The Journey of Parenthood…

Tess Summary of Month 7

Tess turned 6 months old on January 31st. This post covers her 7th month of life which was from Jan 31st – Feb 28th. 

Nursing: I had a good bit of nipple pain this month. Just like I did with Britt when she cut her first teeth! Tess started nursing quicker in the evenings and being more alert for that last feeding of the day. It was actually her quickest feeding of the day this month!  My favorite feeding of the day is the 3:00 feeding because we aren’t RUSHING. I can just nurse her and then play with her in my lap 🙂 She started grabbing my hair while nursing and I try to just keep it away from her but if she grabs it I will tell her “no ma’am”

We def are done with any lingering issues Tess had with the bottle. She still uses a MAM and uses the slow flow nipple. Britt had swim this month so I scheduled her lessons for 11:10 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. That way I fed Tess a bottle during the lessons and we had time to get to school to pick up Kye afterwards. It was crazy but it really made Tess good to go with the bottle! She also gets one each Sunday at church. When she is done then she’s DONE and there is no convincing her to drink any more. Typically she’ll only drink around 6-7 oz max. At church she also started to hold the bottle on her own. 

Solids: We started solids this month! You can see her first month of solids here! It has been a WONDERFUL experience with introducing Tess to the world of solid foods. We do Baby Led Weaning and LOVE IT. 

It took Tess a little bit to warm up to the idea of eating solids. We tried them for the first time on Feb 3rd and she just wasn’t that interested. On the second day she did a lot better (especially when she figured out she could suck on the bottom of broccoli stems!). We introduced a sippy cup of water at the same time as solids and she liked drinking water right away! She also does well waiting patiently while we have her say prayers prior to meals.

She really liked cucumber (it helped her poor sore teeth feel better!) and I’d say it was the first food she ENJOYED eating. We have to be mindful to really check her cheeks when she’s done eating! She peels the food off of the peel and will hide the peel in her mouth!

Her poop changed pretty quickly. At first it was loose and I could see chunks of food. Which surprised me because everything I read talked about how babies don’t actually eat any of the food at first. After a couple days though she became constipated. She didn’t poop for like a week and I was worried about it. I read up on it a bunch and it’s VERY common, especially for breastfed babies, to become constipated when first introduced to solids. Their system needs time to adjust to eating solid food. I was surprised to read that apples actually cause babies to be more constipated! Instead it’s better to give them pears and peaches. I took a couple days and ONLY fed her those two foods. I also gave her prune juice. And I put a thermometer (carefully!) in her hiney. Ick. I’ve never done anything like that and it made me SO nervous! I loaded it up with plenty of vasceline and it helped to get things going for her. 

First thick “non-babyish” poop on 2/16 so it took quite a few days for her system to adjust! On that day she had FIVE poop diapers haha! Guess all my constipation tricks worked 😉

I love how cute her little feet are dangling from her high chair

By the end of the month she had the sippy cup figured out and started being able to take sips from it on her own

Schedule: This month I dropped the cat nap! (more in a second). By the end of the month here was her schedule:

7:00 Up for day. Nurse. Feed solids (unless I take kids to school then she skips solids)

If not taking kids to school then she has 25 min of independent playtime in pack and play after solids

8:45-9:00: Down for nap

10:45-11:15: Up from nap. Nurse. Pick up kids from school

12:30: Solids when we get home from school (it’s not ideal but it works!)

1:00: Down for nap

2:45-3:45: Up from nap (since I dropped the cat nap I let her sleep late for this nap if she wants). Nurse. 

25 min of independent playtime in pack and play

5:30-6:00: Solids while family eats dinner

6:30: Bath

6:45: Nurse then straight to bed (I did bath early and fed earlier if needed for the days she took to adjust to dropping cat nap)

Sleep: Tess started waking at 3am due to her teething pains. She also had some rough naps because of them. I HATE that my girls get teeth so young! BUT the upside is getting it over with quickly for them. Those first teeth are the worst and I’m thankful it was a quick process. 

