Life is crazy!

Prior to having Lexi in our world, I thought that when people went on maternity leave that they had the opportunity to relax just a little bit and get to know their new baby. I have since found out that there is NO relaxing. I thought that it might have just been me not having a routine in place yet, but I found out today that it is not just me. We went to daycare today for a few hours and Theresa, my daycare woman, said that out of the four hours that Lexi was with her, 3 of those hours Lexi demanded to be held. Theresa said that she has never seen a baby that grunts as much as Lexi does. When you don't pay attention to Lexi's grunts she will use her vocal cords to get your attention. Hooray for colic!

We are beginning to sleep for extended amounts of time over the last few nights. It started on Valentines day. Elizabeth, Mom, and Dad babysat so Jason and I could go out to eat and to a movie (it was wonderful). I got 5 1/2 hours of uninterupted sleep that night. It was heavenly. Since then we have only hit about 4 1/2 hours at a time, but I will take it. I have also discovered what sleeping position makes Lexi happy - on her belly. I know that everyone has heard about babies needing to sleep on their backs because it reduces the risk of SIDS, but when you have a colicy baby who refuses to sleep for more than 1 1/2 hours on her back at a time, you begin to do what works best for you and your baby regardless of what all of these "experts" say. Lexi can actually fall asleep on her own sometimes when she is sleeping on her belly. She has also taken a liking to mom and dad's bed. She doesn't even mind sharing with the cat or the dogs.

In the last 2 weeks Lexi has gone from looking like an infant to looking like a baby. She has finally begun to fill out. I went to the Dr. yesterday and while we were at the hospital, we went ahead and had them weight her. As of 2-17 she weights 10 lbs 3 oz. Over the last 3 weeks she has been gaining almost a pound a week. We are preparing to outgrow our newborn size diapers.

I am super excited. I was released from Dr.'s care yesterday so I am no longer on restricitons and I can return to work. As much as I love being home with our little one, I have been craving some adult conversation and interaction. I am going back to work next Wednesday so I can work for 2 days and have a 3 day weekend. I thought that would be a good transition back to work. I have been craving human interaction so much that I have been stopping in at work just to visit with everyone about once a week. Lexi has been meeting a lot of new people during these visits. She has also got to meet Grandma Graper's coworkers and we made a trip up to Ireland to meet Great Grandma Jerger. Grandma Jerger says that Lexi squirms to much for her taste - makes her nervous.

Last night Lexi and I had a playdate with Jenna and Christa. It was so funny. When we first got to the apartment, Lexi was sleeping in her carrier and Jenna was sleeping in her crib. About 5 minutes later, they started grunting at each other. It sounded like they were having their own little conversation in their sleep. About an hour later Jenna woke up and was ready to eat - 30 minutes later, Lexi was too. After their grunting competition, they had a crying competition. There were no winners, just two crying babies and at least one mommy having some serious let down.

That is all for now. I promise I will try to get back to the computer for another update in a timely fashion.

Our little ice storm

Just when I get cleared to drive again what happens - an ice storm. I didn't get any pictures, but if you want to know what it looked like, Carla's blog had a couple of pretty accurate pictures. We lost power either Tuesday or Wednesday last week (I can not keep my days straight since I am not working). Lucky for us, Jason's parents had a generator and insisted that we take it. There were a couple of nights that we were supposed to get lows down into the single digits.

As soon as we lost power, the first thing that I did was to bundle up our little one. Because Lexi is still wearing preemie onesies, I had tried to find a newborn snowsuit. I found out they do not exist. 0-3 months is the smallest snowsuit that anyone carries. 0-3 months is still trying to eat her alive. We could have put another baby in there with her.

Her outfit was so heavy on her little arms and legs that she could not move any of her extremities.

Lexi, we have learned, is just like her mommy and daddy - very expresive. When she is happy, she makes some of the strangest faces and when she is not happy, everyone knows. The dogs will look at me with that begging face to make the screaming stop. She is a very gassy baby and lets face it, I would be unhappy too if I had that much gas in my belly. All in all, she is a happy baby.

2 week appt.

We went to our pediatrician for Lexi's 2 week appt on Jan 19th. We found out that our little girl is growing like a weed. Her height was 21 1/2 in - above 95th%, weight was 6lbs 15 oz - 25th%, and head circumference was 33 1/2 - 25th%. Our big concern was with her weight. When we left the hospital she had dropped down to 6 lbs 5 oz. Here are some pictures that were taken that week.