7 Months Old

The last month has been one of our best. Justin arrived home on March 19th. After a long day of waiting for his flight to arrive he made it home just after 9pm. Alexa and I were dressed in knee length dresses. We waited right next to the security door. Alexa went right to her Daddy. The next day we went to the Kansas City Zoo. Alexa had a good time riding around in her stroller. Having Justin home was a great change of pace.

On Monday morning I went back to work after being home with Alexa for a week. Justin and Alexa spent three days together. It was a learning experience for them both. They came every day for my lunch break & were always waiting for me to get home. Thursday started off with Alexa's 6 month appointment. Our little peanut weighed in at 14lbs 14oz & 26inches long. She was in the 20% for weight, 30% for height & her head was 65%. So she is continuing to grow well. The doctors only concern was her ability to push herself up. She gave us a card for an organization to come and evaluate her. The occupational therapist came 3 weeks later. Alexa tested right around her age group in every category. The therapist reassured us that she is not behind at all. We did get some suggestions on how to encourage her to use her arms more.

After Alexa's 6 month appointment we took her for her 6 month photos. She was laughing and smiling the entire time. She sure does make it hard for us to only pick a few. In the afternoon we took Alexa to her dermatologist appointment. The doctor said she graduated and no longer has to come back. We were sooo excited about this. The dermatologist believes Alexa's hemangioma will completely disappear over the next few years.

Friday morning we headed to St. Louis. We met up with my Mom, Megan, Matthew, Donna & David (Justin's Mom & her husband). Alexa and Matthew went swimming together at the hotel. We also went to the St. Louis Arch & Budweiser Brewery. Alexa and Matthew both passed beer school. Alexa had such a good time playing with Matthew. Friday night she had trouble going to sleep. She was laying in her bed laughing as though she was too excited to sleep. It was a great weekend & I am glad Justin was able to see some family while he was in town.

Monday morning we packed up and headed to Miami, Florida. It was our first official family vacation. Alexa did OK on the airplane. She enjoyed riping the pages out of the Skymall & even gave Justin a dirty diaper to change in the tiny bathroom. Alexa's first time on the beach was something we will never forget. She sat in the sand and smiled. Then she went face first into it with her eyes open. She had sand in the whites of her eyes, in her mouth & everywhere in between. I felt TERRIBLE! For as bad as it looked she really did not get that upset. We were able to flush her eyes & clean her off. The rest of the week she stayed on a towel or blanket while in the sand. She really did not care for the bright sun. She wore sunglasses & a hat but still seemed bothered.

Tuesday we went to Jungle Island. It is similar to a zoo but it is just jungle type animals. There were birds, monkeys, alligators, and all sorts of fun things. Alexa really really really enjoyed the shows. We did our best to sit in the front row & she enjoyed seeing the animals up close. We decided to watch the monkeys playing. After a few minutes one monkey which seemed very nice decided to throw dirt at us. It was crazy! We were all in such shock. Alexa was covered. Once again we had to clean out her eyes & mouth. Later in the day Alexa was able to hold some birds. She enjoyed watching them eat & even tried petting them.

Later in the week we did an Everglades tour. The tour was a little longer than an hour and was on a wind boat. Alexa had to wear a baby life jacket. It was adorable! She did not care for it but eventually she got used to having it on. We were able to see a total of 7 alligators & a ton of wild life. The captain called Alexa his little Co-Captain.

Over all we had a great time in Florida. We did our best to just enjoy the moment. The flight home was rough. Alexa was tired, hungry & not wanting to sit still. But we made it home with a lot of good memories.

Justin was suppose to leave Monday morning. Sunday evening he was having some kidney pain. We decided it was better for him to get it checked out before he left the States. The doctors prescribed a medication that would make for a very uncomfortable plane ride. He was able to change his flight to Wednesday. Although he was not feeling well, it was nice to have him home for a few extra days. Wednesday was bitter sweet. I did not want Justin to go back but I knew that the sooner he went back the sooner he would be coming home. We are now into the second part of the deployment. Since Justin has only been gone 3 months we know this second half will be a lot longer. Of course we are hoping for an early homecoming sometime in the fall. For now we are keeping the January date on the calendar and anything sooner will be an early Christmas present.

On Thursday, Alexa and I started back in our normal routine. In the afternoon Alexa's sitter told me she was becoming overwhelmed and no longer interested in watching Alexa. My Mom offered to come and watch Alexa until she started in the new daycare center. On Sunday we went to the zoo. Alexa had a good time with the sheep. There were around 10 sheep wondering around in one part of the zoo. I bought food to feed them, but they were more interested in Alexa. One sheep was licking Alexa's legs. She thought it was funny. It was a good time, but I had to wash Alexa down in the bathroom right after.

