First baby food

Lexi turned 6 months old on Christmas Eve so we decided to give her her first baby food on Christmas day. I went with squash...it looked a little better than the green beans. We gave it to her around 10:45am and she just gobbled it up! She actually did better eating the squash than she does with rice cereal! She only ate about half of the container. We gave her more at night and she almost ate all of the container! She really seems to like it...although you wouldn't be able to tell that from the pictures :-) We gave her squash again today and we'll give her some tomorrow too. Then Monday I think we'll try either green beans or sweet potatoes. We'll probably wait until next week or the week after to give her any fruit. I'm sure she'll just love that though!

Merry Christmas!

We had such a great first Christmas together! Lexi has been a trooper for all the family gatherings. She loved seeing Santa at my family Christmas gathering. She got so many great presents and she loves all of them! One of my favorite things is the "Elf on the Shelf" that Brian's Grandma got for her. I hadn't heard of it before (to my surprise Brian had!), but it's such a great idea. Basically it's a little Elf that you take out around Christmas time and you tell your little one that he was sent by Santa to watch over her and report back to Santa whether she's been naughty or nice. It's a great way to get them to behave..at least during the Christmas season! She also got several fun toys that keep her entertained for hours! I doubt that Lexi will remember this Christmas, but I know that Brian and I definitely will!

5 1/2 Months

I haven't been the best about providing updates lately and now over a month has gone by! Each week seems to bring something new and it's hard to keep track! The two biggest adventures in the last month are Lexi's first taste of "solids" (i.e. rice cereal) and sitting up on her own.

We started her on rice cereal right at 4 months. She didn't really seem to care for it the first time so we gave her a week and tried again. This time she seemed to like it and we've been giving it to her ever since. She now gets rice cereal once in the morning at daycare and once in the evening. Sometimes she doesn't seem to want it at night though...she must be too full! We're planning to give her her first vegetable baby food on Christmas Eve because she'll be 6 months old then. Here's a video of her first taste of rice cereal.


Last weekend I tried having her sit up on her own and to my surprise she was able to do it. She's a bit wobbly as you can see from the video but she's been doing great!

I've noticed that Lexi is SO small compared to other babies! I am just now retiring some of her 0-3 month clothes, many of which she can actually still fit into and she's almost 6 months old! She fits into some of the 3-6 month clothing, but most of it is still too big on her. And the 6mo clothes...forget it, she's swimming in them! The good thing is that she's able to wear her clothes for longer. I think she'll probably be pretty petite unless she has a big growth spurt. All of her weight must be going straight to her cheeks!

I'm getting so excited for Christmas this year. I didn't go too crazy on gifts for Lex, but we did get her a few neat toys. I can't wait for her to open them, although she'll probably end up being more interested in the wrapping paper! She seems to love Christmas music and all the lights. I sing Jingle Bells to her and she just laughs and laughs! It's so funny!

I just had to post a couple of fun pics we took this weekend. Saturday morning was the first time we've ever really snuggled with Lex in our bed. Most mornings we are pretty strict about sticking to the routine of getting her up and fed by 7:00 or 7:30. But, since she's been sick she's been waking up a little earlier because of the cough. So Saturday I knew she was still tired so I brought her into our bed to see if she'd fall asleep. She slept for a little bit and it was so fun just watching her. Then she woke up but we still got to cuddle. Oscar was not very happy I'm sure since our bed is his bed too! But he seemed okay with sharing for a little bit :-)
Tonight Lexi starting sticking out her tongue at us. She thinks it's pretty funny, probably because we were laughing too! It's the cutest thing! I don't know where she learned it from but I love it!

She was in such a good mood all day today. Hopefully that means she's finally getting over this cold!

4 1/2 Months

Lexi is 4 1/2 months old! I meant to do another post after her 4 month well-baby with her stats but I got too busy (imagine that!). Here's her stats from birth to 4 months:

Birth: 6lbs 1oz, 19inches
1 weeks: 5lbs 8oz (no length because they measured her wrong!)
2 weeks: 7lbs 8oz (19.69 percentile), 20inches (30.52 percentile), 36cm (44.56 percentile)
2 month: 11lbs, 2oz, 22.5inches, 39cm (I can't find the sheet with the percentiles)
4 month: 13lb, 6oz (50.58 percentile), 24inches (47.33 percentile), 41cm (56.90 percentile)

She's right about average for all her measurements so that's good to hear! I can tell she's definitely getting heavier. The carseat is getting harder and harder to lug around. And when I hold her for an extended period of time by back is killing me!

