Madison Monthly: One

The Basics
On 24 February 2012, Madison Paige officially celebrated her one month birthday by going to the doctor. She is now 9 lbs. 14 oz. and 22.5 inches (+2 lbs and +1 inch from birth). That puts her in the 90th percentile for height, and the 70th for weight. She's my tall skinny baby (takes after daddy, clearly).

One Week

One Month

Eating and Sleeping
She is one odd duck. I've heard that babies take naps during the day, like two hour sleep fests which allow mommies and daddies to either get things done or take naps themselves. Not so much my little nutjob. She "wakes up" between 7am and 9am, depending, and from that time on she is awake until her next feeding (usually between 11 and 12:30) and then she has her Big Nap, a whopping 10-17 minutes. Then she is up again for the next few hours before fading in and out of sleep from 7pm to 10pm, ten minutes here, five minutes there, 20 minutes here, etc. Finally, she eats her last bottle before an ever-changing "bedtime" (10pm-midnight). Then for the next 8 hours, you just never know what will happen. Every now and then, she'll actually sleep for 4-5 hours; twice she slept for 6 hours straight!!! Most of the time though, little miss piggy only makes it 3 to 3.5 hours between feedings. She's a hungry badger. This strange nighttime routine coupled with the no-day-naps is exhausting.

Speaking of all those bottles, Madison eats anywhere between 3 and 6 ounces, totally randomly, with no correlation between quantity of food and hours between feedings. She'll have 6 ounces back to back 3 hours apart, and then break out with a 3 ounce feeding followed by a 4 ounce feeding 5 hours later. Who knows? Like I said, she's my little nutjob.

Behavior and Development
My favorite face so far is one I can't capture on camera. It goes too fast, and there is no way to predict when it will happen. She raises her eyebrows, which wrinkles her forehead, closes her eyes, sticks out her chin, and purses her lips. It's the most ridiculous face ever. And I love it.

All of her faces are absolutely adorable though. I have particular fondness for the face she makes when she gets super-excited over getting her sootie (pacifier). Her mouth makes an O and she sort of shakes her head back and forth really fast like she's having a mini-seizure of excitement. Or, you know, like a rabid dog with a bone...


She is one serious stretcher and mover. Sometimes spastic, sometimes languid, her movements are always entertaining. Right now, her movements don't have "intent", meaning that when she hits the guitar hanging from her gym, she doesn't really mean to do it. But from time to time, what she's doing does seem to have a purpose. For example, sometimes when I put the bottle in her mouth, her hands will press against my arm as if to hold it in. Or she'll slide her hand against her cheek and follow through to her mouth to push the sootie out of her mouth.

While she's gained some control over her neck, she's still a little bobblehead. She can pick her head up when laying on her stomach, but damned if you know where it's going to end up. Facedown is definitely an option.

She smiles every now and then, and she even laughed once. I know, I know, but she seriously did. She may not have meant to, but she most certainly laughed. It was hilarious and made that 3am feeding wonderful.

She loves bath time and just lays there with this half-drunk look on her face while I pour water over her, soap her up, wash her hair, and then rinse her off with the faucet. She is one seriously content baby, not even crying when her diaper is being changed or she is being dressed. Good stuff.

Social Stuff
Madison spent the night at her grandma's for the first time on Thursday, Feb 23...primarily because Mommy was going batshit crazy. Instead of going out and hanging with friends, I stayed home, had a Vampire Diaries marathon, and got a bit tipsy on a bottle of wine. Good stuff. Oh, but wait, this is supposed to be about Madison's social stuff.

She's still young enough that being passed around from person to person to total freaking stranger is no big deal. Both of her grandma's and her great-grandma have had multiple opportunities to babysit, and she is a perfect little angel (according to them of course).

Mommy Notes
I am exhausted, and I have to admit that a few times in the second and third weeks, I was actually crying in frustration (primarily at night time feedings when Fussbucket would not go back to sleep). I've gotten over the random crying, mainly because I've decided that calling my mommy to come watch HER GRANDCHILD WHO'S DRIVING ME CRAZY is a perfectly acceptable thing to do. And both grandma and baby absolutely love their time together, so everyone's happy.

I am amazed that I've gotten nothing done on maternity leave. I had this huge list of things to do - organizing around the house, a ton of crap for work, a list of books to read. But nope. Nada. Instead I've spent every waking minute (well, almost anyway) changing, feeding, rocking, bouncing, cooing at, bathing, dressing, and otherwise dealing with Miss Madison Paige Dandurand. The Madinut.

I keep trying to explain to my little nutjob that I am not "that type of mommy"; you know, the one who loves her little precious bundle of joy with an obsessive, idealized 1950s mom kind of attitude. I don't find the stuff that comes out of her cute, and I'm more likely to be pissed at the excessive crying than worried that something is wrong with her. I crave alone time something fierce, and I do not believe that watching tv while holding her is the same thing as watching it by myself. But I do love her. Like a lot, a lot.

Her Nicknames (in order of use, 1 being most often):

1. Nutjob
2. Madinut
3. Goofnut
4. Fussbucket
5. The Squirm Button
6. Sweets
7. Little Miss Nasty
8. My Crazy Baby

And now for some more pictures....

It's exhausting being her.