Making Good Progress

Lexi continues to thrive at home. We even managed to get a few more laughs out of her today as well. It continues to amaze us what makes her laugh and what doesn't even crack a smile. Apparently Mom and Dad are not good judges of their own humor. She also has started grasping onto objects. Her favorite is the one in the picture, which gives her many options to grasp and allows her to achieve this goal more frequently.

We also think we have figured out the reason behind her eating difficulties over the last couple weeks. We decided to try her back on acid reflux medicine despite her not really puking, coughing, chewing, or showing the other classic signs of reflux. Because she continued to decrease her interest in eating, and it continued to be a struggle to get enough down her for her development, we introduced Prevacid again, since there aren't any side effects. After just three days of being on the medicine, Lexi is actually crying when we take the bottle out of her mouth instead of when we put it in. Plus, she knocked down almost 5 ounces during two of her feedings today, an amount she has never approached before. We're glad that we continued to try different things to get her there, as it appears the simple addition of Prevacid has made a big difference.

A Laughable First Month

Exactly one month ago today, we brought Alexis home from the hospital. To celebrate the anniversary of this joyous occasion, Dad took the day off of work to spend and cherish every waking hour with his little girl throughout the day. Actually, I'll come clean and confess that I didn't actually have to take a vacation day to be at home today. No, I didn't lose my job (the Anheuser-Busch shareholder vote is not until tomorrow, so my job should be safe until at least Thursday or Friday!) A-B actually closes its offices for Veterans Day, so that was the reason I was able to spend today at home with Daddy's Girl.

Today turned out to be the perfect time for a floating holiday. Yes, it was nice to celebrate the fact we've survived a month at home without having to usher Lexi back to the hospital as we had feared. More importantly, though, it was perfect timing because the afternoon brought a fun little milestone that Dad might have missed if he was at the office. While interacting with Lexi in a ridiculous game which can only loosely be compared with patty cake, Lexi actually laughed for the first time in her life. Lexi has passed out smiles like they're going out of style virtually since birth, but today was the first time she giggled to go along with it. We were pretty pumped up about the experience, so naturally we repeated the same game at least a dozen more times. We had the satisfaction of getting a lot more laughter out of her, until the point at which she finally flashed us a look representative of the one in the picture that let us know enough was enough!

Special Friends

Lexi had a special friend come visit this weekend. Although neither realized the significance, their moms did. Laura's dear friend Suzanne came to meet Lexi, and she brought with her her daughter. No, we have not been given clearance to have Lexi around kids yet, but since this baby is still in the belly, we were fine. Suzanne and her husband Todd are currently expecting their first child, a daughter due in February, and Suzanne and I have already decided that they will have to have a special bond. So, Suzanne came to meet Lexi and semi-introduce her daughter to ours. Lexi got a little excited and promptly used her legs to lightly kick her friend-to-be. We hope that in the future Lexi learns to play a little nicer, or our plans as Moms might not happen!