Sleeps all day, up at night

This is what everyone who sees Alexa in the day gets to see....a peacefully sleeping baby, how sweet! Nighttime is a different story... some nights she is up every hour or two and doesn't go back to sleep. Other nights, she only wakes up two or three times and goes back to sleep fairly easily. Alexa has now been on her new formula for just over a week and is not fussing as much. She still cries some when her tummy hurts and when she has to go to the bathroom, but not anything like it was when she turned two weeks!

Both girls at 2 weeks old

Here is a picture of Alexa when she was 2 weeks old...
Check out JoElle's pic below when she was a few days old, can you tell them apart????

Here is a picture of JoElle when she was 4 days old....

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

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.

Alexa is two weeks old... and I am not getting any sleep

Alexa is now two weeks old; she had been a little fussy at night and likes to stay up a lot at night or wake up every hour to eat. Then, all of a sudden, she was screaming incessantly in pain.

It was immediately obvious to Tim and to me that she is not tolerating her the milk protein in her formula, even though we started her out on lactose free. We called the dr at 3:00 a.m. and switched her to the expensive formula, Nutramigen, that JoElle was also on. Her dr calls it "liquid gold" b/c one small can costs $26 ( a large can of other formula costs $21-23).

Sunday night was not any better, Alexa screamed all night and I had to hold her the entire time. I got about 2 hours of sleep, not all at once.

The Dr. informed us on Monday at Alexa's 2 week visit that it can take up to two weeks for her to get back to normal because the lining of her stomach was stripped away and it will need time to reform. It's going to be a long two weeks, Tim goes back to work on Tuesday.

Our precious daugher is here!!!

Alexa was born last Friday, February 22nd, 2008 at 2:46 p.m. She weighed 7 lbs 5 oz and was 19 inches long. I can't believe she was so small!! She has a head of black hair which is straight right now, not sure if it will be curly like JoElle's??

The delivery was a piece of cake this time around! It only took me 16 minutes to push; I only had to push through 4 contractions. The nurse started yelling at me "STOP PUSHING!" and then called for the Dr (who was in the hallway waiting for us to be ready for him to deliver). I thought something was wrong, but instead it was just that she was about to come out without the dr in the room. It seemed like it took Dr. Atkins an eternity to get ready to deliver her, and I didn't push through the next contraction but by the look on his face, she was almost born! I told him "I was not pushing!" and he told me "Continue to not push then" A few minutes later she was born.

The Dr. held her up and said "Look how little she is!" The nurses were saying she is not little! But compared to JoElle, at 9 lbs, she was very small! Dr. Atkins told Alexa "You gave your mommy such a hard time"

I was so excited that it was such an easy delivery this time, what a blessing!!

Alexa is such a calm baby; she loves to sleep. I can't believe a baby can sleep this much. I know it is normal, but JoElle didn't sleep very much when she was born and she was so sick from the milk that she cried in pain all of the time, Alexa falls asleep eating!!! She is so precious and beautiful, we love her so very much!!!

As for me, the only problem I had was that the anesthesiologist accidentally messed up my epidural and gave me a spinal tap instead, he went a little too far past my epidural space and put a hole where the spinal fluid is. Then he had to do my epidural two more times b/c it fell out the second time. I immediately started having a headache, but it wasn't as bad as everyone said it would be if it were a spinal headache, so I didn't think it was a result of the spinal. Then the neck pain kicked it. I was wondering why only 16 minutes of pushing would give me such a horrendous headache, when 2 1/2 hours of pushing with JoElle did not, but I just figured that is what it was. I was in so much pain that night from my neck. On Saturday the pain continued and the nurse was telling me she thought it was from the spinal, but my sister wasn't so sure and neither was I. By Sunday morning it was obvious. I stood up to pick Alexa up to feed her only to be knocked back down flat on my back by the headache pain. We got another anesthesiologist to see me and he did a blood patch, where they take your blood and stick it in your spine to clot up the hole. It seemed to work pretty well.

