Maci's Busy Monday & Bath Tub Time

Maci had such a fun Monday!  We had our first Mommy and Me class.  It was exactly what I was hoping for.  There are 9 new moms and 9 new babies in the class.  The babies range in age from 3 weeks to 8 weeks and we will be together for the next 6 weeks.  There are about 1/2 boys and 1/2 girls.  Even though Maci is on the older end she is the smallest in the group :-)  The first class we went around introducing ourselves and our babies as well as sharing our birth stories, how we are feeding and the biggest surprise of being a mom thus far.  It was great to hear so many women having some of the same concerns, worries and surprises as me!  Two other moms had unplanned C Sections, several feel somewhat guilty for having to use formula vs breastfeeding as well and one mom had two friends who had daughters in the pavlik harness for hip issues and she made me feel even better about Maci's upcoming appointment!  Our homework assignment each week is to meet as a group with our babies outside of our weekly class at least one time a week as well.  This Friday we are all meeting for lunch to hang out and talk babies!  A large group of us hung back after class on Monday as well because we were asking each other questions and talking about our experiences thus far.  I also was able to feed Maci her noon bottle during this chat time.  The center we go to has a baby scale so I can weigh Maci if I want on a weekly basis.  So after feeding her and changing the diaper, I threw her lil nakey body on the scale and she was 6lbs 13oz.  That is almost up 1 full pound from 2 weeks ago!!  We will see what the Dr thinks of that on Wed but I was quite happy with our lil lady!  I was so happy after this class because I think we may make some good friends and it was so nice to realize you aren't the only one going through these "issues" or that everyone has something they worry about.  For example, one baby has colic and I was so happy and said some grateful prayers that our lil Maci barely cries, heck she slept through most of the 2 hour class!  We look forward to our Friday lunch!

After this class, we had my 6 week post delivery Dr appt.  The Dr once again apologized for the whole "breech last minute" thing :-)  She told me my C section scar is healing perfectly and that I am all "back to normal."  She was very happy that I brought lil Maci in tow and she told me that the whole office enjoyed her birth announcement YAY!  It is weird to think I will only go to this Dr on an annual basis again, it had become my home away from home especially towards the end HA

Today was a very chill day after all our fun yesterday.  We had no where to go which was a good thing because we got 8 inches of snow in Minneapolis today - ICK bring on spring and warm weather!  However on these lazy days, Maci and I get to take an afternoon nap together while watching Sex and the City reruns on E :-)  This is mommy's one lazy and guilty pleasure during her leave!  Once Clint got home we had dinner and then it was bath night.  We have been starting to do baths every other day because otherwise Maci starts to smell like formula and sour milk from all her dribbling - GROSS!  We had to take some pictures this time because she LOVES her bath tub and we aren't sure if we will or wont be able to take off her brace for baths over the next 6 weeks.  If we cant take it off, we are back to sponge baths and she didn't enjoy those near as much. 

Tomorrow is another busy day but this time with Dr appointments, boring!  We have a 8a appointment with the Orthopedic doctor and then at 11:40a we have an appointment for the "peace of mind" weight check with her pediatrician.  I have a long list of questions for both!  Even though I have a good idea of her weight, I am using this appointment as another way to ask my long list of new mommy questions including when we can try a more formal schedule with Maci as well as when we should move her to the crib :-(  We will be sure to keep everyone posted with how the Dr appointments go but we are quite positive!

Until Then. . . Lots of Love,
C, K & M

Maci's Dinner Party & First Time to Church!

This was a super fun and busy weekend for Maci!  On Saturday, Clint and I decided to bring her along for about 3 hours worth of errands.  At many of the stops one of us would stay in the car while the other one ran in but Miss Maci did get to go to Costco, Rainbow (our grocery) and lunch at Bruegger Bagel.  She was in her car seat sound asleep at all of these stops but it was nice to get out and about as a family.  We were still extremely cautious keeping her little blanket covering her from any strangers' germs but it was a nice step in the social direction :-)  Later Saturday night the Brubacher's came over for dinner and some Wii Bowling!  Lori was one of Maci's first visitors before we put the house on lock down after her RSV but Trip had yet to meet our lil lady.  Trip and Lori are two of our great friends in Minneapolis so it was nice to finally get to hang out with them again!  I especially enjoyed adult conversation and beverages as well as some fun competition with the Wii Bowling!  We look forward to seeing them again once they get back from their wonderful tropical vacation!!

