The Journey of Parenthood…

Week Eight Summary

Tess’s 8th week of life was from Thursday September 18 – Wednesday September 24th. She was 7 weeks old during this week!

Nursing: It was SO exciting to be completely done with Tess’s thrush meds. That junk was gross and I was happy to see it gone 🙂

The big nursing news this week was that I went and added up all my pumped milk….and had 212 oz stored! Which was plenty for Hawaii! I decided to stop doing the random pump session since I no longer needed the milk 🙂 My body adjusted FINE to dropping that pump session! I didn’t notice any discomfort or any issue with leaking or anything. 

My nipple pain also was WAY better this week. Which just further proved that thrush was my issue! I didn’t have near as much pain while nursing. 

 laughing 🙂

 post nursing streeetch

 I love our cuddles and “talks” when she finishes nursing!

Schedule:


BIG NEWS THIS WEEK! Tess slept through the night for the first time! YAY!!!

Her schedule didn’t change at all…still eating at 7, 10, 1, 4, 7, 11

Sleep:


With her inconsistent night time wakings Zach and I decided to try to move the dream feed back to 11:00 and see if that helped push her for longer sleep at night. The second night that we did the df that late she slept until 4:40 which was getting closer and closer to 5! My goal was for her to start waking at 5 or later so I could stop offering a full feeding 🙂

On the 19th (Friday) she had a bad day of naps. Lots of fussing. She was due for a wonder week to start but it seemed like maybe she was starting it early? She was eating longer at her feedings which also suggested growth spurt. That night I was just completely and utterly WORN OUT. I told Zach I couldn’t handle it and HAD to get some solid sleep. I asked him to please give her a bottle at the 11:00 feeding. I pumped at 10:15 and then went to bed. She ate 4.5 oz from the bottle and took about an hour to do it….then she slept through the night for the first time! I had to go wake her at 7:15!!! It was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!

The next day (Sat the 20th) had a wonderful day of sleep. She had a blow out massive diaper. Zach did the bottle again at 11:00 because we felt like if it worked once we should keep doing it! She only drank 3.5 oz that night (it was also a HUGE FSU game…so I think that may have had something to do with her drinking less haha) and she woke at 4:30. Fussed and fussed so Zach gave her the paci twice. Our rule for motn wakings since she sttn was to offer the paci. If he offered it twice and she still woke again, then I’d feed her.

I went in and fed her at 5:30. I just fed her a little bit. Enough just to get her back to sleep and to make myself feel less engorged. 

That next day (Sunday the 21st) she had another flawless nap day! That night she drank a full 5 oz bottle at df and then woke at 5. I did the nursing “snack” again and it only took about 20 min total. But then she did wake again at 6 and the paci held her off until our desired wake time of 7. 

Monday (22nd) she again had a great day of naps! It made me think she’d be able to handle the 3.5 hour schedule change soon!

That night was my turn for the bottle. But y’all. I just hate the idea of pumping THEN feeding a bottle. No way. So I nursed her. She woke at 5. We did the paci and then I nursed her for a few minutes again and she slept until 7.

Tuesday night she only drank 3.5 oz from a bottle at her 7:00 feeding and then woke at 4 and we held her off until 5 when I did the snack again. 

Even though it was frustrating to have to nurse her in the night after she STTN…it was a BIG change for me. I was able to sleep much longer stretches and I knew she was SO CLOSE to having solid sleep every night! 

 Morning waking up from sttn for the first time!!!

Here’s a video of me waking her!

 I didn’t have to hold her very much at all for naps this week…so it made it more enjoyable during the times she did need to be held!

 She wakes up with these little red spots on her skin. They are always in different spots and always go away after she’d been awake for a bit!

Tummy Time: Continuing to do it at each awake time and I flip her over once she gets very fussy. She didn’t roll over this week at all. But you can tell she’d getting stronger and stronger!

 baby jeggings are the best!

Siblings: It’s nice that Tess is getting bigger and bigger and I have to worry less and less about Kye and Britt accidentally hurting her. They are sweet and gentle with her but they are also kids and can be a little bit rough! 

 Beautiful weather = outside family time!

skin to skin with big brother! 

