15 Weeks Old!

I am writing this post almost 2 weeks late. Unfortunately most of the details have slipped out of my memory, so this will be a short one. On a positive note, I did A LOT of video taping so this will not be a forgotten week.

Alexa celebrated her first Christmas eve & Christmas morning. Christmas eve was spent at my Dad's house. Alexa did really well being out all day. She even had a chance to see Santa. I loved watching Lexi, Matt & Jackson lay on the ground together. I think Matt was the only one who had an sense of what was going on. I know one day in the near future they will be playing together. I really hope Alexa enjoys having all the boy cousins.

Christmas morning was at my Mom's house. Alexa watched her "Brother & Sister" Carson and Bengal go crazy with their gifts. She seemed very concerned with how crazy they were acting. We will have to explain catnip to her one day in the distant future. Alexa received some amazing gifts from Grammie and her Aunts and Uncle. We did film most of the morning, so I know one day she will enjoy watching what Christmas was like way back when.

The day after Christmas we drove down to Greenville. Alexa slept most of the way in the car. We did run into a little bit of bad weather but made it in safely. Alexa had a good time with her uncles, grandpa & great grandparents. Uncle Chase made Alexa laugh while talking about football players. Austin enjoyed playing with Alexa & she seemed to feel the same way. I love watching her interact with them.

After Greenville we drove down to Atlanta to visit Donna & David. Since Donna had a rather serious surgery just a week before she was not able to hold Alexa. We were able to put a pillow down & she laid on her lap. They both enjoyed the company & shared smiles and laughs. I am really glad we were able to visit with them even if it was only for a short time.

14 Weeks Old

We started the week off with Justin's work Christmas party. We had a great time. I really enjoyed meeting other spouses & their children. Alexa had another chance to meet Santa. She pulled his beard down & then smiled for a picture.

This week was the first week of our holiday travel. We drove to St. Louis on Friday & then drove the rest of the way to West Virginia on Saturday. Alexa did great in the car. She slept all the way on Friday & most of Saturday.

Sunday morning we went to church with Jay, Susan, Little Justin, Caleb, Mamaw & Papaw. Alexa got a lot of attention. She was presented with a small bible & introduced to the church. It was a proud moment for the Cox family. We had lunch with the entire family including Jill, Olivia, Mady & Emma. Sunday evening we went over to Dina's house where Alexa met Dina, Jared & Elliott. I am not sure if Alexa really appreciated the company. She was very unsuccessful with trying to sleep. Right when she would close her eyes one of the boys would make a loud noise. When we made it back to Jay & Susan's she slept really well. This was the first time she went 10 hours between bottles.

On Tuesday we celebrated Christmas with the Cox's. It was a fun time with lots of pictures. Wednesday we drove to Cincinnati for our next family visit. We spent the evening with Grandma before settling in for the night. Alexa had a rough night, but we survived.

Thursday was our visit with Grandpa, GB, Jeff & Maggie. Alexa was in a bit of a grumpy mood. She took a long nap & then another short nap. It was a nice week over all & we are looking forward to continuing our traveling.

13 Weeks- 3 Months!

Our baby girl is 3 months old.

On Friday we went to Overland park to a hibachi restaurant. Alexa did amazing! We were at a table with 4 adults in their early 30's. I can tell when we arrived that they were nervous about the baby being there. Alexa exceeded all expectations. She sat on my lap and watched the chief. She did not seem to mind the fire one bit. We all had a great time & got lots of compliments on how calm and happy Alexa was. We decided to stay over night at a hotel. Alexa had her second swimming experience. This time she was able to go in a normal size pool. The water was really warm & she loved it. She discovered the ability to kick & she was happy to show us.

Saturday we headed to down town Kansas City. We did a very small amount of shopping & took in all the beautiful Christmas decorations. We ate lunch at the Crayon Cafe & even saw Santa. Once we got home we started our "Christmas Eve" celebration. Since we will be out of town on the real Christmas & Christmas Eve we decided we would celebrate early. We all put on our pajamas and spent time as a family.