She is sleeping more on her side and belly than just on her back. I wouldn’t say she prefers one way over another though! She started waking at 6:15 and talking and babbling. 

On 2/19 she only slept for like 15 min of her cat nap. She took forever to fall asleep and was only asleep for 15 min when we had to get her up to eat dinner. That night she slept WAY more solid and slept until it was time to start the day at 7. A big sign of needing to drop the cat nap is when they start waking early and she’d been waking around 6ish for a little while. 

Tess is for sure a “low sleep needs” child. She has transitioned to less and less sleep at a very fast pace. 

On 2/20 Tess took forever to fall asleep for her afternoon nap. With teething pain and all I think it was just hard for her to settle to sleep. She finally fell asleep around 2 and then slept solid until 3:40. 40 min later than she should have eaten! I let her sleep though because I thought it was a good way to drop the cat nap! 

It was VERY easy to drop the cat nap. For awhile if she slept late for her afternoon nap I just let her (I’d let her go as late as 4:00). On those days she’d bathe at 6:45 and nurse at 7:00. If she woke at the normal time from her afternoon nap (3ish) then we’d bathe her early and nurse her as early as 6:30. It completely and totally fixed the 6 am waking issues!

Our nightly routine is to do bath then story and prayers and then nurse her before bed! 

I tried a few naps without the sleep sack as I didn’t want it to become a sleep prop. But when I didn’t use it she got her legs stuck out the slats of the crib! I didn’t even think about how the sleep sack is preventing that from happening! I put her back in it because I’d rather her little legs be comfortable 🙂 

One of my favorite things about Tess is how she ALWAYS wakes up SO HAPPY. When we lay her down for sleep she is grinning and grinning and when we get her up we’re met with another giant grin. Even if she is DEAD asleep and I have to wake her up (like when we go to swim) she still opens those eyes with a smile on her lips. PRECIOUS 🙂

Teething: Ugh. I LOATHE teething. Kye was my hardest teether because he took so long to get his first tooth. Britt and Tess? Early teethers and they both get several at once. It makes it rough for them but at least it’s over quicker!!!

Tess woke up some in pain which was hard for me to see. She is just SUCH a happy baby that seeing her hurt breaks my heart. I tried to use teething tablets more often than Tylenol! They helped her a good bit. 

On Feb 15th Zach and I had a date night for V-day. That day I could see the little teeth in her gums. Of course we were trying to leave and she would NOT nurse. She was crying and crying and just hurting. We did Tylenol and once it kicked in she finally nursed. But she had a lot of crying that night due to her pain as well as bad naps the next day. She was so pitiful and miserable. Her nose was also SO runny. 

On 2/18 her first TEETH arrived! Both her bottom ones came through at the same time! Once they were in she was much, much happier. And she was so cute b/c she’d play with them all the time with her tongue. 

Hair: Tess’s hair is starting to get easier to manage. It’s laying down a lot more most of the time…it still has it’s crazy moments for sure though! It is also looking SO greasy b/c the roots are coming in super mega light but the tips are still very dark so it always looks dirty. Her bald spot is covering up well and she’s for sure been my “least bald” baby yet. It’s so funny to me how all the pieces vary in length!

Bath: Bath time is Tess’s happy place. Especially with the teething and with the evenings being a little tougher due to dropping the cat nap. Early bath helped make the transition easier for her! 

This month we started putting her on the potty prior to putting her in the bath tub. Just to help her learn what the potty is and be comfortable with it. It’s an early step we take to begin potty training (you can read my early potty training tips here). 

We also got a baby tooth brush (we like the kind that goes over our finger) and started brushing those baby teeth! No toothpaste, just the brush for now!

We used her baby tub as long as we could but it got to the point this month where we needed to go ahead and graduate to the bath seat! She was trying SO hard to sit up in the baby tub! 



