Month 2- October!

The month of October started and ended with growth spurts... go figure. Other milestones- Madison is definitely smiling now, her neck is getting much stronger (she can almost hold her head up on her own), she can track objects, and most importantly she can fall asleep in her co-sleeper, which is a huge improvement over last month! (I was sure I was wearing a path in the bedroom carpet from walking her back and forth until she fell asleep every night.) I have also been using the Baby ESP App on my phone, which tracks when the baby eats, sleeps and poops. For the month of October, Madison nursed for the equivalent of 3 days, 14 hours and 19 minutes and had 293 diaper changes. That pretty much sums up what I've been doing for the past month.

At the beginning of the month Madison met her 2 uncles on my side of the family for the first time (Matt and Dave). Dave was nice enough to spend his fall break hanging out with us, and Matt (aka Uncle Traveling Matt) penciled us in as part of his whirlwind East Coast Tour (of course, Madison was the main attraction!). It is rare for all 3 of us to be together outside of the holidays, so I was excited to have that time with them (and thoroughly enjoyed the Hoarders marathon). I was thankful to have them there- Matt was a huge help with meals, holding the baby so I could take showers, and he even changed a few diapers! (Dave thought about changing a diaper... but decided that it wasn't worth it just to be able to tell the "I remember when I used to change your diapers..." stories.) While they were in Greenville we went to eat at a hibachi Japanese restaurant (the kind where they cook on your table), and learned that Madison can't sleep through the sound of metal spatulas banging on the table. That surprised me, since she sleeps right through the dogs barking on a regular basis.



On Sunday, October 10, Matt, Dave, Mitchell, Madison and I went downtown for Fall for Greenville. We ate a ton of really good food, and Madison enjoyed her time outside (ok- she slept through it all, but who doesn't enjoy sleeping?). Later that week we went up to Asheville to spend some time with my parents. Even though my parents' kitchen was torn apart (they are renovating), we had a great time and I got even more help with the baby. My parents and Matt also babysat Madison the following Saturday so I could drive up to Charlotte to help Mitchell move into his new "uptown" apartment (now we have the City Apartment and the Country Estate... haha).

Madison made it very easy for me to leave her for the afternoon- I had the most horrific night, so I was ready to hand her off to the closest person who would take her. It started Friday night- she was awake from 7:30pm until 11:30pm, which made me think she would be tired and sleep through the rest of the night- WRONG. She slept for about an hour, woke up for an hour, slept for an hour, woke up for an hour... all night long. When she woke up again at 7:10, after only sleeping for 20 minutes, I literally thought I was going to die. Matt knew something was wrong when he heard me yelling "Mom? Dad? Matt? SOMEBODY? Please??" On the verge of tears, I hand her over to my Dad, and what does she do? Sleeps for 4 1/2 hours straight...

Anyway, aside from that night, the Asheville visit was really nice. We spent a lot of time at my aunt's house (see the picture below of Madison wrapped in blankets- my mom was so concerned that she would freeze to death- there was a frost advisory).


We also ate some of my favorite food- Eddie Spaghetti's eggplant parm and fried green tomatoes and goat cheese grits from Tupelo Honey - YUM!

After Matt left, I decided to drive up to Charlotte to spend some time with Mitchell (after all, it wouldn't be fair for him not to experience the joy of waking up in the middle of the night to change a diaper!). His little studio apartment was definitely not made for our big dogs, but we made it work for the week. I brought one of the baby gates with me to block the dogs into the kitchen/bathroom (they mostly stayed in the closet in the bathroom- the only carpeted area where they were allowed). That left the living room/dining room/bedroom/office area (which is about the size of the nursery at home) for us. It was nice to see Mitchell at lunchtime and after work, and it was a HUGE help to have him there to split the parenting duties, but it was also annoying to have to walk the dogs several times a day. The dogs were also really scared of the elevator, and were not fans of having to use the city sidewalks as their restroom (Baxter is very modest). By the end of the week I started walking them through the cemetery instead of dealing with the busy streets.

This is a terrible picture, but being able to wear Madison was a lifesaver while I was in Charlotte (and while I'm at home too, but especially since I had to walk the dogs so many times during the day).

We had no idea that Madison would be as small as she is, so we bought very few newborn size clothes. When it started to get cold, she ended up wearing pajamas all day because we didn't have any warm clothes in her size. We finally went out and bought her some new clothes, like the cute outfit above. (It's now 2 weeks later, and she's going through a growth spurt and about to outgrow them all already... oh well!)


We went home for the weekend and bought a bouncer seat to take back to Charlotte. The swing is a huge help at home (now that she likes it), but it was too big to pack in my car. I usually wear her, but it's nice to have somewhere to put her down occasionally, and she won't stay in her co-sleeper during the day.

We took this family picture on Madison's 8-week birthday :)

Mitchell's dad and grandpa surprised us by driving down to visit us in Greenville. I took this picture because I thought it was so cool to have 4 generations of Wests together. Sadly, Mitchell's grandpa is Madison's only living great-grandparent.


I just threw this picture in here because I thought it was cute. She looks so much bigger and more active than the earlier bath pictures we have!


I made Mitchell take some pictures of me with Madison. I remember looking through old baby pictures of my brothers and me, and my mom is in very few pictures (because she was always the one taking the pictures- which I'm sure doesn't surprise anyone who knows my mom).

October 31st- Madison's first Halloween! We couldn't find any good costumes in her size, so we settled on this outfit. We didn't go trick-or-treating this year because she is so young... we'll save that for next year :)

I guess that's all for October!