Our Sprout is Growing Her Own Personality!

Madelyn's Nursery

I haven't posted a new blog since before Madelyn was born - so, if you haven't heard...IT'S A GIRL!  :)  She's a few days shy of 19weeks - so just over 4 months old and growing leaps and bounds.  Sometimes I feel I put her to bed and she wakes up so different!  Different good.  I'm finally starting to "know" my baby and it's not so much a "guessing game" anymore.  When she fusses, we know what she needs.  We know how to make her smile.  We know when she needs a nap.  Parenting has definitely grown on us, as I knew it would.  Tomorrow is Aug 15 and school recommences but I will not be returning.  I didn't love teaching, to say the least, and I'm still having a lot of inner turmoil as to whether or not it was due to so many different factors that went into my first year of teaching:  we lived in a new city, had no friends or family to help alleviate stresses, I was pregnant, I didn't feel welcomed at the school (by the principal and many of the staff), I was teaching something I'd never taught before to groups of kids who, for the most part, didn't want to be there.  So needless to say, I'll be sitting the next few months out with my sweet baby girl. I don't think I'll want to be a housewife forever - I just need to find something that I love enough that will make enough sense for me to be away from Maddie all day, 5 days a week.  Until that happens, I stay busy trying to be the best mom I can be to the cutest baby in the world.  When she naps, I try to keep up with housework.  If I'm lucky enough to have a sleeping baby AND a cleanhouse, I like to stay busy with crafty things.  I've just about finished her nursery (something that didn't really get underway until after she was born and we knew we had a "she").  I'll post other crafty things as I finish them.  Happy blogging!

35 Weeks - only 33 days until due date!

Happy Mardi Gras! 
It's Mardi Gras season here in the "Big Easy" - that means LOTS of beads, LOTS of parades, and LOTS of crowds!  We did our best to avoid too much of the festivies but still did what we could to experience our first NOLA Mardi Gras.  One night, we decided to go to one of the biggest acclaimed parades : Endymion.  People who have never experienced a New Orleans Mardi Gras have NO IDEA the hype that's involved.  It's a city-wide tailgate that lasts for over a week.  Basically put - it's NUTS!  But we decided to brave what we could.  We drove into the city on Sunday night.  There were hundreds of thousands of people pouring into the city.  But, I was driving so of course I found the PERFECT parking spot.  I was pumped.  We left the car and had only a block to walk to the parade (a truly rare situation considering all the people).  It was dark and I was excited - I failed to see the dip in the road and took a pretty big tumble :(  First, I landed on my knees, then fell to my hands.. and then they all buckled and I fell flat on my stomach.  It all happened so fast.  Not only did I have pain from my muscles trying to stop my fall, and from my bones hitting the pavement, and from the open wounds on my knees and belly - I was terrified that I'd done something to the baby.  I'm usually pretty brave but I just broke into tears.  I wouldn't be able to live with myself if my clumsiness had hurt my baby.  With Mike's help, I hobbled back to the car - tears streaming down my face.  I couldn't stop shaking - I was so mad at myself.  Mike wanted to take me to the ER but of course my stubborn side wouldn't let him.  It wasn't long before I felt the baby kick.. what a relief!  But the whole thing shook me up pretty bad.  The next morning, I called the Dr and they had me come in for an ultrasound.  Thank GOD everything is running smoothly with baby - he/she weighs 6lbs 11oz.. heartbeat is normal... head is down.  We got a great US picture of the baby and it reminds me to be MORE CAREFUL with my footing - especially in the dark!  Now I just have to heal this bruised and bloody knees :(