6 Weeks Old

Not a whole lot to report this week. I went for my 6 week post natal appointment yesterday and everything is good. Ironically, my iron levels are the highest they've ever been. Mackenzie was a trooper as always, and didn't make a peep the whole time we were there.



Mackenzie and Bear look they were caught!
I promise I didn't let her cry for long! She's just too cute! And she was MAD!
But a second later, she was happy again!

Fall is in the Air

Last Sunday we went to my mom and stepdad's house in Flowery Branch. It was Mackenzie's first visit, but certainly not her last. My mom decorated for the fall season, so we took the opportunity to take some pictures of Mack with the decor. Enjoy!

5 weeks and growing like a champ!

Yesterday, Mackenzie celebrated her five week birthday. Since the first week of her birth, I have taken pictures of her in the same outfit that my Grandma gave to her. It's a little sailor outfit, and it's so cute! The thing is, is that by the time Mack will be able to fit into it, it will be too cold outside. I figured the best way to get use out of it, is to take her picture of her in it until it's too small for her. Speaking of size, Mackenzie is just now fitting into her newborn and some 3 months clothes. It's more frustrating for me than it is for her, because in the beginning NOTHING fit her except the hospital shirts that we got from the hospital and her little night gowns, but she's getting there. We weighed her on Sunday when my mom was visiting, and Mack was 10 lbs. 1/2 oz.! I'm sure she's gained even more weight and we're going to measure her this weekend, because we've noticed that she's gotten much longer. Scott and I have had so much fun with Mack in the past 5 weeks. Last Friday night, we went to Rick and Trish's where their neighborhood had their 13 annual pig roast. On Saturday I went to a baby shower for my dear friend, Carmen and Scott kept Mackenzie for the first time. He had such a blast with her, they had breakfast at Sonic, where Scott fed her her first bottle, went to Publix, the meat market, and to get Scott's truck washed. Everyone was so impressed that Scott took her and actually went shopping with her, but Scott didn't think it was such a big deal. He is so good with her and it all just comes so natural to him. After the baby shower, we took Mack to see her cousin, Drew play soccer, where everyone wanted to hold and love on her! Even Drew's sweaty soccer coach held her, apparently he's been begging his wife for some time now to have a little girl. Then after the game we went to Aunt Kari's and Uncle Mike's house to celebrate Mack's nanny's birthday. For a 5 week old, Mack had an eventful Saturday, but she did so good! And then on Sunday, my mom came over and we just relaxed. And Mack experienced her first La Parilla dinner! I've been pumping several times a day and then freezing the milk, so we have quiet a stock pile milk going. I gave Mack her first bottle about 2 weeks ago and I was nervous that she wouldn't take to it, but she immediately starting eating and has yet to give us any indication that she doesn't like the bottles. I am of course still breast feeding her when we're home, at other's homes, or I even feed her in the car, I'm just not comfortable feeding her in public yet. Below are some recent photos of Mackenzie at five weeks old.

Mackenzie at her first pig roast

Naked Mack!
I love my Bear!
Nick has really come around. He was terrified of Mack at first, but now he's her watch dog.
Melts my heart everytime! Wide eyed, making faces at mommy

Happy 5 week Birthday to me!
Abby rocked Mackenzie to sleep
My happy baby girl
Mackenzie contemplating this whole tummy time thing

Tiny, little bum

Our Sleeping Beauty

I love laying on my daddy's chest
So snuggly on daddy

Can't get enough of our burrito Mack

Mackenzie is such a great sleeper! Ever since she was born, we haven't had any issues with her sleeping. In the beginning, she would rather sleep than eat, but that has since changed! Mackenzie takes several naps throughout the day and we've yet to get on a napping schedule, but that's fine with me. I know with time, she will become more consistant with a schedule, but for now, I'm not pushing it. As far as bed time goes, I usually feed her her last feeding between 9 p.m. and midnight depending on when she last ate and she will sleep soundly without a peep until 6 a.m.! Scott and I are so fortunate for this! We have a nightly routine with her, that consists of me feeding her, then we swaddle her so tightly (she absolutely LOVES to be swaddled!), we put her hospital hat on her, and lastly we give her tons of kisses and tell her good night. She enjoys the music box on her bassinet that's attached to her pack n play and it only plays for 8 minutes at a time. I usually have to play it twice before she's out for the night. In the beginning, I told Scott that he could sleep in our guest bedroom so he could get consistant sleep, because he has to get up to go to work, but he declined. I thought for sure he would change his mind, but he wakes up when she does and he will quickly go back to sleep. We're keeping our fingers crossed that Mack will continue to sleep so well, but if she should change her mind, we're thankful for the sleep that she has given us.