She's going on her second cold already. This time it's combined with a cough though. I ended up taking her to the doc on Friday because she would get into these coughing fits where her face would turn bright red and she'd hold her breath for a few seconds. Plus she had a temp of 100.3. When we got to the doc her temp was up to 100.9, but the doc said it was just a regular old cold. Unfortunately there's not much you can do for babies when they have a cold because you can't give them medicine. We give her a bath and use the Johnson and Johnson's Vapor Bath, use a humidifier, propped her mattress up, and snuggle a lot :-) She's actually been in pretty good spirits considering. I'm just hoping this goes away soon!

A couple of weeks ago I had a major scare. I was at work and the daycare called and said she had a temperature of 106. I didn't really know at that point what was considered a serious temperature, but I figured 106 was pretty bad. I pretty much jumped out of my chair and headed over to the daycare. On my way out the door I called Brian freaking out because I didn't even know what I was supposed to do when I got her, like if I take her to the ER or what. Then I called the pediatrician and as I was on hold for a nurse it hit me....did they say 106 or 100.6. That's a pretty big difference. So when the nurse gets on I tell her the daycare had called and said she had a temperature and I'm pretty sure they said 106. The nurse said if it's 106 she needs to go straight to the ER, but if it's 100.6, she'll be okay. I was almost at the daycare so the nurse told me to call her back once I confirmed the temp. As I'm walking into the daycare I realized no one really seemed frantic and when the girl called me she seemed pretty calm too. Well when I got inside, the girl explained that she said one-hundred and six, which apparently means 100.6. Not sure how she would say 106 then, but I was definitely relieved to find out it wasn't 106! I ended up taking her home anyways to monitor her but she was fine. I'm assuming the temp was from getting her vaccinations the day before but who knows!

We started giving her rice cereal at night. The first time she really didn't like it but she's getting better and better each day. Once she's got the hang of it we'll start giving it to her once in the morning and once in the evening.

We just bought a new Christmas tree yesterday and I can't wait to put it up (less than 2 weeks!). This Christmas is going to be so fun this year with her! I told Brian I want to go all out for decorations!

4 Month Update

I can't believe Lex is already 4 months old! She is growing up so fast. She's started to grab toys, but only if they are laid in her lap. And of course, everything has to go straight into her mouth! She is such a happy girl, smiling all the time. She's especially happy in the morning. She has become more and more talkative everyday, especially when she's laying down. This morning we had the best alarm ever, waking up to the sound of her talking to herself in her crib. She did this for about 15 minutes! It was so fun to listen to her. We tried out the exersaucer today, but she's still a little small for it. Her feet don't even reach the bottom! But she seems to like all the different toys. I also bought a highchair that sits on the kitchen chair so she can sit and eat dinner with us. She hasn't started on rice cereal yet, but I'm going to ask the pediatrician about starting her on it maybe in a couple of weeks. I think she still might be a little too small right now. I had to post another video of her talking. She was just going on and on. Make sure you turn your volume up towards the end, there's a little surprise :-)

I forgot to mention before that Alexa has started to hold her bottle up on her own. She can't hold it the entire feeding but she is doing a pretty good job. Sometime she takes the bottle out and then puts it back in. I bet in a couple weeks she'll be feeding herself!

Happy Halloween!

I wasn't planning to dress Alexa up for Halloween since she's too young to even know what's going on, but the daycare was having a Halloween parade so I figured, what the heck! Instead of buying her one of the cheesy Halloween costumes from the store, I decided to put together one on my own. We already had a purple tutu for her and matching flower headband, which was a good start to the makings of a beautiful fairy. All I had to buy were a pair of wings and some tights and wahla! instant fairy! Here's a video of her from the parade. It was really quite a big deal! All the parents were there and the parking lot was completely full! The kiddos looked so cute! I was so proud of my little fairy :-)

Tanner's

This past Sunday we ventured out to Tanner's Orchard with Grandpa and GG. It turned out to be a beautiful day, although it was a little chilly outside of the sun. We got Lexi all bundled up and she looked so cute!

We've started using the Baby Bjorn more to carry her around and take her on walks. She seems to really like it and will often fall asleep. It's so much easier than carrying her or lugging the carseat/stroller around! Speaking of carseat, a few weeks ago I bought a mirror to put on the headrest in the car and it also plays music. Lexi just loves this thing! Every morning when I take her to daycare I look back and she's just grinning from ear to ear and sometimes will squeal with excitement. If she's tired it will also put her right to sleep. Greatest invention ever!

Little Miss Giggles

Here's a video of Alexa giggling. She just thinks it's hilarious when we bounce her! I can't help but giggle everytime she giggles!

