Happy Two Week Birthday Madelyn!

I can't believe she's already two weeks old! Its been such a wonderful two weeks and we are getting used to having this little blessing in our lives.

So far things have been going really well. We're getting used to her sleep (or should I say non-sleep) patterns and are using all of the techniques we can find to calm her when she's cranky (right now we're on the 5 S's... Swaddle, Swing, Shhh, Side/Stomach, and Sucking. It seems to work ok). Jim has been getting a LOT more sleep than I have but he is actually back to work now so I know he can't be up all night with the baby. She sleeps for 4-5 hours in a row at night. Ive been told that you shouldn't let a newborn baby sleep for more than 4 hours at night without feeding them and that it effects their metabolism or something - but my pediatrician said it was ok and Im going with it. I really like that block of sleep I get.

She eats like a champ! I wasn't sure how I would like breastfeeding and was a little intimidated by it - but I am so glad that I made the decision to do it. Its the absolute best thing you can do for a baby and my decision was even more validated when I saw that a can of Similac costs $25.00!! There is a really great article on breastfeeding here if you have a minute. Its a long read but its worth it.

Having my parents here has been really wonderful. Nana seems to actually enjoy trying to soothe her when she's crying (its definitely a grandma thing I think) and is always ready and willing to hold her and cuddle with her any time I need so Ive been able to take a shower and make the bed and clean the kitchen and do all the stuff that I need to do. We'll see how it goes when they leave! Im sure things will be a lot more chaotic. Having my parents here also allowed Jim and I to go out to dinner for our anniversary last night. The picture above is as we were headed out the door. Of course - there is no way we would be able to leave her with anyone else except for my parents so we figured we should take advantage of that while they're still here! It all went really well! Of course - Maddie was pretty cranky for my mom but she handled it like a pro. When we got home we took the second shift and were able to calm her down by about 1am. :)

More to come!