Alexa spent Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday with Grammie. I was told they had a good time. In the evenings we went out to dinner. I really enjoyed having my Mom here. It helped me catch up on a few things around the house. Thursday & Friday Alexa was in hourly care. This is located and ran by the same people she will be with full time. I got a good report both days. I was told I have a very happy baby.

This month we are looking forward to our Easter egg hunts, Alexa starting full time in daycare, and hopefully many days of warm weather.

6 Months Old

So much has happened in the last 2 weeks. The biggest milestone is Alexa turning 6 months old. This is a bitter sweet moment. Over the last 6 months Alexa has changed so much. She now sleeps through the night, eats things off of a spoon instead of just through a bottle or on the breast. She sits up (more on that below), rolls over, repeats Ba Ba, stands and maintains her own body weight. She has grown more then 6 inches & gained more then 9lbs.

I do want to take a moment to list things Justin and I have accomplished since she was born. We have both lost our baby weight (and then some), learned to change a diaper in like 5 seconds flat, learned how to cook dinner while holding a baby, learned to shower while singing the ABC's as loud as we can , learned not to get embarrassed when everyone is staring because you have the crying baby, but most importantly have been able to balance our new family of three.

Sitting up. Alexa learned the balancing act of sitting up on her own. I knew this day was coming for a few weeks now. She kept getting closer and closer & now she has mastered it. She looks so big sitting by herself on her toy gym. I do believe she falls over on purpose sometimes. She will start rocking until she ends up on her side.

So last Thursday night Alexa would not sleep. This is completely out of character for her. She is not one of those babies who has rough nights several nights a week or even several times a month. Alexa has been sleeping through the night for months and has not had any issues since. She will occasionally wake up hungry. But she will take a bottle and go right back to sleep. Well Thursday she was up crying and was not a happy baby. Friday morning I took her to the sitters and explained the situations in hopes that she would sleep there with no issues. Madelyn kept me in formed on how Alexa was doing. At 11:30 she told me she needed to be picked up. After talking to the on-call nurse I was advised to go to the hospital. Alexa tested positive for RSV. Luckily the ER doctor did not think it was too serious. He did compliment me on breast feeding (pumping). He even went on to stay that she will heal faster on breast milk. It is rare to hear such a compliment and I really appreciated the acknowledgement after all the work I continue to put into it. I was given instructions on what to look for and told to take her to her pediatrician on Monday.

The weekend was tough on both of us. I came down with a bad cold but had to put myself on the back burner to take care of Alexa. She stayed in great spirits all weekend long. She continued to have trouble sleeping. I caught her a total of five times asleep in her jumperoo. She slept in the bed with me at night. We spent most of the night cuddling. She has been sleeping inside her boppy in an elevated position.

Monday finally arrived and we packed up and went to the doctors. Alexa had to wear a mask inside the waiting room to prevent the spread of her RSV. She was not having it. How do you convince a 6 month old to do anything? Never the less wear a face mask that she does not have any interest in. So I would put it on her, then she would pull it off, so I would put it back on and she would take it back off. Eventually she got bored and feel asleep. The over head announcements would wake her up but I was able to rock her back to sleep.

The doctor spent a long time counting her breathes, listening to her coughs and then decided to do a breathing treatment. Alexa was NOT happy about this decision. There is nothing painful about the treatment, but she did not like the steam one bit. The doctor ended the visit by cleaning out her nose. She told us that Alexa was highly contagious and needed to stay home all week. I needed to watch her breathing very closely and come back on Thursday.

We spent the next few days talking to Justin and enjoying our extra time together. On Thursday the doctor said she looked a lot better. She gave us Benadryl as a last resort to help clean up her nose. I have only given it to her twice, each time before bed. It has been great & Alexa has sleep 12+ hours.

Justin has had a heck of a time trying to get home. He left Iraq very early Wednesday morning. Once he arrived in Kuwait he was told he would not be leaving until Friday. Once Friday came around he realized it was more like Friday night & he will not arrive in the states until Saturday afternoon. We are scheduled to pick him up at 11pm on Saturday. Luckily all these travel days do not count against his leave. So it looks like he will be home until the 3rd or 4th (our anniversary).

We are looking forward to our next door neighbors 1st birthday party, Justin being home & all the family time we will have.