Birthday Update: Four Months!

Ok so this is a few days after Miss M’s birthday but I wanted to wait until after our doctor appointment today!  See? I didn’t forget you all!  So what has little miss been up to?

Birth Deets: 21.5in, 8lbs 12oz 
2month Deets: 11lbs 13oz, 23.5 inches
Height: 24.8 inches
Weight: 14lbs 2oz
Nicknames: Maddie, Miss Me, Bay, babydoll
Exciting Events: Miss M had her very first Halloween!  She went dressed as a zebra one day and a ballerina the next and came home with a very impressive haul for mommy and daddy! Lots of suckers in that haul but hey, we aren’t complaining!  She also went on a trip to Pigeon Forge, TN and ate at Joe’s Crab Shack… well mommy and daddy did.  And probably the biggest thing that happened is… mommy went back to work and little miss is playing with her Grandparents 3 days a week.  More on that…
What She Does: She’s still no longer sleeping through the night and mommy is sleep deprived some nights are a bit rough. Ok, we’ve had it easy up until now and have stocked up on solid 6+ hour stretches of sleep since she was about 6 weeks old but they aren’t kidding when they talk about the Four Month Wakeful Period! She is back to waking up 2-3 times a night for the past couple weeks.  She still prefers standing over sitting, however, she is now able to sit up unassisted for perhaps 5-10 seconds before her noggin topples her over.  We shall soon have a sitter on our hands folks! She always has her hands in her mouth and the drooling is positively disgusting.  Yes, we think she’s working on those little teefers in there!  She will still talk your ear off and this month we have had the joy of hearing her laughing.  It is perhaps the best of her sounds so far.  We hear it most often when she is being tickled or when we are dancing and singing the “no pants dance” or “all the single babies”… songs mommy made up for Maddie’s silly pleasure. She also now cries for me by name… “mama…waaaaahhh….mama…waaaahhhh…mama….” oh joy! 

Birthday Update: Three Months!

Birth Deets: 21.5in, 8lbs 12oz 
Prior Month Deets: 11lbs 13oz, 23.5 inches
Height: ? No doctor’s appointment this month!
Weight: ? No doctor’s appointment this month!
Nicknames: Maddie, Miss Me, kiddo widdo, babydoll
Exciting Events: Let’s see… Miss M met her great grandpa S!  He came down with Grammy and Grampy K specifically to meet Miss Madeline.  If you remember a while back he was quite sick and had been in the hospital most of this year.  It was so great to see him looking so well!  

Also?  Mommy and daddy celebrated their FIRST wedding anniversary! To celebrate we took a trip to Maddie’s very first zoo – in Knoxville - and she spent the night in her very first hotel room! She also saw a bit of Knoxville and ate some PF Changs!
What She Does: She’s still sleeping through the night and we couldn’t be happier with that!  She still prefers standing over sitting and is getting less wobbly at it every day. She holds her upper body up when you carry her but can only sit up by herself for about a second before tipping under the weight of her noggin.  She’s also starting to notice her hands and feet and just the other day tried grabbing her toes with a puzzled look on her face. She’s been talking (cooing) up a storm and has recently started shrieking like a velociraptor.  I swear I’ve heard her say “mama” a few times but never with a witness… until TODAY!  Today she said “MOM” very clearly while I was on the phone with the hubs! He even paused and said “Did she just say mom?!” Yup! My daughter is clearly an intelligence of genius proportions as well as a dollface. 

Happy birthday baby girl… Mommy and Daddy feel so blessed to have you with us!

You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby!

Four years.  Four years.

It’s been exactly four years since I took my I-131 radioactive iodine treatment for my papillary thyroid cancer. My oh my, how my life has changed since then!

I’d like to say I haven’t given cancer another thought since that day, but truth is, I think about it every day. Every morning I wake up and take my thyroid replacement pill first thing and wait an hour before eating or drinking anything that might affect the absorption.  During my pregnancy my daily dose was changed 5 times to meet the increasing demands from my body and from Maddie. Since her birth 2 months ago, my dose has been changed twice as my body readjusts to my “new normal.” Without this one little daily pill, I would slowly go more and more hypothyroid and eventually my mind and body would shut down.  I would be so screwed in a zombie apocalypse scenario.

I have just one more year until I can say I’ve been cancer free for the magical five years = cured mark.  In this upcoming year, I have plans to undergo a whole body scan once my daughter is weaned.  Once again I will have to go hypo on purpose.  Once again I will have to take some RAI and go into isolation for a short time – this time from my husband and daughter – to protect them from my radioactive self.  Hopefully this time nothing shows up on the scan in my thyroid bed or in my lungs.

