Life as we know it has changed

Deb and I were reflecting recently on how much our life has changed in the past 5 weeks and here are a few examples & things we've learned:

1. Never before did we find random pacifiers in our pockets and vehicles

2. Never before did we find Mic pumping breastmilk as we travel up Hwy 35 to Winona, this in itself is quite funny if you are brave enough to picture it. No worries, Deb was driving, I'm not that talented. The things we do for our kids!

3. Sleep is a thing of the past. We've adopted the college student sleep schedule over the past 5 weeks.

4. Colicy babies don't comprehend pleading and begging for sleep at 2am.

5. This one Mic learned from our friend Maggie, when preparing a bottle of formula at a volleyball game, be careful removing the lid after you've just shaken the heck out of it in order to avoid showering those around you with it. :-)

6. Never before did we venture into the baby section each time we're in a store, followed by a discussion of who has the better deal of diapers and other baby products. Shopping for ourselves is also a thing of the past.

7. Pack more than one outfit in the diaper bag because it's possible for an 8lb baby to create enough poop to blow through three within an hour. Gross!

Each day we learn something new with Addison and most importantly we learn that each day gets better (a few prayers to end Addison's colicy evenings would be nice though) and we really can do this parenting thing. We are in awe of how her cheeks & thighs are filling out, her smile is slowing creeping its way across her face, her hair continues to be curly and she turns her head in our direction when she hears our voices. I've said it before but life with Addison is truly amazing.

Cheers,

Mic, Deb and Addie

Corn on the cob in training

A friend of ours loaned us this costume and as you can see, Addie was destined for Iowa residency! :-) For those non-Iowa residents, that would be a cob of corn she's sporting!

Everything is going very well and Addie hasn't quite figured out that night time is the right time for sleeping but we go into each night hoping and praying for a few hours of sleep, preferably in a row. She is growing, growing, growing and it's terribly difficult to wait until her 8 week

appointment to find out how much she's gained and how long she is! We've discussed taking her to Hy-vee and putting her in the fruit scale but just haven't been brave enough to do so!

We went on our first roadtrip this past weekend to Deb's parents house in Shawano, WI. Addie did fairly well, sleeping a majority of the car ride. It was slightly eye opening to see the amount of stuff you need to pack for a baby. Luckily we returned home with everything we brought, including Addie and are heading to Winona this coming weekend to introduce Addie to the Winona crew and WSU volleyball.

Cheers,

Mic, Deb & Addison

Addison Awake

People keep telling us that they don't believe that Addison is awake ever or that she even has eyes and here's proof that she is and she does! Please ignore the stupid human voice and enjoy!

More Pumpkin Patch Pictures

Our little pumpkin

We took advantage of the beautiful fall weather and took Addie on her 1st trip to the pumpkin patch. Her Aunt Brit, Aunt Megan, Grandpa Jack and Faux Auntie Mo accompanied us. As with many outings these days, Addie decided to trust that we would capture this new adventure on the digital camera and chose to sleep through all of it. We had a great time snapping pics of her and realized that dressing up the dogs was fun but dressing up Addie is an absolute blast.

• Addie sporting her pumpkin outfit
• Addie in the car ready to go
• Addie and her mommies at the pumpkin patch
• Addie, her mommies and Auntie Mo
• Addie, Aunt Brit, Mom and Grandpa Jack

Cheers,


Mic, Deb and Addison

She could play libero???

Addie had her 3 week appt today with her new pediatrician, Dr. Mullen. We really liked him and I actually went to high school with him and we worked together at Thunderhills Country Club. I lifeguarded and he was a bartender and until he figured out how he knew me at the appt. he couldn't focus! It was rather hilarious! His mom was also my 8th grade teacher and I was not very fond of her but I was an 8th grader and they typically have attitudes so i'm sure it was as much me as it was her.

So back to Addison, she weighed in at a whopping 8 lbs!!! She was 6 lbs, 11 oz at our appointment on September 25th so she's gained a good amount. I was hoping so for all of the gosh darn nursing she's been doing. All I can say is that Wal-mart isn't the only place to get milk 24 hours a day around here!! She also measured at 20 1/2 inches which is 1/2 inch longer that she was at birth and means she's probably not going to play front row but i'm pretty sure that there's no height requirement for a libero! Who knows though, she could have a major growth spurt! Keeping our fingers crossed! Her head grew 1 cm and overall, Dr. Mullen said she looked fantastic and we were doing a great job with her. What a relief!! No one mentions how easy it is to worry about every little thing when you have a baby!!!

She also slept for 2 hour increments last night, 2 solid hours at a time. You wouldn't believe how much of an improvement that was and how much better we both felt today. Lately I have been up nursing her most of the night, cluster feeding again, and when Deb gets home from work, she takes over and I try and get as much sleep as I can between feedings. We're really hoping she is going to start settling in to sleeping a few more hours at a time.

Here's another Addie picture. As you can guess, Grana Di intervened and supplied the pink bow headband!

Cheers,

Mic, Deb and Addison

Addison loves Baby Gap

Here's Addie showing off her new baby gap sweater and jeans!

Life with a 16 day old

Sorry about the delay in posting an update about our newest and cutest family member. It's crazy to see how fast every day slips by as we focus on meeting her needs and try to keep our house in order. With that being said, life with Addison is amazing. Every day we watch as she seems to make developmental milestones, I can't decide if it's a good thing or a bad thing that Deb knows so much about her reflexes and all of the other tricky little developmental things she's doing now or should be doing soon. Addison is somewhat of a guinea pig in our household. She has an unbelieveable grip with her hands and is spending more time awake during the day with her big blue eyes watching everything around her. We know her vision isn't refined at this point but it's fun to think that she's really looking you in the eyes (we know we're just shadows to her at this point) when you sing her a little song.

We head to the pediatrician on Wednesday for her 3 week check-up. We're very excited to see how much weight she has gained. She's really gotten the hang of nursing, almost too well if you ask Mic, and seems to be filling out these days. Her newborn clothes seem to be getting a bit more snug though she seems to be swimming in the 0-3 month clothes. She's clearly going to be a tweener, just like her Mama Mic, always just between one size and another.

A few firsts over the past week:

• Addie's first trip to the dog park. She got to hang out on the outside of the fence in the baby bjorn carrier with Mama Mic while Momma Deb took Lucy in for a little frisbee fun.


• Addie's first nose sucker experience. We were very nervous about using the little nose sucker gadget on her but had to on Saturday because she was collecting some little boogies. Momma Deb did the sucking and Mama Mic was encouraging and supportive of her. You'll soon see who has the wimpy stomach in this family.


• Addie's first trip to the grocery store where we learned that her car seat doesn't sit in the top of the cart like other ones do. She therefore got to ride in her very own cart while Momma Deb pushed another cart with the groceries in it.


• Addie's first trip to a football game. She attended the Loras homecoming football game on Saturday where she demonstrated her lack of interest in football by sleeping through the entire game. That's my girl (says Mic)!!!

A few pictures to enjoy:

• Addison & Mama Mic
• Addison & Great Grandma Pat (Big G)
• Addison doing what she does best, SLEEP!
• Addison's monkey toes!
  

Hoping everyone is enjoying the beautiful fall weather. It's amazing to think that we are already heading into week 3 with Addison. More to come!

Cheers,

Mic, Deb and Addison