Baby Liam Maxwell Alcantera

Two days ago my sister went into Labor at 12:30 pm

4o minutes later (kid you not) at 1:10 she gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, Liam Maxwell Alcantera.

2 minutes later he was rushed to the NICU, and that is where he is today. Hooked up to tubes to help him breath.

I am asking all of you, my friends, family and blog stalkers to please pray for this family. Please pray for the doctors and medical staff that they will be kindhearted and caring and give them the attention and care that they need.

Right now he is on a ventilator and isn't breathing on his own. He has an infection that his body is trying really hard to fight, they aren't sure yet where it came from, or really what it is. They know he will be there at least 7 more days.

We got to visit them last night ( I have been on babysitting duty) He is super cute, lots of dark dark hair, but I think he has my sisters fair skin. I am sad for my sister. I know she wants to hold him and kiss him and nurse him but she can't. She has to stand by and wait, and pray, pray that he will become strong. She is having a hard time (as we all would, right?)

I know he will be ok, but they need prayers for strength to endure this trial. I know it is hard to have a baby in the NICU. But what a blessing it is to have these machines and modern medicine that are helping this little guy sustain life!

Robert Anderson

Axel was named after this guy, his Grandpa.
Isn't this the cutest picture of them?

I guess he took him from Kory and then just passed out in his arm :) I came down stairs and found this and HAD to capture it on film.

So stinking handsome!

We got Axel's 6 month pictures done yesterday by my good friend Jessica Peterson. She is AMAZING! We are SO happy with how they turned out. I HIGHLY recommend you hire her for any pictures you need done. We had so so much fun, Axel was pretty good, he got nervous a little bit when sitting on the chair, and when Jess pulled out the hug-mongous reflector thing. He was startled, but warmed up eventually. Jess was so good and patient with him. Check out some of the photos HERE. I will be posting more of them when I get them. :)

Thanks jess you are the best!

Now with your friends....the backyardigans

I promise we don't watch a lot of TV at our house. It all started with Story. ( I am not blaming, her but thanking her for introducing us to this cute show!)

If you haven't watched it or seen it, then maybe you can't judge me. ( I know, I know, the TV is not a babysitter) What I love about this show is that it is chalk full of singing and dancing (two of my favorite past times). Anyway, Axel's little cousin Story, has all the DVD seasons and when she comes to play always has one with her.

The first time we watched it with her, Axel just stared in awe! He loved it, he was glued and addicted instantly. ( I think mommy was too)

But as he has gotten older, he really gets into it now. He LOVES Pablo (the blue guy, or rather blue penguin)Anyway, He loves him so much that when we put it on he, lifts his arms up at him (which he does when he wants someone to pick him up.) He also does this to me and Story :)
But my point of this post isn't really to disclose all my bad parenting skills/habits, but to give you a little background on our night...

Two nights ago, Axel woke up screaming. He was pretty upset and had a really hard time going back down. So yesterday at lunch he gave me a full grin and I saw this little line on his gum. Later that day I showed it to my sister who confirmed that yes his tooth is coming in! So exciting, and glad we know why he was so upset.

So last night he went down at 7:30 thanks to a little car ride. So we put him to bed right when we got home. Then around 8:30 he woke up again. So we gave him some Tylenol for the pain, but he would not go back down to sleep. He would just cry and cry at everything we tried.

So what did we do? After about an hour or so of us pulling out all our tricks, we got out the computer looked up Backyardigans on Youtube and plopped the whole family on our bed in front of it.

He instantly cheered up. He watched and occasionally would give out a huge sigh with the shivers (you know the kind after you cry a lot). He would flail his arms at Pablo and squeal. Eventually, (like at 11) he started to get all droopy, so I laid him down next to me and he was out.

This video is of him singing with it. (which he also loves to do)

Yum Yum

I have been saying that a lot lately (kory says munch munch munch) because we finally started Axel on solids!

We wanted to wait until his 6 month check up, but ended up starting a week before his 6 month mark due to the chronic poos he was having. (Drs orders :) )

Its been fun, but messy as he wants to hold the spoon the WHOLE time. I can maybe get one bite in before he takes over. (I do two spoons and trade him.)

He loves rice cereal and green beans so far and does not like applesauce?! Weird, we know, we were quite surprised.

The first day each food was introduced, he sort of gagged on them but then leaned in for another bite. The next day even more so. EXCEPT the apple sauce. He just doesn't like it. He cringes and spits it out every time. I am thinking its too zingy for him. So maybe we'll stick to veggies and cereal for now and hit up pears next, after a few more veggies are introduced.

Of course we took pictures!

His first spoonful, you can tell he is VERY intrigued :)
Not sure about it after a few bites of green beans (PS doesn't he look like such a big kid now? )

Before we started Axel on solids, we introduced him to cups (haha not by choice, he just LOVES them and water bottles) Here are some of the pictures from that...(he's about 5 months here)

He started to grab my cup at the dinner table

And papa's water bottle
So we got him his own sippy :) which he just loved. This kept him occupied for a little bit, and bought us a little more time at the dinner table.
We also got a new high chair too, (which I love, and it was a steal!)
We got it because him sitting on my lap just was not working. And the booster seat we got hoping it would work for him, didn't work either.

But one day he was sitting in it playing while I did the dishes and I looked over and he was getting sleepy, so I put a blanket on him gave him his binkie and some soft toys to hold and he was out!
This last one is my favorite, he looks so snugly!
Don't forget to read the other post I posted as well :) I am on a roll :)

bloggers block

I think one of the many many reasons I haven't been able to keep up on blogging, (besides the obvious baby reason) is because I like to do things in order the way they happen.

A few weeks ago Kassie and I got together, and decided to take these awesome pictures of our wee ones for Grandma Anderson's birthday. (We planned it weeks in advance) However the tots had their own agenda.

But despite that we got a couple good shots of them! I have been dying to share but had to wait until after grandma saw it first :)

This is the one good one we got of them together, and the one we gave to Grandma.

AxelStory
(Kassie had to tickle her to get her there long enough for us to snap the photos)

fat little old man

ahhh poop!

And I mean 3 weeks of it! But like most things this too shall pass. (no pun intended of course)

We finally were able to get Axel into see his Dr for his diarrhea. (In case you were all wondering why it took me so long to get him to see someone, his Dr office is only open M,W, and F, and wouldn't you know it the one day I FINALLY got a hold of them was the day it subsided, but it came back full force the following day, and no one would return my calls.)

So in my own defense, I tried, but I wasn't going to take it to any extremes just yet because he had no other ailments that go along with diarrhea, just a mild cough.

But I did get worried when one of the other moms from my RS presidency's toddler came down with RSV, and he had been at my house the previous day. So I took him in to make sure that all systems were fine. (this mom also told me that I should take him in)

I always feel bad when I take him to the Dr and he seems totally fine. He didn't even cough, and he had no fever. And was laughing and talking and smiling and grabbing at all the stuff from the dr. I kinda was like, "Come on Axel show the Dr that you have been coughing and that moms not crazy."

So the Dr confirmed, no RSV, and the diarrhea he said was probably just a mild virus he had a while back and now his body is having just a hard time getting back to normal. So he gave me some "Cultrelle" (Ever heard of it?) And sent us on our way.

The good news is the Cultrelle totally worked, we were having normal poops again a day or two later. And even that cough went away.

But that is our update for now, I have lots and lots and lots to blog about but really don't have time tonight. Maybe tomorrow... (but don't hold me to that...)