Smiles, Rattles and Pushups Galore

It's hard to believe that Madeleine is already two months old. Our little girl is growing so quickly! Over the past few weeks, Madeleine has reached a couple of important developmental milestones. She has started displaying a "social smile," one that has some intent behind it as opposed to being the result of random facial contortions or gas. It's enough to melt your heart. It is also extremely difficult to capture on film, but here are a couple of early attempts:

Here she is, grinning as she tries to convince me that I shouldn't believe everything I read:

Madeleine also has started to hold objects in her hands. While at first we had to pry her tiny fingers open and place the object in her palm, she now reaches for objects and has a good strong grip. Her favorite toy is a small silver rattle that I had as a baby, which my mom said I "hand hammered" by repeatedly hitting it against my crib. It's the perfect size for Madeleine's tiny hands. Here are a few action photos:

Last but not least, Madeleine has started to lift her head when she is placed on her stomach. My theory is that she already knows the Upward Facing Dog pose because she attended prenatal yoga classes with me regularly:

Madeleine had a chance to show off all of her accomplishments in front of her Grandpa and Grandmaman this month, who came all the way from Tucson, Arizona for their second visit since Madeleine's birth. Here is Madeleine showing off her smile to Grandpa:

And here she is posing with Grandmaman:

Grandmaman made Madeleine a beautiful smocked outfit, complete with bonnet. The hand smocking is simply gorgeous, and the bonnet is perfect for keeping the blazing Atlanta sun out of Madeleine's eyes:

Last but not least, Madeleine is finally making some headway with our dogs, Winston and Milo. Winston has finally decided that he is going to guard and protect her instead of eating her for dinner. Milo is still waiting for the day that Madeleine starts throwing Cheerios on the ground:

Now for the downside of turning two months old -- Madeleine has her first vaccinations tomorrow. Needless to say, I am dreading the experience. Let's hope Madeleine does not share her mother's fear of needles!

One Month Old

Madeleine's one-month birthday was today, and it is hard to believe that it's been a month since she was born. In some ways, however, Madeleine has changed and grown so much in the past month that it feels like we've always had her in our lives.

On Sunday, Don's family had a small celebration of Madeleine's one-month birthday. The one-month mark is a special one in Chinese culture, celebrated by the distribution of red eggs and sticky rice to the baby's family, friends and neighbors. In honor of this tradition, Madeleine's grandmother prepared a delicious meal of sticky rice and barbecued pork buns.

It's a shame that Madeleine couldn't enjoy these tasty treats, but her parents were very grateful. Here's Madeleine with her grandma:

And here she is posing with her granddad with a big post-meal yawn:

The meal was followed by an exceptional nap in her new crib at grandma's house (thanks, Darlina, John and Jennie!) We forgot all swaddling blankets at home, but Madeleine's grandma did a good job of improvising:

Today, Madeleine and I went to her pediatrician for her one-month checkup. Her visit went extremely well, and she has moved up significantly in the growth percentiles. While her birth weight of 5 pounds 9 ounces put her in the 5th percentile of all babies, her one-month weight of 8 pounds 11 ounces places her well over the 25th percentile. It has been an impressive gain this month. She definitely has filled out!

Grandma came over today to give me a bit of a break (read: nap. I'm actually starting to like napping!) She brought a sweet present for Madeleine's one-month birthday. It's a jade plant in an adorable planter featuring a photo of Madeleine and the phrase "A Star is Born." The jade plant has special significance since Madeleine's Chinese name, Mei Lin, means "beautiful jade." Here's a picture of the plant, followed by an enlargement of Madeleine's photo:

Yes, she can be quite a ham! We're definitely looking forward to our second month with Madeleine...

Out On The Town

Now that Madeleine is nearing a month old, Don and I thought it was high time to take her out on the town. So, in honor of the release of the final Harry Potter book, we decided to take her to see the recently released movie of the fifth Harry Potter book, The Order of the Phoenix.

"Take an infant to the movies? Are you insane??"

This is where the sheer brilliance of my husband comes into play. Rather than driving all of the patrons crazy at our local multiplex, Don suggested that we go to a drive-movie theatre. The Starlight Six Drive-In is the last remaining drive-in theatre in Atlanta, and it is fabulous. It even shows first-run movies. Just don't order the hamburgers or hot dogs at the snack bar -- they also have been there since 1949.

The drive-in worked beautifully. Madeleine wasn't all that interested in the movie, so she slept through virtually the entire thing. (YAY!!) When she did fuss, we kept the windows rolled up so that we wouldn't disturb the neighboring cars. I would highly recommend the drive-in to any new parent.

