stats from her 2 month Dr. appointment.  Yes, it was the appointment with her first shots.  Those of you that have kids know -- that sucks.  Horribly.  I've never felt so helpless in my life.  I mean, your kid is in pain like they have never felt before and you can't yell at anyone for doing it to them.  Yeah, you could yell at the nurse for stabbing your kid after you told them to, but you see the folly in that.

Anyway....it sucks.

The better part of the appointment is when you find out that she's doing well in all respects.  As of 08/25 Maddison was 10 lbs. 12 oz. and 23 1/2 inches.  And they're completely happy with those numbers....so yay!

She is really showing a personality now.  She gets bored fairly easily, so we continuously have to keep changing what she's doing.  She's also started to fight going to sleep already.  That's fun.  She doesn't like to be cradled anymore, unless she's eating.  She prefers to sit or stand, supported of course.  It's weird how they'll be really "advanced" in some ways but not in others.  At least that's according to the "what they should be able to do" list, anyway.  For example, "they" say she should enjoy laughing now....but she hasn't really laughed yet.  But "they" also say that she should be able to hold her own weight on her legs when she's around 5 - 6 months old.  Well, she's supporting her own weight now.  So whatever....

Well, back to it for me....here are a couple pics from this past weekend (yes, included on my personal pic site too) from when we watched the Penn State vs. Syracuse game together!!  Added bonus, she seems to like football....or maybe it's just all the activity.  At any rate, it's the only TV she really gets to watch right now, so she'd better enjoy it.  :-)

Ok, so I've been working on a project here at work in concert with the network video service folks and we've come up with a way to simply embed videos from the "streaming server" into public blogs.  We tried all sorts of things to get Maddison to cooperate, but she didn't feel too much like it.  I think we were a little too close to the beginning of another meal.  The lighting is also kinda bad....but we'll try again soon.  You can at least see a couple smiles, hear a few coos and see that she's getting some pretty good head control!  Anyway, here's my first attempt with a video of Maddison....let me know how it works for you!

Maddison is quickly approaching her 2 month well baby checkup.  So far, I can honestly say we've had no major issues.  Not so much as a sniffle.  So, we are counting our blessings!!

She is quite a happy baby most of the time.  She is sleeping well -- from about 10:00 pm through to 5:00 am or so.  Then she sleeps again from 7:00 until around 9:00 or so before waking up for the rest of the morning.



Most mornings she is content to look around the room and study things pretty intensely.  She's giving big, big smiles now....mostly when we play the "beep beep" on her nose game.  Though she likes other funny noises too.  She absolutely loves laying in her bouncy seat and likes to smile at the activity out the window.


 She also has begun to explore facial expressions, and we're really starting to see her personality shine through them.  She already has the one-eyebrow raise that my family is known for....

Seems like this morning I posted the observations from week 1.  Maddison is now 6 weeks old, and boy have there been so many things going on!

First, we've had a lot of activity.  Maddison kept the same 2 - 3 hour schedule for a few weeks....meaning she slept most of the time between feeding every 2 - 3 hours.  She's been getting more and more active as the days pass, though.  Now she's awake, alert (and also a bit more fussy at times) for several hours every day.  She's also only waking up once most nights (YAY!!)  She's beginning to be aware of different voices and sounds, and will turn her head to focus on a particular person speaking or Cedric "howling".  She seems to get a bit of a kick out of that.  She's also not freaking out when we lay her on her back anymore, which is a huge relief.

Going back to Cedric howling and her getting a kick out of it, she's beginning to give those first real smiles.  She started smiling little by little over the last week or week and a half, and last night gave us some fairly predictable smiles based on activity.  Of course, the biggest smile we saw last night was when Daddy (um, that would be me) played with her nose and cheeks.  She also likes to stare and smile at the blanket hung up next to her changing table.  I dunno, it must be fascinating or something.  She's really starting to interact well, and it won't be long before I'll have video of cooing and smiling to share!

Speaking of sharing, we had two long distance visitors up over the past few weeks.  First, Aunt Mindie flew up for a couple days and took newborn pics for us.  I'll have a link to those at the bottom.  We can't thank you enough for those pics, Mindie!!  We're still trying to decide which one to use for the "official" announcement.  Gramma Austin also visited for all of last week.  I was a bit jealous as I think Maddison gave her first smile to Gramma.  ;-)  Having her here was a huge help for both of us, though she'll tell you she didn't hardly do anything.  We had a wonderful time with both of them here.

