Monday, September 19, 2011

12 Weeks Old

My how time is flying.  I am the most blessed person on this planet to get to wake up to my beautiful baby girl everyday.  She is really starting to smile a lot!  She smiles at me when I talk to her.  She smiles at her elephant-her favorite toy.  She smiles at the microwave when she knows she is about to get food.  She smiles randomly when a funny thought comes to mind.  She smiles at grandma.  Her smile is adorable.  She has little dimples and sometimes she scrunches up her nose and sticks out her tongue when smiling.  It makes all of my worries and troubles disappear and time vanishes and the world vanishes and it's just her and I.

This is what love is.

Friday, September 9, 2011

10 Weeks Old

I switched Alexis over to soy formula today.  It seems to have helped her acid reflux a lot!  I did not have to give her any medicine all day!  I think the poor baby is lactose intolerant.  (We had her on Similac Sensitive before).  Her pediatrician wanted to put her on Enfamil A.R.  We tried that and it was a complete disaster.  She screamed and cried for an entire day.  That's when I had the suspicion that she might be lactose intolerant.  The Similac sensitive has enzymes that help break down lactose so that it is easily digested, where as the Enfamil is cow's milk based with added rice.  So soy is solving our problems!  I was afraid of it because I have heard so many negative things about it, but I did my homework and found that it actually has some advantages over the cow's milk.  Thank goodness they make these kinds of formulas now days!

A Piece of Knowledge I Have Gained:
One thing I have learned about being a mom is that everyone is giving you advice all the time and criticizing your parenting methods.  I think the best thing you can do is take everything with a grain of salt and do what feels best for you and your baby.  Mothers have instincts, so listen to them and follow them. You know your baby better than anyone else and every baby is different.

Lexi's New Developments This Week:
1.  She has started this new thing in the bath tub where she wiggles her whole body and splashes most of the water out of the tub with her hands and feet.  I have to have a stack of towels to dry off the kitchen after she is done.  Her eyes get really big and she purses her lips with pure content when she is doing it.  I have a front row seat in the splash zone, but I don't mind because I get about as much enjoyment as she does just watching her.
2.  She is focusing really hard on her hand coordination.  She keeps making her hands into fists and staring at them and occasionally she accidentally punches herself in the face.  Today she kept reaching out for a rattle I was holding.  She worked on getting that rattle for about an hour and she started getting really good at it.
3.  Feet are cool.  She loves her feet.  She stares at them a lot these days and touches them with her hands.  She tries to get them to her mouth but there is just a little too much belly in between:)
4.  She is making more and more noises.  If I mimic her sounds she repeats them back to me and we have a conversation in baby talk.