4 Months Part 2

This week started off with a dinner for the spouses of the deployed soldiers here on Fort Leavenworth. I was not comfortable pawning Alexa off on the church staff so I had her chill out with us. After 10 minutes the host of the event took Alexa to the kitchen to hang out with some of the staff. She did well for a little while and then had a major melt down. She has recently started realizing when I am around and when I am not. As flattering as it is to have someone want you so much it has really turned into a challenge.

Monday morning was Alexa's 4 month well baby appointment. The doctor said Alexa appeared to be hitting all of her developmental milestones. She weighed in at 12lbs 12oz, 20% tile; height 24.75inches 55% time & head circumference 16.5inches, 66% tile. So we have an average height skinny baby with a big head... haha! I really do not focus on the percentiles anymore. I have quickly realized how much babies changes and how different they all grow. The important thing to me as that she is growing at an appropriate rate. I discussed with the doctor her eating schedule. She was surprised that Alexa is actually eating more than average (36oz a day) and only gained 1lb in the last month. She gave me the suggestion of putting formula powder in her breast milk bottles. I started doing that on Tuesday. I put 1 scoop (enough powder for 2 oz of formula) in her 6oz of breast milk every other bottle. After 3 days of this she put on 6oz (dermatologist weighed her). So we will see how she does and go from there.

We also had Alexa's shots on Monday. This was the first time I had to take her alone. It was rough on both of us but we survived. Alexa slept most of the day & all night long.

Tuesday morning was our weekly infant massage class. We both really enjoy this class. This week we learned stomach techniques & boy do they work. Alexa was letting out gas right on cue.

This week we interviewed two potential child care providers. The first one lives on post & has two daughters of her own. I got an OK vive from her. The big negative is that she is taking a 2 week vacation the first week of March. The second person is an off post home about 10 minutes from us. They currently have 2 babies & 4 toddles with 2 teachers. I know Alexa would have a good time here and get a lot of attention. The big negative of this one is the commute. I will have to sit in gate traffic twice a day & will spend approximately 60-70 minutes each day in the car. So I am really hoping we get another option next week.

This week we also had Alexa's dermatologist appointment. The measurements showed no growth & the coloring is more gray. The doctor said it appears to be healing quicker than expected and she has no reason to be concerned. Just to make sure it is still moving in the right direction we will go back again in 2 months. As long as it is still improving we will not have to return.

Goals from last week:

Getting Alexa on a better napping schedule (3 or 4 longer naps instead of 6-7 catnaps) SUCCESS, we are down to 4 naps a day.. usually 2 of them are in her crib and last at least 45 minutes. We will continue working on this.

Spreading the daytime bottles to 4hours FAILED, Alexa still wants to eat every 3 hours

Night time routine. HALF WAY, We are not quite to the routine I would like but Alexa does go to sleep in her crib & soothers herself to sleep. We will continue to work on this.

4 Months Old

We survived another big snow storm this week. This also means that we had a few days trapped inside the house. We made due but were glad when we were finally able to get back out.

Tuesday was our first infant massage class. Alexa LOVED it. She stayed on her back and smiled through the entire class. There is a little boy in the class who is 2 months old. Alexa would look over at him & he would kick his legs. I guess She was flirting. (Don't tell Justin) I am really looking forward to our class this week. I am hoping I can fit it into my schedule so we can complete the course. Our music class was canceled again because of the storm. We will not be able to continue in this class with my new work schedule. Hopefully we can join a different class on the weekends.

So I got a job. It is actually the first job I applied for & the only one I interviewed with. I am really looking forward to the work. The idea of leaving Alexa makes me sick to my stomach. I have LOVED every minute of the last 4 months. I know the next few week will be tough. But I am going to give it a good try & hopefully it will be the best decision for us.

Alexa continue to work on her rolling over skills. She is really good at going from her back to her tummy, but has made very little progress on the reverse. She also likes to blow raspberries (spit bubbles) out of her mouth. She finds it really funny if you do it back to her. I know it is teaching bad habits, but it is adorable.

This week we will be running a ton of errands. I have to find Alexa a sitter this week. It is much harder than I thought it would be. Leavenworth is such a small town that there is no chain centers & the church daycares are very limited.

Goals from last week:

Getting Alexa on a better napping schedule (3 or 4 longer naps instead of 6-7 catnaps) FAILED

Spreading the daytime bottles to 4hours FAILED

Increase tummy time to 4 times a day (at least 5 minutes each session) SUCCESS

This week I want to continue to work on the first two goals & also work on a nigh time routine.

17 Weeks

I am starting to feel a little silly making the title of my post in weeks. Its crazy to think that Alexa is almost 4 months old. This is the week, one year ago that Justin and I found would we were expecting. Things have certainly changed a lot since then. I never could have imagined how much I would enjoy being a mother or how quickly I could fall in love with Alexa.

