The Journey of Parenthood…

Week Ten Summary

Tess’s 10th week of life was from Thursday Oct 2 through Wednesday Oct 8th. She was 9 weeks old during this week.

Nursing: My biggest concern this week was bottle feeding. We left for Hawaii on Oct 9th. Tess HAD to be able to take a bottle. I gave her a bottle when we got home from her 2 month well visit and she drank it GREAT! It gave me a lot of hope but sadly it was short lived…

The weekend before our trip we followed the advice of the pediatrician and made plans for Zach to feed her a bottle for every meal. Kye and I had a date day to stay out of the house. We started out using the Medela Calma but ended up switching back to our normal Medela nipples. First feeding she drank 3.5 oz and it took 90 min, second feeding she drank only 2 oz and it was 90 min. Third feeding she did 3.5 oz (that’s the feeding he switched back to old nipple) and took 90 min. Fourth feeding Mrs. Charlotte came and fed it to her so Zach could take Britt on a date. She drank 6 oz and it only took 30 min. Fifth feeding she did 5.5 oz in 50 min and then her dream feed she did 4.5 oz in 45 min. I felt hopeful but that as soon as I went back to nursing her, she went back to not doing well for the bottle.

I tried on Monday and she drank under 3.5 oz. I started at 4:45 and finally at 6:08 I had to give up. 

I was EXTREMELY upset and concerned about the bottle situation. I couldn’t fly literally across the world not feeling confident that my baby would be okay. I asked around for advice. I read everything I could about it. And some babies just straight up refuse bottle feeding. I was a MESS. I finally thought of the idea that I wish I’d thought of sooner: send her to Mrs. Charlotte’s early. We were taking the kids to Mrs. Charlotte’s on Thursday night and leaving Friday morning. She and I talked and I took Tess to her on Wednesday afternoon. That gave her a full day to do bottle feeding before we left so we could see how she did. It ended up working out SO GREAT!!!

Not only did Tess do awesome with the bottles for Mrs. Charlotte but it allowed Zach and I to get quality time with the big kids before leaving. I hated, hated, hated being away from Tess for an extra day BUT it was worth it to know she’d be okay while we were gone. I felt 1,000 times better knowing she was HAPPY and EATING!!!

I think she just does best for the bottle when she does nothing other than bottle feeding. I think when she knows she will be nursing she just waits and eats more then to make up for the bottle feeding. Anytime we did a bottle and then I nursed her the next feeding she always nursed SUPER long!

Schedule: Along with the big bottle focus, I also shifted Tess’s schedule this week!

If you are comparing notes with Kye and Britt then you’ll notice that Tess moved slower with her schedule changes. She had her shots on Oct 2nd so I moved her schedule the day she turned 9 weeks old. The appointment ran late and she was very sleepy from her shots so I left her sleeping until 10:30 instead of waking her at 10.

Her new schedule is a combo 3 ½/3 hour schedule:

7:00 nurse
8:00 down for nap
10:30: nurse
11:30: down for nap
2:00 nurse
3:00: down for nap
5:00: nurse
6:00: down for nap
8:00: bath routine then nurse then immediately asleep for night
10:30: dream feed

Her awake time was right at 60 minutes and she takes roughly 30 min to nurse so that leaves 30 min of playtime with her! She adjusted to the new schedule very well! She would fuss a little at both 10:00 and 1:00 b/c those were the times she was used to waking up to eat.

Sleep: On top of the bottle issues, and the schedule change, it was also a wonder week for Tess! She was at the tail end of the 2nd leap and I could tell the signs of it because she kept not sleeping solid and was just much more AWAKE!

She still looks so small in her crib!

WIDE awake when she SHOULD be sleeping!

More About Tess:

  • Her nails seem a lot thicker so I busted out the nail clippers this week
  • She smiles SO BIG whenever I go in her room to get her up! Here’s a video
  • The roots coming in are super super light hairs 
  • The day of her shots she was VERY fussy and just seemed to be in a good pit of pain. I did Tylenol and it really helped. She just wanted to be cuddled and eat a lot of the day! I did the Tylenol the whole first day then just one dose the next morning and she was back to normal
  • This week was really neat because Tess, Lindsay and I were featured in an article on Popsugar!!!! You can see it here!
  • Tess started talking more this week and saying “words” (mostly “a goo”)
  • Here’s a video of Tess smiling
  • She started looking directly at objected and talking and laughing at them
  • She also started focusing on things and will move her head around like crazy to see everything around her
  • Here is a video of her talking!
  • Having more playtime with her is awesome! 
  • Her wonder week ended right before we left for our trip which was PERFECT timing so she did awesome napping for Mrs. Charlotte!

More pics of my sweetie!

Crazy hair!

She has SO many expressions now which is really fun 🙂

Here’s a video of her feeling the grass

Siblings: Knowing I’d be leaving my babies for a whole week made me REALLY appreciate every second we had together! We did a LOT of snuggling this week 🙂 I love the pics I got of the big kids with Tess 🙂

Favorite pic of them together 🙂

Postpartum Update: The bottle issues REALLY caused me anxiety. I was so, so, so worried and just felt the anxiousness in my chest. I’m SO thankful Mrs. Charlotte didn’t mind taking Tess a day early because it made a HUGE difference in my mental and emotional state leading up to the trip. 

Since I moved the dream feed up to 10:30 I no longer napped before it. I felt more tired missing out on that nap but I’m hoping it’ll result in longer solid sleep for me!

I felt much more insecure during postpartum this time than I have ever in the past. I’m not sure why? Maybe I had unrealistic expectations of my looks? I’m thankful I bought several new outfits to wear to Hawaii. It made packing VERY easy and tear free 🙂 

I FINALLY sent out all my thank you cards this week!!! I appreciate all the meals and thoughtful gifts for Tess since her birth and am embarrassed it took me so long to send them! We’ve gotten a few gifts since I mailed these and I need to mail those thank yous as well!

My sweet Aunt Cheryl sent an AWESOME package for Tess and the kids this week! The big kids each got $5 so you know they were crunk and she got Tess these beautiful Vera Bradley baby things! I was so surprised and felt so loved and special 🙂 Very, very thoughtful!

Overall this week I struggled emotionally. The anxiety of the bottle, dealing with the wonder week, the idea of leaving the kids. It was hard. I felt very emotional and cried very easily. I felt sad all the time and very unappreciated. I think motherhood IS a very unappreciated job. You give and give and give to your kids and they really never “get it.” I mean just take breastfeeding for example! It’s HARD! And no adult walks around saying “man I sure am smart b/c my mom breastfed me!” Even though it was hard to imagine leaving the kids…I knew it would be good for ME and good for my relationship with Zach. We needed time away together and it was great timing for that!

The day I took Tess to Mrs. Charlotte’s I was very emotional. I took a ton of pics of her to have on my phone and enjoyed our “last” nursing session together! And yes, I even took a video of her nursing 😉 Don’t worry you can’t see anything! I just love her little breathing sounds!

Sibling Comparions:  You can see Kye’s 10 week summary here! You can see Britt’s week 10 summary here. SO thankful not to be dealing with mastitis this time around…although I would love to be as thin as I was after having Britt!

Emily Parker
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