Alexander James Lionhood...

Alexander James Lionhood was born on November 14th, 2010. At birth, he weighed in at 7 lbs 3 oz and was 20.5" in length. The bulk of this blog update is going to be the story of A.J.'s birth, with a bit of Billy mixed in here and there.

About a week and a half ago, Antoinette's Mother arrived in Jacksonville for the birth of her second Grandchild. We had scheduled her to arrive on Wednesday, thinking that the baby would be born Thursday or Friday of that week, since Antoinette was scheduled to be induced at that point. Over the course of the past couple months, at various points, we thought Antoinette's date for induction was Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of that week. It wasn't until after Antoinette's Mother arrived that we were told Antoinette had been bumped yet again from the induction calendar because her induction was not technically medically necessary until she was 41 weeks along. Because of that, she got moved yet again, this time until the following Tuesday (last Tuesday).

This created a significant problem since Antoinette's Mother was set to fly out of town the very next day, which meant there was a chance she wouldn't see the new baby at all. The doctor told us that the only advice she could give was to try several different tricks that could trigger oxytocin levels to increase. That increase could cause her to go into labor naturally.

So we began. Long walks, bumpy car rides, etc. Anything we could think of that according the doctor could help get this show on the road. Sure enough, after just a couple days of trying to move things along, at about 1 AM on Sunday morning, Antoinette told me that she had a particularly strong contraction. We started the clock and about 5 minutes later, the next one hit, equally strong. By the time the 4th contraction hit, they were about 4 to 5 minutes apart and I got up and began getting the bags ready to go. On contraction #5, we called the doctor's office and awaited the call back from the on-call physician. By #6, we got that call and the doctor advised us somewhere around #7 to pack up and head to the hospital.

So about an hour after contractions had started, we were loaded up in the car, left Billy and the dog with Charlotte (Antoinette's Mother), and were on our way to the hospital. The hospital was about 30 minutes from the house, so we arrived at about 2:30 in the morning. By 3 AM we had been signed in and transferred to an Observation Room on the Maternity floor where Antoinette was hooked up to some machines and checked, coming in at 3 cm. We were told that they would come back in one hour and if she was still at 3, we would be sent home to labor at the house for awhile. The thought of this was really freaking Antoinette out because the contractions and corresponding labor pains were really hitting hard.

An hour later, at about 4 AM, the nurse came in and checked Antoinette and sure enough, she had progressed to 4 cms. The process of moving her to a main suite on the floor began and in about 3 minutes they were walking her down the hall and getting her situated in a bed. While the nurse proceeded with the blood work and IV's, they had already paged the Anesthesiologist to work his way over to our floor for the epidural, which if you ask Antoinette, couldn't get there soon enough. By 4:45 AM, he was in the room, Antoinette was prepped, and the epidural was hooked up and ready to roll. Within two contractions, all pain had subsided and Antoinette was feeling like a million bucks by 5 AM, having dealt with roughly 4 hours of some pretty intense contractions.

Shortly after, Antoinette and I closed our eyes and tried to get some rest. By 7 AM, I woke up to Antoinette letting me know that the doctor said she was at 7 cms already and that it wouldn't be much longer now. They broke her water and administered some pitosin to speed up the contractions since the little guy's heart beat was a bit erratic. About 45 minutes later, Antoinette was at 10 cms and they were inserting a heart rate monitor into the baby's scalp to get a better and more accurate read in case of distress.

By 8:25 AM, everyone was ready to go and it was time to start pushing. About 15 minutes later, at 8:40 AM, the baby was out, the cord was cut, and the process of getting him situated began. Alexander James weighed in at 7 lbs 3 oz, which was the 30th percentile for infant boys, but was 20.5" long, good enough for the 75th percentile. In other words, like his older brother, he was a long and lanky baby. Both were 20.5" at birth, but A.J. was about a half pound heavier. During his checkup, he scored an 8-9 on his Apgar, which is excellent, and his heart rate had stabilized. He was hollering from the first minute of birth, but once he was comfortably under the warmer and people had stopped yanking on him, he began to settle down. That being said, every time someone pulled this kid's diaper off for anything, he would immediately respond by both peeing and pooping on them. Sort of a natural defense mechanism or something. Hilarious.

About 45 minutes later, his prints were taken and he was handed to his Mother to have his first meal. Antoinette felt pretty good, all things being considered, and the baby was in good health according to the doctor. It was a crazy morning, but both of us were the happiest parents around. Antoinette had just given birth to our second baby boy, and this one was just as healthy as the first, so what more could two parents ask for?