We've also been on a few outings!  The first was way back on the 4th of July.  We went to the PA Military Museum in Boalsburg and walked around a track they have around a huge field there.  Our second outing was to the People's Choice festival.  It's an arts showcase type of festival with artisan booths set up, tents with bands playing, food vendors and all kinds of activity.  Lucky for us, Maddison slept while Mommy & Daddy ate lunch and walked around looking at the various paintings, sculptures, photos, carvings, etc.  We've also been out and about several other places and Maddison has done well...even coming to a baseball game or two.

Gotta wrap this one up for now, but here are a couple links to pics:

Old/new pics: www.personal.psu.edu/iyh3/maddison/

Special 3-week pics by Aunt Mindie: www.personal.psu.edu/iyh3/maddison_special/

TTFN!

Well, the wait is over.  We came home 06/27.  Here are some funny, and not-so-funny observations about the first week:

1) The first night home was hell.  Not metaphorically.  I mean it there was shrieking, confusion, exhaustion, frustration, whining dogs and wailing and gnashing of gums as if hell itself was about to erupt from the center of our house.

2) Night #2 was MUCH better.

3) We developed a schedule that would suit the three of us, and it should work well for next week when I return to work.  So that was more a factoid than an observation....whatever.

4) I've never felt so bad for finding something so funny, but hiccups in a baby just crack me up.  Especially when she has that look of "isn't there anything you can do ab-hic-about this" or when hiccups get in the way of crying and she's not sure she wants to cry anymore.

5) The interaction of good dogs and children is really fun to watch.  She isn't interacting with the dogs so much, but the dogs will lay outside the nursery while we do things inside the nursery.  The husky, Cedric, will also run interference between her and the cats if he notices them.  Not in a mean or threatening way, he just jumps off the couch and gets in the way of a direct route to wherever she is.

6)  The jealousy of a "baby" pet (again Cedric) and a new arrival is not so amusing.  I've mopped the area next to the basement door twice now, and put a rug in the washer once.  Partially our fault for not adhering to the normal pet schedule, but still, he could have held it.

7)  So far, we have an awesome baby in Maddison.  She gets upset for hunger only.  She doesn't get gas trapped easily, and doesn't cry when she does.  She just kind of grunts a little and moves a lot until she feels better.  When she's upset because she's hungry, she gives PLENTY of warning shots before firing the big cannon.

8)  The dogs will warn us when warning shots are being sent by Maddison.  When she gets a little fussy, Ginger starts pacing and whining.  Cedric waits a little longer before "telling" us that she's getting upset.

9)  If we wait too long, Maddison fires and pets scatter.  Kind of funny to watch animals go in all directions because a baby hits the top of her lungs.

10)  The cats are curious, but generally couldn't care less.  Once in a while they'll sniff the bouncy seat or her, but they're cats....as long as their fed and the litter boxes are clean, they don't seem to care.

11)  Last evening, it sounded as though we had the Revolutionary War happening a couple miles away.  In reality, it was the fireworks at 4th Fest about 1.5 miles away.  The fireworks at 4th Fest are normally among the best in the state, if not the northeast.  Maddison slept right through them.  Excellent.

12)  I wouldn't trade a full, continuous 8 hours of sleep for the broken 5 or 6 we each get now.  Funny how 4 - 6 hours of sleep can be enough when you get used to it.

Well, that's enough observations/mini updates for now.  I'll have some more as we go through week two and beyond.  I am always adding pics to Maddison's online photo album, so keep checking there often!

Maddison Marie Hill was born this morning (06/25) at 0327.  She weighed 8 lbs. 2 oz. and was 21 1/2".

I can't begin to describe the joy, excitement, elation, fear, pride, comfort, sense of purpose and all the other mixed bag of feelings that her birth has brought up in me.  I'm certainly not going to try to explain it on 2 hours of sleep in 30 something hours.  :-)

The best way I can think to explain it for now is in pictures:  http://www.personal.psu.edu/iyh3/maddison

TTFN!  Going to spend some more time with Maddison, Mommy and maybe try to get a wink or two of sleep between poopy diapers.  ;-)

We went back to the Dr. yesterday for a checkup.  Everything is still ok.  Michelle's BP is still elevated, but they don't believe she has preeclaampsia or anything serious.  They did a round of bloodwork as a base line and we went through a non-stress fetal monitoring test.  That was actually kind of cool....to be able to quantify the heartbeat and relationship to movements over time.  To actually see evidence of cyclic activity was just cool to me.  BTW, Maddison isn't even out of the womb yet and she's passing tests with flying colors.  They were looking for a minimum of 3 movements related to heartbeat cycle in 20 minutes.  They got 19.  ;-)