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!