Later that morning, Charlotte showed up with Billy and they both got to meet the new arrival for the first time. Billy was fairly indifferent to his brother at first. He had been practicing how to say "baby", "A.J.", and "brother" for some time and got a little practice testing them out on the new guy, but he was quickly distracted with a couple new toys that he was given to help distract him from all the attention that was being paid to A.J. A few co-workers of mine showed up to say hello and give Antoinette and the baby a present, which was very nice, and a few others were unable to make it because Antoinette and the baby had to get some rest since they hadn't been asleep since the previous night due to the late labor and delivery. Plenty of thanks to Brian, Jeana, Treasa, Carli, Heath, and Hannah, all of who were either able to drop by or who have stated that you intended on making dinner for the family so Antoinette could rest or wanted to babysit the first chance you got. Your gestures are greatly appreciated.

Late that first night, the night nurse came in and had to wake Antoinette up to feed the baby. It had been 3.5 hours and A.J. hadn't woke to feed. So we woke him and she took care of that feeding, but it made me wonder since Billy was a 2 hour on the dot kind of feeder. An hour later, the doctor had to take him again for a night checkup and I let Antoinette sleep while I accompanied her down the hall with the little guy. They weighed him and checked him out again, restocking his little bassinet with all of the items he would need. He weighed in at 6 lbs 15.8 oz, having dropped about 3-4 oz since birth, roughly 18 hours before, which was perfectly normal as newborns tend to shed water weight shortly after birth.

The following morning, Antoinette was feeling great. The baby was on his way down for his circumcision and we were talking to the doctor about an early discharge. An hour later, A.J. had completed the period of recovery and observation and was getting a once over by the pediatrician, which he passed with flying colors. We left the hospital at 10 AM on Monday morning, just 26 hours after Antoinette had given birth to the little guy.

So Monday morning we brought A.J. home to introduce him to the house and give him a more formal introduction to Billy and Hunter, as well as to allow his Grandma to spend a little more time with him. He also had a chance to watch his very first Bears game (from TIVO, since Daddy was prepared just in case Mommy went into labor), which was a stomping of the Minnesota Vikings enjoyed by all the Lionhood men. Sorry, I got distracted there for a second. Anyway...on a more important note, we quickly discovered that the night in the hospital may not have been a fluke when A.J. slept 5 hours straight on the first night, followed by 6 hours straight each of the following two nights. Our pediatrician advised us that it was OK to let him sleep even thought the hospital thought otherwise. He said if he was eating well throughout the day and eliminating on schedule, then there was no cause for concern and that the hospital was just following a strict protocol for all Mothers and babies. As of this update, he's slept for at least 5-6 hours straight 80% of the time now, so we may have lucked out in this regard, but only time will truly tell.

A.J. is a very quiet baby. He cries little, spending the bulk of his day either sleeping or sitting there with his eyes wide open trying to take everything in. He'll hang out in Mom and Dad's room until he's about 10-12 weeks old, at which point we'll try and get him transferred into his crib in the boys' room. With Billy safely transitioned to his toddler bed, the crib is just sitting empty for the time being. As for A.J.'s hearing test, that should come in early December due to some issues getting it lined up before we left the hospital, but the pediatrician said he was showing no signs of not being able to hear. In fact, if you snap your fingers next to his ears when he's crying, he'll usually stop and try and look around at what's going on, so we're fairly confident that shouldn't be a problem, but I'll update the blog when the testing is complete.

At this age, A.J. has a short, reflexive smile that he's shown a couple times so far. He has good movement of all of his arms and legs, which is a sign of good health, as well as the ability to pick his head off the ground for short intervals during his "tummy time" sessions. While his vision is limited to 12-15" in front of his face and to high contrast patterns, he's clearly interested in familiar voices and faces. You can see him staring at you when you hold him, which for any parent is a great feeling that is very hard to describe in words.

Care for A.J. is fairly limited and regimented right now. Plenty of sleep, feedings, burping, and diaper changings, as well as constant supervision around his brother and the dog. He is scheduled for fairly frequent well checks with the doctor and we have to treat his umbilical and circumcision sites for the next week or so to ensure proper healing. He is also getting a sponge bath every couple days since he can't be fully immersed in the water until these two spots are fully healed up.

