The Journey of Parenthood…

Week Nine Summary

Tess’s 9th week of life was from Thursday September 25 – Wednesday October 1st. She was 8 weeks old during this week!

Nursing: Since I weaned off the middle of the night feeding this week I noticed her spit up increase. ALL of my babies have been “happy spitters” and I for sure think it’s due to my abundant supply. I think with the other two I dropped feedings SO fast and that made my supply issues worse b/c my body couldn’t adjust to the dropped feedings. With Tess I plan to keep the dream feed longer than I did with the other two. I think it’s more for MY benefit than hers! Cutting out the middle of the night feeding caused me to start feeling too full, leaking more, and caused her to start spitting up more. I tried pumping one day after the morning feeding and it helped minimize her spitting up the rest of the day. 

I stopped having ANY pain this week while nursing!!! Y’all. I had BAD pain and really thought it would last forever. It lasted 8 weeks. Which is a long time, don’t get me wrong, but if I can push through it so can you! Don’t give up when nursing gets tough…it WILL get easier!!! So glad I was able to start just 100% enjoying nursing her 🙂

Bottle feeding started to get tough this week (spoiler alert: bottle feeding has been a HUGE battle with this baby!!!). She would drink from it but it was just a struggle. On Saturday Zach did a bottle for her at 4 and she only drank 1.5 oz total. Then she was STARVING at the 7:00 feeding and nursed for 90 min! 

We took our first trip to the park as a family on Sunday and Zach did the bottle and she only ended up drinking 3 oz and then was HUNGRY the next feeding because that wasn’t enough for her. 

I started to get very, very nervous about the bottle situation. Hawaii was only 2 weeks away and she HAD to be able to drink a bottle for Mrs. Charlotte! I ordered a Medela Calma Nipple
as I’ve always used Medela bottles and thought maybe that nipple would help. On Wednesday we tried it for her 4:00 feeding. She drank 2 oz super fast but then took 90 minutes just to drink another 1.5 oz. We decided that the new nipple wasn’t helping for sure!!!  At this age she should be drinking at least 4 oz per feeding 🙁

Schedule: 

Still the same! Eating at 7, 10, 1, 4, 7, 11. 

Her awake time length this week was right at 60 min. So that means she’d wake at 7 and then go down for nap at 8, etc. 

Sleep:


I did some more sleep journaling this week so be warned 😉

Wednesday night she woke at 5 am (so technically early Thur morning!) Zach gave her the paci three times and realized when we got her up at 6:55 that she’d had a MASSIVE poop diaper!

Thursday was a tough day. Didn’t nap well at all. Maybe from the wonder week? She also broke out of the swaddle several times. She doesn’t get her arms out…she gets the LEGS out and it totally messes up her sleep!

Thursday night did df at 11. She woke at 5:15 with the hiccups. Zach gave her the paci and held her for about 30 min and then she slept solid until 6:40

I found out this week that she does better for her naps when I just leave her rather than going in. She fusses a bit then goes back to sleep. Never hardcore cries. However at her last nap of the day she will NOT go back to sleep and just seemed wide awake. It’s VERY normal for the last nap of the day to be the toughest! 

Friday night she slept until 5:45 and was broken completely out of the swaddle. Zach went in once (and I got up and pumped a little for comfort) and then she slept solid until 7:15! Yay!

Saturday we had a tough time with the bottle but then she nursed for a long time at her 7:00 feeding and then needed help going to sleep after the df? Which NEVER happens. BUT she sttn without a single peep! I had to wake her at 7:15!

On Sunday her naps were not good all day. The best nap she had was in the car seat at church! I started to treat her last nap as a true “cat nap” She would wake at 6 every time so I started getting her up at 6:20 and then bathing her early and feeding her early (6:45).

She sttn perfectly Sat, Sun, Mon and Tues nights! Def good to go for officially saying we have a baby who sleeps through the night!!!!!!!!

By mid-week her naps went back to solid as well. Her df also started getting quicker. I was able to be in the bed by 11:45! 

After church we leave her in the car seat and just put it in her crib so we can see her (she has the snuza on too to monitor her breathing!)

Still rocking the gloves 😉

I had a foot appointment this week and took Tess with me, assuming she’d nap her first nap in the car seat. Well. Car seat napping days are OVER. She didn’t fall asleep in the car on the way there. Then I got there and she was crying. I used my car seat canopy for the first time and had the sleep sheep going and just rocked the car seat until she finally fell asleep. I guess the babysitting days have arrived for when I have appointments! While I was doing all of that an older lady came over to me and commented about how she remembered those days. Then she said that now she’s caring for her husband who is in poor health and it’s like caring for an infant again. Um. SO SAD. 

Other Stuff About Tess:

  • When changing her diaper we pat dry to help avoid diaper rash
  • She is SO smily and happy during her df!
  • She is the happiest baby and smiles SO BIG all the time. I love that gummy grin!
  • She started laughing this week…so adorable
  • I love love love love the softness of her hair! I love to play with it while I nurse her. It’s just so soft and sweet!

First golf cart ride. We lasted a few minutes then Zach got worried the battery was going to die so we turned around 😉

First playground visit!

I had her sad eyes when she hasn’t slept well 🙁

CRAZY HAIR!

Finally got some sister pics this week!

And, of course, I had to get some of her church outfit 🙂 Britt wore this dress for our Christmas card pics when she was born! It was pretty tight on Tess (I didn’t button it in the back) but it was cute 🙂

More pics of my sweet baby girl from this week!

Postpartum: I felt pretty frustrated this week with my weight loss. It’s taking SO MUCH longer this time around. I started working out each night after her last feeding of the day. With my foot it’s hard but I would either do the elliptical or do yoga (I found this great EASY Yoga For Weight Loss DVD!)

I also found if I nap too long before her dream feed that it makes it MEGA hard to get up for it. I started only letting myself get a 45 min nap and that allowed me to bounce out of bed and be nice and alert for the dream feeding!

Sibling Comparison: You can see Kye’s week 9 summary here! He started spitting up more at this age too. Kye, so far, was my BIGGEST spitter. Hopefully Tess won’t be as bad as her brother!

You can see Britt’s week 9 summary here! SO crazy that she was wearing size 6 months clothes at this age!!! Tess is still barely in 3 month! I also can’t believe I got mastitis at this point with Britt. SO thankful I haven’t had it with Tess (at least not yet).  

Emily Parker
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