Tera is one month old! That was probably the fastest month of my life, and it was packed full of wonderful-ness!
We have had my parents here for the first 3 weeks, then Theo’s Mom was able to come for almost a week. Besides allllll the firsts (first bath, first poop, first nap, first breath….), we have done lots of things! We have been to two festivals, are getting into our groove of actually getting out the door on time for church, have gone grocery shopping, and even attended our first “play date” (even though Tera obviously was not interested in playing with the other kiddos!). Every day is different now, and she is growing and changing before my very eyes! Theo says it’s even more obvious how much she changes each day, because he is gone all day.
I hope to be able to keep up with these monthly updates, if not for Grandma and the rest of my readers, at least for me to look back on!
Tera Evelynne: 1 month
Weight/Length: We don’t have official measurements, but we are guessing she is somewhere over 8 pounds, and closing in on 9. I have no clue how long she is, but people comment all the time that she is a long baby. She also has very long fingers, so I think she might turn out to be tall like her Daddy! We shall see!
Eating: Tera does an awesome job eating. I have had to adapt to using a shield to nurse her, but so far exclusively breastfeeding has been fantastic, and no where near as bad as I was expecting/preparing myself for. She usually eats every 2-3 hours, except in the evening when she tends to cluster feed. Those feedings seem to last an hour and as soon as she unlatches and I put her down/hand her off to Theo, she cries like she hasn’t eaten in days.
Sleeping: Tera is a great sleeper, too! She sleeps 5-6 hours at night, usually only waking up once between the hours of 3 and 4 am. This is still very tiring, but I am thankful that she does her cluster feeding/fussing in the evening, and spends the nights sleeping. She seems to be settling into a sleeping/awake routine, where she is awake in the mornings, then sleeps for most of the afternoon, then fusses all evening, then sleeps most of the night. But then she has days where she is awake ALL day, and then some days that she is sleeping ALL day (usually those two days are consecutive). She sleeps on her back, in her bassinet, on the couch, in her carseat, in someone’s arms…whereever she is placed, really. Sometimes she gets fairly fussy, and I lay her on her stomach and that seems to help her sleep, too. Don’t judge me. (for your readers from the older generation: they now tell parents to only lay baby on his/her back).
Clothing/Diapers: Tera is still in newborn outfits, but I sometimes have to squeeze her in. It is crazy to me how wide the range of newborn sizes are. Some newborns don’t even fit, some newborn outfits fit with a cloth diaper, and some newborn outfits are still big on her.
We started using cloth diapers around 2 weeks. They are fantastic, and I am so happy with the ones that I bought. I’m eager to see how they continue to work when she is more mobile. We have actually had more blow-outs and messy outfits in the disposable diapers than the cloth! I’m sold on cloth, but I’m sure I’ll tell you more about that in another blog post.
Personality: Tera’s personality is really starting to develop! She LOVES being around people, she loves going outside, she loves going out of the house no matter where. She is starting to smile and coo at us, too! The first time she did it was for her Grandma DeValve, and I could not be more pleased that she hit that milestone while they were still here. Now, she is starting to coo and smile at anyone who talks with her, and I even heard her cooing/talking to herself this morning.
She is also becoming more aware of all that is going on around her. Just in the past few days she has noticed the cats and will watch them when they come close to her. She has been able to recognize voices since birth, but just in the past week she has started to recognize faces, too!
Watching her personality develop is SO MUCH FUN!
Loves:
Tera loves people. She loves being picked up, held and talked to- by anyone!
Tera looooves her Daddy. She will cry for hours at home, and as soon as he holds her she will calm right down.
Tera loves looking/being outside. She will sit in her swing and just watch out the window, and when I take her outside, she loves it!
Tera loves going for walks. We put her in the carrier, and she falls asleep right away, no fussing from her!
Dislikes:
Tera seems to dislike being hot. This is rather unfortunate, as I have African blood, and Theo has frugal blood, so we don’t use AC.
Tera dislikes having a dirty diaper. She will cry and cry almost as soon as she wets/dirties the diaper.
Apparently, Tera dislikes sunflowers. She had a great day all day, and we drove to the sunflower field to try and get some pictures. I even made Theo dress nicely so we could get some great family pictures. As soon as we got there and took her out to the field, she started SCREAMING. We could not get her to stop. We went back to the car, sat in the shade, gave her some gripe water, rocked/bounced her, and then tried round 2. Nope. She started screaming the minute we posed in front of the sunflowers. I was pretty dissapointed, but we still managed to get some ok shots.
Daddy and Mommy:
Daddy and Mommy are doing well, taking it one day at a time. We have days that are great, and that we have days that we feel soooo overwhelmed with everything. Theo has been working long hours at work, and then mowing lawns on his days off, so we are trying to figure out a schedule that actually gives us family time or a weekend (he works Saturdays, so we don’t have ‘weekends’). Today actually begins our journey as a family of 3, since as of this morning we don’t have any grandparents to help us out anymore. We are so sad about all the grandparents leaving, but we are looking forward to establishing our family routine.
And the pets are all doing well! BB loves Tera, and likes to sleep near her. He also purrs and rubs her head, it’s adorable. And don’t worry…he is supervised. Moose is starting to tolerate Tera, but will still hightail it out of the room when she starts to cry. But that is progress, because when we first brought Tera home, Moose wouldn’t even be in the same room as her, crying or not. Cyrus had a hayday with all our chickens, and enjoyed pinning them down and gnawing on their necks. Somehow, he never managed to kill one, but we decided it was too much work for me to have to wrangle a dog off a chicken while nursing a baby. So, we sold the chickens. It’s just not right for us in this chapter of our lives. Cyrus then started doing much better, until he and the neighbor dogs broke down the fence and started having play dates. The two neighbor dogs and Cyrus have apparently decided that our yard is the bathroom and their yard is the eating/play yard. He spends all day over their running around and stuffing his face (they leave the dog food outside, we don’t). So, he is one fat, happy dog!
Happy One Month, Tera Evelynne!