If I think on it too long, it terrifies me. So I try not to let my mind go there.  I have a long life ahead of me – including seeing my great-grandkids grow up – and I'm positive there are many adventures awaiting me!

Birthday Update: Two Months!

Happy birthday to our little princess! I can’t believe you have been here for 2 months already – time has gone so fast and yet I almost can’t remember a time when you weren’t here with us.  It seems you have always been a part of us.  We can’t wait to see what adventures await you!

Birth Deets: 21.5in, 8lbs 12oz 
Prior Month Deets: 9lbs 15oz, 22 inches
Height: 23.5 inches
Weight: 11lbs 13oz
Nicknames: Maddie, Miss M, Hungry Mungry Kiddo, Wobble Head Doll
Exciting Events: This month has been much more laidback than last month!  We are still working on unpacking the house after the move and finding the items we need can be a bit of a challenge. The nursery essentials are all set up but we have some decorating items to do in there yet!  Miss M will be in our room for a while yet so there is no rush on those finishing touches!  Other than that Maddie enjoys visiting with her grandparents and watching the tractors pass back and forth on our road! 
What She Does: Sleeps through the night!! Wow this is a big one for mommy and daddy!  Miss M has been consistently sleeping 7-8hrs at night (which is a HUGE deal) for a couple weeks now. She has good head control and likes to look all around but does still wobble a bit.  She tries to sit on her own but because of the wobble she tends to lurch forward or to the side pretty quickly. She also enjoys standing up while mommy or daddy hold her under her arms – she actually prefers this more often than not! She likes tummy time (most of the time) and has fun on her play mat.  Miss M is a bit of a chatterbox – especially when she first wakes up!  She gets her “morning person” personality from her daddy so her morning chats are a bit exhausting for mommy!  Most of all she smiles and smiles and smiles at us which melts our hearts every time.  But then you see her smiling, laughing and talking to the living room ceiling fan or the bedroom “nipple light”… guess she is just making it clear we aren’t as special as we think!

Birthday Update: One Month!

Wow… how time has flown since Miss M made her debut in this world!  I can’t believe she’s already a month old.  My little peanut has definitely put on weight (official Peds weigh in on Monday!) and is sleeping and eating her way through most days.  She is our joy and… our frustration in those times when she just cries for no reason we can discern at 2am. Mostly she just fills the days with joy and love and a feeling of complete wonder at the awesome miraculous creation that she is!

Birth Deets: 21.5in, 8lbs 12oz (7lbs 14oz when leaving hospital, 8lb 2oz at Peds 3 days later)
Height: 22 inches
Weight: 9lbs 15 oz
Nicknames: Maddie, Princess Peepants, Grunty McGrunterson, Miss Me, Hungry Mungry Kiddo
Exciting Events: Aside from the very exciting event of her birthday, Maddie had many visitors from Michigan! The very first weekend she was home, Grammy & Grampy K made an impromptu trip to see their granddaughter.  About a week later, Great Aunt Pat & Great Uncle Jim arrived with cousins Jessa, Eli & Erin.  One day later, Grammy and Grampy K showed up with Aunt Katie and cousin Collin! While they were visiting, Maddie had a Skype date with Great Grandpa Slagter and a few other Great Uncles back in Michigan. She also made the move with mommy & daddy into their very first house!  It made for a very exciting and exhausting month!
What She Does: cries, sleeps, eats, pees/poops… that’s pretty much the run of things these days. Tummy time includes her being able to move her head from side to side and push herself up (head/chest) with her arms. She smiles mostly just randomly but I think I’ve caught her smiling back at me or daddy a time or two. And recently she’s taken to standing up when you hold her, supporting her whole body weight on those tiny little feet!  She has a pretty set internal schedule and let’s us get to bed sometime around 10/11pm gets up around 1:30/2am and then sleeps until around 5/6am – those 3-4hr stretches of sleep can work wonders for mommy & daddy!

Mommy update: I’m healing well and have lost most of the pregnancy weight – thank you breastfeeding! My pregnancy carpal tunnel is mostly gone with just slight numbness in 2-3 fingers on each hand instead of complete numbness in 4!  My wedding and engagement rings fit once again – yay!  It’s a good thing too because the fake bling started turning my finger green immediately after I gave birth! (totally weird!)  We moved to the new house 3 weeks after Maddie was born which was totally crazy (note to self: never repeat that) and we are still living mostly out of boxes because there is barely enough time in the day for me to eat let alone clean and unpack.  (Needless to say picture updates of the new house will be delayed for a bit!)