Lex is now 3 weeks old and he’s turned
from a sweet sleepy baby to a fussy, cranky, crying baby. Joy!
He’s also eating every 2 hours now. Since it takes at least an
hour to feed him (nurse, burp, change, repeat) I’m basically
sleeping in hour bursts all night. Although last night we
missed a feeding (we both slept right through it), so I’m doing
better today than I was yesterday. Our one salvation is a big
fan we have that makes a lot of noise. When you put Lex near it
(behind, so he doesn’t get a huge breeze) it almost always
quiets him right down. Good trick – thanks to Harvey Karp of
The Happiest Baby on the Block DVD. Let’s all keep our fingers
crossed that he is just going through a growth spurt or
something and isn’t going to be cranky forever. Please, please,
please… :)

Poor baby also has baby
acne. Alan and I were feeling really guilty that we didn’t
bathe him enough, but we got out the book and it said that baby
acne is very common around the 3rd week. So common, in fact,
that professionals who work with babies (photographers, event
planners, etc.) often don’t schedule things for that week –
just in case. So now we feel less guilty :)

Ok, Lex just fell asleep so I have to hit the shower. Not
only do I sleep in hour bursts, I also have to plan everything
else I do so that it can be done within an hour in case the boy
wakes up and starts crying again. Please let this just be a
phase…

I thought kids didn’t stat fighting sleep
until the toddler years, but I guess I thought wrong. These
past two days Lex has been doing everything in his power to
fight sleep – which makes him a very cranky boy and it makes
late night feedings very looong…

PS.
Hunt-n-peck on a split keyboard (in the dark) is hard work!
:)

As many of you know, photos.datdec.com is normally
organized by event (wedding, christmas, etc.) However, since we
have so many pictures of Lex and no real event (sleeping, not
sleeping, etc.) I decided to post photos by week for a bit.
Soo… check out photos.datdec.com to see pictures of
Lex in the hospital as well as his first and second weeks of
life. We’re working on week three now. I’ll post those pictures
in a few days. Weeks 1 and 2 include lots of pictures of visits
with family and friends.

One thing I
should have mentioned weeks ago, but didn’t, is the really
awesome cradle that my dad and Alan’s dad built for Lex. It was
a surprise for me and they brought it up the weekend before he
was born. It’s absolutely beautiful and Lex sleeps so well in
it. Check out some pictures: cradle 1, cradle 2, cradle 3, cradle 4. Once Lex was born they
even had a plaque made with his name. It was an
incredible gift that will certainly be around for
generations.

Also, in the interest of
time (time… precious time…) I didn’t put captions up with
the pictures. I think by now you all know the players. If you
have any questions or would like a witty caption for a
particular photo, just let me know :)

Lex has officially be accepted by these
great United States – we got his Social Security card in the
mail yesterday :) Yay! We’re still working on the birth
certificate, but that’s just a matter of us paying money. This
great state doesn’t give you a free copy.

Ok, so like I said, I’m not very good at
keeping up here. Time seems to go by so quickly and every free
minute I have is spent sleeping or trying to clean up the house
a bit. I know they say you’re not supposed to worry about a
dirty house, but when it gets to the point where you just can’t
find things… then it’s time to do a little cleaning :) Lex
has been eating more and more frequently lately, so I’m
sleeping in little one hour bursts – which makes doing just
about anything more difficult. But, such is life with an
adorable baby.

Sometimes I put off
posting because I want to add a photo as well and they take
longer to do. So today I decided to post a quick updates sans
photo with a promise of more photos to come (I’ve got people
begging for them now – maybe I should start charging…
hmm….) He’s sleeping happily right now in a belly pack. Sort
of an odd contraption, but he seems to like it.

