Ruffkess Family Welcomes 2016!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

    

  Well it's 2016!  Maddie spent the evening with Grandma & Grandpa, while her Mommy and Daddy enjoyed some kid free adult time with their close friends Jacob, Kara, Cat, and Matt. 

This year is already off to wonderful start. Near the end of 2015 Ross, Maddie, and I joined a Chavarah at Kol Ami. Jennifer & Jon Zimmer have a daughter, Alyssa. Lauren Dunayer has a daughter, Brennan. Katie and Marc Weiss have a son, Reuben. It's been so much fun. We met up at Kol Ami for the Hanukkah party. We all had a good time and the kids seemed to have a BLAST!

In January, Jennifer & Jon hosted the first play date with our Chavarah crew. And it was so fun. We had a pot luck play date. The adults had good conversation and the kids got to run around and play. When it was time for lunch, we had a living room picnic! It was such a great way to have some fun AND without spending a ton of money! Nothing like good company to make for a good day!

Maddie got to meet a new family this month! My cousin, Mandi, came back to Tampa for training. Which means family visit! Mandi may have used a singing/dancing Minnie Mouse doll to sway her but Maddie fell in love with my cousin! They both made a new friend and now we look forward to visits even more!

2016 is off to a busy start. Our calendar is staying pretty full. We've got more play dates planned and family friendly events at Kol Ami to attend.  I think we all look forward to see what this new year has in store. 

HAPPY 2016!

Well, it's March of 2015. That means that my Madelyn Faye is 8 months old! I cannot believe it! Where did the time go!?

As we have witnessed, I am not the best at keeping up with this family blog. I do however, have TONS of pictures to keep those memories fresh. 

Over the last few months, there have been many changes. I no longer work at Brandon Regional Hospital. I currently work at USF Morsani Center (in the surgery department). I've been there since September. Ross still works with his dad. Enough about us, lets talk about Maddie. 

Maddie attends infant care at Carrollwood Day School. She's been attending infant care there since I went back to work in August. And she LOVES it. 

And everyone seems to love her as well. She does great with the staff and seems to enjoy observing the other kids. The kids seem to like her too! Everyday (if everyone is awake) they say "bye bye!" It's really cute! And I think Maddie's favorite part of the day is being able to have lunch with Grandma!




Maddie has hit many mile stones! This baby smiles and laughs often. It warms my heart that she is such a happy baby! 



At 8 months, she is also playing so much more! Right now, things with rattles seem to be her favorite, as well as things that make good chew toys. She started teething early. By 6 months she had her bottom front teeth. Now she has the 2 bottom, 1 on top as poked through, and it looks like 3 more will be making an appearance soon!


To accompany those teeth, she's also started eating. We started her on rice cereal when she was 4 months old. Her first "solid" food was avocado and she LOVED it. Then we started giving her jarred baby food. She currently eats 2 jars a day in addition to her bottles. She really enjoys food! Lucky for us, she doesn't appear to be super picky (at least not yet).

--Maddie's first time eating--

We celebrated her 1st Hanukkah as well! It was so much fun! She didn't care about the presents she received but she sure did like the paper it was all wrapped in!

 

This cute happy baby also sits up on her own! Maddie does extremely well at sitting up on her own, however, she is working on pulling herself to the up right position. She tries! 

Ross and I haven't been able to decide if we like or hate that Maddie isn't interested in crawling. We do tummy time with her and she'll be okay on her stomach for a short time. She attempts to crawl, then decides she doesn't want to be on her belly and gets upset. Even though she doesn't like to be on her stomach, she takes great pleasure in standing. She will walk small steps if she can hold onto someone's hands and can stand if she is holding onto something. She is still working on pulling herself up to a standing position. Baby steps. 

Madelyn Faye Ruffkess

8 Months Old

Approximately 17 pounds & 24 inches long

Wears 6-12 month clothes

Eats 2 Jars of Baby Food

Tries to Walk

Very Happy & Very Loved

1 Month!

Wow! Boy does time fly! We celebrated Maddie's 1 month birthday on August 3rd! I can't believe it!! My first reaction was "YES! WE SURVIVED THE FIRST MONTH!"But when I think on it, it went by so quickly. Each day seemed long yet the time flew by. It's has already been a month. 

Maddie weighs 7 pounds 14 ounces and is 22 1/4 inches long. She is still super cute but she is getting so big! She's still wearing newborn clothes but just barely. I am still breastfeeding her most of the time. She only gets formula at night (give this mama a small break). During the day, Maddie eats every 2 to 3 hours and at night she'll usually go 4 hours in between meals. I know it's a while before she sleeps through the night, but if we can keep this pattern up I'd be happy. 

This week has also been a busy week. Not only did we celebrate Maddie's 1 month birthday, we got to go on our first family vacation! Ross, Maddie, and I joined Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Brad for a week at Redington Beach, FL. 

We went to our first restaurant as a family: Dockside Dave's. Maddie did very well (she slept through most of it). She woke up at the end as we were leaving.

Maddie also got to try plain yogurt for the first time! Her pediatrician said to give her an oz a day to help her with gas. And surprisingly she enjoyed it! She made a couple funny faces at first, but she seemed to like what we gave her. 

This whole week was a fun filled vacation full of firsts! Can't wait to see what else is next!

3 Weeks Old!

We did it! Madelyn is a whopping 3 weeks old today! I can't believe how quickly the time went by! It's been a wild adventure that's for sure! Every day is different and I think every day we learn something new. We've learned she likes to be clean but doesn't necessarily enjoy the process. She doesn't enjoy her baths and always cries when we change her clothes but always seems content once the task is finished. 

Even though it's been a short time, I can honestly say we love this little girl so much. She has turned our world upside down! And as exhausting as it is, I couldn't be happier. 

Welcome Madelyn Faye Ruffkess

July 2, 2014 Ross and I arrived at Medical Center of Trinity at 5 A.M. to start the real journey to meet our daughter. Within a couple hours we were set up in a room and I was given the medicine to induce labor. Throughout the day my mom, my sister, my mother in law, and Ross spent time in my room keeping me company and trying to keep me distracted. Around noon, my doctor, Dr. Faith Carlin, came in to check on me and break my water since it hadn't broken on its own. Once she did that, that helped get the ball rolling! My plan was to have as much of a natural birth as I could (aside from the labor inducing medicine). Once I was 3 cm dilated,which felt like FOREVER, I decided to receive a pain medication to take the edge off the pain from the contractions. Unfortunately, it didn't help much and nor did it last long. What felt like hours later, I gave in and requested the epidural. Once the epidural was given things really sped up! Within an hour I went from 4 cm to almost 7!  Around 11:00 P.M. I was 10 cm dilated and about ready to go! At 11:30 the doctor and hospital staff were setting up equipment and getting me ready to push. By 11:40 P.M. it was time to push!

Then FINALLY on July 3, 2014 at 12:13 am Ross and I welcomed a beautiful baby girl into our family. Madelyn Faye Ruffkess was born weighing 7 pounds 11 ounces, measuring 20 1/2 inches long. She is absolutely beautiful! Labor was an exhausting experience for both me and Ross but it was worth it. We now have a precious baby girl. Our family of two has become a family of three!