Week 3- Alexa found her voice

The title sums it up. Alexa June is no longer my quiet, always sleeping baby. This can be attributed to the jaundice clearing up, which is a good thing. But I feel like I have a new baby laying in my arms. She has become more vocal in her sleep as well as her awake time. She has started a grunting noise which is only adorable after 8am! When she is hungry, everyone knows it. At night she makes lots of sounds which wake us up, but not her. Its precious!

She has also had an increase in hiccups. She can get so worked up the minute they start because she knows they will be around for awhile. I wish there was more I can do for her. But she does sound like a squeaky toy, which is the cutest thing ever. We will try to get it on the video camera before she out grows it.

This last week we had visits from Megan & Matthew as well as Jay, Susan & Caleb. I love having people come down to visit us. Matthew & Alexa did not show much interest in each other, but they both had a sense that there was another little person around them. Susan was able to give Alexa part of a bottle & Jay really enjoyed holding her for over an hour.

Monday was my first day at home alone with Alexa. I was actually really looking forward to this. Looking back I realize how foolish I was. I started out the day catching up on stuff I have fallen behind on, had breakfast, fed Alexa, gave her a bath, had lunch, fed Alexa, did some laundry, cleaning, fed Alexa, thought about making dinner but did my toes instead, fed Alexa & then 8pm came & I was EXHAUSTED! Tuesday started out OK, I decided to take it a little bit slower. I did everything I had to do & then tried to relax a little bit. Right before bed time (8pm) I started having bone pain all over my body. After taking a warm bath I felt worse. Throughout the night my temperature hit 101.6. I woke up feeling worse & ended up in the doctors office. My temp then was 103! I was told to take Tylenol, lots of fluid & rest. If my fever is not gone in 72hours I had to come back. When we got home from the doctors Alexa & I took a 3 hour nap. I felt a lot better after that & hopefully will continue to improve.

This week Alexa has become more alert & aware of her surroundings. She will turn her head and even her eyes when Justin or I start talking. On Monday while I was holding her, she followed Justin with her eyes from one end of the room to another. We know she cannot focus on us that far away, but she can certainly tell we are there. She is also getting a little bit of control of her hands. She gets very frustrated when she loses her Binky (pacifier) so I started moving her hand behind it to teach her how to hold it in. She has been able to leave her hand up there for a few minutes at a time.

So far our biggest challenge has been nursing. She seems to be getting a lot better at it, but is also getting slower. Some days she will want to eat for an hour at a time every 2-3 hours. The biggest mistake I made with breast feeding was pumping & giving her bottled milk before she was a month old. Justin & I took a class and were taught this specifically and yet I still gave in. It was very hard to watch my 3 day old cry because she was hungry. I only gave her 3 bottles total that first week, but now she is getting 2-3 a day :(. I ALWAYS try to nurse her first & she will eat for at least 20 minutes. If she cries and roots around like she is hungry after that point I will give her a few ounces from a bottle. I know I am only making it harder on myself in the longer run, but I am doing my best. I am really hoping before we move we can have a better grip on the nursing. Either way at this point she is still only getting 100% breast milk, which was my goal.

This week has also been challenging for us at night. After the first 2 weeks of decent sleep we were not prepared for what this little girl had in store for us. Once she is asleep she will stay that way for 2-4 hours. The problem this week has been getting her to sleep. Nothing seems to soother her and at times it can take up to 2 hours to get her to finally go to sleep (then she wakes up hungry 2 hours later). When she is crying it appears that she is hungry. If I know she had enough to eat, then I try to get her to take her binky. We learned that she is usually not hungry after her normal eating. If I try to nurse her longer or give her a bottle she will take it because its comforting, but then she will spit it all up & sometimes more.

We are down to our last 2 weeks in Columbia. As excited as we are for Kansas and the opportunities it is bring for Justin, we are really sad about leaving South Carolina. This has been our first "home" together, where we got married & where Alexa was born. Columbia will always have special meaning to us & we know we will be back many times to visit. Tonight is our first "Going away dinner," I love having meals with our friends, I just hate that its because we will be saying good-bye. I hope that Alexa finds friends as great as the ones we have & if she were to move away from us for schooling or a career that she finds a family like the Dieckmann's who will make her feel like one of their own. The made us feel like we had family in town & people we could always depend on. OK, I need to stop or the hormones are going to kick in.

Happy 3 Weeks Alexa!