Several posts...

March 10, 2008 Alexa: 2 weeks old - first smile!
We took Alexa for her two week check up today. She now weighs 8 lbs 14 oz and is 21 inches long. She hasn't quite caught up to JoElle's birth weight of 9 lbs, but she is close! Alexa has grown two inches since she was born.
In comparison to JoElle: JoElle was 10 lbs 4 oz and is 22.75 in long at two weeks
At the checkup, Alexa looked at me and smiled! She also smiled at Tim today.
We had a tough tough weekend. On Saturday night at 3:00 a.m. Alexa was screaming incessantly in pain from her formula; she is not digesting the milk protein, just like JoElle couldn't. We called her Dr. and switched her formula that night. She is now on the expensive formula, Nutramigen. None of us got any sleep; we were all worried about her. Even JoElle was up trying to help us. I got maybe two hours of sleep, not at the same time, and held her all night.
Sunday night wasn't any better, she screamed in pain all night and finally by 7:00 the next morning, I couldn't even comfort her anymore, Tim had to take her.

March 8, 2008 Second trip to the mall and reflux medicine
We called Alexa's pediatrician today and asked if we could try reflux meds, so now she is on Zantac. We hope this will fix her fussiness and spitting up/ vomitting. Otherwise, we might have to switch her formula to Nutramigen like we had JoElle on, it is very very expensive.
Alexa is starting to eat 3 and sometimes 4 oz at some of her feedings, but she still wants to eat every hour or every 2 hours. She did sleep for 4 hours today while JoElle, Uncle Aaron and I walked around the mall, shopped at Origins, and played at the play area. JoElle enjoyed smelling all the great lotions and body scrubs at Origins.
Todat Alexa also enjoyed laying on her play mat, batting at the bird hanging down, and watching the lights on the star and listening to the music it plays.
JoElle helped me clean last night; she washed the dishes for me (she does a great job of this all by herself), she folded towels, put up some of her clothes, hung some of my clothes, and wiped the kitchen table. She is such a great helper! She wanted to spend more time with Daddy, she she "studied" with him. She lay on her tummy next to him, writing notes in her Hello Kitty journal. It was very sweet. Today, she told him " I need quiet so I can study like Daddy" and when we prayed, she told God she likes to study like Daddy!
JoElle tells me all the time she likes her baby and her baby is cute (her sister). She gives her a ton of kisses each day and loves to talk to her.

March 7, 2008 First Pics at JC Penney and Day and Night Confusion
We took Alexa and JoElle today for Alexa's first pics at JC Penney; she is two weeks old already! The pictures are really cute, JoElle even got in the pics with her sister! We also walked around the mall, ate at Chick-Fil-A and JoElle built a bear for her first time. She chose a pick bear with silver fur mixed in and the bear's name is Alexa.
Alexa has her days and nights mixed up; she sleeps beautifully during the daytime, sometimes for 3-4 hours at a time. But when 1 or 2 in the morning hits, she is up, wide awake, sometimes fussy, sometimes just awake. She won't let me put her down. Most of the past week I have been up with her from 2:30-4:00 or 5. She also likes to wake up every hour at night to eat. Even if she eats 2 oz, she will wake up in an hour for 2 more, but she won't eat more than 2 at each feeding. She still hates to be changed, diaper changing is getting a little better. She is starting to look at her painting of black and white stripes that I painted for JoElle when she was a baby. Her cord looks like it will fall of soon and her vision is getting much better. She enjoys looking around her room, the living room and JoElle's room.
We are starting to think that she may have reflux the way she cries, spits up frequently and sometimes projects her spit up. Two nights ago, she slept well for Daddy; she only woke up twice and slept the rest of the night.

March 1, 2008
Tonight I was spending time with JoElle, giving her a bath and talking to her, so I asked her if she gets sad sometimes when Mommy and Daddy are taking care of the baby. She told me yeah. Then she clasped her hands together and told me "Mommy, let's pray about it" So, she prayed to God "Please help me to not be bad and enjoy baby Alexa and I like her so so much!"
Then she told me that I am her baby, her "adult baby". JoElle has such a sweet heart and is so gentle with her sister. It is beautiful to see her interact with Alexa.
JoElle was asking us questions today and last night about what color daddy, her, me and her cousin Peyton are.

February 29, 2008
Tonight while I was holding the baby, JoElle leaned over and kissed Alexa on her cheek and told her "I love you."

