Went to the doctor today for a check up.
Lex is now 10lbs and 8oz. He also has a bit of a diaper rash
that we’ve been trying to treat with Desitin. The doctor said
to try vaseline or something. We had A&D; at home and it
seems to be getting better already. Otherwise Lex is a very
happy, healthy boy.

This afternoon a woman from our child birth
class came to visit with her new baby. She is moving to Boston
so it was nice to get to visit before she left. Her son,
Desmond, was born on two weeks after Lex. It’s amazing to see
how much a baby changes in two weeks. We had a nice visit and
got to talk about our labor and delivery experiences,
parenting, baby stuff, etc. It was fun.

We took Lex to Olan Mills today for a
professional photo shoot. Today is his one month birthday and
we had a coupon for a bunch of free photos, so we figured – why
not? It turned out to be a good time and Lex did a great job.
We went through two outfits (one from my Grandma and one from
Alan’s mom) and we took some pictures with his superman blanket
and some with a blanket my Grandma made for him. We go back on
July 9th to see the proofs and pick the pose we want for our
free pictures. I told Lex that if he enjoyed his modeling
experience he could talk to Lauren’s boy and get some advise :)
Lauren, I’ll keep you posted! Afterwards we bought a little ice
cream cake to celebrate (well, actually Alan and I just wanted
some chocolaty desert so the whole one month thing seemed like
a good excuse ;) ).

So yesterday was a very busy day, but much
better than Thursday. We started off at the office repo-ing a
Subaru that Alan had co-signed for and the company apparently
stopped paying for (long story). We then headed to Manchester Subaru to see what we
could do, as we were very shortly going to be faced with owning
two Subaru’s and having two car payments – not what we needed!
The guys at Manchester Subaru are fantastic (if you’re looking
for a car definitely talk to them!) and basically swapped the
two cars for a new one. So we traded in two silver Subaru
Forresters for a new silver Subaru Forrester :) Since we only
had one on us we had to drive back home to pick up the other
one and then back to Manchester. Lots of driving, but well
worth it.

Alan’s mom met us at the
dealership and played with Lex while we took care of the
paperwork and all. Then, since we had to come back to
Manchester with the second car, we met his parents at The Olive
Garden (yummy!!!) for dinner. It was great.

I was worried about Lex and the heat and the driving, but
he pretty much slept the entire time. I then started worrying
that he would be awake for three days! So far we’re doing ok.
He slept some during the night and he’s napping now. Such a
good baby.

It’s amazing how many random
people come up and talk to you when you have a baby. We got so
many compliments from people at the dealership and the
restaurant. One customer at the restaurant even came over from
his table to tell us that Lex is an adorable and well behaved
baby (Lex slept through dinner). He then told us that his
daugher (or son, I forget) is having twins. Babies make for
great conversation starters.

As a
development milestone, Lex woke up right at the end of dinner
and started sucking on his finger. Until yesterday he hadn’t
been able to coordinate getting a finger into his mouth. He was
really good at sucking on his arm, his hand, my shoulder, my
shirt, etc… but hadn’t been able to figure out the single
finger in the mouth thing. He seemed to enjoy his finger for
about two minutes, then he decided that he wanted breast
instead :) Smart baby.

This morning he
also had another first (at least first that I’ve seen). I had
him lying on the playmat that Mike sent us (thanks Mike!!!) and
he started batting at one of the hanging toys. In the past he
has hit them, but it seemed entirely accidental. This morning
he was looking at the toy and consistently hit it when he put
his arm up. I got some of it on video so I’ll have to figure
out how to get those videos online.

Anyway, I think I’ve written enough of this book for now.
In summary – new car (just like the old ones), Manchester
Subaru is great, everyone loves Lex, and he’s starting to get
coordinate. Overall a very good day. Today is supposed to be
record breaking temps (over 100) so we’ll spend the day in our
air conditioned apartment. More news leter.

Yesterday pretty much sucked. I missed the
4th Trimester group and (come to find out) the one and only
chance I had to see a woman from my child birth class who just
had her baby. She’s moving to Boston. The kicker is that I
could have made it to part of the group, but I got lazy and
just didn’t go :/ Then, in the afternoon, crappy stuff happened
with the old company. I’m not going into detail, but it sucked
and definitely ruined the afternoon. Today we are driving down
to Manchester for old company business. Hopefully that goes
well and makes up for yesterday. It’s supposed to be a
beautiful day and if we can just keep the little man happy then
all will be good.