Look who's talking!

Here's a video of Alexa "talking". She does this quite a bit now and it's so fun to listen to her! She really gets into it! We've taken several videos of her "talking" but I had to post this one because at the end you get to see her pouty face! I apologize that the video is so long. I'm not very good at editing otherwise I'd cut out some of it!

3 Month Update

It's been a few weeks since my last update and a lot has happened! I went back to work 2 weeks ago and Alexa started daycare. The first day was so hard. I cried on the way to the daycare and then started really crying when we dropped her off. She had this huge smile on her face like she was telling me "It's okay Mommy." I don't know if that made it easier or not! I'm pretty sure I saw some tears in Brian's eyes too :-) My Mom knew how hard it was for me to take her to daycare and how guilty I was feeling leaving her there so she offered to watch Alexa 2 days a week. This works out great because Alexa still gets interaction with other babies, which I think is really important, but she only has to go 3 days. Alexa loves going to my Mom's too! She smiles at her all the time! This has definitely made my return to work a lot easier!

So even though Lex has only been at daycare for 2 weeks (and not even 2 full weeks) she already caught a cold! She started showing symptoms on Friday and she's been pretty congested since then. I am really pretty angry about the situation! I just knew one of those snotty nosed kids was going to get her sick! The first day of daycare I visited Alexa over lunch and one of the other little girls had a nasty runny nose. A few of the other kids had coughs like they were 20-year smokers. Ugh...I knew this would happen! I guess the only positive thing is that she'll build up her immunities but in the meantime, it's heartwrenching to see her go through this. She actually hasn't done too bad considering though. She's still awfully smiley, eating, no temperature, and sleeping fairly well. You really wouldn't even know she was sick if it weren't for the snorting! I still feel bad for her though. I'm hoping it only lasts a short time. I just wish I could suck the cold out of her and take it away.

Last weekend I went shopping at the outlet mall in Aurora with my friends Nina and Abbey. We all ended up buying tons of things for our little girls and only a couple things for ourselves. It's funny how your priorities change! It's so much more fun shopping for the little ones! Here's a pic of an outfit I bought for Alexa. I just love her little boots!


Yesterday we had family pictures taken. Alexa did pretty good considering she was sick. We didn't love the family pic of us, but we're getting more done when she turns 6 months so I think those will be better since she should be sitting up by then.

Return to Work

Today was my first day back to work. However, I'm not in the office but instead I'm at a training in Chicago. This made it extra difficult since it's the first time I've left Alexa for more than a few hours. I drove up to Chicago this morning so I didn't have to spend an extra night without her. Last night after her bedtime routine I didn't want to put her down. She had fallen asleep while she was eating and I just held her in my arms. I feel like she knew I was leaving her because all day yesterday she kept staring at me with this look like "I love you Mommy." And she was so smiley. I think she was trying to get me to stay home :-) Unfortunately I had to go. Since she's started sleeping through the night, bedtime was the last time I got to see her before heading to Chicago at 4am. I cried all the way to Bloomington. I tried to fight it but I couldn't stop thinking about how much I was going to miss her. Fortunately my training is pretty interesting and is keeping my attention so I'm not focusing all day on how much I miss her! I did take advantage of my time here in Chicago though, enjoying a beautiful night shopping and eating at the Cheesecake Factory. I bought Alexa Winnie the Pooh and Stitch (Lilo and Stitch) stuffed animals from the Disney Store and I can't wait to give them to her! Brian is also out of town for work so Alexa is staying with GG and Grandpa Fisher until I get back on Thursday afternoon. I hope she continues to sleep through the night for them!

Next week I return to the office and Lex will be starting daycare. I'm sure this will also be hard for me, to go from spending every hour of every day with her to just seeing her for a couple of hours each day. Fortunately my work is less than 10 minutes from the daycare and I can pop in and see her whenever I want!

2 1/2 Month Update

Alexa is 2 1/2 months old now and each day is getting more and more fun to spend time with her. She is so much more alert now and hardly fusses at all unless she's sleepy. We are making so much progress with sleeping too! Prior to Friday she was still waking up around 2:30am every night. I was beginning to lose hope that she'd sleep through the night by 12 weeks as my book had indicated. One thing I remembered reading in the book though is that she should be taking in about 24 oz of food in a day, which means in order for her to go without a nighttime feeding she needs to be eating about 6 oz at each daytime feeding (4 times a day). I was pretty certain she wasn't getting anywhere near this much when I nurse her, not because I'm not producing enough, but because she gets lazy and stops nursing after she feels a little full. So on Friday I decided I would start pumping and giving her bottles so I can monitor exactly how much she's eating. I basically had to force her to take down 4 1/2 oz at each feeding on Friday because she would keep stopping. But ultimately I think it paid off because she ended up sleeping 8 1/2 hours on Friday night (8pm to 4:30am). I did the same thing yesterday but gave her 5 oz with each bottle and she slept 11 hours!! I'm planning to continue bottle feeding her so I can monitor her food intake and hopefully she'll continue to sleep through the night! Unfortunately I haven't been able to get that much sleep even though she's sleeping. This is mostly because I keep waking up throughout the night thinking she's going to wake up. I'm sure I will get over this eventually and finally get some sleep!