Today we had planned to go to church as a family for the first time since Maci was born.  I was a little nervous about potential sick people sitting near us or lil kids peering in her car seat ;-) but Maci was great and once again slept through the whole thing.  Our church has a lot of young families with kids so fortunately the coos and occasional cries of little ones isn't very uncommon.  After eating a late breakfast/early lunch, mommy and Maci took a nice Sunday afternoon nap in our living room while Clint and Boomer went on a much needed walk.  Maci and Mommy cant wait to join them on more of these walks once it is warmer out!

Tomorrow is also a busy day for us!  Maci and Mommy have their first Mommy and Me class.  We are excited to see how many Mommies and Babies are in our class and to get to know some new friends!  The class lasts 6 weeks and a good friend of mine is in the class currently with her lil one and she says it is a great way to get to know other moms and have some fun outside of the house.  In their class they have gone as a group to Panera for lunch, pedicure/manicures with the babies in tow and even mall walking at Mall of America.  We cant wait to socialize as I am sure Maci is an extrovert like her parents =)  After our class ends tomorrow, we have a quick break and then we head off to my 6 week post delivery check up.  With us keeping up on Maci and her progress, I really haven't paid attention to my own status.  My scar from the C section is feeling better so I hope everything has been healing as planned and I am almost back to normal!  As a quick update on Maci, we have a weigh in "peace of mind check" Wednesday afternoon and we are excited to see how much bigger she is now!  In addition, we have the evaluation with the orthopedic doctor on Wednesday morning.  Clint and I are anxious to meet with the Doctor to see what she has to say and to get her in her brace sooner rather than later so we can get it off that much sooner and let her move on!

Lots of Love,
C, K & M

Maci's Many Firsts & More Medical News

Maci has been a blast this past week!  She is even  more alert and stays awake longer post feedings.  Maci has started to smile but they are so sporadic that I haven't been able to catch one on film yet but trust us that it is adorable!!  In addition, Maci has been taking at least 3-4 oz per feeding which is huge because she was barely taking her 2 oz each feeding just last week!  Maci and I have also been working on "tummy time" to help strengthen her neck and help her to support her head.  The jungle gym from the Brandenburg's is the perfect mat to help her practice tummy time on.  After her last tummy time, I let her flip back over and just stare in awe at the animals and lights.  However, this time Maci found something even more exciting!  There is a mirror on the gym and she found her reflection in the mirror.  I am sure she couldn't tell who or what she was looking at but her reaction in this video is priceless!!

Also, since Maci is so much more vocal (cooing and gurgling) and alert (staring into space) she doesn't really like to be laying in her pack in play unless she is napping.  However, this can get quite difficult when Clint or I are trying to get things done because it is hard to do things one handed with her in the other!  So last night we decided to try out our baby Bjorn infant carrier.  Maci LOVES it!  She gets to stay close to us, staring around the house and we get stuff done!  It is perfect, plus it is a good position for her hips - more to come.

On a not so fun note, we had Maci's hip ultrasound today.  I swore it was going to be nothing more than a precautionary check.  Unfortunately, I got the call from the pediatrician later this afternoon and they said the radiologist saw some issues with her hips that show hip dysplasia and they would want an orthopedic specialist to review.  Maci will most likely need to be in a Pavlik Harness 24/7 for ~6 weeks.  This is the standard treatment for babies that are diagnosed with hip dysplasia.  The good news is that when you find it this early, the brace is extremely successful and it is typically off within 6 weeks so Maci will never remember this time of her life.  The brace will help to hold her legs in a certain position so that the hip socket and bones can form into the right position.  While they don't know exactly what causes hip dysplasia, it is more common in breach babies, girls and first born girls for that matter so Maci fell in all those camps.  If untreated, this can cause pain in walking later in life as well as arthritis in the hips so we definitely want to take care of it now.  This is extremely treatable and again should hopefully only last 6 weeks but it is hard at times to think of yet another thing our lil Maci has to deal with.  Yet, as Clint reminds me, these are by no means the hardships that many others have with their babies and fortunately all of her issues have been treatable conditions that she will not recall later in her life.  We go to the orthopedic specialist on Wednesday to see what they have to say.  We will keep you all posted through this blog and if she does need a brace, I think she could be the new Pavlik Harness model because she is pretty darn cute!!!

