Last Wednesday, Max and I invited two photographers into our home to photograph Miss Madison at around her two and a half week of life. It was the highlight of my week and I was in full anticipation to make sure my little angel had the best shoot ever......stage Mom's look out! In setting up the appointment the week prior, I was a little nervous that she might be too 'big' to do a newborn shoot as so many photographers I spoke to shoot newborns within the first few days at home rather than the first few weeks....panic set in. They prefer a sleepy baby so that they can pose her and get the adorable shots like above. As you know, newborns sleep a LOT. Still at two and a half weeks old she still sleeps a lot, but a good feeding is NOT always indicative of a good nap and I knew that 6pm (scheduled appointment time) was one of her more typical awake times. So, I did what any die hard stage Mom would do and tried to adjust her feeding times so that she was sleeping during this shoot....I failed.....haha...sort of.... Madison was awake and fussy when they got here. Once Max worked his 'Dad' magic for a little bit she fell asleep...whew...right? Well, that was until we stripped her...of her clothes AND diaper....big NO NO with our little armed cannon. Maddie pooped! Maddie peed! She did this on their stuff and even more delightfully on me as I was holding her while they changed the set. She peed so much on me that there was a puddle at my feet when she was done! haha....no harm, no foul because at the end of the day we have beautiful photos to remember Madison by at three weeks of age. Once I get the link for all the photos I will be sure to share.

San Antonio Taylors

Two weekends ago, Grandmother and Grandad Taylor (ahem, Great Grandmother and Great Grandad) stopped by the house to meet Madison. Additionally, the Prosper Taylor's dropped by with a toy for Maddie and some delicious enchiladas for Max and me.

Awww, Great Grandad wore pink........pink for our little girl perhaps? Too cute!
I'll have more photos of this visit soon. As fast as the postal system goes!

More visitors

Before my mom left Maddie and myself to fend for ourselves :) we had some visitors from East Texas.....Great Grandma Margie and Great Aunt Marcella. It was also a relaxing weekend where we watched tons of movies and of course 'oodled' over Miss Madison.

A bunch of really hot ladies.......

And this is how Great Grandma and Madison sat for her entire visit. Both were very content

Four generations of wonderful women....

More fun photos....

Sleeping with Daddy!

Working on that burp!

Yay, family shot.

Just hanging out with Dad!

Oh, sweet baby.

A couple of 1sts....

Baby's 1st bath! She did great and really liked the water. A little retaliation, however.......she pooped right after we took her out of the water and before the new diaper went on.
Baby's 1st restaurant outing......ole! We went to a Mexican restaurant in the neighborhood and she slept right through it all. It was a perfect dining experience.

DuBois Weekend

This weekend, we had the pleasure of introducing Madison to her other grandparents, Gregg and Marjan....Max's parents. In addition to that, Marjan's mom, Nana, came too! It was a very relaxing weekend and Father's Day weekend for both Daddy Max and Grandpa Gregg. On top of the fun family photos we took, we also introduced Maddie to several of her 1sts......

More Photos.....

Visitors at the Hospital

Madison was one popular lady with lots of visitors at the hospital.

Grandma Natty!

Danielle!

Grandma gives good neck lovin'!

Kassie!

Lacey!

Don't tear up, Grandpa!

Sorry, Aunt Misty I don't have any of you to upload just yet. I will note, however, that you and Tim were the first to arrive at the hospital and brought the most delicious chicken biscuit with egg and cheese from Chik'fila. So delicious and a fabulous reward for that very hard 'workout'.

The Arrival

Sleeping baby...sleeping Daddy

Come on, it's embarrassing but totally worth capturing.

Why not throw in one more incriminating photo. Also funny about this photo is the fact that the rooms were STILL booked so my 'recovery' room was a sonogram room. As the sonogram people started to show up for work, I had people popping in to have their sonograms. And of course, I could have cared less what I looked like.

Conehead! No lie!

The first butt shot!

Walking = Baby is On the Way

Just a typical day....work, walk and work some more. On Thursday, 6/4 I was feverishly trying to get as much done before my official maternity leave began. In between dinner and another round of emails, I decided to go for a walk. No worries....

About 8:30 pm I started cramping up. No big deal, I'll keep working and then go to bed. The cramping continued. For about four hours I continued to cramp and needed to get up in the middle of the night to 'walk it out'. I did NOT want to be one of those women who showed up at the hospital only to be sent home because this was not the real deal. I am tough, I thought and I can master this. Again for a few more hours I would try to rest and then when the cramping began I would walk circles around the kitchen/living room/dining room as I worked on my breathing. These were period cramps, I thought, not what everyone said contractions felt like so why make a fuss?

At 2:45 I called the hospital with this comment.....'let me tell you how I am feeling and you let me know what you think'. The nurse instructed me to begin timing the 'cramps' and if they continued at 3-5 intervals for another hour then come in. Behold the timing (please note how shaky the numbers toward the end become.....haha):

At 4 am we arrived at the hospital....two contractions in the car and one as I plastered myself against the wall outside of the hospital as we waited for them to answer the middle of the night intercom to let us in. When I got upstairs I didn't know what to say other than.....'I think I'm having a baby.' Hahaha....Within two seconds of them taking a look they got big bug eyes and instructed me that I was 9 centimeters dilated and 100% effaced...it was GO time and I was NOT one of those women who would be sent home.

Seems like lots of ladies had checked themselves in and I was whisked away to an OR room or something like that....basically a flat metal surgery table was where I delivered. It was obvious they didn't use this room often because I went through two contractions as they fumbled with putting the stirrups on the bed. Epidural guy showed up, but the nurses said it wouldn't make a lick of difference...it was too late. Awesome, old fashion style! Not many pushes after the doctor got there, we heard the sound of life! At 5:42 am, we heard the cry of our little girl, Madison Blake DuBois.

The Nursery

In all it's glory.....it's bright, cheery and full of life....much like our little girl.

8 Day Countdown - 6/1

Just another Monday night! The dogs took a nap with Dad on the couch. I did a couple of random chores, but nothing crazy...just busying my time. With all of my sweeping/dusting I did stir up quite the level of Braxton Hicks contractions. Oooh, boy! Behold my lovely family all peacefully waiting for baby Madison....

Reese!

Calvin and yawning Allie
Oh snuggle bunnies.

Reese is not much for photo ops.

Poor Allie. She had been working on this bone all day, shielding off her brothers and then I come home and make her take a photo with me while she struggled to hold on to the remainder of her bone end.....and of course it dropped from her mouth and Reese took it. Luckily, Max quickly retrieved and she was able to complete it in peace.