Tess’s 3rd week of life was from August 14th through August 20th. She was two weeks old during this week!
Nursing: I know she’s still a “newborn” but at 2 weeks old a lot of the early stages of the newborn life kinda fade…Tess started to be MUCH more alert and awake for her feedings at this point.
Tess started latching on easier at this age as well. If she came off the breast she would go back on super quickly without much effort from me. She also started being less frantic to nurse. I could tell she trusted us. When it was time to eat she knew we’d feed her and wasn’t in such a rush about it. It was nice to have a calm baby when she first woke up!
I have a “bad breast.” My left one got destroyed with all my nursing issues with Kye. I wish I could put a picture up bc seriously it’s awful. When Tess was born it hurt for her to eat on that side every single feeding. The latching process was just very painful. Enough where anyone in the room with me would have to get a warning from me! I’d let them know about the pain so they weren’t shocked when I was hurting. It was still painful at this point but it wasn’t as bad as when she was first born. It just hurt right when she latched and once she started feeding it felt better.
In order to store up milk for Hawaii I started a daily pump session each morning after her feeding and would get 2-4 oz each time. I also started giving her bottles of mostly Milkies milk. That way I could pump for the missed bottle feeding and get more pumped milk to store for Hawaii!
Schedule: At 2 weeks old it’s time to start implementing a legit schedule! My desired awake time for all my kids is 7. It’s been that way since we first started Babywise back with Kye. At this age You still want to schedule feedings every 2.5 – 3 hours. I read both Babywise and also Baby Whisperer and set up this schedule for Tess:
Eating at 7, 10, 1, 4, 6 and 8. Then dream feed at 10:30 and we crossed our fingers and hoped she slept for a longer stretch at night! I did cluster feeding (feeding closer together in the evenings) to help her “tank up” and stay fuller longer at night.
The first night on this schedule she woke at 2:30 and 5, the second night she woke at 3 and then at 6. Since 6 was so close to our desired awake time of 7…I nursed her in her room and just nursed her enough to get her back to sleep then put her right back to bed.
That Sunday night she woke at 1:30 and would only nurse for 12 min and only from one side. I totally freaked out b/c I’ve never had that happen with my babies!!! I tried for over 30 min to get her to wake up enough to eat and ended up crying (hello hormones and lack of sleep!) and went to bed. She then slept until 4:30 and this time I didn’t stress it when she would only nurse on one side. I went back to bed and she didn’t wake again! This only happened that ONE night. No clue why?!?!
On Aug 18th she woke early to eat for the df so I fed her at 9:30. She took FOREVER to nurse but then only woke once in the night at around 2!
On August 20th I tried switching up the schedule a bit. I moved the dream feed to 11:00 in hopes of getting her to only wake once in the night. So her schedule then looked like this:
Eating at 7, 10, 1, 4, 6, 8 and then df at 11. It worked and she only woke up at 3 am!
So by the end of the week this was her schedule:
7:00: Up for the day
7:00-7:30ish: Nurse
7:30ish-7:45ish: Awake Time
7:45ish-10:00: Nap
10:00-10:30ish: Nurse
10:30ish-10:45ish: Awake Time
10:45ish-1:00: Nap
1:00-1:30ish: Nurse
130ish-1:45ish: Awake Time
1:45ish-4:00: Nap
4:00-4:30ish: Nurse
4:30ish-4:45ish: Awake Time
4:45ish-6:00: Cat Nap 1
6:00-630ish: Eat
6:30ish-6:45ish: Awake Time
6:45ish-7:45ish: Cat Nap 2
7:45ish: Bath, ready for bed
8:00: Eat with lights low and then straight to bed
11:00: Wake up for dream feed, keep lights low and put straight back to bed
Sometime around 3:00 AM: Middle of the Night Feeding
8:00 is considered Tess’s bedtime at this age. We would give her a bath prior to feeding her. It’s the only time of the day that we reverse the Eat – Awake – Sleep cycle. She gets up, gets a bath, gets in pjs, and then I nurse her to sleep and put her straight to bed. With the set schedule in place it meant she got to start getting her nightly baths! I love that Zach enjoys bathing our children and think it’s such great bonding time for him with them!
