12 weeks and they think it is a boy!

Last week I had my Ultrasound for the First Tri-mester Screening/NT Scan. It was a very mixed emotions day. It seems my NT Measurement (for those that do not know what I am talking about it is a measurement they do to screen for Downs Syndrome and other disorders) was out of normal limits. It should be less then 3mm. Mine as right on the boarder at 3.1. So I have to go back in 4 weeks for another ultrasound to see how the baby's heart looks.

The happy news we got at this ultrasound was that the baby is a boy! That is very exciting. I knew it was a boy. I have felt different from the day I found out I was pregnant. I was dizzy for at least the first week of this pregnancy and never felt that way with Madelyn.

The pregnancy is going well. I feel sick about every two hours unless I eat something and I am very tired. I really feel like I need a nap most days but of course can never take on. I just go to bed at about 9pm now.

Turning two years old!

My big girl is turning two on Sunday. I can not believe it. It seems to have gone by so fast, but at the same time, I sort of can't remember life with out her. She is just so much fun, and all time consuming, lol.

I have some big news on my mind. Just a few days a go I got a positive pregnancy test!! I am cautiously optimistic because it is so early, but I can not help my joy. :) If all is fine, our second baby will be born in Mid August. August 15th was the official due date the Doctor gave to me. We have our first ultra sound on Dec 29th, so if you are reading this, please keep this info off of facebook, but keep me in your prays that everything is ok.

Below is one of Madelyn's 2nd Birthday Portraits that I took of her two weeks before her bday.

Fall Fotos :)

My favorite time of the year is finally here...FALL! It is also gone in about 3 weeks, so I am making a point at taking some pictures of Madelyn during this beautiful time in upstate New York.

I took Madelyn to a farm in Kinderhook, NY called Samascott Orchards. It is a beautiful farm. There was no crowds and therefore, no people in the background of this beautiful setting to distract.

When we arrived to the farm they come up to your car and hand you a map to the orchard. You take your car right up to the Pumpkin Patch, or Apples if that is what you are there for. On your way out they check your car and weigh whatever you want to purchase.

This is a "no frills" sort of farm. I mean there is no hay ride, petting zoo, or playgrounds, but if you are looking for picturesque, then this is the place. Madelyn and I were in and out of the orchard in about 20 minutes, but that was mostly because she thought it was funny to run away from me, and into any mud puddle she could find.

Fall is such a nostalgic time of the year for me. It remind me of growing up and all our trips to Fall Festivals and Pumpking Picking, and it also now remind me of our beautiful wedding 4 years ago on October 20th 2007, outside at Innisfree Garden. It also reminds me how much things have changed in our lives in these past 4 years, and how blessed we are for all we have.

Happy Fall to all of you that read this!

18 Months!

First Hair Cut!

Madelyn is now 18 months and I totally slacked on keeping up with the blog. I was to busy enjoying life. I am not going to try and recap the last year, but just pick up with how fun it is to have an 18 month old!

I just recently took a new job and we switched daycares so that was a big transition for the whole family. She was going to a huge daycare facility in Poughkeepsie, NY called Cinnamon Tree, and I really love it. She was in the infant room and had been with the same teachers since she was 8 weeks old. I interviewed about 4 different places and settled on Best Friends Family Day Care in Valatie, and I couldn't be happier. They only take kids from one year old and up, so she is the "baby" of the group. I think being around the older kids and kids that are around 2 years old has been alot of fun for her, and socially is helping her get out of her stage of hating "strangers".

One thing I really like about this daycare was that their menu was also all homemade, and such a great variety. This kid is eating better the me these days, lol. She is loving turkey tetrazzini, homemade cinnamon muffins, blueberries, and all sorts of new things that I might not have thought she would have liked.

Madelyn also got her first hair cut recently! She needed it so bad, and I am so glad I finally did it. I was so nervous about it, but the lady did it in like 5 minutes, and Madelyn just sat on my lap eating goldfishies.

We just booked our trip to Sesame Place for next month, and I can't wait for her to meet Elmo! That just might have to be my next post. If any of you who read this have been to Sesame Place, I'd love to hear your experience!

8 Months Old

8 months

Madelyn,
You turned 8 months on the 11th, and almost immediately you were saying “mama” and have 2 teeth coming in! I noticed while I was feeding you the two middle teeth were coming in almost together. I can not wait to see your beautiful smile with teeth. Although, we happen to think your “no teeth” face is very funny too.

The fact that you say mama now just melts my heart, and over the last few days you just started to say baba now too. I can’t imagine what you will say next. We will see!

You are almost crawling now. You basically are crawling, but only do about 2 crawls before you decide to stop, sit up or roll over. I bet by the end of the week you are really moving.