Pumpkin Festival
On Wednesday night, Alexa went to the Morton Pumpkin Festival with me, Grandma, and Aunt Nikki. We had a lot of fun but I didn't realize how chilly it would be! I dressed her in a cute summer outfit and when we got there and realized how cold it was I ended up having to buy her a t-shirt to wrap her up in to keep her warm!



Fun night with friends and the kiddos!
On Friday night we went to our friends Jolene and Brett's house. All of the rest of our friends with their babies were there too. There's 2 other little girls, Johannah (6 months), Avery (1), and one little boy, Hayden (1). We tried to get a picture of all of them but it wasn't quite working out! That night we ended up putting Alexa to bed in her pack and play in their living room because her bedtime is at 7:30pm. She fell asleep right away and stayed asleep even through the girls talking, motorcycles, trains, and beer bottles dropping! She didn't even wake up when we put her in her carseat to go home and ended up sleeping all the way to 4:30am that night once we got home!


Pouty Face
Recently Alexa has started making a pouty face. It is seriously the best pout I've ever seen! Sometimes it leads to a cry but a lot of times she'll actually start to smile after she does the pouty lip. She probably smiles because everytime she makes the face I am laughing so hard! I can't help it, it's just too cute!

2 Month Well Baby

Just a quick note about Alexa's 2 month well-baby. She weighed in at 11lbs 2oz and measured 22 1/2 inches long. The doc said she was around the 50th percentile for all measurements. She also had her 2 month vaccinations today. I hate needles so Brian held her arms while the nurse gave her three shots, two in one thigh and one in the other thigh, and one oral vaccination. After the first shot, Alexa's face turned bright red and she started screaming crying. It was so sad and I cried too :-( By the time we got out to the car though she had stopped crying and fell asleep. The nurse said to give her some Tylenol. Well I made the mistake of not picking some up right away. Instead, I went home and put Alexa down for her nap and then after her nap we went to pick up the Tylenol. This turned out to be a huge mistake! By the time we got home from the store the pain had started to settle in and she was really crying! It took almost 2 hours for that damn Tylenol to kick in. She seems to be better now. We'll see how the night goes! One piece of advice I have though is to make sure you have the Tylenol on hand! I learn something new every day!

2 Month Update

It's only been 2 weeks since my last update but so much has happened!

Six to Eight Week Nightmare (new moms understand what I mean!)
First, I have to start off by giving a heads up to all the new moms and soon-to-be moms out there regarding the six to eight week period. Oh how I wish someone would have warned me! Beginning at week six (almost exactly on the dot) we noticed Alexa went from sleepy baby to being awake more often. While we enjoyed having more interaction with her, the time that she was awake was not pretty! She was constantly fussy and there was nothing we could do to calm her. If we went anywhere with her we were frantically trying to keep her asleep to avoid the monster! We couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. We assumed we were doing something wrong or we just had a fussy baby. It was during this time that both Brian and I considered never having anymore children. Then, last week on her eight week birthday I went to Borders to read some more parenting books. I picked up this book called "The Baby Sleep Solution." As I'm reading the book there is a chapter for weeks six to eight. It talks about how all babies go through a transitional period where they are constantly fussy between feedings. No real medical explanation, it just happens. It said at about 8 weeks, the fussiness usually diminishes. I almost started crying when I read this! I was so relieved to know that it wasn't us or her...it was normal and there was light at the end of the tunnel! As I mentioned, I read this on Alexa's eight week birthday. And just as the book had predicted, the next day, we noticed the fussiness had subsided! She still has her moments, but since then she is so much happier and we are no longer afraid when she's awake!

All Smiles
Around the same time that her fussiness subsided, Alexa also began to become more alert and full of smiles! We can usually make her smile now by smiling at her, kissing her, or talking to her in a funny voice. She seems to be the happiest after her first morning feeding. I've been putting her in the Bumbo every morning and she absolutely loves it!