4 Weeks Already!

I thought the time flew by when I was pregnant, but it's gone by even faster now that Mackenzie is here. Scott and I are so happy and are absolutely in love with our little girl. Mackenzie's growing by leaps and bounds! I took her on September 23rd for her 2 week wellness check and she weighed 8 lbs. 13 oz. (75% percentile), her height was 20" (50% percentile), and her head was 36 cm (50% percentile). The family that I nannied for was kind enough to loan us their baby scale so we can weigh Mackenzie whenever we want. This past Tuesday we decided to see how much she has gained, and she weighed 9 lbs. 7 1/2 oz.! I was shocked! Mackenzie is our little butter ball! I hate how quickly the time is going, but I love seeing what new things Mackenzie discovers everyday. Two nights out of the week we go to the park to watch Scott play softball and Mack is absolutely perfect! Most of the time, she's sleeping, but when she's awake, she's so alert, looking around and cooing.
Happy Mack with her Teddy!

Life with Mackenzie

Scott and I (and the rest of our families) are enjoying every minute on Mackenzie. We were discharged from the hospital the Saturday after I had her and on Sunday we had a family get together for her and Scott's birthday. It felt so good to be home and to sleep in our own bed and take a shower at home! I was sore for most of the week last week, but this week, I'm feeling much better. We took Mack to the doctor last Monday and she dropped quite a bit in her weight and of course it made me sad. But, my milk has come in and today when I took her back for a weight check, she gained back almost all of her birth weight! We have figured out that she likes to sleep more than eat, so we wake her up every 3 hours to eat and boy, does she eat like a champ! We didn't hear her cry as in I'm mad and I can scream cry until last Thursday when she had a huge blowout all over herself and my mom and she didn't like being naked and getting all cleaned off. Scott stayed home with us last Monday, and then he had to go back to work on Tuesday. I thought I would be ok, but I got very lonely. Even though I have Mack, it was strange to be home with just her. My mom came over on Wed. and stayed until Thursday night and that was so nice. She was kind enough to take us to Zaxby's and Wal-Mart on Wed. I was so ready to get out of the house, but was afraid to go too far so Wal-Mart it was! Then on Thursday night, Mackenzie got to see her daddy play softball. She was so excited to be going, that she slept through the whole game! :) On Friday, she was laying on my chest and she decided to lift her head up to look at me, and she kept it up for some time. And when she gets mad, she gets very strong, she stretches her legs straight out and throws her arms up. She has the most beautiful dark slate blue eyes and she loves to look around. On Saturday night, instead of waking her up for her 3:30 a.m. feeding, I let her sleep so she technically slept through the night. I fed her at 11:30 p.m. Saturday and she woke up at 6:30 a.m. Sunday ready to eat. She is such a great easy going baby! Scott and I are so in love!

September 4, 2008

Mackenzie Elizabeth is here! Here's the story of how she came into this crazy, wonderful world. I woke up around 4 a.m. on Sept. 4th to go to the bathroom, after I got back into bed, I realized that I had a bit of cramping. I had been to the doctor the day before and thought I was cramping from that. I was still only 1 and 1/2 cm dialated when I was there, so I didn't think that I was starting to labor. I couldn't get comfortable laying down, so I went into our livingroom to watch cartoons. I forgot how funny Popeye and Pink Panther are or maybe it was just funny because I couldn't sleep. :) Anyways, at 6:30 I decided to take a shower and wake Scott up, he quickly fell back asleep and I enjoyed the warm water. Scott got up at 7 and started to get ready for work. He started timing my contractions and at that point they were 3-5 minutes apart. At 7:30, I was hurting and told him that we needed to go somewhere. After cleaning the kitchen and starting the washing machine (I guess I was in denial!) we were ready to leave for the hospital, that was at 8 a.m. Scott was so calm the whole way even joking that 8 a.m. was probably the worst time to be heading into Marietta, he was right, it took an hour to get to the hospital! We got right next to the hospital and that's when my labor pains went to my back and I lost it, it hurt so bad and I was starting to panic. Once I was in triage, I was checked and was 5-6 cm and the contractions were right on top of each other. Within 30 minutes, I was admitted to labor and delivery and had the epidural. I was so much calmer after that. I could still feel the pressure from each contraction, but I was able to breath through them. My mom got to the hospital at 11 a.m. and Scott's parents got there at 11:30 a.m. Everything moved very quickly. I sat at 10 cm for about an hour with hopes that Mackenzie would drop down more and that would help with the pushing. At 2:30 p.m. everyone but Scott left the room and I started pushing. I pushed for a little over an hour and Mackenzie entered the world at 3:37 p.m. it was the most amazing thing ever. She weighed in at 8 lbs. 1 oz. and 18 and 1/2 inches long. I guess she will get her lack of height from her momma, but that's ok! I couldn't have asked for a better labor and delivery nurse and the doctor that delivered Mackenzie was great. The neatest thing about the whole experience is that Mackenzie and her daddy will share birthdays-Mack was born one day before Scott and he loves his little birthday present!


Our happy little family!
Scott and I can't stop staring at her.
Scott holding his baby girl.