Thankful

Considering that it is the week of Thanksgiving, I thought I'd take a moment and reflect upon what I am most thankful for....family. I am extremely fortunate to have the best parents in the world, a loving husband, and a beautiful little girl.

I'm thankful that I grew up in a loving household with both parents. My brother and I always came first and nothing was ever about them...never selfish. I can't imagine a parent not wanting to help with raising their child. Sure, I do the brunt of caring for Madeline, housework, and our household errands since it's technically my "job," but Tommy is also willing to chip in and do his part as a parent as well. I guess I just don't understand why either a mother or father (or both) would choose to take a back seat. And, I do say choose and want...because it is a choice. (Unless there is a domestic issue, custody, etc.). I guess I'm talking more so about parents who are married raising children. Perhaps lack of maternal or paternal instinct? Selfishness? Scared? I'm not quite sure and there could many explanations, I guess.  It's just something I simply do not understand or can fathom. I could not imagine playing an inactive roll in Madeline's life, or worse, not wanting to be there. I feel as though my life just started since introducing our sweet baby girl into the world. Now as an adult, my parents are my best friends! I truly hope that Madeline has as great as a childhood as I did.

Okay, I'll get off my soapbox. :)

In other news, Madeline is doing wonderfully on her new formula. It's totally worth the extra cost, and her tummy issues are subsiding. She's still a super gassy baby, but no more tummy aches or painful gas. She's getting so close to rolling over, laughing, and finding her feet. Any day now one of these will happen. Today she finally mastered the mini push up on the floor. She was doing them on me...but she's always been a little lazy on the actual floor tummy time. So, that's a new milestone reached! I did take her to the pediatrician this week since she's had a cold off and on now for a few weeks, and well, the sleep issue. She's doing fine, and we found out that the sleepless nights have been due to the combination of mucus and saliva. Basically, she's having to teach herself how to regulate it...usually by a cough. She's been gulping, throwing her head back (out of frustration), kicking her feet, and grunting all through the night. I thought it might be sinus drainage or her reflux acting up. But, the past three nights have been somewhat better. She's gone down easier, and will do the gulping for about 10 minutes and stir, then drift off again to sleep. And she'll repeat this around 6  times during the night. Better than being up all night long.

For some reason getting her to go back to sleep after her early morning feeding has been challenging. This was a breeze for several weeks...but not so much now. She's definitely sleepy, (and is still needing more sleep) so I don't know what the issue is. She's really started to grow now, too. We weighed her last week and she was 10lbs, 3oz. She should weigh around 12 lbs by Christmas if she's gaining consistently.

Oh, and she turned 3 months last Tuesday! So hard to believe!

Tommy is off work all week long and I'm so excited. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, and I'm going to run a couple of errands to do the final touches on our Christmas decor. Our house is halfway decorated right now...we just need to put the tree up. We'll have to do the tree when Madeline is taking a long nap. Whichever day we can catch, we'll put the tree up then. I can actually run my errands that I need to do during the week while he watches Madeline - YAY! Of course, no Black Friday shopping for me. I just don't have the patience for that any longer. Actually, we'll probably avoid any type of shopping all weekend long.

I'm so excited for the holidays. It's my favorite time of year despite the colder weather. Too bad it only lasts a month!

Sorry for the lack of photos...I'll definitely update them tomorrow.