Updated pictures

Time is flying by... Madi is 5 1/2 months old already. We are enjoying her sooo much. She is babbling, laughing, rolling over, and sitting up in the tripod position (with her arms supporting her). 

Madi has been enjoying a variety of vegetables such as sweet potatoes, sweet peas, green beans, carrots, yellow squash, butternut squash, and even some avocados. She has liked everything that we have given her except for the butternut squash. It did have a little bit of cinnamon mixed with it so I am not sure if it was the cinnamon or the butternut squash that she didn't enjoy. 

Here is her 24 week picture with her bunny. 

Long overdue...

I am long overdue for a new post. Here are some new pics... Madi is growing too fast and is such a sweet little girl. She loves to smile and is beginning to laugh as you will see in the video. She is kicking and swatting at toys and absolutely loves watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. As of her 3 month measurements, she weighs 13 pounds and is 24 1/4 inches long. She has grown almost 5 inches since her birth and almost doubled her weight. She is sleeping through the night consistently, even with all of the traveling! She loves being outside, riding on the boat, and chilling on the beach or in the pool just like her mom and dad!!!

I took this picture to put in a frame for daddy for father's day.

Aunt Pattie took this picture... Cousin Love!

Madi's 2 month pictures from Aunt Pattie

First vacation to Hilton Head Island where Madi got to put her toes in the sand!

Daddy and Madi!!

Madi's 1st pool adventure. She absolutely loved it and is a true water baby!

2nd Pool trip with Gram, Aunt Beth, and cousin Wes

Madi's 14 week picture next to her bunny. She is growing up too fast!

Madi's 1st trip on Lake Lanier. She was a champ with her life jacket and slept the whole time.

Madi is all smiles these days. She is starting to laugh a little. I can't wait for the belly laughs!

Welcome Madison Mae

Madi was born on Good Friday, March 29, 2013 at 1:12pm weighing 7 pounds, 6 ounces and was 19.5 inches long. We are so thrilled to have our sweet baby girl with us! She has been such a joy already and it has only been a week... a week that has flown by. 

We had so many visitors at the hospital to see our Sweet Madi. Mimi, Papa, Gram, Aunt Beth, cousin Wes, Aunt Sabrina, Aunt Sheryl, Uncle Gary, Aunt Mandy, cousin Macy, and cousin Makayla along with lots of friends. Thank you all so much! I somehow missed pictures of Aunt Sabrina and Aunt Sheryl but I am sure there are some around. I will find those and post them!

After a long three days at the hospital, we were able to come home on Easter Sunday. It was a wonderful day to come home! I know this may be crazy but I can't help but remember my grandmother Dorothy Mae Smith... timing couldn't have been more perfect. Madi's middle name is Mae after my late grandmother... one of her favorite holidays was Easter. Madi was born on Good Friday and got to come home on Easter... can't help but think that Grandma was looking down on us from Heaven! 

Mimi and Aunt Cici worked hard at our house to have it clean, food prepared for the week, and adding the finishing touches on the nursery before we got home. They decorated with sweet little candies and balloons to welcome us home. Our neighborhood also welcomed us home with putting us on the Marquee at the beginning of the neighborhood as well as other signs throughout. We have the best neighbors!!!

 We were so lucky to have Mimi stay for few days after we got home to help. While Mimi was here, we gave Madi her first bath at home. 

It's so hard to believe that it has been a week already. 

Happy 1 week birthday sweet girl! Mommy and Daddy love you!

Baby Madi is making her debut a little early...

My pregnancy has been so wonderful and easy. I am truly blessed to be able to say that. Madi has been measuring on track throughout the pregnancy and there had been no complications until week 34. I went in for my check up and they said that I was measuring a little over a week behind where I should be so they wanted to do an ultrasound to check my fluid levels, Madi's size, etc just to be certain that she was doing ok. My fluid was a little low. It was a 10 that day which is still within the normal range but at the very bottom of it. The doctor told me to drink plenty of water and lay on my left side as often as I could to help with the fluid levels. I did that for the next two weeks and at my next appointment, she was measuring two weeks smaller than she should have been. They said it was fine but didn't check my fluid levels. I began my every week visits the following week and she was still measuring two weeks small so I asked if we needed to check my fluids again just to be sure and the nurse practitioner wanted to go ahead and check. At this point, the levels dropped to 7.4. This was last Thursday so they told me to go home over the weekend and hydrate then come back Monday morning to check again. On Monday, my levels were still 7.4. I met with my doctor and he said that if the level dropped below a 7 at this point, he would look at inducing. He told me that I would have to come in every Monday and Thursday until I deliver to be checked so that they could monitor the fluids closely. Well, here it is Thursday. I went to my appointment this morning to be checked and my levels had dropped again to a 4.6. They told me that it was too low to let me go home so I had to be put in a wheel chair and wheeled to the labor and delivery area of the hospital where I am now preparing for the arrival of our sweet baby girl a little bit early. 

I will be given medication this afternoon to help begin to dilate my cervix and then another medication tomorrow morning at 4:00am to begin contractions. Our little Madison Mae should be here by tomorrow and we couldn't be happier! I will post pictures as soon as I can. 

Where does the time go...

I know that I am way overdue on posting. So much has happened that I need to post about so I will begin with my the oldest events and bring you up to speed on the current events. 

First,  the last weekend of February, our wonderful friends and neighbors, Robert & Kathyrn Belville threw us a neighborhood shower where we had a great turn out of wonderful friends and neighbors to celebrate the upcoming birth of our baby girl. We were overwhelmed by the outpouring of gifts and support from our wonderful neighbors. We are so lucky to live in a neighborhood where we are truly one big family! 

