Disney Land Day 1

Tessa Newborn Pics- December 5th, 2014

Tessa is the smiliest newborn I have ever seen. We would regularly see these awesome sleep smiles and she smiles at me every time I feed her. I love it and was thrilled to catch it on camera!

Tessa (like all our kids) had jaundice issues and we spent her first week at the doctor's every day for labs. She ended up being on one bili blanket starting on Monday and then double lights until Thursday when we finally convinced out pediatrician that her numbers were trending down and she was safe enough. Miles was on for almost 2 full weeks, so finally having a cord free baby felt like an early Christmas gift to me! I wanted to hurry and get some newborn pictures of her before she changed too much and so I asked Kyle to stay home from work on Friday (her original due date) to get some shots of our 7 day old baby. We got some gems. Newborn photos are inherently stressful and not my favorite shots to do, but it is worse when you are the postpartum mother and still recovering physically and emotionally as well (not to mention sleep deprived!). It was a stress, but we did get some great shots and also had Kellie's boys over for their "elf" photos and my mom's 5 local grandkid Christmas photo that she wanted. Three newborns, one 2 year old, and one emotional 5 year old made for a busy household!

Kellie and Spencer gave us this awesome little outfit and I want it in my size! The red baby skinny jeans are my favorite!

These boys love their sister so much. They hold her all the time for me so I can get something done. Even Miles does a great job if I prop him in with my nursing pillow. He has never dropped her off of him and always calls out to me when he is done.

My mom made Tessa this awesome tutu for her photo shoot in holiday sparkles. Unfortunately, we learned that glitter tulle is a mess and we had glitter everywhere for days. Next time I think we will skip the glitter.

This was the last outfit we did on her and she was pretty well done by that point with scratchy fabric and mom messing with her.

I have honestly not been one to enjoy the newborn stage much with my own kids. I love everyone else's newborn babies, but it is hard to enjoy your own when you are exhausted, up every two hours, battling low milk supply, and hormonal. I can honestly say that I have loved Tessa as a newborn. She is the rare baby that I have heard my friends occasionally talk of. She eats like a champ, has a great latch which has helped my milk supply immensely (I always struggle to keep enough of a supply), takes naps in her Rock 'n Play during the day with minimal effort to put her down, and often goes 4 hour stretches at night. I remember bouncing Miles around the house for an hour to get him to sleep and then he would wake 10 minutes later crying. Miles was so cranky and cried all the time until he was 2 months old. Grant we never got to enjoy as a newborn since he was in the hospital all of that time and when we did bring him home, he was so fragile we were on edge all the time with him. Tessa is happy and content and goes with the flow. She hates her car seat and has her fussy period in the evenings where she wants to be held and prefers to be up and moving, but she doesn't scream non stop during this time. It is nice to have a newborn that loves to snuggle, but is also ok to be put down some of the time. She has been a tremendous blessing since I am teaching two sections of Family Stress and Coping for BYU-I this semester and there is no way I would have been able to do it if she had been a cranky baby. I certainly hope that she continues to be sweet and easy going from here on out.

Meeting the Brothers- November 29th, 2014

As I mentioned in my last post, Grant and Miles came to the hospital to meet Tessa the next morning after I had a chance to rest up and recover a little myself. I was able to shower on my own that morning (in the past, I was still shaky the next day and needed Kyle's help) and did my best to look presentable so that Grant and Miles were not worried about mom. We knew that Miles especially was excited to hold HIS baby after spending the previous few weeks snuggling Kellie's twins who are exactly six weeks older than Tessa. As soon as she finished her bath and we brought her back into the room, Grant jumped on the bed anxious to hold the sister he had prayed would come to us for so long. It was love at first sight. They sat there and looked at her and held her and just truly enjoyed the moment.

Next up, my mom wanted her turn. She had enjoyed a lot of newborn snuggles after helping at Kellie's house daily for the previous six weeks, but this was the first grand daughter to live close by.

My dad was up next and he thoroughly enjoyed snuggling her. He tried to convince us that her nickname from him needed to be something sturdy and he decided on Daisy, though I have yet to hear him call her that. Tessa just works so much better.

We got our first family photo which then due to the proximity to the holidays ended up being mailed out on my parent's Christmas card as well as bring printed as the family photo in Nate's annual grandkid photo book. Nothing like showing the world an awesome hospital gown photo!

Because we wanted our boys to have as minimal disruption to their schedules as possible, Kyle spent most of his time with them when I was at the hospital. He came back in the evening on Saturday to eat the hospital's congratulations dinner with me and got some more daddy daughter time. Then, he was back the next morning to spend some time and bring us home. He took most of the following photos on Sunday morning.

I love her full round belly and the rolls on her chunky baby thighs.