In Memory of Bink...

Dave's grandmother Bink passed away Wednesday. We just got home from the wake and funeral. It is very sad to say goodbye to such a great woman. She had such spirit and love. I loved talking to her about politics (she was a stout democrat like me- so we loved teaming up and debating Dave, lol), books, her family history, her collections and anything she would talk about. Dave and I had the pleasure of heading to Ohio a few times to just spend some quiet time with her and Pa. We're glad we did, we have some great memories.

Dave and Bink were two peas in a pod. Dave with his corny jokes and Bink with her contagious laughter. It was so much fun seeing the two of them with Maddyn last month. I know I posted these before, but thought I'd do it again. Dave is doing ok- but as expected, this was heartbreaking news. The good news is that Bink is with Pa now, in peace.



Thank you for your thoughts and prayers to our family.
I will post Maddy's 4 month photos and stats in a few days. Along with some more recent photos.

Raising a groupie

We've been doing lots of walks now that the weather is nice out. I took the camera with on one of them and got Maddyn in her favority new pose. We like to call it her "rocker chick pose". :)



We have playdates every day this week, trying to enjoy time with friends and little ones as much as possible before I head back to work next Monday. It's been so wonderful having these 4 months off, I'm going to miss spending so much time with Maddyn! But, I know it gives me something so exciting to look forward to each night and weekend!!


I'll post photos from this last week, in the next day or so.

Happy Easter!

I've posted some photos from Easter up on our Shutterfly collection! Maddyn visited the Easter Bunny. She was terrific in line, and then when we were about 3 kids to go- she started crying. It was a chain reaction and other kids started crying! Too funny. But when we got up to the Bunny, she did great! She was in awe at his big face and furry-ness. :)

Here's just a few, the rest are on Shutterfly.

Jared got confirmed at the Easter Vigil, so I've included some of those photos as well.

Hope everyone had a great easter!!

St Pats & 3 Months Old!!

Happy 3 Month bday to Maddyn :) I can't believe she's that old already!

I'm uploading photos from St Pat's to our Shutterfly album now, they should be up shortly. Here are a few teasers along with her 3 month photo.







We had our 3 month appt today. She's growing like a weed!! 14lbs 3 oz so right on target for weight, but 25 inches long!!! She is off the charts for height! We know she gets that from Dave!!

The appt went well. They are increasing her medicine dosage, to account for her weight and keeping her on the same meds. We're making an appt for next week with the ENT doc for an evaluation. The docs want to have Maddyn's throat checked for any structural damage or anything that might be long term damage.

We've officially made it 3 months of exclusively breastfeeding, and I'm starting to wean today. We have a huge supply of stored milk, so we're going to wait awhile before introducing formula, but making it this far has been a huge accomplishment! I'm thrilled!

Hope everyone had a great St Patrick's day! I'll update again after Easter, with more photos :)

Quick update

Well, it's hard to believe that Maddyn is now almost THREE months! Crazy!
We've been out and about the last few weeks. We went to Ohio last week to visit Dave's grandma, so she could meet Maddyn. I've uploaded some photos of the trip onto Shutterfly in our album (link to right). Maddyn loved meeting her Great-Grandma Bink!

Maddyn finally met her cousins this week too! So there are a few photos from that visit in the album, along with some other random family photos. I plan to upload our St Pats and 3 month photos, along with a med update, after we go to the doctor tomorrow afternoon.

I'm down to less than one month off, so trying to spend it doing fun things. Last week Maddyn, Ry and I took lots of walks, got together with some friends a few times, and just did a lot of reading and tummy time.

Hope all is well with everyone! And a special shout out to Emily and Luke! Baby Henry was born on Thursday, and it sounds like all is well. Congrats to them both!! :)

2 months already!

Sorry it's been so long since I've updated! I'll do better going forward.

Quick health update, summary version. We have continued visits with all of the doctors, and since more of her tests have passed, they believe it is just severe GERD causing all these problems. So she has been given a final "cocktail" of medicines to be on for the next few months. They seem to be helping a little bit, but there is not much else we can really do. We also have to meet with an ENT doctor to make sure her throat is not developing any long term problems.

So aside from lots of laundry from the spitting up, and having to give her lots of meds each day (three meds and she takes each a few times a day) which she doesn't like, we are hoping for continued progress. It stinks seeing her so miserable and in such pain- but we know this is something that gets better with time... The Pediatric Gastroenterologist told us that since her case is so bad, it might be a year, but some babies get better around 6 to 9 months. Fingers crossed.

Other than that, I am trying to enjoy the last weeks of my maternity leave. We finally have daycare worked out. I miss work, but it is going to be hard to go back. I love spending so much time with Maddyn. Especially now that she's getting such a great personality! She smiles all the time and is SO strong. She loves to stand and hold onto things and is scooting very well. She's starting to turn over a bit, she's almost there! Its amazing! And yes, she's making lots of noises...so she's going to be quite the talker, like Mommy, lol.

I posted two new albums on our Shutterfly Collection (link to the right). One is a bunch of photos from her 2nd month. The other is photos I've taken the last two weeks, so I called that 2.5 months. Feel free to take a look. You can see her famous pout (its amazing how far she can stick out that lower lip- just like daddy) and her smiles!

Thanks to everyone for the kind notes, and I will try to update again next week. We have more doctor appts, and are heading out to Ohio this weekend to see Dave's grandma.

As a teaser, here are three photos:

Happy Valentine's Day!

Maddyn wants to wish everyone a very Happy Valentine's Day!!

I've uploaded the rest of our Valentine's photos and her Baptism photos to different Shutterfly Albums in our collection. So click on the link to the right to check those out! lol- I think have posted more blog entries this week than I did all of last month! ;)

Maddyn had her swallow study Wed. It went well, and it's looking like it's not Aspiration-THANK GOODNESS- but we get the final word tomorrow from the pediatrician (we hope). That means she won't need the Apnea Monitor and the Pediatric Gastroenterologist would give us stronger meds for her reflux and we'd work that as the main cause of her problems. We meet with the Pediatric GI next Wed, but I'll post again this weekend after our doc appt and keep you posted!

Lastly- A few of you have sent emails about the NIU shooting. Both Jared and Amanda are ok. Amanda was in class, right next to where the shooting was. She's shaken up, but both her and Jared are physically ok. Thanks for the notes, I'lll pass them along.