Finally, to wrap up some of the newborn stuff, the baby did have that first pediatrician appointment, at which point he received a clean bill of health. He has some tiny red bumps on him, which is perfectly normal in newborns in small patches that come and go in the first weeks of life. He also had his cry checked out as he has a bit of a raspiness to his tone, but the doctor said this is just normal variation in a child's cry. Surprisingly, in just 5 days, he had already recovered his lost weight since birth and surpassed his birth weight by 3 oz, coming in a 7 lbs 6 oz and moving him from the 30th to closer to the 35th percentile in weight, so the doctor advised he is cleared to sleep as long as he wants at night. While his eye color appeared to be lighter than Billy's, even looking bluish at certain angles, a closer look under the lights seems to indicate that the little guy is going to have lighter brown eyes than Daddy and Billy, more like his Momma, to go with what now is jet black hair.

So with Alexander's birth covered in pretty significant detail, let's take a look at what's going on in his brother's life, other than having a new little buddy to share the room with. On the whole, Billy has taken to his new brother quite well. He's overly interested in sharing, which has to be monitored, since he's willing to share anything from pretzels to toys, sippy cups to hugs. So far, the only outward signs of jealousy that have appeared are the occasional tugs on your pant legs if you're holding the baby, but we've been able to mitigate those with the other parent coming to the distracting rescue. Billy's had a chance to hold A.J. while sitting in his Mother and Grandmother's lap and done quite well. He's also had a chance to touch his hands and face and gets noticeably upset when the baby begins to cry, which is typically only when it's time to eat or during diaper changes (which A.J. seems to hate).

Billy is doing very well from a developmental standpoint. He's added quite a few words to his vocabulary and certainly seems to be able to understand quite a few more concepts when you explain them to him in plain language. He can show you up to half the letters in the alphabet (including handing his brother A.J. the letter "A" because "A is for A.J."), has a rudimentary understanding of how counting anywhere from three to five works, and can even identify 5 out of the 7 continents on a map that we gave him pretty consistently when asked to point them out. Not bad for an 18 month old.

His sleeping situation has continued without a hitch for the most part, aside from a couple additional terrible twos tantrums when he wants to play and not go to bed. Those are quickly addressed. They are normal, but so is the response coming from Mom and Dad, which is that they are not tolerated when in direct response to something it is time to do. It is explained to him very clearly what is being asked of him once the tantrums begin, which we don't always expect him to understand, but when the explanation is again met with resistance, discussion is over and the ability to perform the task on your own is no longer an option. He's learning. He can read the look on your face and see just how serious you are, gauging just how far he wants to push this matter, and even trying to push it with a smile to minimize any punishment that might occur when he's caught.

Since he's been sleeping in his toddler bed, he's only fallen out one night (the bed is just 12" off the ground or so, so it's not a far fall) despite the fact that he has a guardrail on the bed. That night, I actually picked him up off the ground twice and moved him back into his bed because he's such a heavy sleeper than when he falls off, he just continues his sleep on the floor. And is he ever a squirmer. Within hours of putting him to sleep, you'll find him with the covers kicked off, upside down, pillow off the bed, and out cold in some twisted up sleeping arrangement far from the one you left him in. Sometimes that flopping around at night leads to him appearing on the floor instead. On one occasion, I actually slept on the floor next to his toddler bed and woke up in the middle of the night when he came down to the floor to sleep there next to me after he realized I was in the room (I was probably snoring or something). Apparently his bed was more comfortable because that lasted for about 20 minutes before he realized he had a bed a foot away that was calling his name and he was climbing over me to get back up there before you knew it.

Billy's Grandmother had a great time with him when she was in town. She bought him a great new gift when she was here, which was a set of bongo drums. These things have several music settings with background noise from various drum related ethnic groups from around the world, such as Native American, Japanese, African, Indian, Latin American, and Carribean. Billy seems partial to the Native American and pushes the button for them so he can start dancing around the living room. It's pretty funny to watch him. If you try and change the sound to anything else, he freaks out, runs over and changes it back, and then starts dancing again.

On a final note for this very long blog update, the boys and I are going to sit down and watch our first Ohio State football game together as a family. The little guy is decked out in his "Poop on Michigan" onsie, while Billy and I are wearing more traditional Buckeye fanfare. Sorry to all you Iowa fans, but I think today is going to be a rough one for you as my newborn son, who was gracious enough to wait until after the Penn State win last week before trying to come into this world, needs to be treated to a big Buckeye victory to start out his life. And Michigan is next. Lot of company coming into town over the next few weeks, so I'll have a whole new enormous set of pictures after those visits. Until then, enjoy the slide show when I get it posted.