On Saturday night, we decided that the drive-in adventure went so well that we would test out the local restaurant scene. Don and I debated at great length which restaurant would be appropriate for Madeleine's first dining experience. Finally, we decided to go to Fellini's, a local pizza joint that is walking distance from our house. Fresh air, exercise, no need to load up the car, and we would be close to home if any meltdowns occurred. As an added bonus, Fellini's does a strong take out and delivery business, so odds were that we wouldn't be disturbing too many other customers if she should start to wail.

As soon as we walked into Fellini's, the first thing I saw was another baby in an infant car seat. A very good sign, indeed. After ordering our pizza, I fed Madeleine in the hopes that she would sleep through our meal. While she did not exactly sleep, she became entranced by the neon sign in the window and was quiet for most of the meal. Another success!!

We're very proud of our little girl and look forward to venturing out of the house with her more frequently in the next few weeks. We have a barbecue and a dinner on the calendar next weekend, so we're keeping our fingers crossed that those will go as well as the drive-in movie and pizza excursions. Even if they don't, I'm sure Madeleine's extreme cuteness will keep us from getting too upset with her...

The Joys Of Sleep Deprivation

In the last days of pregnancy, everyone warns the mother-to-be to sleep now, while she still can. Of course, this is virtually impossible with all of the discomfort, heartburn, and late night bathroom visits associated with late pregnancy. Even with these warnings, I don't think anything can prepare prospective parents for the sudden depths of sleep deprivation that occur just after a baby is born. After four weeks of limited sleep, it no longer surprises me that sleep deprivation has been used around the world as a form of torture.

It seems to me that veteran parents typically forget the stress and strain of sleep deprivation. It's like the pain of childbirth -- if parents actually could remember how difficult it is, there would be a lot of only children out there. Then there are the "happily sleep deprived" parents, like 90210's Jason Priestley. While I think it's possible to be happy about your child's existence at the same time that you are sleep deprived, the term "happily sleep deprived" is too much of an oxymoron for me.

I have always been a heavy sleeper who performs best after nine or ten hours of sleep. I also have never been a good napper. These traits are not ideal for a new mother. In the first weeks of life, breastfeeding mothers are told to wake their babies every two to three hours to feed. They are also told to "sleep when the baby sleeps." While this is nice in theory, it is extremely difficult for confirmed non-nappers like me.

During the first week or so, my non-napper status meant that I did not sleep much at all, for I spent the time between feedings staring at Madeleine in her bassinet to make sure she was still breathing. For the uninitiated, newborns make the strangest noises - grunts, gurgles, heavy breathing, and sometimes, no breathing at all for a few seconds at a time. It's a little practical joke nature plays on first-time parents called "periodic breathing," wherein the baby will breathe audibly for a while and then will take a short break. With concerns about SIDS weighing heavily on the new parents' minds, it is enough to make any new mother scrap the notion of sleeping when the baby sleeps and invest in large quantities of No-Doz.

Nature's practical joke #2: Just as Don and I started to become better at sleeping with a newborn in our room, Madeleine developed a touch of colic. Well, perhaps "a touch" is a bit of an underestimation, the product of a new parent's rose-colored view of the world. Basically, Madeleine started to scream like a banshee between the hours of 9:30 p.m. and 1:30 a.m., with an occasional reprisal between 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. Theoretically, there are techniques that seem to soothe her, such as eating, rocking, bouncing, swinging, walking, singing, swaddling and shushing, all of which require one thing - active parent involvement. And so the sleep deprivation continued.

But things have gotten better in recent days. After several difficult "colicky" episodes, we decided to introduce Madeleine to her crib. Although I had heard horror stories about moving an infant from one sleeping locale to another, Madeleine has adjusted pretty well to her crib. In fact, she seemed to sleep much more soundly without her mother standing over her for half the night.

Around the same time, Don and I came to the sudden realization that we had not been putting Madeleine down for scheduled naps. It may seem obvious to some that a small child needs to nap every now and then, but Madeleine consistently fell asleep in our arms, on our laps, in her swing, or right next to us. It was really quite impressive:



As a result, it never occurred to us that sleeping in our presence might not make for the most restful sleep for our little one. So, it's been off to the crib for Madeleine, both day and night, and she has taken to it pretty well.

The final change we made was to try and establish a routine with Madeleine. A friend gave me the book "Secrets of the Baby Whisperer." While the title is cheesy and the writing style rather grating, the ideas really work. The author advocates having babies follow a routine consisting of eating, activity and sleep (in that order), allowing time for "you" when the baby is down for a nap. See, isn't that E.A.S.Y.? As I said, definitely corny, but it actually seems to work. The hours of screaming have diminished somewhat, and it is nice to have some structure to the day.