Last weekend we went to Lindsay’s 4th birthday party. You were a good girl, and looked so cute in the chef themed party attired.

Aug 7-9 2010

Madelyn,
So, Mommy and Daddy went to Ryan's Wedding this past Saturday in NJ. Your Nanny, Nana, and Aunt Bonnie watched you and they had a wonderful time. They said you were "perfect". For some reason whenever we seemed to go to Carmel or see them since you were born, you seemed to be having a fussy day and cried alot. They finally got to enjoy you and see the happy baby that I told them you were.

You went to Walmart with them, and then out to Applebees. They even gave you a tubby.

This was my first night with out you since you were born. I missed you alot. It was also nice for Mommy and Daddy to have a night out though. Ryan and Olivia's Wedding was right on the Hudson over looking the Manhattan Skyline. We drank, danced, ate and had a beautiful hotel room for the night.

On Sunday when we got home, I put you in a dress that Trish gave to us. It is Pink with roses on it and a matching hat. We sat out in the yard on a blanket and you played with your toys while mommy took beautiful pictures of you. Rowan wore that dress on her 1st birthday, for her birthday party. It really means alot to me, that they gave us the dress and that you got to wear it while it was still warm enough to wear dresses. You are a big girl. You turn 8 months on Wednesday and this dress is a size 18 months and basically fit you perfectly.

The picture I took tonight is of you biting your activity gym mat. You basically bite everything right now, but still no teeth.

8/9/10

8/8/10

8/7/10 At Ryan's Wedding in NJ.

Madelyn,
You are growing up so fast. You look more like a "little girl" then a baby lately. You are about to crawl anyday now and when we put you up to the couch can stand and support yourself.

This weekend is going to be the very first night I spend without you. Mommy and Daddy are going to Daddy's friend Ryan's Wedding in New Jersey. I am going to miss you so much. The upside of it is, you will get to spend the weekend with you Nanny, Nana and Aunt Bonnie. They are coming to our house and spending the night tomorrow. I think you are going to have fun with all of them, and they are just going to love every minute of you.

8/6/10
8/4/10

8/3/10

Just a side note about the above picture. Our Chihuahua Ozzie has never bit anyone and we were right there as we watched Oz, just growl at Madelyn pulling her tail.

8/2/10

2. Jumperoo 8/1/2010

Madelyn has finally started to enjoy her Jumperoo for longer then 10 minutes. I swear she could have stayed in it for an hour today if we let her.

Josh put chicken on the grill for dinner and I made the sides while Madelyn entertained herself in the Jumperoo watching Baby Einstein on DVD. I highly recommend the series to new moms if you want to get anything done while your little one is less then a year old.

Here is day 2 of my 365 Challenge.

7/31/10

Here in NY we finally had some relief from the heat. It has been in the 90's for a good part of 2 months now. Today the high was only 80 and no humidity, so I took Madelyn outside for about an hour this afternoon, to just play on her blanket.

As some of you may know, I am a photographer, and as one, I definitely think a picture is worth a thousand words, or at least that it speaks more then I can convey in words. It is basically my choice of communication, if given that option.

That being said, I see some blogs around that are doing a 365 day photo challenge. I think I am going to join this challenge. Within my challenge I plan to take at least one picture a day of some sort of meaning. I would like this blog to primarily be about raising our daughter and photos pertinent to that. I may not have time to upload the photos daily but I plan to at the very least upload the 7 photos weekly for each day.

I would love to get some other 365 photo blogs as followers and to follow some, so please add me if you are in that.

Here are some of today's photos:

7 months old

Wow, time is flying. I never posted for Madelyn's 6 months bday. I have to say, six months old, was a major change. Madelyn was suddenly sitting up by herself, holding and feeding her own bottle, and saying dada. She is such a little person, with a big personality. Now it is July and one of the hottest ones I can remember since I was a teenager, so we are loving going in our pool almost every night. She is loving that. The water has been warm too, around 75-80 water temp.

Here are are 6 month and 7 month pics:

6 months

7 months

6 months

For July 4th weekend Madelyn had her first NYC trip down to Aunt Jessies house in Brooklyn. She was such a good traveler, and was such a happy baby. We went out to eat and to the park and took the picture of her in front of the NYC buildings on the East River that I posted above.

Madelyn is 5 months old

Madelyn turned 5 months old this week. She is such a big girl now. She rolls over completely to her belly now and laughs alot. She is just a happy silly baby. I took this picture on 5/11/10 in her room. She seems to love Elmo.

