The Journey of Parenthood…

Week Seven Summary

Brittlynn’s 7th week of life was from January 17th – the 23rd. Here’s what we were up to that week:

Sleep: BIG events in the world of sleep for Miss Britt! On 1/17 she had her first FLAWLESS day of sleep. Never had to go in her room once the WHOLE day. Hard work takes awhile to pay off but it made it all worth it for sure 😉 She also ate wonderfully that day, for about 45 min each feeding and had awesome awake times!!! It was one of those days you just want to hold onto forever.

That night she broke out of her swaddle for the first time but the next night (Wed Jan 18th) she SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!! A little over six weeks old and she slept from her dreamfeed at 10:30 (so I put her down close to 11:30) until 7!!! When Kye first sttn he was eight weeks old and I remember vividly Zach and I freaking out because we were worried about him. Of course this was before we owned a video monitor or an angel care monitor so Zach ran across the house to make sure he was breathing 😉 With Brittlynn I didn’t panic when I woke up and she was still asleep. I knew the angel care monitor would have gone off if something was wrong. But I did look at the video monitor to see if she was okay and she wasn’t there! The girl had somehow managed to scoot herself out of the vision of the camera and when we went in to get her (and shower her with praises) she was completely unswaddled. I’m talking like arms and legs out of the thing. And she had a poop diaper! All these elements that you would think would make her wake up but she didn’t! Super pumped about it for SURE. That’s two babies in a row…two babies we used Babywise with…and two babies who have slept through the night at or under two months of age. How could you not be a Babywise believer?!?

Thursday we started back to doing shh-pat when needed in the middle of naps and tried not to pick her up unless she was very upset. We also let her cio (cry it out) at the beginning of naps. It worked beautifully as she had her first COMPLETELY solid nap where she didn’t wake up one single time. She went right to sleep and slept solid from 11:15-2. So proud!

Schedule:  Her schedule was the same as Week Six. Everything went smoothly with it this week and no adjustments were needed! Nursing also continued on going well!

Since she finishes eating at 6:00 and goes down at 6:30, if everything goes smoothly (meaning Zach is home from work early enough to heat up something for dinner and I remember to defrost something before feeding her at 5) then we are able to eat dinner as a family!!! I LOVE it!!! This was our first time doing it. Zach had brought home some free food that one of his groups gave him. Britt joined us at (well on) the table. Our lights are too bright though because I didn’t like how warm she felt afterwards so now she enjoys dinner on the floor beside me 🙂

Tears: I keep forgetting to mention this!!! Brittlynn has LEGIT tears. And has for a few weeks now. Isn’t that crazy? I don’t remember Kye having real tears this young at all. I’m glad she’s such a happy baby and doesn’t cry them very often!!!

Miracle Blanket: I have always used the Swaddleme brands of swaddles with both kids but while I was pregnant with Britt I heard all about the Miracle Blanket. Kelly hooked me up with one when Britt was born and since she started breaking out of her swaddles this week we decided to switch over to it. It has NO velcro and the baby’s weight is actually what keeps them from breaking out of it. It works great and I highly recommend it!!!

Sleeping solid!

Car Rides: Britt now enjoys her car seat toy! I can’t always see her in the car (we need to buy new mirrors because the ones we got this time are garbage) but I can hear her hit the plastic toys! So cute. She is not a fan of the car though. She’ll BAWL when I put her in and SCREAM every time I stop, even if just at a red light. We really, really need to go on a far away trip so she can start learning how to deal with it.

Church: With church right now Zach, Kye and Mom go to class and leave the house at 9:10. I pump at 9:30 then get her and leave by 10:10 so we can be at services and she eats a bottle during services then we get home before her nap at noon. I want to be more involved than that but right now it’s better than nothing. It’s not that I’m putting her schedule first, it’s that I’m putting myself first. I know I need to just tough it out but I don’t want to wake up even earlier to get ready for church so we can be out the door by 9:10 and by the evening times (Sun night and Wed nights we also typically attend something at the church) I’m EXHAUSTED and can’t imagine getting ready all over again and out the door. With time I’ll get there!!!

Spit Up: I have accepted the fact that I birth pukers. Kye spit up on the reg and Britt does too. Like LEGIT spit up. Like all the time. I mean every minute they are awake. It’s gross but it’s my life. I live in the land of puke. With Kye we assumed something was wrong with him but even the GERD medicine didn’t stop it from happening. With Britt I assume it’s normal since it’s the same way Kye did too. I honestly think it’s just from me making SO much milk that they get more than they need at the feedings and spit out the extra??? This picture shows why I don’t bother getting dressed in “real clothes” during the day and why I won’t ever wear anything that’s dry clean only:

I love that this is the view I have when Daddy’s at home. He is so good with them both!!!

Britt and I went on our first walk…we made it about 6 houses down the street when she started falling asleep so I RAN home to put her down for nap.

Our special quality time is from 3-3:30 when Kye’s napping 😉

Still loving bath time!!!

Just some sweet pictures of my girl:

rolling her tongue

First time sitting in her Bumbo chair!!!