My work family also threw a baby shower for Baby Madi in early March. It was a Thursday afternoon after work and was so wonderful to have the support from the people that you work with daily. I am blessed to work in a position that I love with people that I love.

That Saturday, my wonderful friends, Cici, Brittney, and Rhonda threw us yet another beautiful shower. We didn't need much by this point, however anything that was missing was found at that shower. I don't have a lot of pictures from that shower yet but will post them once I do get them. I have one of the hostesses and myself. What a wonderful group of friends!

This is a picture of our "swing"... its called the Mama Roo and it looks so neat. I can't wait to put Baby Madi in it. I just know she will love it! Thanks Patti for this wonderful gift!

My mom, my sister Sheryl, and my niece Peyton came in town for the shower on Friday and helped me get the nursery organized, and get all of Madi's clothes washed, folded and put away. I couldn't have done it without them! They were such a big help! 

After the shower Satrday afternoon, we went back to my house to finish the nursery. Cici was my designer... I do not have an eye for decorating so my best friend Cici took charge! I told her what I wanted as far as colors and things like that and let her go. I am so happy that I did because it turned out beautifully! Her mother, Toni, made the window treatments, the pillow for the glider, a runner for the dresser, and a french picture board. They both are extremely talented in decorating and Toni is especially talented in sewing! I am so lucky that they were wiling to help! There are still a few things that are not hung yet but that will be taken care of this weekend!! My dad, Jim, made a beautiful shadow box to hang on Madi's wall that will hold her dress, bonnet, and booties that she will be wearing home from the hospital. I absolutely love the nursery and know that Madi will love it too!

The lighting in the pictures isn't great so some look like the nursery is much pinker than it is. The walls are a very pale pink with some darker pink accents from the window treatments, lamp shade, etc. Cici had a beautiful sign made that will go over her crib that should be here this weekend. It is painted to look like barn wood with the peeling off paint look and then her monogram is on that. It is beautiful and really gives the nursery a vintage feel among its modern look. I absolutely love it and can't thank Cici and Toni enough.

Baby Shower in Atlanta

My sisters, Sabrina & Sheryl, and my best friend from middle school, Bailey threw our first baby shower in Atlanta. It was a beautiful shower with lots of little extras from the personalized decorations to the delicious cake made by my sis, Sheryl. 

                                      

The cake is a cake that I have always wanted at my baby shower so Sheryl has waited to make this cake for my baby shower. I love the silhouette of the pregnant belly... she did such a great job!

It was so wonderful seeing everyone and sharing this special time with everyone. It was great to be able to spend some time with Bailey... as a child, you talk with your friends about being pregnant at the same time and the plans you have for your future but you rarely get to see them happen... it really happened for us. I can't wait to meet Baby Rourk #2 and make memories with our children. 

My mom and sisters made this beautiful diaper cake with lots of necessities. What a cute centerpiece! 

I cannot believe the how many gifts we were given. Everyone was so generous. I was especially excited about the strollers and carseat that we were given. The turquoise stroller is a jogging stroller that will work great at the beach with its big tires! We were also given the stroller that is a frame for the carseat so while Madi is small, she can be wheeled around in her carseat on top of the frame. When we go for walks, we will use the jogging stroller. 

We received so many cute outfits and other necessities. My car was so full driving back to Savannah that I even had the passenger seat and floorboard full of stuff. It took some magic but we made it all fit... thanks to Mom, Dad (Jim), Aunt Linda, and Aunt Sally. 

We are truly blessed to have such wonderful family and friends! Thank you all so much for everything!

We are having a GIRL!!!!

We found out last Thursday, October 25th that we are expecting a little girl and we couldn't be more excited. We had out gender check ultrasound at 16 weeks where we got to see our little girl once again. At first she didn't want to cooperate. She was laying face down and very low. The ultrasound tech tapped my belly a few times and that must have waken her up because she was extremely active after that. She barely held still long enough to get a good look however, after about 10 minutes of looking and lots of fun pictures, we were able to get a good shot to determine that she is indeed a girl. She waved "Hi" and showed off her beautiful spine. She is much larger than the last ultrasounds that we had done. It is amazing how fast she is growing and how the time is flying by. She will be here before we know it.

Once the ultrasound was complete, we went to wait to talk with the doctor for my 16 week checkup. He said that everything looked great and then he listened to her heart. It was hard to hear the heartbeat because she was moving around so much. The doctor warned us that we may have our hands full with an active little girl. Whit and I just looked at each other and laughed... active dog, active daughter!! I guess we wouldn't know what to do with less!

After leaving the doctor's office, we had to notify everyone of what we were having. I wanted a fun way to tell people but it had to be fast and something that would work in a picture. So I ordered cookies from a store in Savannah called Two Smart Cookies. They have the best tasting and best looking cookies in the area. I ordered six cookies, three pink for a girl and three blue for a boy. I figured that I could take a picture of those and send that out to reveal the gender. Below is the picture that we sent.

She already has Whit wrapped around her little finger! I told him that we needed to go buy her a little outfit since we finally knew what we were having. He agreed and told me exactly what he wanted to get her so we went to TJ Maxx to see if we could find a pink Polo dress just as Whit said he wanted. Low and behold they had one. It happened to be 12 months but it was on sale so we decided to purchase it.

We also discussed names. We had one picked out already but we needed to verify that we were going to use it once we knew what we were having. So we decided on Madison Mae, but we will call her Madi. We have both always liked the name Madison and Mae is my late grandmother's middle name as well as Whit's late great-grandmother's name. So it worked perfectly that to keep the family name as her middle name.

Now all we need to do is find some bedding so that we can begin setting up the nursery!!!