Sleep: With her being on a schedule she still did not have long awake times at all. It was pretty much nurse then to bed. I watched for her sleep cues (yawning or fussing seem to be hers) then put her to bed. Typically she’d make it around 40-50 min total awake time (including eating time)
Tess sounded congested this week. I did NOT panic about it because I remember very vividly how congested Britt was at a young age. Instead I just got out the cool mist humidifier and set it up in her room. I also got out the Nose Frida (new gadget for me!) and used that to help clear her out. I ran the humidifier during her naps and night sleep and used the Nose Frida before she ate and then again before she went down for naps. It really made a big difference! By the end of the week I no longer needed to use either one for her!
With the beginning of the life on a schedule, I started to let her fuss at the start of naps ONLY. I did not let her cry at all mid-nap but when a nap first started I’d let her settle into sleep and fuss some. I’d watch the clock and let her fuss for 10 min max…usually she’d fall asleep at around the 8 min marker!
When it’s time to put her to sleep I would hold her upright while swaddled and just sit with her in a vertical position on my shoulder. I didn’t talk or rock or sing or anything. Just sat. I would wait until her body went “limp” and was relaxed then I’d lay her down.
Often Tess would get the hiccups at the start of naps. SO annoying! I felt like it bothered her and didn’t allow her to get to sleep so I would give her some Gripe Water and it helped a TON!
Here’s a sweet little video of her sleeping!
Overall she did super well with the new schedule and many of her naps I had to wake her up in order to feed her!!! Love those baby stretches 🙂
Mid-nap if she cried I would go in there. You are still considered “on schedule” if the baby eats 15 min prior to feeding time or 15 min after. I would go in and hold her to sleep and then lay her back down in the crib. If she continued to wake and cry then I would just hold her until it was close enough to the scheduled time to eat. I don’t interact with her, I just sit and hold her. My goal is always for her to sleep in the crib the entire nap but at this age…her SLEEPING is the most important so if that means having to hold her then that’s okay too!
This week I also tried the swing for the first time. None of my kids have ever been big on the swing. I know many, many baby wise moms who use them. If the baby wakes mid-nap at a young age the #1 goal needs to be to get them to sleep. At this point Tess was much too young to cry it out mid-nap so I would first try to hold her to sleep but I also have two other kids! Some of the times during the day it just wasn’t possible for me to sit in there holding a baby for 30 min! I pulled the swing over to where I could see it in the monitor and tried to get her to sleep there. I tried the little travel swing we have as that’s the one Britt preferred as a baby (although she didn’t sleep in it much at all!). I would say that Tess was also not a big fan. I did it when I had no other option, but it wasn’t something that worked all that well for us.
More About Tess This Week: On Sunday August 17th her cord stump fell off! There was still a little piece lingering, but for the most part it was gone. Do y’all keep the stump? Zach’s mom still has her kids…and Casey kept Carters. Um. NASTY. I am truly grossed out by it and have zero desire to keep that?!?!
Tummy time officially kicked off this week for Tess. I love her perfect little head and really, really hope to avoid it going flat. The more tummy time the better but she HATES it. Which is hilarious because Britt always loved it and Britt also ended up being a tummy sleeper. I have a feeling Tess won’t be a belly sleeper! She did not have very long awake times so tummy time would only be for a few minutes when possible.
With school back in full swing Tess also got to experience the bouncer seat some more. It’s really a savior when I need to put a baby down to get something done! This week Tess had her first chiropractor appointment so I told Zach I would take the kids to school. That meant getting myself, Tess, and the kids ready and out the door! It was a little crazy but we got it done!
I don’t think Tess needs the toys on the bouncer b/c she has siblings to entertain her!
