Three is a Magic Number...

Three months old that is!  Macy is already a quarter of a year old and the time seems to be going by faster and faster! 

Here is her 3 month picture with her bear:

 We went to my cousin Ron and his wife Erin's baby shower today, so we decided to do 3 month pictures while she was still in her cute party dress!

Thought this one was cute too!

I think this one is hilarious.  She is toppling over but if you look close you can see that she's cracking up laughing as she's going down.  It's a little blurry because I moved my camera to catch her as I took the picture!



Here are a couple of other cute pictures I've taken this week:

Not amused.

Finally got a shot of Macy staring at her mobile on her swing.  She just loves that thing. This week instead of just staring, she's started talking (LOUDLY!) to the animals on the mobile as well!



Summer Lovin'

Macy has been a busy baby over the past couple of weeks!!  She was in her first parade (Port Austin 4th of July parade with the Huron County MSU Alumni Club), saw her first fireworks, stayed for a week at her new cottage in Port Austin, and was baptized all in the past 2 weeks!  Here are some pictures from these monumental occasions:

I finally got to meet my big cousin Georgia, who will be one in August.  She's a lot bigger than me now, but I'll be catching up quick!!

Hanging out with Babcia, Dzia Dzia, and Georgia

Lovin' my MSU slippers!!

Ready to catch some rays!!

Trying on my new life jacket for my first boat ride!

On my first sunset cruise with mommy and daddy

Hanging with Dzia Dzia on my first ride on the Proud Mary (our pontoon boat)

Spartan Family before the Port Austin 4th of July parade

My 1st 4th of July (mom's favorite holiday)!!

Bathtime in the bathroom sink at the cottage!  (Yes, the hideous, clashing wallpaper is going eventually)

Wild Thing (after my bath)

Helping mom do laundry up at the cottage

Smiles in the red, white, and blue

This is what I really think of tummy time!

When we got home from up north, we tried out the bumbo seat for the first time.  I'm still a little too small for it, but I'll be rocking it soon!

My beautiful Christening gown that our neighbor Linda made for Macy!

Possibly the only baby ever to fuss a little BEFORE the water was poured over her head, only to get happy WHILE the water was being poured. 

Pretty Cake

Thanks a bundle for making my beautiful gown, Linda!

Mom, dad, and Macy

Macy with her Godparents, Aunt Marlena and Uncle Brian

 
One more milestone that Macy reached last week is she rolled over (back to tummy) for the first time!  I am still trying to catch it on video, and I'll post it when I do.  She's growing so fast and is so much fun!!

2 Months Old!

We can't believe Macy is already 2 months old!  She is getting more and more fun every day.  Lately Macy has been smiling and baby talking a lot.  She also has the pouty lower lip thing going when she's not happy.  It's so sad but so adorable too!  I think mom and dad are already suckers for her pouty face!
Here is Macy's 2 month picture:

I was looking back at her 1 month picture earlier and I can't believe how different she looks.  I can only imagine how different she'll be several more months down the road!  We are enjoying every moment!

I am teaching Advanced Placement Chemistry (basically freshman year college chemistry) next school year and I have to take a four day class to prepare for it in Lapeer next week.  The class runs from 7:30-4:30 each day so I have to leave Macy all day for the first time and I'm dreading it!  At least it's only 4 days and I'll have another 2.5 months before I have to go back to work full time.  I can't complain, I'm lucky!!

Smiles for Mommy

It has been a couple of weeks since the last blog post, and we've been pretty busy!  Macy has become extremely smiley in the last couple of weeks.  I find myself taking a million pictures of her trying to catch a smile...I got a pretty good one here



Over Memorial Day weekend we did our first big 4 day 3 night trip to the Thumb.  Macy slept really well in the crib at Dzia Dzia and Babcia's house.  We also got to spend some time with the Polegas and Macy met Aunt Megan for the first time.  It was a fun weekend.  Here are a few pictures:

Driving the tractor with Daddy!

Hanging out with Grandma!

Modeling one of my adorable dresses that it's finally warm enough to wear!

Almost another smile!

Isn't my headband cute?

Macy has been sleeping really well the past 2 weeks.  She has been logging 6-8 straight hours every night which is very appreciated by Mom and Dad!  We can't believe how fast she's growing.  She is really starting to develop a little personality and is such a joy!  She'll already be 2 months old next week!



What A Month!

