The Richards: February 2011

I can't believe my sweet baby girl is 4 weeks old! It's going so fast. Especially since we lost a week at the hospital. Madeleine is super fun and we are loving having her here! She is doing great and we have no reason to believe that the injuries from her rough beginning were anything but superficial. We are so blessed! She is still a tiny thing. Maddie doesn't have any chub on her yet other than the double chin she showed up with but she is working on porking out. We'll see if she gets as chubby as I was as a baby or not. I kinda doubt she will because she is a really busy baby...but still cuddly so it's okay!

Here is what Maddie has been up to in her first 4 weeks:

She is in the 67th percentile for height and the 38th percentile for weight (She was in the 8th percentile at 1 week so her pediatrician was super proud of this jump and because of that she has been cleared to get out of the house a little now too! If only it wasn't so stinking cold and snowy...).
She is still wearing newborn clothes and diapers.
Her hair has grown a lot this month and we think it may be Mark's.
She has really long fingers and toes (like her RieRie).
Her eyes are a dark newborn blue and some days they to have a little brown tinge to them (My eyes and Kyle's eyes started out brown so we were really surprised when Maddie's didn't show up like that!).
She is a total loud mouth. She snores, snorts, chirps, makes "raspberries" with her tongue, while awake, sleeping, eating, and playing. Maddie is just all around noisy all the time.
She can't keep her tongue in her mouth.
She doesn't believe pooping or burping is ladylike so she doesn't do either.
She loves her art book, changing table mirror, and sleep sheep.
She has recently noticed Boudreaux and likes to watch him but hasn't noticed the cats yet (probably because Bou stands over her and licks her hair ALL the time while the cats don't really care).
She sleeps in our room in her pack-n-play and has just started sleeping 5-6 hours at night (I hope I don't jinx this!!). If she wakes up early she will go right back to sleep for a couple hours if she cuddles up to Daddy.
She takes a 4-5 hour nap in the afternoon and catnaps the rest of the day.
When Maddie is in her REM sleep cycle she smiles, opens her eyes, rolls her eyes, cries, sticks her bottom lip out, and makes all kinds of expressions. It's the craziest thing. Sometimes we can't tell whether she is awake or asleep. I'll try and video it and post it.
She hates having her diaper and clothes changed. It's torture to her.
She will stop whatever she is doing and stare transfixed at you if you make "raspberry"/spitting noises at her. It keeps her happy but we can't do it too long without getting dizzy!
She is a total champ and switches between nursing, bottles, and pacifiers flawlessly and has done so from birth.
When she gets fussy she prefers rocking and listening to Willie Nelson.
Maddie has been to a Superbowl party and our church Lifegroup meeting and has done great at both.