Bedtime Routine
I ended up buying that book I was reading in Borders because it had a great program for getting your baby to sleep 12 hours by 12 weeks. One of the things the book emphasizes is establishing a bedtime routine. My cousin has a 9 month old and had mentioned they have 5 B's to their bedtime routine. This sounded like a great idea, so I decided to institute our own 5 B's of Bedtime Routine:

1. Bath
2. Book
3. Baby massage
4. Boob
5. Bed

So far it seems to be working. Alexa seems to know that all of these things signal bedtime and after her feeding she is ready to go to sleep. Unfortunately we haven't quite made it to the 12 hours yet, but we still have 3 1/2 more weeks to go! Right now her last feeding is at 7:30pm, so her bedtime ends up being around 7:45pm. Then she usually gets up at about 1:00am and then again around 6:15am. This isn't too bad but I would really love to get a full nights sleep!

Naps
The program in the book has a schedule that includes one 1 hour nap in the morning and one 2 hour nap in the afternoon. It also encourages putting her down for naps in her crib (as opposed to the swing) and putting her in there awake/drowsy. I've been following this advice consistently for the past few days and it seems to be working. The first couple times were a struggle, but I think Alexa knows the routine now. She (generally) doesn't put up a fight and will go to sleep on her own. If she does wake up before the hour or 2 hours is over, I put her paci in, turn on her aquarium or gently rub her tummy to get her to fall back to sleep. Again, this all seems to be working!

First Overnight Trip
This past weekend, Alexa had her first overnight trip to visit family in the Ozarks. Grandma and Aunt Nikki joined as well. It was a six hour drive and Alexa did great! She didn't fuss hardly at all in the car (thanks to Grandma replacing her paci!). She was an angel once we got there too! Brian was at the Illini game in St. Louis on Saturday so we decked Alexa out in her Illini cheerleader outfit. Maybe next game she'll get to join Daddy!

Carseat Update
In my previous post I had mentioned that Alexa hated being in the carseat. While she still has some issues with it, it is getting better. Yesterday I put a toy on her carseat that I had gotten from a co-worker. Alexa just loves it! She was awake for the car ride to Wal-Mart and didn't fuss at all. Then, once we were in Wal-Mart she was smiling so much at this little toy. It kept her entertained the whole time and on the car ride back home. Amazing!

6 Week Update

I'm combining my updates because weekly updates were getting to be a bit much! Now I have to see if I can remember all the new things that happened though!

Making the move to the crib
We decided about a week ago to move her into her crib in her room. She had been sleeping in the bassinet in our room and when we first tried to move her to her crib she hated it and refused to sleep in it. We decided to let her cry it out in her crib for a little bit and it worked! She ended up sleeping from 9:30pm to 3am in her crib that night!

White Noise
Up until Wednesday she had been waking up about every 3 hours during the night but then after I'd feed her she'd go right back to sleep. Although it's not fun to get up in the middle of the night I didn't have to stay up that long with her. Unfortunately on Wednesday she decided to stay up for 3 hours during the middle of the night. I was exhausted and tried everything to get her to go back to sleep. Then the same thing happened Thursday night. My Mom suggested I try playing some white noise in her room. So I downloaded an album from iTunes that has the sound of a vacuum cleaner, dishwasher, running water, and other noises like that. On Friday night I played the vacuum cleaner track on repeat and she slept 8 hours! I couldn't believe it! In fact, I actually woke up after she had been sleeping for 6 hours and had to go in there and feel her head to make sure she was still alive! Since Friday we've been using the white noise (mostly the vacuum cleaner and dishwasher sound) everytime we put her to bed. She sleeps for at least 5 hours now! It's amazing! I'm praying this will continue :-)

Chunking Out
Another big change that's happened the last couple of weeks is how much she's grown! Her cheeks are getting so chubby and she no longer has a chin (see image). Her legs, arms, and belly are starting to fill out too. She's definitely getting plenty to eat :-) I have a feeling she's going to be a chubby baby like her mama!




Carseat drama
For the past week and a half or so she has decided that she no longer likes her carseat. This means everytime we get in the car she screams her head off! I'm really hoping this is just a phase, otherwise it's going to make for some very long car rides and lots and lots of Tylenol!

Wedding ring disaster

So I think I might have done one of the dumbest things I've ever done before! About 2 months or so before I had Alexa I had to remove my wedding rings because they were getting too tight around my fat fingers. After I delivered I tried putting them back on but my fingers were still too swollen. Well, it's been a month since then and I've lost most of the baby weight so I thought I'd try again this morning....can you see where this is going?!?