Today is Macy's 1 month birthday!  We can't believe our baby girl is already a month old.  We also can't believe how much has happened and how our lives have changed in the past month!  Having a newborn can be challenging and exhausting as all new parents know, but she is such a joy that all the lost sleep is worth it! 

Macy is really changing lately.  Not only is she growing like a weed, but she has really started getting stronger and gaining more control of her body!  She can lift her head and hold it up pretty well on her own!  She also has started taking interest in toys and other things around her, and is much more engaged in her environment.  She LOVES watching the animals on the mobile on her swing go around and she LOVES music and singing!  She has also started smiling at us!

Here are a couple of pictures from her attempted 1 month photo shoot.  I decided to take her picture with her bear from Uncle Markie and Aunt Jen each month as a reference point to see her grow!:

The best one we managed to get

A much more accurate portrayal of how the "photo shoot" went

Seriously, mom, enough already!

Grandma & Grandpa Polega visited over the weekend and mom and dad got to go out to eat for the first time since bringing Macy home!   I thought this picture with Grandpa was cute.

We are excited for warmer weather and summer around the corner.  We can't believe how fast Macy is growing and look forward to more milestones this month!

Our First Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there!  Mother's Day has been sort of a sad holiday for me since I lost my own mother almost 11 years ago (it's hard to believe it's been that long), so this year it was really great to be able to feel happy on the holiday again.  Now that I'm a mommy to my precious little girl I can look forward to this holiday for many years to come!  We had a fun day.  We relaxed at home in the morning, went for ice cream at our favorite ice cream stand and had a nice dinner and visit over at Steve and Sarah's with some of the Polega family.  Macy even got me a gift of a cute family picture, wine, and chocolates (does she know her mommy or what??) 

We got some really nice pictures of Macy and I in our flower bed.  Our tulips and grape hyacinths came up really pretty this year, so we took advantage!  Macy was sort of sleeping through the photo shoot but we got some cute ones anyway!



One of the best ones



Even though we aren't looking I think this one is cute and funny



The sun came out for this one!



We tried the shadier back yard



She's not happy in this one, but I wanted a picture of her shirt.  I found this at Meijer and couldn't resist.  It says "Cute Baby + Cute Mommy = Lucky Dad."  T.J. rolled his eyes when I showed it to him!

Another cute one



And one of my favorite pictures of my own mom and I.



We hope everyone had a great mother's day! 

The Polega's Princess

I have been meaning to update the blog for several days now, but it is hard to get a spare second!!  Macy Suzanne Polega finally arrived on Sunday April 17, 2011 at 5:41 a.m.  She was 19.5 inches long and weighed in at 8 lbs. 9 oz.  Actually there is a bit of a conflict, her little bassinet card says 8 lbs. 11 oz. and we have a picture of her on the scale at 8 lbs. 9 oz. so I guess we'll go with that weight! 

I went in for a non-stress test at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday night and they decided to keep me because I was dilated to 3 and having contractions 5 minutes apart.  Good thing, because my water ended up breaking about 3 hours later!  Labor and delivery went pretty smoothly.  Honestly both T.J. and I thought it wasn't as bad as we expected. 

We did have a bit of a scare after Macy was born.  She was running a pretty high fever, so they were worried she had some sort of infection.  The fever came down fast but it took her a couple of days to keep food down.  We will probably never know what the infection was, but Macy had to stay in the Critical Care Nursery (NICU) for 7 days to get a full round of IV antibiotics.  This was not the situation we ever expected.  It was a little heartbreaking not getting to have her in our room at the hospital, having to come home without her, and spend a few days running back and forth from the hospital to see her.  It was also incredibly scary to have your newborn baby be sick.  It was the longest and most difficult week of our lives, but Macy came home on Saturday night the day before Easter Sunday so we got to have her home for Easter.  Seeing the other babies in the NICU really brought to light how lucky we really are to be able to take her home as soon as we did because some of those babies have months ahead of them before they go home.  The nurses and doctors at Huron Valley Sinai were so incredible to us, we couldn't have asked for better care for me or Macy.

We are happy to report that Macy is now a perfectly healthy, growing baby and she is the absolute love of our lives.  It was such a special moment in the delivery room finding out she was a girl, it really solidified our decision to not find out before then.  We are so happy to have our little princess and look forward to many years of fun and happy moments with her!

Some hospital pictures:

Coming home!!

Macy's first Easter:

Modeling another cute outfit at home:

Many more pictures to come in the future as Macy changes and grows!