Merry Christmas from our Native Texan, Maddie!

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Christmas Pics

So one big slice of my Holiday Stress Pie was our Christmas Picture. If I told you how much time/energy has been devoted to the When/Where/How of this picture and our Christmas Card, you would think I was completely OCD. For some reason, I just has a lot of problems making decisions about what we would wear, should we take it at church or at home, etc. The result is in the mail...but here are some "outtakes."

Pre-Christmas Dress...Not Happy.




Getting Happier.



Wink wink ;)

Remember Cabbage Patch Kids?

I think I birthed one. :D

Thanksgiving Redneck Baby and Fulmer Appreciation

For Thanksgiving this year, we continued our tradition of being "adopted" by Scott and Sarah's family. We had a great Thanksgiving lunch and Maddie (of course) was the most popular girl at the party. I made sure to get her all dressed up so that we could take a family picture to commemorate her first Thanksgiving....new pretty dress, frilly socks, little patent leather shoes....the works! A pretty big deal for her, considering she has had shoes on an average of once a month since she was born! (You can take the new mommy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the new mommy!) Well, OF COURSE, I procrastinated taking the picture until after we ate...then "Uncle Scott" wanted to practice changing a diaper, since he and Sarah are expecting a little girl as well. Bless his heart, he did a great job except the diaper was a little loose, and a little low. The next thing I know, she is snuggled up with him watching the Titans game, and lets loose a poop-splosion that soaks her undershirt, dress, Scott's shirt and his pants! She had poop on her cream-colored shirt up to her shoulder blades. Poor Scott. And poor me, because I forgot to bring another outfit, and my lovely family portrait was reduced to Andy holding "Naked Redneck Baby" on the couch. Ah, Memories!

Saturday was dubbed "Fulmer Appreciation Day" in Knoxville, so we celebrated here in the land of that "other UT" as well. I can't believe I am doing this, but here is a horrible picture of me with no makeup...Maddie looks so cute I had to post it. We missed everyone a ton this weekend, but in only three weeks we'll all be home!

Hysterical Baby!

I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving! I promise to post a funny story about our day later, but I HAD to post this video that I just took right this second...we have been cracking up over it!

2 in one week?!?!?

I know, you are shocked, all two of my followers ;) But I changed the blog to my default startup page, to encourage me to update. I wanted to post a couple of pictures to show how much Madeline has grown in the last three months:

6 days old

3 months old



2 weeks old



3 months old



What a big girl! Here are a couple funny pictures, just for the heck of it!

New Video!

Here is a new video of Miss Madeline playing with some of her favorite toys. She is growing so fast! I tried to capture her big, gummy grin, but had to settle for an assortment of grunts and giggles instead. She is 3 months old and more fun every day!

Grandpa and Mimi!

We had a great weekend with Grandpa and Mimi! I'm very appreciative that they let us stick with our normal weekend routine, which is a lot of couch time, football, and relaxing. We did manage to get out for dinner on Saturday night, and church on Sunday morning, and my baby was an absolute ANGEL both times. I was so happy! She absolutely loved Mimi's funny faces and Grandpa's famous "Donald Duck" voice. I feel really lucky that Maddie has wonderful grandparents on all sides of the family to love her. Plus, not everyone has such awesome in-laws, so I am doubly blessed! On a side note, I have started a Picasa account to keep all my baby pictures on a web album. So if anyone is interested in ordering prints, they just need to go to:

http://picasaweb.google.com/segreiner

If you select one of the Galleries, you will be able to view pictures, download them to your computer, or order prints from Shutterfly or Walgreen's. I think this is a great way to share pictures, in addition to backing them up in yet one more place! It's alot faster and easier than emailing out pics, and it won't crash your inbox. (Picasa is not paying me, I just like it THAT MUCH!).

Here are some pictures from the weekend!

Better Late than Never...

I hope you enjoy the video above! I wanted to put it at the top in case you looked at my Blog and thought "Holy Crap, that's alot of reading...never mind!" Like so many other things, I have been neglecting the dear old blog (just put it on the list with my hair, shaving, sleep, and several other things that I can't seem to get around to during the day). BUT...my precious baby girl is asleep for a minute so I thought I would try to put a few thoughts down while I can.

**FIRST AND FOREMOST** I know most of my family already knows this, but if I haven't talked to you, you may remember me talking about my friend Erica that I use to work with at Initech, oh wait, I mean Staff Care. Erica and Jake are responsible for the amazing maternity shots of Maddie, and they are just all around great people. I would just like to request lots of prayers and good thoughts to their family as they are going through a difficult time with their pregnancy (Erica is pregnant with triplets and is very high-risk). Erica has been admitted to the hospital and will be there until her babies reach viability...I'm sure they wouldn't mind me sharing since they believe in the power of prayer and want as much as they can get. You can read Erica's blog (I have a link to it) for the full scoop, but suffice it to say they need prayers for themselves, their family, and most of all their little angel babies. I am crying as I type this so I will move on, but please pray because this family deserves all the happiness in the world and God works miracles every day...let them be a miracle!