I was determined to get the rings on and I thought if I could just get them over my knuckle it would be fine. Boy was I wrong! I managed to get the rings on my finger and over my knuckle, but as soon as I did I knew I was in trouble! Immediately I felt the tightness on my finger and it started to turn red, then purpleish. I started freaking out! I grabbed the lotion and frantically rubbed it on my finger. No luck. I ran downstairs and got the butter and again frantically rubbed it on my finger. No luck. Trying to pull it off was just making matters worse. I prayed to God to please let me get these rings off. Thoughts of having to amputate my finger ran through my head...that is if it didn't fall off before the ambulance got there. I called my mom begging for her to give me a solution. She suggested all the things I already tried. Then I called Brian. He rushed home and was determined to get the ring off. So he made me ice my hand in ice water for 20 minutes to take down the swelling. Again, no luck. It was clear the only alternative was for me to go to the ER to have it cut off (the ring that is!).

Brian's mom took me to the ER where they had to cut the ring off. It took about 30 minutes or so for them to cut through the platinum with this special tool they have. Fortunately the staff was nice and told me I'm not the only person this has happened to :-) They also didn't charge me and the ring is still salvageable. It will definitely need to be resized though :-) Lesson learned.

On a similar note I tried on a pair of my old heels yesterday and realized they are much tighter than they used to be. I think I'll buy a new pair rather than risk those having to be pried off!

One month old!

Hard to believe it's been a month since Alexa was born! It's also hard to imagine life without her. She's already growing up so fast. We had her pictures taken when she was just one week old by our friends Nina and Cecilia, who own a photography business Nina.Cecilia l creative spark. The picture above is one of the pics from the shoot and here's a link to their blog that has a few more pics. http://ninaceciliacreativespark.blogspot.com/. Her face has changed so much since that photo shoot! She's definitely starting to fill out more and some of her newborn clothes are getting tight on her! She's so strong too. I think she might be able to hold her own head up pretty soon. She's sleeping fairly well at night but still gets up every 2 1/2 or 3 hours, with sometimes one 4 hour stretch. The good thing is that right after I feed her she goes right back to bed. I think she's figured out the days and nights because during the day she doesn't want to sleep at all, making it very difficult to get anything done! I have learned to multi-task though, even managing to nurse while surfing the net or posting on the blog :-)

3 Weeks

Alexa is 3 weeks old now! She's changing every day. We are starting to get more of a routine going and most nights she sleeps a four or even five hour stretch. We hope to keep that going and gradually extend it so ultimately I can get a full nights sleep!

Each day we try to do one activity to get out of the house. Sometimes it's a walk around the neighborhood or a trip to the store. Today we walked around Grand Prairie mall and it was such a beautiful day!

Monday we went to the pediatrician and Alexa was up to 7 1/2 lbs. She is starting to feel much heavier! We started tummy time this week too so she doesn't get 'flat head'. I don't know how effective it is though since she can't really keep her head up and just turns it to the side. She seems to like it though and usually will fall asleep!

Tonight is the first night we're attempting to take her out to a restaurant. Tomorrow she gets to hang out with Brian all by himself for a couple hours while I attend a baby shower for a friend. And on Sunday we're attending a family reunion of mine so she'll get to meet a ton of family members! Busy weekend!

Week 2

I can't believe it's already been 2 weeks since Alexa was born! Time has really flown by. The days go by so fast! The first couple days home were rough but they continue to get better and better. Now that she's getting enough to eat she's a pretty happy baby. She's starting to stay awake longer, which is great because we get to interact with her more! If I could only get her to just do wake time during the day though things would be perfect! She's growing so much too! We can tell her cheeks are really starting to fill out.

We take walks with big brother Oscar almost every day and she really enjoys it or at least I assume she does since she's sound asleep! We took our first adventure to Wal-Mart on Wednesday last week. She slept the whole time except once I got to the check-out lane. We probably would have been able to make it out of there without her waking up but I picked the wrong line and ended up having to wait in line for about 10 minutes! She still did pretty good though and didn't fuss very much. We also stopped by my work and Brian's work on Thursday. She did great at both! I think maybe this weekend or next week we'll see how she does at a restaurant. It's crazy how in just a matter of weeks your life changes so much and you look forward to simple accomplishments like successfully making it through the grocery store or a dinner without fussing!

Pictures

Here's some pics from Alexa's first week. Her sleepy face is what we see most often, but occasionally we get to see her with her eyes open.

I ordered this sling and I love it! It has so many different positions you can put her in. I'm going to try taking her for a walk tomorrow in it.

Johannah and Alexa are going to be best friends once Alexa grows a little!