I felt great on Monday , but that night the pain came back and I couldn't take care of Alexa again. All day Tuesday and Wednesday I couldn't even sit up, let alone take care of the baby. So Tim has been doing all of the baby care. He has been wonderful!I did go back to the hospital on Wednesday to have a second blood patch, and I had to lay flat for another 24 hours. I am now feeling better and I am hopeful that it worked this time.

The doctors were in my spine 5 times since last Friday and I am really really sore. Plus I am scared that the blood clot will come loose again...
Please pray for continued improvement for me so I can care for baby Alexa! It was so very hard not to be able to take care of her, I couldn't even hold her because I had to lay flat, she didn't like laying flat!

Several posts...

Alexa Danielle is here!
She was born Friday, February 22nd, 2008 at 2:46 p.m.
Alexa weighed only 7 lbs. 5 oz. and is 19 inches long!

Alexa_Feb_ 2008

Dear My Baby Alexa, I love you with all of my heart. I can't wait to see you tomorrow. I know that you will be beautiful just like your mommy, and big sister. I love you my little girl.
Love,
Daddy
February 19th, 2008 To Alexa Dear Alexa,I can't believe you are almost here! I can't wait to "meet you", I know you are pretty much out of room in my belly! I am just as uncomfortable as you seem to be all the time! You move a lot, you love the sound of your big sister's voice and the sound of the bath tub. I keep wondering what you will look like? Will you look like your sister? I can't help but think you will look like her, but like yourself, too! Your room is very pretty with pink everywhere, I know you will like it! So many people are eager for your birth! I know your Daddy can't wait either, he is a little worried that you won't know his voice, but I know you will know him as soon as you hear him talk to you! I love you, Alexa! Love,Mommy
February 18th, 2008 39 weeks... 4 days to go!This pregnancy is drawing to a close....I am so relieved because I have been so sick the entire time.JoElle is very anxious, I am very anxious, Tim is very anxious. They have both been helping me with so much around the house. Again tonight JoElle asked me why Alexa is not out of my tummy yet. We are trying to keep her schedule consistent this week until Thursday, when Tim is off and it will be our last day as a family of 3!At school this week JoElle is learning about pets; she told her teacher she doesn't have any pets, but Uncle Aaron took her to the zoo!One of her best friends, Sandra, did something at school she wasn't supposed to do, so JoElle apparently spanked her. Sandra told Ms. Carrie, I did (whatever it was) and JoElle spanked me. She wasn't upset that JoElle spanked her. Crazy kids.Last night, JoElle couldn't go to sleep, so we were watching Rachel Ray's 30 Minute Meals around 10:00, and she told us she doesn't like boys cooking, she only likes Daddy's cooking! (and she added that she likes Mommy's cooking too). Last week, JoElle wanted to ride with Daddy after we got something to eat, we were in separate cars because we had a dr appt that Tim had met me at. When we got home I asked her why she wanted to ride with Daddy, and she told us "Because I love Daddy!"
Feb. 15th, 2008 JoElle spent the night at Granny'sThis is only the second time in her life, but JoElle spent the night at Granny's and Grandad's! Her cousins were over there and we went over because JoElle wanted to see Granny and when she heard that they were staying the night, she wanted to as well.Tim and I couldn't believe she actually stayed! She asked the next morning where we were and asked Tim when he picked her up why we didn't stay the night. She did great though.She has been super clingy to Tim and to me lately, so I was suprised she wanted to stay away from the house!At school lately, she has been up to her same silly antics.Some of the things she has done lately at school:-she painted her face and arms blue and told Ms. Carrie "Look, I'm a blueberry!" - she put soap and water in her hair after nap time because she needed to fix it -she got upset with the director when the director told her they needed to give her crackers instead of pudding (due to the lactose); she told Ms. Suzanne "NO! My mommy said I could have it!" (JoElle was right, I told her she could start eating milk products at school) - she tells Ms. Carrie at nap time " I can't calm down!" (in a crazy, deep voice)

February 8, 2008 (almost) 38 weeks

We set a tentative date to induce: Friday February 22 nd (in two weeks!). I am excited that this is FINALLY drawing to an end, I am so tired of being nauseous all the time and throwing up every day..... plus on Monday I hit that point where I cannot sleep at night because I can't get comfortable sitting down, laying down, whatever.

