August 2009 Archives

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!