Brian loves holding her!

Bath Time

We gave Alexa her first bath on Monday and she absolutely loved it! She had been fussy all morning but we decided to give her a bath and see how it went. As soon as she felt the water she was so bright-eyed and calm. We gave her another bath on Wednesday and she still loved it. We're hoping that continues!

Meeting Oscar

When we got home on Saturday it was finally time for Alexa to meet her big brother Oscar. I came in first and greeted Oscar and then Brian brought in Alexa. At first he was scared of her (probably didn't help that I accidentally said "What is that", which as many of you know causes Oscar to start barking!). But after a few minutes he warmed up to her and wanted to sniff her. Now he seems to really like her and wants to be next to her all the time. It's so cute!

Alexa's Arrival

Alexa Nicole Fisher
7/9/09 at 4:46am
6lbs 1 oz
19 inches



Well it turns out I was right about those contractions! Brian and I didn't get to have our anniversary dinner afterall. As the day went on Wednesday my contractions ended up getting closer and closer together. By the time Brian got home from work they were about 5 minutes apart, but they were only lasting 35 to 45 seconds. I was thinking I wasn't really in labor because although I was having the contractions they really weren't painful. I decided to give my doctor a call anyways. She told me to go ahead and go to the hospital to have them check me out. Of course, after I got off the phone with my doctor the contractions were further apart so I felt dumb for even calling her! Brian said we should still go to the hospital anyways so off we went. This was at about 7:30 or 8pm. The whole way to the hospital I kept thinking how embarrassed I was going to be when they send me home. We pulled up to the hospital and Brian was going to drop me off at the emergency room but since I already felt silly about going I insisted he park in the garage and I'd walk myself in. We walked up to the labor and delivery floor (which I now realize was quite a long walk!). I'm pretty sure the nurses didn't believe I was actually in labor either. In fact when we were in the triage room they were saying that they'd probably have me walk around and may even send me home. But then they checked my dilation and to their surprise and mine I was already at 5 or 6cm! They couldn't believe it and of course admitted me right away.

We finally got settled in the labor and delivery room around 9:30pm. Since I was already dilated so much they thought I should go ahead and get the epidural. The contractions weren't really that bad and I was considering not even getting the epidural, but I was afraid they would probably get much worse. So I went ahead and got it around 10:30pm. Not much happened between 10:30pm and 2:30am. Around 2:30am they were monitoring Alexa's heartbeat and they noticed it would slow down everytime I had a contraction. This worried them as they were afraid she might have the cord wrapped around her. They continued to monitor it for a little bit and the nurse said if it didn't get better they might have to do a c-section. I started praying that wouldn't be the case.

Around 3:15am they checked my cervix again and I was fully dilated and ready to push. This was the hardest part but it still wasn't that bad. I pushed for about an hour and 15 minutes and then finally she made her debut at 4:46am! They put her on my chest right away and it was the most amazing feeling of excitement, relief, and happiness. Then they took her to the side to clean her and check her. That's what the video is.

She was breathing faster than normal and also had a slight temperature so they decided they needed to take her to the nursery for observation. Unfortunately I didn't get to hold her again for another 5 hours. That was extremely hard for me. Brian was able to see her in the nursery though and give me updates on how she was doing. Eventually she began breathing normally and they brought her in to see us.

We spent the next couple of days in the hospital and were released on Saturday morning. The nights in the hospital were pretty rough as Alexa wasn't sleeping much, which meant I wasn't either! Once we got home it was even worse. My milk hadn't come in yet so she wasn't getting enough to eat and she was not happy about it! Things are slowly starting to get better though and it will only continue to get better I'm sure. We are enjoying every minute of it though despite the lack of sleep. Brian has been such a good Daddy changing diapers, burping her, and being my gopher :-) We love her so much already and can just stare at her all day long! It was definitely worth every pain that pregnancy and labor brought!

Waiting

Monday was the official beginning of my maternity leave. With work out of the way, I am definitely ready to have this baby! There's not much left to do around the house other than tidy up a bit. I've managed to keep myself busy over the last couple of days though.

I don't want to get my hopes up, but I'm sort of feeling like we might have this baby tonight or at least within the next couple of days. I started having contractions last night after going to bed. They weren't regular but as the night went on they became more regular and I've been getting them every 10 to 20 minutes. I've also had some of the other labor symptoms they talk about (i.e. 'the show'). Everything I've read though indicates it still could be days after this. I sure hope not! These contractions are already pretty painful. It feels like really bad cramps and it's mostly in my lower back. They aren't lasting for very long at this point though so I still just have to wait it out.