My hope was for Tess to sleep in the car seat when we dropped the big kids off. The van is rearranged where the big kids are in the 3rd row, Tess is in the 2nd row, and Zach removed the other 2nd row seats to make a big space to be able to access the 3rd row. Since it’s a BEAST to get back there and unbuckle Britt (yes, she’s still rear facing back there!) I unblocked the kids while in the car drop off line. They thought it was SO COOL to be able to walk around in the van and they were “helpers” in watching Tess sleep 😉
Tess slept great in the car seat. I use a Sleep Sheep for white noise and it really helps. She also did AWESOME at the chiropractor. She slept until the appointment, had her adjustment, then went right to sleep after and stayed asleep in her car seat until her next feeding at 10.
The FIRST thing people notice about Tess is her hair. I mean she has a LOT of it and it’s already growing so, so fast. Look at how it covers her ears!! I also am still in love with her little “elf ear.” Isn’t it adorable?
More About Tess:
- I noticed this week that her cheeks were starting to fill in and she was getting chubbier
- Her face also started to peel some, but not too bad
- Britt had a little blister type thing on her top lip from nursing and Tess also got it this week.
- Zach thinks she will end up having curly hair because when he gives her a bath her hair gets all curly!
- I usually spent her (very short) awake time burping her to get the gas out or just staring and her and talking to her. I cannot get over how gorgeous she is 🙂
- This week she started to look at me in the eyes. She seemed very focus and to be taking everything in!
- I know most babies get some acne in the early days. I was fortunate with Tess that she didn’t have much of it and what she did have cleared up very easily. I just applied Aquafor on it prior to her naps and it helped!
- Tess moved up to Size 1 diapers this week!
- Her eyes seem very, very blue so I feel confident they won’t be changing in color.
- She loves her bath!
- Her two least favorite things are tummy time and having clothing go over her head.
Sweet Feet!
Siblings: Tess is blessed with some awesome siblings! Something that really melts my heart is seeing her with Britt. That sister bond is going to be so much fun to watch grow and develop and I’m so thankful we have two girls and that they are closer in age! It’s already so fun 🙂
Britt is my helper for sure. She always comes running when it’s time for a diaper change. She likes to get out the new diaper and to throw the old ones away. Here are some pics of my sweet girls together from this week:
Small items are gonna be an issue haha Britt was sharing some “money” with her
My girls!
Kye loves to make up songs for Tess and loves to cuddle up with her all the time. He and Britt both ask me to get Tess to hold their fingers 🙂 So precious! Kye was mega grossed out by her cord stump too. He did NOT like it and was SO glad when it was gone.
While I am nursing Kye comes running right up all the time and asks to see her. So I end up having a 2 week old in my arms and a 5 year old all in my face haha
Visitors and Sweet Gifts: Jolee came by to visit with Tess this week! We didn’t get to see much of her at the hospital so it was a nice visit 🙂 Jolee is SO awesome with all the kids!!!
On Sunday night Katie brought us a FEAST for dinner. We celebrated Zach’s birthday together and had a great time. She stayed and watched Big Brother with us and it was just such a great, much needed, visit. We have been so blessed by Katie’s friendship for so many years. She went OVERBOARD and MADE Tess a blanket! I seriously still can’t believe it! She had been working on it long before Tess was born and it was the first blanket she’d ever made. Is that not such an act of true love or what?!?! So, so thoughtful and meaningful and beyond special. I know Tess (and I!) will cherish it forever!
She also brought the big kids some great books…but you know how kids go Haha. The big ticket items were the tissue paper and ribbon!
Tess LOVES her special blanket from Auntie Katie!!!
Isn’t it beautiful?!?! She picked colors to match the nursery!
Katie also brought us a copy of the paper from the day Tess was born. Total mom fail b/c I forgot to have someone get it that day! I’m thankful the main headline was something positive 🙂
My sweet friend, Julie, also came by and brought us an awesome dinner. She brought her daughter, EllaKate with her and she’s almost 8 months older than Tess. It’s CRAZY how HUGE she looks next to her. Before we know it Tess will be sitting up too! I hope these sweet girls become good friends 🙂
We also had very thoughtful cards and gifts arrive in the mail. Amber and I have known each other forever! So long that I don’t even know how long haha. She’s always been such a sweet, genuine person and it was a beyond sweet surprise to get the adorable bow in the mail she made for Tess! It’s Minnie Mouse and is SO CUTE. I love it!!!