This week Alexa continued to improve with her eating. She has kept all of her bottles down & does not seem to be getting upset from gas. Our happy little girl has returned! Up to this point Alexa was drinking a five ounce bottle five times a day and one seven ounce bottle before bed. I decided to try and cut out one feeding. I started giving Alexa 6 ounce bottles in hopes that this would stretch out the time between meals. I am not sure if she is going through a growth spurt or just really likes to eat. She is still wanting to eat every 3-3.5hours. So we are still at 6 bottles a day, but now she is having 37oz instead of the 32oz.

The big milestone reached this week is rolling over. Alexa can roll from her back to her stomach with out any problem. Once she gets to her stomach she gets really mad & starts to cry. Hopefully this will encourage her to flip herself back over. She still hates tummy time. We do attempt some tummy time 3 times a day and have made it up to 5minutes before the melt down begins. We started doing a daily craft this week. This can be very challenging with a baby of Alexa's age but it is something we both really enjoy. Our craft usually involves some sort of paint or water & always ends in a bath. So far we have made some adorable artwork to send to Justin.

This week was our last few days home with Justin. One thing I really wanted to do was to get a new family photo. Our last family photo was several months ago when Alexa was only 6 days old. We ended up really enjoying our photo session & fell in love with most of the pictures. This was the first time Alexa smiled during professional photos. She made the selection process very difficult. On Sunday we had to say good bye to Justin. I am sooo glad Alexa is unaware of the situation. I would hate for her to have to go through the heart ache of missing her Daddy. This was a difficult day. In a strange way I was ready for it to be here. We found out exactly 1 week before Alexa was born that Justin would be deploying. Ever since we have been dreading the day. So now we can move past it. I know it will be a difficult year, but there are great things ahead of us. Now we can start the count down to his safe return.

The phrase "When it rains it pours" best describes Monday morning. I woke up feel a little blue about not having Justin home and then I looked out the window. We had 3-4inches of snow and it was still come down hard. We ended up getting more than 6inches in total. Usually this would be a welcomed experience. This particular storm brought out new challenges for me. First off I do not own a shovel. While Justin is deployed the housing department on post will shovel the drive for me. But it does take them some time to get to all the houses. Secondly we were stuck inside all day. Alexa and I are used to getting out at least once a day. We both enjoy walking around the PX or running small errands. Tuesday morning we went out on the snow covered roads to get some fresh air.

Justin has been great with keep communication with us. While he is in Kuwait he has to use to USO phones and computers. This is a great program & we appreciate the communication that is available. The only complaint would have to be that Justin has to wait up to an hour to use the phone and then has a time limit. The 9 hour time change is something to get used it. We are both awake at the same time roughly 7 hours a day. I offered to wake up in the middle of the night to talk to him. I was exhausting but it was worth every minute. Once he moves to Iraq we will have more regular communication.

My goals for this week include:

Getting Alexa on a better napping schedule (3 or 4 longer naps instead of 6-7 catnaps)

Spreading the daytime bottles to 4hours

Increase tummy time to 4 times a day (at least 5 minutes each session)

16 Weeks Old

We started the week off with our last stop during our Christmas travels. Jayson came home for his R & R, so of course we had to stop through Nashville. This was also the first time Alexa would meet him. We met the 3 of them as well as Jay & Susan at a mall just outside of the city. We were enjoying our visit for about 2 hours. Then Alexa started panicking. She was screaming in such a high pitch sound and had real tears running down her face. Justin & I were dumbfounded on what happened to our usually calm baby. After an hour of screaming that started inside the mall & moved to the Macy's bathroom we determined it was gas. We ran with Alexa through the store into the car & drove to the local Walgreens. After giving Alexa gas drops she calmed down and feel asleep. We thought the crisis was passed. After 30minutes Alexa woke up she started screaming again. We decided to take her to the hospital just to make sure we were correct on the gas diagnosis. The hospital staff was fantastic. They were very encouraging to us as parents & reassured us that we made the correct decision. In the end we left there feeling Alexa was going to be OK.

Over the next few days we continued to give Alexa the gas drops. If I missed a bottle she would get very upset. Once we made it back home she seemed to be doing better & I have lowered the gas drop dosage to just once a day. Unfortunately this was not the end of Alexa's digestion issues. On Tuesday she started rejecting her bottles. She would eventually eat & throw up the entire bottle. This went on for two days but we have since been able to resume our normal feeding schedule. We are anxious to find out what he doctor recommends us trying if this continues.

Alexa now prefers to be held in the standing position instead of sitting. She will giggle & give huge smiles when you stand her up. She has started to enjoy her jumperoo more. We have to bounce her ourselves since her tiny legs do not yet reach the ground. Alexa has been very successful with her thumb sucking. Justin captured an adorable photo with her thumb in her mouth and her fingers spread out over her face. Lastly, Alexa has found her feet. She will hold them in her hands but only for a short time. She tried to put on in her mouth but decided her hands were a lot easier.

This week was very special & important to our family. We had a great time together & made many memories. I know Alexa will not remember this time, but Justin and I will certainly not forget it.