GERD

What is GERD??? Gastroesophageal reflux disease. It is also what Olivia has. Grace had a mild case when she was an infant but Olivia is out doing her.
Olivia was put on 7mg a day of Prevacid two weeks ago. But since last Tuesday night her symptoms have become worse...congested, spits up (a lot), cranky, lack of sleep, etc. I took her back to the doctor today because the congestion was causing wheezing and gasping. Dr. H said her chest, lungs, and ears all look good. Olivia is just going to have a more severe case of reflux. Since I am breastfeeding only she has asked for me to go dairy free for three days to make sure she doesn't have a milk allergy. If she is the same then we will up her medication to 7mg in the morning and the same at night. She also does better elevated so that the acid is fighting gravity, so it looks like the swing might just be her new night time bed.
On a side note...with clothes on, Olivia weighed in at 11lb 6oz this morning. You should see her little thunder thighs!


I didn't have any recent pictures of Olivia so I thought I'd add the picture of the picture. We just got our professional pictures back from Sharma on Sunday. They turned out awesome. I love this one of the 8x10 of Olivia in Chad's arms. I love the fact she is naked and absolutely love the fact you can see Chad's wedding ring. The picture also consist of family and friends comments to our sweet girl!
I also added a video of Olivia in the morning. She is so happy and loves cooing. Her messy mouth is due to the medication I give her.

Whisper Mountain

The last four days have been spent in Robbinsville, NC with some amazing youth from our church. We went to Whisper Mountain Camp on a mission trip to get them ready for the summer. They were so nice to accommodate the Maddox family in our own cabin. The girls were the best.

Our CREW (28 youth, 11 adults, 2 babies, 1 puppy)

Two projects were worked on...cleaning a backpacking trail and enclosing there dinner house. There was a lot of playing around too.
The famous shaving cream fight.
Grace didn't miss a beat. She was a part of everything the big kids did.

Grace LOVED being in the mountains and all the land. She ran around everywhere. Every day I would have to load her up with sunscreen and a hat.

One of our friends had their lab puppy. Chance and Grace bonded instantly.

We were blessed to be able to use a mule and golf cart to get around. Since I am still not back to 100% it was truly a gift to be able to use. Grace love going for a "ride".

One thing I was nervous about was us all sleeping in one room. But Grace is my sleeper and anytime we put her to bed she fell right to sleep, even with all the noise of Chad and I and the baby crying. In fact the last night she fell asleep on Chad's lap during the camp fire.

Grace fell in love with our youth director, Heather.

Olivia was also just awesome. She has learned to live our life real fast.

This is where Olivia spent must of the weekend. But she loved her carrier and I think will truly miss it when we get back to normal at home.

Chad also wore her. AND YES, in this picture he is using her head as a table to eat his dinner.

Our friends let us borrow this Graco swing this weekend that your carseat just snaps right into. IT WAS AWESOME! Olivia took naps in it and even slept a few hours at night in it! Olivia slept so much during the day we thought nights would be rough, but she was great only waking up once and one night she even slept till 6am.
Chad, Olivia and Joe.
Me, Grace, Christa and Olivia. Grace also made a great relationship with Christa this weekend.

The kids were able to do a ropes course one afternoon. Chad also enjoyed doing everything!

"Big Booty"

On Sunday night at youth group the kids were playing a game where they all stood in a circle and started a chant..."OOOOOOOOHHHHH Big booty, big booty, big booty...." then they go around the circle and the first person says number one number two, the second person says number two number three, so on.... As soon as they mess up they are out. Okay, kind of confusing but I had to set this up. Grace and now Olivia go to youth group with Chad and I on Sunday nights. Grace loves the big kids and watches everything they do. So of course this week she been singing "big booty" over and over again. So tonight I figured I'd use this as an opportunity to count to five. So change around the song a little and we sing "big booty, one, two, three, four, five". As soon as I'm done counting Grace continues to count..six, seven. Holy cow! I thought I'd work on it and she is showing me she can already do it. She can count to ten with just two prompts to get through number three and eight! Of course I make her do it over and over again. We call daddy, who is on a business trip, and count for him over the phone. Then I decide I am going to record it. By this point she is over it. But after several takes and telling her I'd give her candy she did it for the camera! So please enjoy my little girl growing up and counting to ten. Notice as the camera is cutting off she is yelling candy!