Sunday morning was "Christmas." Alexa received some awesome gifts from Grandpa & GB, Grandma, Santa & Mom and Dad. I am well aware that she had little understanding of what was going on, but I am happy that we started our new family traditions. We spent the day in our pajamas watching lots of Christmas movies including Justin's favorite Polar Express and my favorite Elf.

On Monday, Alexa and I decided to fight through the very cold weather to run some errands. We completed the child care enrollment. This process has taken us several hours & countless headaches. Fort Leavenworth offers two child care options. The first is the standard day care & the second is in home care. Both programs are run by the child development centers & require the same standards. My original thoughts were to sign Alexa up for the daycare center. We have since found out that the current wait is about 10months. So we are going with the in home care.. lol. I am working on interviewing the available houses & making a decision. Alexa will not be starting child care until I start working & Justin leaves for Iraq. As strongly as I feel about babies being home with their Momma's, I need something to help me stay busy while Justin is going. I am hoping this is the best thing for both Lexi & me. We are also signing up for KinderMusik which is a Mommy & me group, swim lessons & a baby gymnastics class. We are going to keep as busy as possible over the next year.

Alexa has started having conversations with us. We will coo and she will in return. This goes on for several minutes & she loves it. She changes her pitch & length of noise. Every day she seems to amaze me.

As a requirement for Alexa's child care, she needed to get a physical. We went exactly on her 3 month birthday. She weighs 11lbs 6oz & is 23inches long. I was a little concerned about her only gaining a 1lb in the last 3 weeks, but the doctors reassured me that she is doing great. We also had Alexa's first dermatology appointment. The doctors are not currently concerned about her strawberry. I was told that they typically stop growing between 5 & 6 months. From that point they will start flattening out, lighten in color & start to blend with the rest of her skin. 30% are usually gone by age 3, 50% by age 5 & 90% by age 7. Caucasian babies tend to have the most cases of strawberry and have been seen in as much as 10% of newborns. Though the doctors do not know what causes a baby to develop a strawberry they do know that they do not lead to any long term conditions. As long as Alexa's strawberry does not bleed or develop into a scab they will prefer to leave it alone. The dermatologist says mother nature leaves a better mark then the scar that would be the result of any laser treatment. But... if it does bleed or develop into a scab this is a sign that it is not break down correctly & they would consider using a laser to help the healing process. Alexa will go back in just over a month to have it looked at again.

12 Weeks Old!

The week started out with the birth of Alexa's newest cousin Jackson. We cannot wait to meet him in just a few weeks.

This past weekend, Justin & I attended a marriage retreat hosted by a chaplain in the Army. This meant Alexa would be in the child care. My original intentions were to keep Alexa with us & hope for the best. Once I looked at the schedule, I realized that I would have to leave her at some point. It would not have been fair to her to sit in her stroller or on our laps for an extended period of time. So Friday night she spent a few hours in the room next to us. The girls in there were great. Whenever I checked in on Alexa they were playing with her or holding her. We got a lot of compliments on her calm & happy personality. (She takes after her Daddy) They must have really worn her out. She slept really well Friday night.

Saturday morning Alexa went back to the child care. Once again she had a great time! In the afternoon we decided to try the indoor water park. We were unable to find a swimsuit in Alexa's 11lb size, but did find an 18month that worked for the day. The water in the baby pool was only about a foot deep & very warm. Justin put Alexa's legs in the water & she did not seem to even notice. She spent a few minutes just hanging there. After a while I put Alexa on my legs & let her rest her head on Justin's belly. She seemed to really enjoy the small waves & even tried to drink the water (which she does during every bath). We had a great first experience with water & I am really glad Justin was able to share it with her.

This week we scheduled Alexa's dermatologist appointment. It is scheduled from December 16th at 12:45. We have to drive to downtown Kansas City to the Children's Hospital. There are not a lot of pediatric dermatologist in the area. We are very optimistic that everything will go great & no action will be necessary to her strawberry.