More About Tess:


She is MUCH more alert and able to focus on object this week. I would lay her on the floor on a blanket with a toy and she’d smile and “talk” to it and be totally content. One of my BIG goals with her is to not have her be so attached to me like Britt is. I think I spent too much time with Britt. After having a baby you realize how short the baby phase is and I just want to soak it up and enjoy every second. I became Britt’s main entertainment source and I can’t have that happening with Tess! I just feel guilty leaving her lying somewhere with a dang toy! But I’m trying to do better about it!

Ashley came to visit this week! Her daughter napped in our guest bedroom and Britt watched a movie and we were able to have some girl time while Tess nursed! It worked out great and we def need to do it again sometime!

With this scary virus stuff going around I really wanted to make sure to protect Tess the best way I could! I do a vitamin d drop every day but I also wanted to start her on a probiotic. I knew it’d help avoid us getting thrush again AND it’d help keep her immune system strong. The ONLY probiotic in liquid form I could find was the Gerber Soothe Colic Drops
they aren’t cheap but hopefully they are worth it!

Tess still enjoys bath time but started having some issues AFTER bath. She cried SUPER hard two nights this week after her bath was over. It was hard to get her to nurse because she was so upset and we had no clue why?!?!

Church this week went great! We are getting a good system down and got there right on time 🙂 She looked so excited to be going 🙂 And she slept great again during services!

Love filling out our attendance card…family of 5!!!

  • Tess enjoys sitting and having me hold her hands and pulling her to the sitting position. Her head is now able to stay straight when we do this game!
  • I would hold her before naps to help her settle into sleep time but even with holding her as soon as I put her down she’d fuss a little bit prior to going to sleep. 
  • Her hair is getting thicker on top!
  • During naps I ignore her when she fusses and only go in if she hardcore cries. When I do go in though usually the nap is just DONE and she stays awake in my arms. 
  • Her hands still bother her. She is def proof that babies need swaddles! For church I put her mittens on her still because her hands would hit her and wake her up.
  • Her diaper is mega full in the mornings since she’s sleeping longer!
  • Here’s a video of Tess in independent playtime
  • She smiles pretty much constantly from the time she wakes up and also immediately after nursing. 
  • I sing “isty bitsy spider” a lot with my babies. Here’s a video of me singing it with Tess!
  • Burping is much easier and she does it on her own without needing much from me!
  • When we do have to give her the paci in the middle of the night, she takes it super well! I bet she’d be an easy paci baby if we chose to go that route (which we won’t!)
  • She still doesn’t poop often. She had one BIG blowout Saturday but that was the only poop all week. 
  • Her nails are getting thicker and harder for me to bite down
  • She had her second wonder week this week. You can see what she experienced during this week here! 
  • Overall she’s just a very happy and content baby. I pray #4 is exactly like her demeanor! 

TONS of pics of this sweet baby this week!

Here is a video of her “talking”

Here’s another video of her talking

I love this 🙂

Every baby needs a fish hat, right? 😉

Postpartum Update: 

My bellefit zipper malfunctioned and they sent me a new one for free. Obviously the longer you wear them the more stretched out they get and so I expected to struggle getting the new one on. Um no issues! It went on easy for me 🙂 Yay!

My challenge was off to a great start. I was already feeling better and lost 2.5 lbs in the first 3 days! You can see the products I use while nursing here!

Casey and I went shopping on Saturday and had the BEST time. It was EXACTLY what I needed! I have found with this baby that I NEED me time and we had a blast finding good deals. Of course we mostly bought stuff for the kids 😉 But I did decide to buy myself some size large shirts and some shorts that FIT for Hawaii. I didn’t want to go through my closet trying to pack for the trip and get depressed so we went to Old Navy and I found a few outfits on sale for me that fit me great and that I knew I’d feel confident in on the trip 🙂 

Another great week with my sweet girl 🙂

Sibling Comparisons: You can see Kye’s 8 week summary here! It was a big week for Kye as he slept through the night for the first time (same age as Tess!) and he rolled over for the first time (much later than either of the girls did). I love how I talked about his multiple sneezes. It’s something he still does and it’s something that Tess also does just like her brother!

You can see Britt’s 8 week summary here! Britt started waking motn this week which was tough on me. I also slept through her dream feed one night and decided she did still need it for awhile longer!

Emily Parker
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