Toes make the best bath toys 😉



We had this bath seat for Britt and kept it even though so many of them get recalled. YES. Your baby can tip over very easily in them. But the rule of thumb with bath time is to never leave their sight anyway so we are right there and I pretty much always am holding down the seat when I do bath time. 

The first time we used the seat we thought it’d be fun for all three kids to take a bath together! They actually ended up all bathing together for a couple months. Zach liked it better because Tess was in the middle and kept the older two from bickering over toys 🙂

I love that the third baby ALWAYS has so many helpers 😉

My babies!

Car: Up until this month Tess never made a PEEP in the car. Like I legit began to understand why people leave a shoe in the backseat to make sure they don’t forget their child. There were MANY times that I would check the mirror to make sure she was back there and that I hadn’t forgotten her at home! Ha! This month the sun started really bothering her. The van has shades on the windows but if the sun hit her in the face she would cry. It’s pretty much the only reason she’d cry in the car. With taking Britt to swim it added a lot more time in the car each day. Usually Tess is in the car to take the kids to school (15 min there, 10 min wait to drop off, 15 min home) then to get the kids after school (15 min there, 10 min wait to pick up, 15 min home). But swim added an additional 20 min to get to swim then 20 min to get from swim to school. It made a difference in her happiness in the car! She fussed more than she ever has! Other than a little fussiness, she’s still a GREAT car baby! She even started to “sing” this month while riding 🙂 

Waiting in car pool line

I crack up EVERY time I open the van door because I’m ALWAYS greeted with the BIGGEST grin!

More From This Month:


We took Tess down to the playground and she did GREAT in the swings!

Tess is starting to be mobile. She rolls like a wild woman and can get anywhere she wants to go by rolling! In her room I will put her down to play on her playmat and she will quickly move to mess with the base of her swing. 

Before this month Tess really preferred soft toys but now she likes stuff she can chew on…she LOVES the Razbaby Teether
(one of my favorite gifts to give new parents!) and also loves bathtub books. 

She is still doing well for independent playtime. On a typical school day I can only get in one full 25 min pack and play time a day, but I try to get in two sessions if possible with her. She’s at an awkward stage because she can’t yet sit unsupported for very long but also doesn’t want to just lay there. We took down the bar with the toys hanging from it and now have a basket of toys. When her timer goes off we sing the clean up song to help her learn from an early age to clean up!

Tess still very much likes her toes…this is a common pose!

A big achievement this month was in Tess’s ability to sit unsupported. She’s working at getting from laying down to sitting on her own but when I put her in the sitting position, she can stay there longer and longer. She will be laying down and will end up scooting backwards because she’s trying to get in the sitting position. 

These series of pics really show the differences in her hair! It will either be laying super flat like this…

…or be extremely crazy like this!

Crazy Hair Don’t Care!

This age is SO great because her little personality is developing and she enjoys playing and such but she isn’t mobile yet. I lay a blanket down on the floor with some toys for her and she’s good to go! She spends most of her playtime in the living room on a blanket. And she’s happy as can be about it 🙂 

I couldn’t resist and put her hair in little pigtails this month for the first time!
Cuteness overload? I think so!

When she gets excited her whole body stiffens

Siblings: Now that Tess is becoming her own person…she’s becoming more of a legit sibling 😉 She wants what the big kids have and they are in for a RUDE awakening! I cracked up when I took these pics of Tess and Britt. Hello the world of sisters!

I know the days of sibling arguments and issues are coming but so are the days of sibling bonding and I am SO excited to see these girls grow up together 🙂

Britt’s favorite thing to do with Tess right now is read. She LOVES to read! With Mommy, by herself, and especially to her sister. It’s really, really precious. Sometimes Tess listens, and sometimes Tess is in her own little world. Britt mostly just either “reads” what the pictures are or repeats key phrases she knows from the book. Britt could read all day and she has a very captive audience right now in her little sister!