We had a good visit with Jim and Julie
yesterday. They were so nice they brought flowers and pie and
food. :) Good people. Lex repaid by rolling over for them :)
Alan put him on his belly on the floor (he didn’t like that
much) and he flailed around and ended up on his back (which he
liked much better). It was pretty cool. I’m not sure if that’s
good for his age, but it made us happy anyway. We need to get
out a baby development book so we know what to expect when. Or
not. Maybe we’ll just enjoy what he does and not worry about
things he may not do :)

Lex seems to be
getting so big these days. He’s definitely looking longer and
he’s starting to be less fetal (kicking his legs out more, not
so curled up). He’s also getting more baby fat and a double
chin and jowels :) We took him to a group called 4th Trimester
a few days ago (basically a support group for new parents,
mainly mothers, and their babies – free and meets weekly) It
was fun. Lex was the youngest one there and he looked so small!
The next youngest (3wks) was also named Alexander, but his
parents call him Xander. I thought that was fun. Lex slept
through most of the group, but Alan and I met some really nice
people. It was fun watching the older babies (3-4 months) who
are rolling over, smiling, playing with toys, etc. The babies
all interacted really well with each other as well. Towards the
end Lex woke up and Alan took him around to introduce him to
the other babies. He didn’t seem to care much :) I guess we’ll
give him time to work on his social skills.

Ok, off to do a little more cleaning before he wakes up
and demands food again. I have to pay bills today and the first
step is to find them, as they have become scattered about the
house lately. We are also waiting on Joan and Jericka who are
on their way up to visit. Lex is a popular little
man!

Baby Boy Johnson is doing fantastic, so
says the pediatrician (someday I’m gonna have to look up the
proper spelling of that word!) He’s up to 8lbs 3oz and almost
21″ long. He does have a diaper rash, but we’re working on
that. Poor boy. We’re heading out to dinner with friends now.
More later.

Lex has started tracking (following
things) with his eyes now. He watches us when we walk around
the room and he’s started looking at the ocean thing on his
bouncy seat. Very cool :)

Yesterday was great and our first real
trip with Lex. He cried a lot ’cause it was over 90 degrees and
we couldn’t always feed him when he wanted. Then he fell asleep
whenever people were around :) He slept for awhile in Julie’s
arms at Kimball’s. He looked so comfy just lounging there.
Unfortunately we left the camera at home. We had packed it all
up, then unpacked it to take pictures of my Grandma and Grandpa
holding Lex yesterday morning (they had just returned from CA).
When we left for our trip south we forgot to repack it. After
Kimball’s we had a great dinner (no surprise there) with Alan’s
parents to celebrate Grandpa Johnson’s birthday. They also
invited their neighbors over for desert (blueberry cobbler and
ice cream – yum!) and we had fun with them.

I think the trip messed up our baby schedule though. He
was very fussy last night and most of today. We’re just now
starting to get back on a regular eating schedule. I guess
travelling with a baby is a learned skill :) We’re working on
it and hopefully we’ll get lots of practice!

Today Lauren came up to visit. It was great!
We went out to lunch and she had a good time holding Lex. He
even cried for her and she loved his angry face :) I miss
having all of the SU crowd around :/ Good friends are hard to
find.

We have a belly button! And what a cute little
belly button it is.

I also posted
hospital photos at photos.datdec.com. We have a bunch
more from the days after the hospital, but I’ll have to get to
them later. We have to go to bed now because we have a very
busy day tomorrow. Going to Kimball’s to meet Jim and Julie and
Fred, and then to Nashua for Grandpa Johnson’s birthday party.
Busy, busy!

I
love lazy summer afternoons. I also love being home with Alan
and Lex. I wish we were independently wealthy and could do this
forever. That would be cool :) Today we even took a walk to the
post office (exciting, huh??). We were going to get ice cream,
but we had no money. Oh well.

I’m still
working on getting the photos up. Maybe today might be the day.
Or maybe not. It’s so nice out. Actually, today we need to put
in the air conditioners :)

Lex is 10
days old today and about to get a belly button. Any minute now
that umbilicord thing is falling off. It’s kind of yucky under
there, but I guess that’s normal. I think he’ll be an innie.
I’ll keep you posted.