“Mommy Tools”: For the first time this week I used the Nose Frida. I’d heard awesome stuff about it and it’s all true! MUCH cleaner way to get that snot than the bulb syringes and easier too! It worked awesome and I truly recommend it! Yes…you suck the snot out. It sounds disgusting but it really isn’t! It’s impossible to suck the snot into your own mouth, I promise 🙂
As I mentioned earlier I used Aquaphor this week on Tess’s acne spots and it cleared it right up! I also used Vaseline on her as a diaper rash prevention measure. I’d heard to put it on at each diaper change to avoid diaper rash. Spoiler alert: It didn’t work for Tess. Boo. She did end up getting a diaper rash but more on that in a future post!
With both of our other babies we used the same tub but got a new one when I was pregnant this time. It’s by Angel Care and it’s really awesome! WAY easier to keep clean and Tess loves it!
I also started using Vitamin D drops this week. I cannot STAND the Enfamil brand ones that everyone always uses. It’s so much for them to take in and it’s messy and it stains. No thanks. Because of the hassle I never gave my other kids the drop as often as I should have. I know lots of people around here skip the Vit D and say the kids get enough from the sun. BUT I’ve read a lot about how auto immune diseases are linked to Vitamin D deficiency. The way Zach’s family tends to work out genetically along the family tree would predict that our daughters will be the ones affected by an auto immune disease so ANYTHING I can do to help prevent that from happening, I’m going to do! I bought this brand of Vit D drops and it’s WAY better than the Enfamil ones. You just put one drop on your nipple prior to feeding then she gets it off while nursing. EASY and no mess!
Other Pics of Tess: Everyone loves baby pics, right? 🙂
Postpartum Update: I can tell my stomach is for sure going down more! This week I was able to start zipping my Bellafit by myself with no issues…no more having Zach help me 🙂 I completely stopped taking the Colace stool softener this week in hopes of helping Tess’s gassiness. It did make going tougher for me and made it quite the process as I just had to take my time to get the job done haha!
I was craving Hostess white powdered donuts. How random is that? I wasn’t worrying about what I was eating or about losing weight or anything like that. I was too tired to be concerned about those things! I grubbed out haha!
I had my first mega emotional day on Sunday. It just all hit me how TIRED I was and I was very very emotional. I couldn’t stop crying and was just completely worn down. Not having a big chunk of solid sleep is very, very hard. Especially, I think, now that I’m older and now that I have SO much more on my plate!
Monday night was my first solo evening with all three. Zach had to work late so I held down the fort! It was also, thankfully, Tess’s first PERFECT day of napping! The only nap I ever had to go in for was her last one, which is normal. Everything went very smoothly with all the kids and I felt like super mom 🙂
It was time to take off my gel nails. I had planned on taking them off the “right way” but just ended up peeling them off. They really did damage my nails so I def won’t be doing that again for awhile! I had to up my lotion usage this week as my skin was SO itchy. I did notice my lumps in my arm pits getting smaller.
Even though I was tired…I felt like my time management was on point! I was still getting ready every day and my house was SO CLEAN!
This week I FINALLY went on one on one dates with the kids! I took Kye out for lunch and then Britt and I went to get dessert after dinner. It was SO awesome! Kye and I went to Steak and Shake and he was hilarious. He was so proud b/c I let him squeeze his own ketchup haha. I had sweet tea to drink and I asked him if he wanted to try it. He’s NEVER had it before and I figured now that he’s 5 it might be a special treat to let him have a taste. He told me that sweet tea is NOT good for you and that he doesn’t want to even try it because he shouldn’t drink it! Hello maturity!?!?! Totally awesome response and it def made me proud!
We also hit up The Mix for some froyo and it was so funny b/c the people who worked there didn’t know I had other kids. Since it’s the place Kye and I always go together they thought he was my only child 😉 I made sure to show them pics of the girls and brag on them a bit too!
Getting to read story together and cuddle up!
With My Newest Blessing!
Comparison to Siblings: You can read about Britt’s 3rd week of life here! And you can read Kye’s here! I love these chances to look back and remember what life was like when my older kids were sweet newborn babies 🙂
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