Now that our baby is better rested, her mother and father have started to get more sleep as well. In fact, I slept a full FIVE consecutive hours the other night. It was amazing. I have never felt so refreshed. With all of this additional rest comes extra energy, and we are finally starting to contemplate venturing out of the house with Madeleine. This weekend we may even go to the grocery store with her. First time at Publix! We'll have to bring the video camera...

Birth Day

Madeleine Loyce Cox
June 24, 2007

Our daughter Madeleine came into our lives a mere eighteen days ago. Since that time, she naturally has changed our world as we know it. She also has more nicknames than any other living creature I've encountered. "Tinykins" is my current favorite, hence the name of this blog. This is the story of her birth.

Madeleine was born on June 24, 2007 at Emory Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. Ironically enough, I, too, was born at Crawford Long in 1975. Given the number of places I've lived, I never thought I would have a child at the same hospital where I was born. I guess that makes both of us "native" Atlantans, which is actually a rarity in these parts.

I spent nearly the entire span of labor (which lasted 24 hours, 33 hours, or 4 weeks, depending on how you count it) without drugs or any medical interventions. I started having contractions around 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 23, while at a family birthday party. The contractions had become intense around midnight, and I did not really sleep that evening. Then, my water broke at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday, June 24, and we knew that it was showtime for sure. It was a relief to know that we were going to the hospital for the actual delivery this time, for I already had endured four weeks of prodromal, or "false," labor that had been very draining.

Labor was rather slow going, and I was in my own world for much of the time. I had a great support team consisting of my husband, Don, and my doula, Ayla, who tirelessly helped me through each contraction. They even spent over two hours pouring water on my belly in the too-shallow hospital tub. Our labor and delivery nurses were great as well. First, we had Janet, who basically left us to do our own thing so long as we came back and hooked up to the fetal monitor every hour or two. Then, Natalie came on board after the shift change. She was studying to be a midwife and was very supportive of the natural childbirth process, even allowing us to monitor the baby by Doppler when I was in the tub. I couldn't have asked for better support during my labor.

Despite the wonderful encouragement I received, after 22 hours of very painful contractions, I found myself completely exhausted and both physically and emotionally drained. Since I wanted to have some energy left for when the baby arrived, I requested a paracervical block, which essentially is a novocaine shot to the cervix. Soon thereafter, our baby started experiencing late heart decelerations, which the doctor later attributed to the fact that the umbilical cord was wrapped not once but twice around her body. With the decelerations, our relatively intervention-free birth experience immediately was turned on its head. I received an IV, oxygen, an internal fetal monitor and an amnioinfusion all at once, and then was left to study the faces of the medical team as they scrutinized the fetal heart tracings. There were some very tense and scary moments, and I was grateful for the paracervical block as it allowed the doctor to work some magic without my feeling anything.

Just as a C-Section suddenly looked like a distinct possibility, our baby started to do well enough for a vaginal delivery to still be an option. Fortunately, our little girl was, indeed, quite tiny, and I was able to deliver her in six pushes, only four of which were "good ones," according to my obstetrician. And so, at 11:37 p.m. on June 24, 2007, our daughter made her grand entrance in to this world -- all 5 pounds, 9 ounces of her.

Once our baby girl was born, Don cut the umbilical cord and I gave her a quick kiss before she was whisked away to be suctioned, tested, poked and prodded. The 45-minute period during which they worked on her seemed like an absolute eternity. Don was able to watch the entire series of procedures, but I could only see the medical staff out of the corner of my eye, not the baby. Finally, the medical staff brought her over to me, and we were able to determine whether the name we had chosen actually fit her.

Madeleine Loyce Cox. It was nice to finally put a face with the name. We chose the French spelling of Madeleine as a nod to my French Canadian heritage, and selected Don's grandmother's name, Loyce, as her middle name. Don's middle name is Royce, and he was named after his grandmother's twin brother who was killed in World War II. Don's grandmother is a wonderful woman, both peaceful and kind, and we are thrilled that our daughter will share her name.

Madeleine's birth was an amazing experience, and we are very grateful to the team that guided us along the way:

From left to right: Bradley (Dr. Tate's medical student of the month), Ayla (our doula), Don (proud papa), me, Madeleine, and Dr. Tate.

Since Madeleine's birth, we've started living on a 24-hour schedule, showers have become a luxury, and coffee never smelled so good. I also never knew that a being so small could emit a sound so loud. Our dogs are quite confused and upset that they were not consulted about her arrival that I fear they may never forgive us:

I keep trying to point out to them that she is very cute and much smaller than they are, but I don't think they will fully appreciate her presence until she starts dropping food on the floor.

Here she is, quite overbundled in the first days of life:

And here we are relaxing on the couch the day after Madeleine came home from the hospital:

It's been a fun, wild ride so far. I will end this post with our first official family photo. We look forward to taking many more in the future.