As for an update on my little family, Maddie is growing so much and is starting to develop her personality. Unfortunately, it seems to be more like mine :( She is very happy...unless she is hungry, tired, bored, lonely, dirty or just generally moody and then she is fussy. Luckily she is pretty easy to calm now that we know she doesn't cry unless the problem can be fixed. We just down the list of things that could be wrong until we find it. She loves to be wrapped in her favorite blanket, taking a warm bath with Mommy or Daddy, or just being snuggled and talked to. My good sleeper has disappeared....for the last several days she wants to eat every 2 hours day and night. Andy has really stepped up to help so I can get a little sleep. I by no means expect her to sleep through the night for several more weeks...but I'm still hoping this phase passes soon!

Grandpa G and MiMi will be here next weekend and we are all so excited...I am especially excited about the night out MiMi offered. Anyone who doesn't think I am jumping on free babysitting doesn't know me very well!

I am going to try and make a better effort to update this, since Maddie is changing every day...and I guess Andy and are too! We are just doing our best to be good parents and stay sane, and as usual we hit a few snags here and there! :) Here are some new pictures..

Maddie and Crazy Auntie LaLa...














B-I-G stretch on the above mentioned favorite blanket!




















On a Playdate with Jordana...
she is having fun, I swear!















How cute is this outfit?!?!




















Pretty Baby....




















Whooo Hooo for baths!




















Catching some ZZZZs....



















Right before she peed on the towel, blanket, and her PJs.

First Photo Shoot...

Most of you know I HATE having my picture taken (maybe some repressed post-traumatic stress from having to do "sorority pose" eleventy billion times in college) but we just had the most amazing photo session ever with Maddie! First of all, big ups to Jake and Erica at Erica Joyce Photography for working so hard and with such difficult subjects. You can link to their website and blog under "Links" on the left. I wanted all you guys to be able to see how amazing the shots were, so here is a link to the slideshow...

www.ericajoyce.com/cust/greinerbaby

I am probably going to buy a CD that has all the pictures and the rights to reprint them, so if anyone would like a picture, just let me know and I will either email it you, or mail you a copy after I get the CD!

Also, just for giggles...during Day 1 of the two day shoot, Andy had to change his shirt FIVE TIMES in one day, due to the baby pooping, peeing, pooping again, and throwing up all over him. It was hilarious. He says he's going to dress as a toilet for Halloween now. He just hasn't learned that essential rule of parenthood: Handle a naked baby more carefully than a loaded gun!

On our own....

Oh No! GiGi (or G-Ma, depending on the situation) had to go home on Saturday! So the Greiners of Texas are going it alone. So far, so good. The biggest snag over the last week has been my bout with Mastitis. What is mastitis, you might ask? Well, the Mayo Clinic defines it as:

"...an infection of the breast tissue that causes pain, swelling and redness of the breast. Mastitis most commonly affects women who are breast-feeding, although in rare circumstances this condition can occur outside of lactation.
Often, mastitis occurs within the first six weeks after birth (postpartum), but it can happen later during breast-feeding. The condition can leave you feeling exhausted and rundown, making it difficult to care for your baby."

I define it as the sickest I have ever felt in my life, complete with a 103.5 degree fever, a swollen, red, agonizingly painful, knotted up boob, cold sweats, chills, and shakiness so bad I couldn't hold a glass, let alone a newborn. "Exhausted and run down?" That was obviously written by a man. I literally felt like I was going to die for about 36 straight hours. Thank God Andy is the best Daddy ever and was able to take care of Maddie.

Needless to say, my sickness made it hard on everyone when Mom had to leave, but I am feeling better and strapped to the hospital grade breast pump like a Mayfield cow. No wonder people give up on breastfeeding!

Because I was so sick, Labor Day weekend was sort of a bust, but two fun things did happen. First, Maddie got to meet her Auntie Audra and her friend Neely! Just because Neely is still in utero doesn't mean they shouldn't be properly introduced.




Second, she watched the Tennessee game with her Daddy, and he was so happy to be holding her he didn't even throw too big of a fit when the Vols blew it AGAIN.

There's always next week!

2 weeks!

Maddie is two weeks old today! The last several days have been really interesting, to say the least. We had a small feeding issue a few days after getting home from the hospital, which led to a touch of jaundice and two very stressed out parents. Once we got her eating again, she got much better! No more "Lemon Baby!" I would like to say "thanks" to Aunt Liz for being such a good sport the weekend she was here...she saw alot more of me crying and in varying stages of undress than anyone should. All the stress was worth it though, now that we have a healthy, hungry baby again!

We also had a Welcome Home cookout at Scott and Sarah's, which was so much fun! Maddie got to meet lots of people who have been waiting for her, and her future prom date Nathan.

This past week has been much more relaxing, now that we can finally calm down and just enjoy her. She has been cracking everyone up with her gassy "smiles" (Andy and I both agree, a smile is a smile, no matter the cause), and various diaper fiascos. She is eating great, and only getting up once a night (we usually have to wake her up for that one), and happy in the mornings. So far, so good!

PeePaw's visit was way too short, but we all enjoyed our time together and Maddie is pining for his snuggles. Here are some pictures from the last week...