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!