Couple of cute pictures!

Grandmother, house cleaner, laundry folder, bottle feeder, diaper changer and cook extraordinaire!

Look at that fat little face! She's bound and determined
to catch up with all the other babies in weight.

That hat is still too darn big...one day she will grow into it!

Tummy time!

Nursery is finished!

In honor of Maddie's supposed due date, the nursery is done! Well, actually I still have a few more frames to buy for the flash cards, and I need to order some pictures of Maddie to replace the generic photos on her hutch....but other than that it's done! She's still sleeping with in our room right now, but we spend a lot of time in the nursery rocking her, so I'm happy to have it done.

Pics!

Adorable wall letters!!! Made by the very talented Pami. I just
sent her some pics of the nursery and she came up with this!
She is just starting up her own business and her
website is www.bypami.com- she is awesome!artistic shot from Kat

This sign is not a joke.

She's huuuuge

Happy 2 weeks to Maddie! She had a doctor's appointment today and it went really well! Well, actually she started screaming to be fed on the way there (even though I fed her right before we left), and even though I fed her in the car before going inside, she still cried the whole time we were in the waiting room. Then she peed on my hand/all over the floor when I was putting her on the scale to be weighed. And then had to be fed again before the doctor came in. But it was our first trip out alone, so I guess overall it went well!

She is up to 5 lbs 11 oz today! And is almost 19 inches long. So all that eating she's been doing (and let me just tell you- this child is exactly like her mommy...if she's awake, she needs to be eating to be happy) has done a lot of good. I guess that makes me sacrificing my sleep worth it! She's been eating pretty much every 1-2 hours most of the day and night, with a couple of 3 hour stretches thrown in there (and sometimes one of those even happens at night!). She's kind of a slow eater too (again, just like mommy) so she's somewhat of a permanent fixture on my chest. I guess she's got a little catching up to do. Breastfeeding has been our biggest challenge so far, with the frequent feeding and some latching issues it's been painful. But I'm hoping it will be second nature soon, and I think we are getting the hang of it.

Everything is going well! Mom was here for the first week and half and cleaned the house from top to bottom and kept us full of delicious meals (and she changed just a few stinky diapers too). Dad and Kat came back up last weekend and Dad did a ton of yard work and Kat took more great pictures! So we had lots of help during that first tough week. I am feeling really good though, much better than I thought I would so soon after the c-section, so we are now figuring out how to take care of the baby (and ourselves) on our own. So far so good, although I'm sure I'll be wanting mom to come back and visit soon- with all the cooking she does it's easy to keep this weight on! Mike and I are definitely missing that thing called sleep, but I think we're just going to have to wait a few months (or maybe years!) to sleep through the night again. I'm just looking forward to the night when 2 hours of sleep in a row is no longer so exciting.

Maddie is just the cutest and sweetest little baby around! We love just sitting and watching her make funny faces in her sleep. She's getting more and more alert and I know she is going to change so much in the next few weeks! I will try and keep the blog updated as much as I can. I am also trying to upload pictures every few days so I can show off her adorableness! I have put all of her pictures on a website- http://mgbbabypictures.shutterfly.com and the password is maddiegrace.

Thank you SO much to everyone for the calls and cards and gifts and words of encouragement and congratulations. Maddie is such a blessing and we can't wait to introduce her to everyone!

Maddie has left the uterus!

In case you haven't heard yet, Madeline Grace was born at 11:20 am on August 8th! My water broke in the middle of the night, and we got to the hospital about 7am that morning. They confirmed that labor had actually started and then checked to see if Maddie was still breech- she was! So they put me on the fast track to a c-section and she was born a few hours later. The actual c/s wasn't too bad. Mike was in the operating room with me and when they took Maddie out they moved the scale/warmer so that we could see her the whole time she was being weighed and checked out. She weighed 4 lb 10 oz (although they weighed her twice to make sure b/c she didn't look quite that small). Then Mike got to sit beside me and hold her for the remainder of the surgery.

She came with us into the recovery room, where I was able to start breastfeeding and eating right away. They took her to the nursery about an hour later for her bath and pictures. My parents and Kat arrived and went up to the nursery with Mike to see her! When she came back from the nursery, they reported that she was 18 inches long and in the nursery she weighed 5 lb 4 oz, so her real birth weight is likely in between those two numbers.