I got the sweetest message from Britt’s teacher this month. She said that Britt had started praying for Tess every day during their circle time at school. This makes my heart so happy to hear, especially since it took her and Kye both awhile to add Tess to the family. When Kye would draw pictures he’d leave her off and in their prayers they’d forget to pray for her (now they often forget to pray for each other but always pray for Tess!). 

Kye continues to be very, very sweet with Tess and extremely hands on with her. While Britt is more of the “Mommy’s helper” with things like diapers and turning on Tess’s fan and such, Kye more wants to be involved with Tess. Anything I’m doing with her he’s right there as part of the action. I’ve said it before but I LOVE this age difference!

He was right there to witness Tess’s first solid foods!

And he always asks if he can go “get her up” when her nap is over!

Kye’s most proud “big brother moment” this month was “teaching” Tess how to play the drum. He was SO thrilled by this! It was SO cute to watch him teach her and watch his pride when she beat the drum 🙂 We made a pretty big deal about it because it made Kye so happy! 

For a few days every time he was around her he was wanting to play the drum with her 🙂

More About Tess:

  • She’s in a size 3 diaper
  • When she lays on the floor she kicks her legs a lot, like she does in the jumperoo
  • We have one of those old fashioned toys where you hit a button and a toy pops up…she has figured out how to close all the toys back down when we pop them up.
  • She gives the sweetest puckered lip kisses!
  • She makes a “pop” sound
  • She also makes an “sssss” sound
  • Diaper changes are getting tough as she rolls like crazy!
  • She also has started “roaring”
  • She is a loud breather like Zach and Britt! 
  • She also started panting like a puppy, which I remember Britt doing as well
  • She is very, very vocal and moans a lot (sorry girl, you get that from your mama!)
  • Tess gets SUPER excited when she sees the dogs!
  • She had her last TDap booster so she’s officially good to go for being in public and around others. We’ve held off on taking her to Sunday School due to sick season (after that RSV I didn’t want to chance it) and also due to not having the last booster yet. 
  • Tess has THE sweetest, happiest disposition. She’s extremely pampered and spoiled because she’s just so sweet! We are all so used to her being happy and easy-going all the time that if she fusses at all we all panic and rush to help her. 🙂

Videos:


I seriously cannot believe how quickly Tess is growing up. I want her to just stay my little sweet baby forever! 

People tell me constantly how cute Tess is. And I mean constantly. It’s funny because they will almost put down my other kids in the way they talk about Tess! I’ve had multiple people say “your kids just get cuter and cuter the more you have” haha. When people compliment Tess I have to remind myself to say THANK YOU because I just want to say “omg I know she’s so precious and I just want to squeeze her all the time and I’m basically obsessed with her” haha. I know she’s my baby and everyone always thinks their babies are adorable…but she is really, really cute and really, really photogenic. She will just sit and let me take 1,000 pictures anytime I want. I legit looked into baby modeling this month haha! I didn’t pursue anything but when I got this ad in the mail and saw this baby I could TOTALLY picture Tess in the ad instead so I thought it was worth just looking into. First off we live in a small town, second there are no major cute baby contests (like Gap or Parents) anytime soon, third i’m not about to pay money to have her in some modeling agency. No way. So it was a fun little idea for about 5 minutes 😉 I will just enjoy having a billion pics of my cutie instead!

Sibling Comparisons: You can see Kye’s 7th month here! I love, love, love watching the videos of him at this age. I literally cannot remember him being this small! I showed Zach this video of him tickling baby Kye 🙂 That sweet little boy is now SO grown!!!

You can see Britt’s 7th Month here.  I say it every month but in the looks department Tess just still favors Kye more to me than she does Britt. I love Britt’s BIG mouth and it cracks me up that she was legit talking at this age. And I laughed even more that I thought she was a mini me. Britt is SO her daddy’s child! So much of her post is still true to her now which is so, so interesting to me. I love having this blog so I can go back and see my babies through each stage of their lives! 

Emily Parker
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