Dear Maddie,
I really do love being your mama. It has been much sweeter than I imagined. I love your cuddles and big stretches when I pick you up out of the bassinet. Your smiles are the best and you are cooing and making funny gurgling noises, especially when you are on the changing table.
Nursing you has been so hard but also such a special bonding experience. You stopped taking a bottle for a couple weeks, then I got mastitis in one boob and had to start taking antibiotics for the infection. Nursing was very painful for a while but it’s back to being enjoyable now. You love it so much and often will just fall asleep in my lap or look up at me with a big smile when you’re done.
When you were a little baby you loved to sleep on my chest, with your cute little arms hugging under my boobs. I would put you on my chest every morning and we would sleep like that for a couple hours. But now you are already growing up and don’t like to sleep like that anymore. You fell asleep that way last week while I was sitting in the rocking chair and I stayed there and let you sleep like that for an hour. I wonder if that is the last time you will sleep like that? Already you like to be facing outwards more instead of laying on top of me.
You still are super cute when I put you down for naps. I swaddle you up in your favorite fleece blanket, give you a binkey, then hold you in my arms and rock you. Sometimes you will fall asleep in the rocking chair, then I put you in your bassinet. You’ve been a great sleeper and we are grateful. On Sunday night you slept for 10 hours straight after going to jam night at the DRB with Lindsey. Schmidty woke up and wondered if you were okay because we had slept through the night and it was already 4:30 am!
One more random memory. Right after you were born, you were a pro nurser. I tucked you in like a little football and remember your cute tiny fists balled up on both sides of your face as you nursed for the first couple times at the hospital. Your eyes were closed and your lips and tongue automatically knew how to suck. You were just the most perfect baby.
-Your mama