February 28, 2008
Alexa sleeps beautifully during the day, she barely even wakes up to eat, she just starts making little noises and opening her mouth like a bird, so we know it's time to eat; before she is even finished with an ounce, she is asleep again! Mostly I can put her down to sleep somewhere, anywhere really, the floor on a blanket or in her bassinet. Daddy, on the other hand, can't put her down; she starts crying for him to pick her back up again!!
At night, it is totally different. When she was in my belly, she would always be awake from 11:30 on, sometimes til 3:00 or 4:00. This is exactly what she is doing now most nights. She is up from 11:30, might snooze for 30 minutes around 1:00 or 2:00, but is mostly awake until 3:30 or so. She is slightly fussy (fussy for her) and her arms moving around bother her like crazy at night, so we have to swaddle her real good or she cries. Some nights she wakes JoElle up and JoElle ends up in our bed. One morning, JoElle told me "I got out of my bed because Alexa was making noises"

February 26, 2008 First Dr. Visit
We took Alexa for her first Dr. visit, she is 4 days old now. We were kinda concerned because she is only drinking .5 to 1 oz per feeding before falling asleep, whereas JoElle was eating 2 oz or more when she was first born.
She has already gained over a pound, Alexa was 7 lbs 2 oz on Sunday the 24th when we left the hospital, now she is up to 8 lbs 4 oz. So obviously she is growing well and only needs to eat 1 oz or less at a time!
Alexa loves to be held cradled in your arms. JoElle loved to be held upright on your chest or shoulder. When I am carrying Alexa around like I would carry JoElle, she will push back and fall back into my arms the way she likes me to hold her. It really scared me the first time she did this! But she does it on purpose. She tried to do this at the Dr's office when the Dr was holding her!
When she sleeps, she smiles. Tim loves to hold her and wait for her to start smiling. According to baby books, this is called "reflexive smiling". In the hospital, she startled easily by loud noises, by the time we came home, she wasn't being startled by that many noises.

February 25th, 2008 Happy Birthday Daddy!
Unfortunately, I was too exhausted to do much for Tim's birthday. We took JoElle to school because she chose to go and we brought Alexa. She slept the whole way there, at school, and home.
When we picked JoElle up, we went to Target to buy JoElle new shoes since she has already outgrown her size 8's. Daddy helped her to pick out a pair of tennis shoes, with princesses on them, and some sandals. Alexa was looking around, but then started crying when she got hungry. I was walking to feed her at the food court when a cashier stopped me to see the baby. She was telling everyone else there how beautiful Alexa is. As soon as I fed Alexa, she was back asleep....so we ate pretzels and that was pretty much how we spent Tim's birthday.
That night, the spinal headache came back, so I had to wake Tim up at 2:00 because I couldn't sit up or stand up anymore. It was horrible. I can't believe I can't even care for my own baby.

February 24th, 2008 Sunday
The nurse wheeled Alexa back into my room at 6:00 a.m., I was just wondering when she would be coming back as I was missing her! When Alexa got back to the room, she was hungry so I stood up to feed her. I almost fell back on the bed because a horrible headache came over me, it was like hitting a brick wall. I fed her anyways, but I couldn't even look at her while I was feeding her because I couldn't turn my neck even 1/2 inch. My nurse, Carrie, told me I need to speak with the anesthiologist because it sounded like a spinal headache. Sure enought, all of the neck pain and the headache were from the accidental spinal tap that the anesthesiologist gave me when he was trying to give me an epidural. The second dr. explained to me that when I sit up or stand up, spinal fluid leaks from my head and neck, since there is a hole where the spinal fluid is. He did a blood patch, where they inject your blood into the part of your spine where the hole is. Most of the pain immediately went away. I could move my neck again!
We got to go home from the hospital; as soon as Tim put Alexa in the car, JoElle was talking to her "Hi Alexa!! How are you Alexa?" She was so excited to finally have her sister in the car with her! On the way home, Alexa started to cry, so JoElle told her, "It's ok Alexa, Mommy and Daddy are right here"
When we got home, JoElle wanted to put the baby in the swing. Nana was holding Alexa on her legs, cradling her head. JoElle went over to her and informed her she was not holding the baby right and she was going to hurt the baby!
The first night home I was up a lot, most of the night. Alexa wanted to eat every hour like she was doing since 12:00 p.m. We couldn't get her to eat more than 1 oz, so she kept waking up to eat. Come to find out later, she was satisfied with a pacifier, so she really didn't have to eat each hour, she just needed to suck. Her impulse to suck is very strong, and she has taken to a pacifier quite well already.

February 23rd 2008, Saturday
I had a very rough second day at the hospital. Alexa is the most peaceful, calm baby. The problem was the neck pain. I had such horrible neck pain and nothing was helping. Tim took JoElle home so she could play with Peyton and Madison for a while. They came back up to the hospital later that evening and Uncle Aaron kept JoElle for us so Tim could help me.
Our nurse that name, Hope, offered to take Alexa to the nursery so that I could rest since I was in so much pain. I took her up on this offer and was very thankful that I did! Alexa slept well in the nursery and Tim and I got some sleep.