Lots of Love,
C, K & M

March Excitement!!

Maci and I have been having another great week!  She is going from a very poor eater to quite the lil porker when it comes to meal time :-)  We are happy to see our sweet girl loving to eat and putting on the lbs!!  We also had a big first last night.  Clint and I wanted to get some food out since we didn't have a meal planned.  Typically, one of us has ran for carry out while the other stays home with Maci but this time we decided to all go for a ride.  When we got to Potbelly, there was no one in the sandwich shop so we decided to try having us all eat in the restaurant together and Miss Maci slept the whole time!!! YAY  This has us getting really excited for our upcoming activities in March!  Next Monday Maci and I start a 6 week Mommy & Me class!!  It is for mom's and their newborns ranging from 1-12 weeks of age.  It is ran by certified nurses and they cover all sorts of new mom topics but it is also a way for mom's to get out and relate to other women in the same situation/make some new friends :-)  Maci and I will be going to this every Monday from 10-12 for the next 6 weeks and we cant wait, those that have done the class in the past have nothing but great things to say!!!  In addition to this class, we are opening the house for visitors again (hands washed first of course) but we cant wait to see friends and family!!  Lastly, on March 12th Maci and I will be going into Cargill to see Clint and all of my co-workers for my rescheduled work baby shower!  They were going to have a shower for me at my 39 week mark but Miss Maci decided to come at the 38 week mark so now she just gets to make a guest appearance at the shower!  We also have a lot of out of town visitors towards the end of the month - Grandma/Grandpa Mondell, Emily P and potentially Grandma Janet/Aunt Molly & Christie!  We are so happy to be healthy and getting a good handle Maci and all sorts of baby stuff!!

Speaking of health, Miss Maci does have an ultrasound for her hips on Friday.  Since she was breach (not sure how long) they tend to want to do ultrasounds on babies once they are 30 days old to see if the hip joints fused fully or if a brace will be needed to help this fully fuse before she is too old.  I am hoping she has no issues but a brace on her leg for a few weeks should be nothing compared to the RSV hospital scare!  Next week Maci also has a follow up Dr appt just for a "mommy piece of mind" weight check.  I can tell she is getting bigger but I look forward to seeing just how much she has grown since our last check 2 weeks ago  :-)

I am on my way out to my cookbook club at a good friend from work's house!  Lisa had her first baby (Brody) the end of December and we basically went through our whole pregnancies together since she sits on the other side of the cube from me :-)  Needless to say I cant wait to see her and my other coworker friend Megan to catch up and ask Lisa all sorts of random mommy questions!!  Daddy and Maci will have some good quality time until I get home later tonight.  Maci loves her cuddle time at night with Daddy - see the last time they had some quality cuddling!!

Catch up soon!
Love,
C, K & M

Maci is 1 Month!!!!

We cant believe our lil Maci is already 1 Month Old Today!!!!  What an eventful month it has been but ironically we topped off the month with a very low key week at home.  Maci and I have gotten into quite the routine through the week, mainly based around Maci's feedings, napping time and mommy's new favorite day time TV (Ellen especially)!  However, mommy is very excited that next weekend marks the month of March which means we are finally going to start to get out and about a bit, cautiously still of course :-)  We already have plans for dinner at our house with some friends, a work shower at Cargill in mid March and several tentative visits from friends/coworkers.  Mommy is ready for some socialization again :-)

Key 1 Month Milestones/Notes
* Loves her hands!!!
* Stares in awe at mom & dad (every once in a while throwing in a smile)
* Loves to sleep on our chests while laying on the chaise lounge in the living room with the sun coming in from our bay window :-)
* Has BEAUTIFUL big eyes that she uses to stare at all of her surroundings now, very alert lil lady!
* Eats her bottles like a champ after a full month of fickled eating!!
* Sleeps like a ROCK STAR in her bounce chair near our bed, other than her 11p, 2a and 6a feedings!!
* Her Best Friends are her Binky's (Pacifiers) - Purple one in her room, Blue one on the main floor and Pink one in the basement - Daddy is NOT allowed to get these out of order or mommy has an OCD meltdown :)
* Has a wardrobe that most adult women would be jealous of ;-)
* Loves to cuddle!!!!