Tomorrow is me and Brian's 4 year anniversary. So since Alexa might decide to come tonight or tomorrow, we're going out for dinner tonight. It might be our last night out for a long time! I just hope I can make it through dinner with these contractions!

38 Weeks

So I'm almost 38 weeks, technically 37 weeks and 5 days, but close enough! I had my weekly check-up today and not much has changed. I'm still at 2cm and 70% effaced. The doctor is really pleased with this progress though and thinks it may give me a good chance of having a 'quicker' delivery...not necessarily quick, but quicker than it could be! I've been feeling some lower back pain lately and a few pains in my lower stomach, but nothing that I think has been a true contraction yet. I'm so worried I won't know when I'm really going into labor but the doctor assures me I will!

This is my last week at work until my maternity leave and I can't wait! I'm just so excited to finally get to meet Alexa and see what she looks like! Brian's Mom thinks she might come on July 7th because it's a full moon. I don't want to get my hopes up, but I sure hope she comes then!

We had my family baby shower on Saturday and I couldn't believe how much great stuff we got! Alexa's closet is full to the brim and we have enough diapers and wipes to last us for awhile...or so I think! The house is pretty much ready for her arrival.

I took some updated belly pics and you can tell I'm about ready to pop! My face has started to get a little fatter too unfortunately :-( I can't wait to get back in the gym after she's born!

Almost there!

We had the sonogram today and Alexa has grown! She's up to 5lbs 11oz. Our doctor doesn't expect that she'll be more than 6 or 6 1/2 lbs at delivery so not too far to go. I'm also already dilated 2cm and 60% effaced. So only 8cm more to go and 40% effacement left! I know that can take forever, but it still makes me feel like we're almost there! While I am hoping she comes a little early, I hope she waits until at least after July 2nd when I begin my maternity leave! I have my hospital bag ready to go just in case though and I've been trying to prep Brian for the 3am wake-up saying "It's time to go." I think Oscar also knows something is going on because he's been extra cuddly to me lately :-) Less than 4 weeks to go now!

9 Months!

Wow! I can't believe there are only 29 days left to go before we get to hold our little girl! While the end is in sight, things have been getting increasingly uncomfortable. To name a few:

Monster feet - Yes, I know, I've been complaining about this for quite some time but it continues to get worse. I have to admit that I haven't done the best job of 'putting up my feet and relaxing', but I can't help it, there's so much to do before she gets here! So, in the meantime, I am constrained to wearing flip flops and forget about wearing shorts, capris, skirts, or anything else that puts my feet and ankles on display!

The waddle walk - I swore I'd never do it, but unfortunately these days it seems like the only way I can get my legs moving is with the waddle.

Carpal tunnel? - Apparently I have developed carpal tunnel in the last month or so. I have read this is quite common in pregnancy. It's also very painful! The worst is at night when my fingers hurt so bad I can barely lift the toilet lid to go to the bathroom...which by the way is up to a minimum of 3 times per night!

Continued decrease in mobility - As the days go by it seems moving around continues to get more and more difficult. I am now unable to even turn myself from side to side in the bed without significant effort. It's funny how you take for granted being able to do the simplest things, like tying your own shoes or getting out of the car....or lifting yourself off the toilet!

I had a doctor's appointment last Friday but the sonogram isn't until tomorrow. That's when we'll find out if Alexa is growing properly. I'm very hopeful that she is though because I had gained 5 lbs in a matter of 2 1/2 weeks. Certainly that can't all have been me right?! They also checked my cervix on Friday and I'm dilated 1 cm! Unfortunately I could be there for awhile, but hey, it's progress!

I had two baby showers this past weekend, one on Friday with my RLI co-workers and one on Saturday with Brian's family. We got so many good things! My RLI co-workers got us the stroller/car seat, Baby Bjorn carrier, and some books. I ended up putting the stroller together at 5:30am on Saturday because I couldn't sleep. Brian had insisted we go with 'neutral' colors for the stroller so it's blue and brown. It's very boyish so we'll have to make sure we throw in a pink blanket so people will know she's a girl! We got so many great things from Brian's family as well...too many to list! I spent half the day Sunday putting everything away. Baby stuff is starting to take over the house!

We had maternity photos taken a couple weeks back and I met with the photographers on Friday to pick out the ones we wanted. Unfortunately they don't give us proofs and all they would give us was a sheet of paper with thumbnails of the pictures. I scanned em in so you can get an idea, but they are very small! The photographers were Jeff and Julia Woods out of Washington, IL.

Our sonogram is tomorrow so I'll update then on how Alexa's growing!