On a lighter note, I took Lex in the shower
with me yesterday :) Think 4 weeks is too old to be showering
with your mom?? ;) He actually seemed to like it better than
the bath and it was definitely easier for me. I also think I
got him cleaner than we do in the little baby bathtub. Then
Alan dressed him in a super cute outfit that my Grandma brought
back from CA. It’s the first time we’ve had in a two-piece
outfit and his belly was showing all day. It made me happy
every time I looked at him. Actually, I get happy everytime I
look at him anyway, but you know what I’m saying. The other
good thing about yesterday is that I made a great fruit salad
for dinner. It had kiwi and pineapple and all sorts of good
stuff. I’m currently eating the leftovers (on top of vanilla
yogurt) for breakfast. Yummy!!

PS. We have a bunch of little movies we’ve taken
over the past few weeks. I’m trying to figure out how to make
them small enough (file size wise) to put on the web site. I’ll
let you know when I get them up.

Lex is 4 weeks old today. Yay! And yet,
not a month old until Saturday. Think we should have a 1mo
birthday party? Maybe get some cake for him. :)

(Now back to bed for me for another
hour or two.)

Today is a snacking sort of day. Don’t
know why. Lex has been snacking all day (the lactation
consultants call it grazing) which, in turn, makes me want to
snack (well, it’s a good excuse anyway ;). Good thing it’s a
beautiful day and there’s not much else to do :)

Titles are just too hard to come up with sometimes.

I posted more pictures at photos.datdec.com. Please disregard
the pink onsie ;) Some of the photos also have captions, but
not all of them. It’s kind of like a game to find the captions
(for those of you who are bored and care enough to read my
random captions).

We had a good weekend.
My mom came to visit and we went out to dinner with my Grandpa
and aunt Katie. Mom and I also went shopping with Lex. It’s
amazing how much attention a baby attracts. Even when he’s just
sleeping everyone wants to see him ’cause he’s such a
cutie.

For Father’s Day we did not much.
Well, Alan had two guys over to talk about a business we are
considering buying, so that made him happy. We’ve started
taking turns sleeping and taking care of Lex. Last night Alan
got a good sleep and I was in charge of the baby, so today I
spent a lot of the day just relaxing (trying to stay awake) and
feeding Lex. We’re back on our every 2 hour feeding schedule.
He started lasting longer for a day or two and I got hopeful,
but now we’re back to the frequent feedings. Oh well, whatever
it takes to make a happy baby :)

Over
the past few days I kept thinking of good things to post, but
never actually made it to the computer. Now that I’m here (Lex
is sleeping peacefully in his cradle) I can’t remember anything
I wanted to say. It’s late and I’m brain-dead. Oh well.

One final though, for those of you who want to
print photos, I can send you the original high quality version
of any photo you want. If you try to print them off the web
site you’ll get a much smaller, lower quality photo.

So we’ve decided that Lex has a big head.
We went to the 4th Trimester group today and it seems like all
the other babies his age have such tiny heads. Lex has a big
round face and an egg shaped head. He’s actually getting much
bigger everywhere… must be all that eating!! We were reading
a breastfeading guide which said that growth spurts are common
around 3 weeks. That reassured me that the frequent eating and
crankiness won’t last forever. He actually seems happier today
than he has the past few days. Yay!!

On
a separate, but related note, I think he has a Steuer head :)
I’ll have to take a closer look at some of the baby pictures
next time I’m at my Grandpa’s house, but if I recall correctly,
Lex looks a lot like Grandpa and my mom and her siblings as
babies. I think it’s so cool how a tiny baby can make so many
different faces and expressions. I’m going to try to get his 3
week pictures up tonight or tomorrow. My mommy is coming to
visit tomorrow for the weekend. Yay!!

Three weeks old today and a big day for a
little Lex. We got his first pacifier, which took some getting
used to, but now he seems to enjoy it. I’m beginning to wonder
if maybe he wasn’t really hungry every 2 hours like I thought –
maybe he just wanted to suck. We’ll see how tonight goes. We
also started using a different brand of diapers two days ago
(right when he started getting cranky) so we switched back to
the first brand today to see if maybe that makes him happier.
We also bought size 1 diapers instead of newborns. The newborn
size is a little snug, so maybe that will make him happier too.
I like it when he’s happy :)

In other
news, Lex stayed with a stranger for the first time today. My
Good Beginnings volunteer came over and Alan and I slipped out
for some alone time (well… dinner and grocery shopping, but
it’s a start!) It was a little weird for Alan and I, but Lex
didn’t seem phased. He didn’t even want the milk I left for
him, he just happily hung out and gazed at the volunteer (with
some snooze breaks in there as well).

Ooohh.. what a fun kid! :) (Can you tell I’ve had a little
more sleep today? Wish me luck for tonight!)

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…