I told JoElle her sister will be born in two weeks, if not earlier. She told me "I want her to come out now!" She has been very patient with how long it takes for a baby to grow, it probably seems like an eternity to her. JoElle is very excited to be a big sister and she loves to look at all of the baby's gifts. She loves all the baby clothes; she was telling me the other day "how cute" this dress was for Alexa, and every time she puts on a piece of clothing that no longer fits, she tells me "this is for my sister now."

Earlier this month, the Dr. reduce my work hours to 32 per week, and this has helped me out tremendously; some days I don't come in to work until 10! JoElle has learned to sleep in late, 'til 8:15 or later. If she does wake up earlier, I tell her to get her milk out of the fridge and then she asks for me to turn the t.v. on so she can watch t.v. in the bed with me.

So, now we are just counting down the days.......!

January 19, 2008 JoElle's Birthday Party!
JoElle celebrated her birthday today with her friends and family. When we first got there, it was only her, Peyton, Madison, and two friends from school. They ran around like crazy and had a blast! Her best friends from school were there, Sandra and Zoey.
Mr. Jeremy had them tell their names and do a trick and they did flips and jumps for him. All the kids love JoElle's teacher. We didn't have to do anything because the kids were listening to Mr. Jeremy and having fun. Even Madison (she is just over 1 year old) was walking around and playing. They loved bouncing on the Jumbotrak and clibming all over the place.
JoElle didn't look very happy when we sang to her and she didn't want to blow out the candles after what happened the other night at home (she burnt a small piece of her hair, but thought she burned her eye!) As soon as we sang she asked "Where are my presents!??"
Her cousin Isaiah was trying to give her a hug when her best friend Sandra was standing there and she grabbed JoElle and told Isaiah "NO! She's MY best friend!" Sandra is very prtoective of JoElle.
At the end of the party, they sang in a circle, JoElle, Zoey and Sandra sat right in front of Mr. Jeremy and I could hear JoElle singing very loudly "If Your Happy and You Know It"
Thanks to everyone who came!

January 17th, 2008 JoElle's 3rd Birthday
JoElle turned three today and she was very excited! I had to work a few hours, so when she got up, Daddy made a huge deal out of her birthday and sang to her. But she asked him "Why isn't anybody coming to see me?" so he took her to see Grandad.
We attempted to take her to two different Japanese hibachi grills, both were closed; we drove all the way to Dallas to Benihana to find out they were closed for renovations. The whole time we were driving, she was singing and making up silly songs. We settled on Cuba Libre since we were in the area; she liked the way the restaurant is decorated, she told us "This place is cool!"
Later we made cupcakes together and she blew out her candles. She accidentally burnt a small piece of her hair and it really scared her! She also had her Little Gym class; it was the last of the winter semester, so they got to show off what they had learned. It was cute watching her, she was a foot or two shorter than the other kids, who are 4-5 years old.

January 17, 2008 JoElle is 3!
JoElle now weighs 28.5 lbs (she gained 4 lbs this past year) and is now 35.5 inches tall- almost 3 feet! (about 2-3 inches, since they now measure her standing up, the spine is compressed versus when they measure kids laying down like before). She is obviously petite, she is in the 10th percentile for weight and 25th percentile for height. (dr vist was Jan 22, 2008)

January 12, 2007 Dry all night
We ran out of pull ups last night and so we figured we would let JoElle go all night in panties. We probably should have done this a long time ago, but we were too lazy. Since I am not getting any sleep now anyways, the baby kicks me all night long...we figured, why not?
So, this morning she was (for the most part) dry. Her sheets were completely dry, she was very excited about this and pointed it out to Daddy. JoElle has been fully potty trained since she turned 2 (so basically for a year), but we never really tried night time.