Yes, they make Bumbo covers now…isn’t that awesome???

I know it’s not a good one of Kye but look at her face…you can tell she ADORES him!!!

Here’s a video of Britt watching Kye and him talking about how he wants to hold her.

Yes, more sweet pictures. Sorry I can’t help myself 😉

Here’s a video of Britt having tummy time – lifting her head, having the hiccups and grunting

Here’s a video of Britt trying to roll over but getting frustrated, she’s super happy when I helped her out though!

laughing

This is my FAV video to date of Brittlynn! She is so so happy…ignore my baby talk but she is totally loving it 😉

She is THE happiest baby EVER!

More stuff going on with Britt this week:

  •  We had our first mall outing together. She was SCREAMING when I walked in the mall and as I was hurrying to get her bottle out an older couple came by to look at her and you could totally tell that they were thinking bad mommy thoughts about me since my kid was crying like that!!!
  • While at the mall she ate her bottle then would not sit in the stroller while I did some exchanges so I ended up carrying her and pushing the stroller which isn’t an easy task. I was able to make two returns then we had to go pick up Kye. Totally not worth it and I ended up going to run errands on a Sat instead, MUCH easier to do alone than with a baby!
  • She has little to no interest in any toys. ALL of her happiness comes from just looking at us and being social!
  • She is constantly smiling, laughing and making sweet happy sounds
  • Her eyebrows remind me so much of Mr. Rusty’s. I know that’s random but from the front they look kinda dark, light brown reddish even maybe. Then when you look at the tops of them (like look at her from above) they are SO blonde.
  • She will sometimes wake at 6:30 am but Zach (he does night duty…which has been a breeze with this baby!) can hold her off until 6:45 or she’ll fall back to sleep sometimes until 7:00.
  • She LOVES her brother’s voice and will turn to watch him no matter what he is doing, with a constant smile on her face
  • The schedule is for sure solid now with her as she doesn’t freak out, acting like she’s starving. She’s very calm when it’s time to eat because she understands that it’s coming and that I’m not going to forget to feed her 😉 I LOVE life on a schedule because we all know what to expect next, including the baby!

Postpartum Update:
You’d think from how the week went with her sleeping and all that I’d be reporting how AMAZING I was feeling!!! You’re wrong haha. On Tuesday  was in a FUNK all day. I posted this as my facebook status: “In
a funk. I don’t know if it’s hormonal or menstrual or what but I can’t
stop crying! I’m just tired of everything…tired of being tired, tired
of feeling like I can’t get caught up, tired of hearing a crying baby
all day, tired of feeling like I’m letting Kye down, tired of looking
like complete crap when my poor husband gets home, tired of living
within these walls day after day. It’s been too long since my last
get-away. I have that desperate need to travel itch!!!”

I didn’t think it was a big deal…but I guess it was??? I had a lot of moms respond to it saying that I was saying so many things they wish they could say…and I had so many inbox messages of people concerned that maybe I was suffering from postpartum depression. I appreciated all the love and support, especially this article that one of my friends, Autumn, posted for me. It’s good to not feel alone on rough days and that article made me realize we ALL have moments where motherhood is rough!!! I just felt upset and really for no real reason. I realized that next morning that it was because my friendly monthly visitor was BACK! So I was just having 9 months worth of PMS in one day 😉 And yes, it IS possible to get your period while nursing. I’m living proof. I got it when Kye was six weeks old and when Brittlynn was six weeks old…and I exclusively breastfed them both. It stinks but it also is such a blessing, I’m very fertile and that’s a true gift!!!

When I weighed in I had lost 0.6 lbs so I had exactly 6 lb left to lose until my pre-pregnancy weight. I still wasn’t feeling very attractive and didn’t like how clothes fit me. I def look best in dresses because jeans, even my maternity ones, make my tummy flab more noticeable!

The CRAZIEST thing to me about this week was that when Kye was this same age…we went to PARIS. Um. I was NUTS. We have yet to even leave Brittlynn alone with anyone…and we left Kye for five days with Mom. I appreciate Mom doing that SO much more now than I even did then (and I appreciated it a lot then!). The reason we haven’t had anyone watch Britt is because it’d be a pain for them. Not because we mind leaving her or anything. I was hard on myself this week, feeling like I should be able to handle everything by now and be back to “Emily” by now. I was a BASKET CASE in Paris and I only had one kid…realizing that made me feel so much better about myself this week.

Emily Parker
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3 Comments

  1. Katie R
    February 8, 2012 / 1:33 pm

    She is getting so big! I loved the miracle blanket with baby #2 as well. I will have to get another whenever we have #3, because I would have to wash and dry it in super speed to get it ready for the next nap!

    Reply
  2. Amanda Coox
    December 4, 2021 / 5:24 pm

    Hi! I’m wondering if you have the 6 week schedule for Britt posted – when I click on the links, it just takes me to Kyle’s 6 week page, and that doesn’t have the timing scheduled you used there! I’ve really loved your site, tips, and details around babywise, and would love to see her actual schedule (or your other daughter’s too!) during that time, Especially as your mention it again that it’s the same for 7 weeks.

    Reply

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