Lunch Time

Everybody keeps asking me how we are getting along after my surgeries and now a mom of two. So I thought I would sum it up by posting a few hours of our day today and let it speak for itself.

7:00 am - Olivia awakes in a good mood smiling and cooing

7:30 am - Olivia wants to eat

7:45 am - Grace awakes and wants her glass of milk (luckily I already had it made and sitting by the bedside)

8:00 am - Chad kisses us all good bye and heads to work

8:15 am - Grace and I have breakfast while Olivia takes a nap

8:30 am - Grace and I take a shower together (this is the first time I have bathed Grace since I had Olivia. I figured that leaning over the bathtub would be a little hard so a shower together sounds like a good idea.)

8:45 - 10:45 - All three of us get dressed, Grace plays with toys, Olivia sleeps off and on and wants to be held a lot, Grace watches TV, I try to get a few things done around the house...clothes, dishes, etc.

11:00am - Olivia is ready to eat RIGHT NOW! And Grace does not want to get off my lap. So I begin to make Grace lunch.

11:15 am - Grace is eating an early lunch while I am in the den tending to Olivia

11:45 am - In the last thirty minutes I have checked on Grace several times but as I am sitting in the den feeding Olivia I hear Grace's plate fall to the floor. Since we have been having issues with her throwing her plates, cups, utensils on the floor when she is finished. I with a very stern voice say, "Grace Elizabeth", as a march into the kitchen. And this is now where it becomes hard to be a parent...I have full intentions on getting on to her about this behavior. BUT as soon as I see her I can't help but laugh...What was she doing with her lunch!!! In this picture you can kind of see the mess on the floor.

11:50-12:30- Clean up the kitchen. Try to clean Grace up but realize it is going to be impossible with chocolate pudding in her hair, on her face, on her toes...so I give her a bath. Yes, it is her second time getting bathed in less then four hours. All this time Grace is still having a blast as Olivia is screaming in her swing.

12:45 - NAP time. Thank goodness for my girls taking good naps. (I had just laid Grace down and she is faking she is sleeping...too cute.)

One Month Old

If you are a Maddox... you have to be a soccer fan!

Here is a picture of Gracie I have to throw in, at work with daddy.

Four Weeks Old

Olivia is four weeks old today! She loves to eat. She continues to think she needs to eat every two hours but just in the last day or two I have been able to hold her off for 2 1/2 to three hours during the day. We are also working on a routine during the day. I don't want her to learn to be rocked to sleep or to fall asleep while eating. So we eat, have activity time for forty five minutes to an hour then nap. I continue to be able to swaddle and lay down for naps. She is beginning to like her paci more, so many times I have to continue to go in and place it in her mouth.

When she is awake she is VERY alert. She does not like her swing or little seat but likes to lay on her back on the baby mat.

She went into to the doctor today for her one month check up. She weighed in at 10lb 2.5oz and was 22 1/2 in long. That puts her in the 80th percentile for weight and 85th for height. I can't remember the measurement for her head but it was in the 25th percentile. She was diagnosed with reflux. The way I knew is because one- Grace had it and I knew what to look for, two - she wants to always sit straight up, three - she is a big spit up baby, four - she becomes very fussy during the day when in pain. The doctor gave us some medicine ($50 a month but we are bitter about it) and told me that if I pump some milk and feed a bottle I can put some cereal in it to help with the acid and spit up.

She it starting to give us more smiles but hands down, Gracie gets the most smiles from her. Grace is the best big sister. I have not had to get on to her about being rough or to loud. I am not nervous at all with her being around the baby. To bad she is not years ahead, she will make a great babysitter.

Extra pictures

I have posted some pictures my sister took this weekend because the are just too cute.

He has risen...

HE HAS RISEN INDEED!

Happy Easter! We had a good day at church and with my family. The girls were precious in their dresses. We took lots of pictures.

These two are so cute with each other.

I don't think she was too thrilled getting dressed this morning.

The Easter bunny came and visited the girls last night.