Our typical day when I am not working consists of us getting up for the day around 7am and she is also eating solids now, so we do a fruit in the morning and a veggie at night, and bottles of course in between. We had pears, bananas, apples, and sweet potatoes so far. She is getting alot better at the feedings. She actually opened her mouth before I got the spoon to her tonight. It was very cute.

After she eats she spends her days playing with all her different contraptions we seem to have; excersaucer, jumperoo, swing, activity mat, chair, toys on blanket. Also she really loves watching her Baby Mozart, Baby Einstein DVD. I actually like hearing it too. It is very relaxing and a nice break from tv noise. She seems to be happy watching them, so I can take a shower or get something done for that 25 minutes. One dvd is usually about $15.00, so I went on ebay this week and got 3 Baby Einstein DVDs for about 9 bucks! I can't wait for it to come in the mail!

It was also my first mother's day as a mama this year. It was really nice. I mostly just enjoyed not going to work and being with our beautiful baby.

Madelyn arrived and is 3.5 months

Sorry I have not written in this blog in a VERY long time. On December 11th we had our baby girl Madelyn. She is just amazing and I love her so much. Childbirth is nothing like you can even imagine. I am sure it is different for everyone, but I thought it was hell. Truth be told it has been 3.5 months and I still don't feel recovered physically from that trauma! She is so worth it though. It is amazing how much she has grown since she was first born. She is so happy lately and smiling so much.

For those of you that don't have kids yet, and think it will change everything. It sure does! But it is so much fun and a love you will never know until you just do it. I even feel closer to my husband now because of this beautiful baby we made.

I am back at work and surprisingly I actually like being a working mom. I thought I would constantly be daydreaming that we could afford for me to stay home and be with our daughter. It is not reality for us though, and I have accepted that and actually like having a routine where we get up VERY early (5:30am) and start our day to leave the house, and I was NEVER a morning person, until now.

Here are a few pictures of Madelyn since I have not posted any yet:

23 weeks

I have been feeling pretty good lately. My dad bought our crib a few weeks ago and I had my husband put it together this weekend. I couldn't wait to see it up and in the room. So tonight after work, I took out some of the stuff I have been collecting over the last few weeks, and put he room somewhat together. It is so cute. I am having alot of fun getting ready for the baby. I do wish we knew her name though! We can not decide. I have a list of names I like but my husband doesn't seem to LOVE any of them. I like Olivia, Skyler, Colleen, Hailey, and about 10 others I gave him on a list to narrow it down. So for now she is just baby girl Wheeler.

Half way there! It's a girl!

I am 20 weeks and 1 day today. We had our "big" ultrasound last week and found out it is a girl! I am so happy for a baby girl. She moves around everyday now and I can feel her once in a while on the outside too, which is so cool.

Here are some pics of me at 20 weeks and of our ultrasound:

*How far along?: 20 Weeks! I am half way through my pregnancy!

*Total weight gain: About 5lbs so far.

*How big is baby?: about 3/4 of a lb

*Maternity clothes?: Oh yeah I can not fit in regular pants at all now, but my shirts are still some just large regular womens.

*Sleep?: I sleep ok. I get up every 2 hours to go to the bathroom and lately I am getting some insomnia.

*Food cravings?: Avocados, vegetable rolls, and blue berries.

*Belly button in or out?: Still in.

*What I miss: Not to much. I don't really care about drinking but I do miss feeling like I can do any sort of activity sometimes.

*What I'm looking forward to: Seeing our baby girl for the first time.

*Milestone: Half way through my pregnancy!

16 weeks 5 days

I am feeling pretty good these days. I took a few pictures of myself today. Considering I am a photographer I really should do a better job, but for now, they are just hand held in the mirror. We leave in a week to go to Maine for a week, when we get back we have our BIG ultrasound. We are finding out the sex, and I can not wait!!

feeling bigger

Just this week I am starting to feel like I look pregnant and feeling like my skin is stretching. Last night I took a quick snap shot of my bare belly and was surprised to see I don't just look fat, lol.

I was 15weeks 4 days when this picture was taken. I am standing in what is going to be the future nursery. We are going to try and move out the desk this weekend and put the new glider/rocker we bought in there. After we find out what we are having we are going to get the crib with my dad. Can't wait! We find out the sex of the baby on July 27th, about 3 weeks from now!!

13 weeks

I am 13 weeks today! Yay, on to the 2nd trimester! I am hoping a start to feel better. I had energy the last 2 days, but it was the weekend so we'll see when the grind of the week starts again. On Weds I had my NT Scan. My mother came with me and the baby was so cute. It was very active, moving its body and arms around. My mom was very smiley and happy to see her grandchild. I just noticed my belly more this week. My husband said I look pregnant now. I think its a real reality check for him, lol. Here are pics from the scan and my 13week belly.