Maci wasn't a big fan of the camera today but I couldn't take her 1 month pictures on the wrong day!  Also, mommy was out for a good part of the afternoon running errands and buying some more clothes for this cutie - UGH I just cant help it :-)

Enjoy our birthday girl's pics and we look forward to sharing more in the near future.

Needed the Binky to Keep her Happy in Her Rocker!!

This is What Clint Calls "The Kellie Cry Face"

Our Peanut Chilling in her Crib with Her Monogrammed Pillow

Love,
C, K & M

We LOVE Long Weekends!!

This weekend was awesome!  Maci, Clint and I got to spend a lot of fun time together since Clint had President's Day off - thank you Cargill!!  Most of the weekend we spent cuddling on the couch, watching movies and taking turns running some errands since Maci still isn't out and about in public locations, at least not until March.  Maci was quite a good girl all weekend and still is a minimal crier!  She loves to be held and has been sleeping for a four hour stretch each night which makes life easier for mommy and daddy.

Below are some pictures of our Maci playing on her jungle mat.  Thanks so much Brandenburg's for the awesome gift!!  She loves the music, lights and animals - we have to say she is quite advanced and seems to enjoy playing with it already.

Today was an awesome day because we had a weigh in follow up appointment from our great progress last Thursday.  Maci has been eating like a champ ever since we switched to a bottle only regimen with rotating formula and pumped breast milk.  I wish nursing had gone better with her and maybe we will try it again at some point but it gives us so much peace of mind knowing that she is eating enough and finally gaining weight again post RSV!  Also, as the pediatrician assured us, she is still getting all the health benefits of breast feeding since I am pumping and feeding her the same food :-)  We were very excited when we saw that Maci tipped the scale at 5lbs and 15ozs today, finally back to birth weight!  They would have liked to have seen her there at 2 weeks (~2 weeks ago) but that was when she was admitted to Children's for RSV so they fully understand why we are slightly behind.  We have a follow up weigh in 2 weeks from now to ensue she is still on the right path but we know it is no where but up from here!!!  Maci may be long but is quite lean, wonder what side of the family that takes after HA HA

Also, in addition to Maci getting out and having visitors in March (cautiously with all visitors scrubbing their hands of course HA), we also got the clear from her pediatrician today to start taking walks.  She said the sunshine and fresh air is great for babies, even if it is freezing cold right now.  So with that, we bundled up today and took our first walk around the neighborhood with Boomer in tow.  We cant wait until the spring when we can take WARM walks around the lakes :-)  Mommy wishes she would have been as bundled up and warm as Maci but it was a good first attempt!!!

Lots of Love,

C, K & M

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Today was an AWESOME day!!  Not only is it Valentine's day and a reason to put Maci in a themed outfit but we had our 3rd Dr appt of the week (UGH) to continue our weigh in saga.  I haven't posted about this but Maci hasn't gained any weight since our trip to the hospital with RSV last week.  She hasn't been the best nurser and with the RSV they knew she wouldn't gain weight quickly because her immune system was down as well as her energy levels.  However, now that we are a week post admittance to the hospital, she should be gaining weight again.  Yesterday, we decided to try only bottles with a combo of me pumping what I can to feed her and some formula supplement.  This way we can see exactly how much she is taking and ensure she is getting at least 2 oz every 3 hours.  Maci did great yesterday with her feedings through the bottle and mommy was very excited going into the appointment today because she swore there was a weight gain.  Sure enough, Maci was up 2oz from yesterday's weigh in and that is HUGE progress.  Now we are sticking with this plan through the weekend and coming back in on Monday just to ensure the weight gain continues but we are hoping this was our turn towards healthy times from here on out!!!  No more sickies in our house with the RSV/Colds gone and now good weight gain on the Maci front :-)

Mommy was so happy with Maci's weight gain, she didn't even mind that Maci spit up on both of her Valentine's day themed outfits.  Mommy was able to get some pictures of Maci and mommy/daddy with at least one of the outfits! 
Happy Valentine's Day from the Mondell's and much love to you all!!
C, K & M