Alexa has been doing awesome with her night time sleeping. She slept 6.5hours straight 3 nights this week. She would then wake up & eat then go back to sleep for another 3hours. We had one really rough night, but I cannot complain. She is doing awesome!!! Another big change for Alexa is her teeth. My poor baby is less than 3 months old & we can already see 4 teeth in her mouth. They are on the top right side of her mouth. She really gets upset when she wakes up or even sometimes in her sleep. We use a small amount of baby Orajel to help with the pain. This is not something we should be dealing with for at least another month, but there is no control over it.

Alexa has turned into a really happy baby. She smiles & "talks" to us all the time. I love the interaction & all the changes she is making. She currently weighs 11lbs 7oz.

11 Weeks Old!

Alexa celebrated her first Thanksgiving. I loved that she was able to be in Chicago. This is a tradition I have had my entire life (minus last year) and I am glad I was able to share it with her. We had a great day. Alexa sat in her kick & play while the rest of us ate. She was able to at least be apart of this important day. I feel very thankful for my husband, daughter & the rest of our families.

On Friday, Alexa was able to meet the rest of the McKinney family. This included her 4 month old cousin Ethan. She slept through the first part of the visit, but woke up for some cousin play time in the evening. Overall I believe she enjoyed the evening. By 7pm, Alexa was worn out & everyone could tell. Matthew & Alexa both had major meltdowns. Luckily we were able to calm then & have a peaceful night.

Saturday night was the first night Alexa woke up with a big smile on her face. This was during her 4am feeding. I loved every second of it. Unfortunately I made the mistake of smiling back & kept her awake a little longer than normal. Oh well.. it was worth it!

Sunday we had a long 8 hour drive home. We left right when Alexa went down for her morning nap. She slept 3 hours straight, took a bottle & went back down for another few hours. She did awesome until the last 30 minutes. I know her back had to be bothering her & she was going to make sure we knew it. Fortunately after all her napping, she still managed to sleep from 9pm to 4am.

Alexa has been very successful with full feedings. She is now eating 3-4oz every 3-4 hour. I would LOVE her to get to 4 hours, but we are not there yet. She eats about half of her feedings right at the 3 hour marker and the rest around 4 hours. Right before bed we try to get her to take at least 5oz & will stop her at 6oz. At night she goes about 4 hours. This has made a huge difference is my day. I am more aware of what her needs are & can predict her behavior a little better. With all of our traveling over the last 3 weeks I have almost completely stopped breast feeding. This really make me sad, but it is my reality. Nursing takes a lot longer than bottle feeding & that is why I have transitioned to bottles. My goal is to continue nursing during the night feedings & maybe the morning feeding. Alexa will take bottles for the 3-4 day time feedings.

Alexa did amazing at her Christmas photos. She did really well wearing her dress & let us put her in anything adorable. She did not cry at all & even stayed awake. I was not able to get her to smile once we started, but I am 100% OK with that. I believe the flashes were a little overwhelming to her. We were able to get at least 10 awesome shots. Getting Alexa's photos done is my favorite activity with her. I love having the photos to look back on. I am going to try to not get her photos done next month, LOL!

Alexa has made huge changes this week. She smiles all the time. She will smile at her toys & people. She smiles when she wakes up & while she is feeding. She has started talking to her toys. It started with her mobile & now it is all over her noise making toys. I wonder if she thinks she is singing with them or if she is just making noise. Alexa is also sleeping in her crib at night. OK, well Justin moved the crib into our room.... I feel like this is still making a step in the transition of her sleeping in her own room. She cannot see me in her crib & we keep the room very quiet & dark when she is in there. When Justin leaves in January I plan on keeping her in our room anyways, so this just makes it a lot easier.

Goal for the week: Get Alexa on a 3 hour cycle, Eat-Play-Sleep!