We were lucky to be able to leave the hospital on Sunday afternoon, which we were really happy about b/c hospitals are not fun! Of course we are still not getting much sleep at home, but I'd rather not sleep in my own bed.

Maddie is just perfect! She is so adorable and it's easy just to sit around all day watching her sleep. I never put my camera down! We are working on getting her to sleep at night too- right now she has her days and nights a bit mixed up. Breastfeeding has been a bit of a challenge, but we had a lactation consultant come out and that's helped a lot. I was feeling really good the first couple of days after the surgery, but I think I did too much too soon and I'm paying for it now. Luckily my health seems to be doing pretty good, which will hopefully stay true for a while b/c coughing has been the most painful part of recovery so far.

Here are some pictures! Here's a link to some from the hospital: http://tinyurl.com/5sb37g.
And if you're friends with Kat on facebook, she took a ton of great pictures that she has posted there.

Here are a couple of my faves!:

goofy baby

baby burrito!

sporting the cool hair after her first bath!

first bath!

streeeeetch

teeny fingers

One more thing...

Mike and I have officially placed our bets on how much Maddie will size, so feel free to "weigh" in (hardee har har) with your guesses!

Me: 6 lbs 14 oz, 18.5 inches
Mike: 7lbs 4oz, 18 inches

37.5 weeks!

Update time! I had my external version last Tuesday and I think "sucky" really sums it up. How's that for showing off my vocabulary? We got to the hospital at 9 and they couldn't find my chart, so I wasn't even hooked up to the monitors until about 10. It took the doctors another hour and a half to make their way into the room to do the version. I was surprised by how much it hurt. It definitely surpassed uncomfortable and was quite painful, but it helped that it wasn't indefinite pain. They took a break after a couple of minutes b/c Maddie's heartbeat was dropping. It bounced back quickly, so they tried for a little bit longer. They weren't able to get her all the way turned though, just halfway. They were hoping she'd stay sideways and then go head down once I went into labor, but no such luck. She turned back up in less than an hour!

They continued to monitor both of us for another couple of hours. Maddie's heartbeat was fine almost immediately after it was over, but they were a little concerned b/c mine was really fast (it stayed in the 120's-140's the whole time we were there) and I was having a few contractions. I grew increasingly cranky b/c I hadn't eaten anything since the night before and they wouldn't let me have anything to eat/drink until they were sure I wasn't going into labor. So all in all it was not a good experience, but I don't regret trying it. I'm sure I would've felt a lot differently about it if it had worked!

So at my appointment yesterday we went ahead and scheduled my c-section for Tuesday, August 19th. It's scheduled for 11:30, but obviously women who are in labor and/or need an emergency c/s will be more of a priority, so there is no telling what time it'll actually happen. Based on my other experiences at UNC, we should expect to have her by Friday.

And of course there is still a chance that she could flip and I will be able to go into labor...fingers are crossed! But she sure does seem to like the position she is in. I can't say I blame her. I'm not a big fan of being upside down either.

But at least we have a real end in sight! I know my mom is laughing at me now, but I was just sure that I was going to have her in early August. I am glad we were prepared for her to be early though, b/c I am not at all stressed out and I'm enjoying the last few weeks b/c everything is done and ready to go. As long as I spend most of the day resting I am feeling really great! So she can hang out in there as long as she wants (especially if she is just waiting to flip!). My nesting instinct has come and gone. I'm hoping it'll make at least one more appearance so I can get the house nice and clean before I never have time ever again :P.

I also know that a few people have asked about good hotel options for coming to visit the baby, so here are a couple of options. Raleigh actually has a surprising lack of good hotels, but either of these would be a good choice.
Brier Creek Hampton Inn- brand new, supposed to be really nice. It's in a great area with lots of restaurants and shopping. It's on the way to our house if you're coming from 85N/40E, but it's about 20-25 minutes away.
Capital Blvd Hampton Inn- a little older, but we've driven past it and it looks pretty nice. Near lots of restaurants and shopping and less than 10 minutes from our house.