Tessa {One Month}

 

Welp, we made it.  Tessa is officially over a month old now.  It's crazy how time flies so quickly when you have kids and a new baby at home.  Overall, I would say this month was a success.  I mean, we did survive didn't we?

Tessa is a pretty easy going baby so far.  So easy going that we of course had trouble with her weight, and nursing.  I won't blame all of that on her, of course, but her sleepiness didn't really help my lack of supply at all.  At her two week appointment, even though she was already on formula, she was still under her birth weight.  So more formula it was, and a weight check at three weeks.  Lucky for her, with her full diaper, she made it back to eight pounds and two ounces. 

To say that she is a great sleeper is a little bit of an understatement.  I don't mean to brag ( ok, kind of)  all of my kids have been great sleepers.  Granted, they sleep in the swing for the first couple of months, whatever it takes though is fine by me.  After getting Tessa close to her birth weight, I just let her sleep.  She started giving us 5-6 hour stretches around 3 weeks.  At 4 weeks it was probably 6-7 hours.  I would say that by a month, she was giving us consistently 7 hours.  We of course have had a few nights where that isn't the case, but I'll take it.  One problem with her sleeping so well, is getting in her minimum of 24 ounces of formula.  It's hard when she sleeps so much, but I'm not supposed to give big bottles because her tummy is still so small.  She kind of loads up at night by cluster feeding, which I think is one reason she sleeps so well.

Her brothers, of course love her.  It took Graham a few weeks to care anything about her, but with Dylan constantly checking on her, and loving on her, he has quickly followed suit.  Poor baby girl, the second her eyes open, one of them is in her face.  She is going to have issues with personal space when she gets older, I can feel it.  They are huge helpers though, love to feed her, make sure she has her paci and everything.

Speaking of paci, you certainly love it.  It's nice to give to you after you eat and are still rooting around.  The second anything, your hand, shirt, swaddle blanket touches your cheek you think you are starving.  So the paci is nice. 

As of today ( 5.4 weeks old ) she still weights less than 9 pounds(super close though), wears newborn clothes and newborn diapers.  She has such a sweet personality and goes with the flow so well already.  I started taking her out on outings pretty early.  I've had several people comment about how I was " Brave"  I just tell them, with the two boys at home, she has no choice but to go with it.  I would go insane if I kept them home all the time.  So I guess what they say about that third child just " fitting in " is true, but because they don't really have a choice!:)

I can't wait until Tessa starts smiling, and "doing" more.  I want to see what type of personality she has.  She favors Dylan so much in the looks department, I want to see who's personality she favors, or if she brings a whole new one to the table.  So here is to another month of having a family of five!

Tessa's Story- Part Two

I'm picking up after taking the Ambien to get some rest.  The nurse told me that I might get some contractions after the cervidil was put in, but I would say within 20 min I was having pretty good " menstrual cramp" type contractions.  With Dylan, they were full body cramps, this time, just really low.  Those went on for a while, and at about 6am, I was pretty uncomfortable and asked for my epidural.  They tried to sway me from doing it so early as I was only 4 cm at the time, but I went for it.  Right after my epidural, I rolled over and I felt like my water had broken. I called the nurse, and she came to check to see if it had, and it hadn't, just some other good giving birth stuff.  But she checked me again, and while doing so, broke my water on accident, and I was already at a 6. My Dr. came to see me at 8 Am, and had a coffee, book and his computer, he plopped down on the couch and chatted about how the evening went and everything.  He was about to go upstairs to eat breakfast, but decided to check me again just one last time to get a time frame on when she would actually be making her arrival.  When he checked me he said " Oh man Lindsay, you are ready to have a baby!" 

Nothing was set up, they had to find nurses and nursery personnel to come in.  I told them I didn't need to do a test push seeing as I had done only like half of one with Graham and he was " Right there" well, they had me do one with her, and of course, she was "right there" After waiting for about 30 min for them to set everything up, and my doctor to get all of his scrubs on and stuff, I pushed for one ten count and her head was out, then another 10 count and she was out.  Basically how all of the others have come. I really wanted to know what she weighed, and of course see who she looked like. My Dr. was more impressed that she had a true knot in her umbilical cord, and he insisted that Adam take a picture of it.  True knots are actually pretty rare, and all it means is that she was a very active little one in my belly and managed to twist herself all up!  Luckily hers didn't cause any problems like heart decels during labor!


When Adam came back and told me she was eight pounds two ounces, I thought he was kidding.  How could my girl, who was a week early have been my biggest baby yet?  Either way, we quickly decided that she looked just like Dylan.  The nurses loved her lip quiver, that she still gets if you let her get ticked off enough. 

I had to wait in the labor and delivery room for a while because I had gotten my epidural and had a baby probably within two hours so I was still very numb and they had to let it wear off before they could send me to my recovery room.  Even then, my right leg was still pretty numb so I needed assistance to and from the bathroom! 

We are so happy to have completed our family, with our baby girl.  She has so far fit right into the circus, and we can tell she is going to be an easy going baby.  She kind of has to just learn to go with the flow, because , well her big brothers demand a lot more attention from me than she currently does!:)