One Month

Yesterday was Teresa's one month birthday! I can't believe it has been a month already. She has changed so much since she was born. She has started smiling for real now, which is so fun. It still takes a lot of coaxing and acting silly to get her to smile, and she has to be in a pretty good mood, but it is so fun to try to get her to smile at us! She is also a lot more interested in what is going on around her, and a lot more interactive when we talk to her. We took her to the doctor for her one month check up on Friday. She weighed 10 lbs 12.5 oz and was 23 inches long. She's in the 95th percentile for both height and weight. We are so grateful to have such a sweet, healthy baby. She is a little colick-y, mostly in the evening, starting right about the time Marcus gets home from work... I feel so bad when she is screaming and there isn't anything I can do for her. She makes the saddest faces when she does that. The doctor gave us some drops that are supposed to help, and it seems like they have been. She's also starting to let me put her down more often during the day without getting so upset about it. I love holding her, but it's nice to be able to get a few things done around the house.

Here are some pictures:

Bath Time!

Here are some pictures from one of Teresa's recent baths. She likes the beginning part, when she's just sitting in the warm water and Marcus is sprinkling more water over her. It's fun to watch her when she sees herself in the mirror, she'll stare at herself for a while. Once we start actually washing her, she gets pretty upset though. She's not such a fan of that part. I always feel bad by the time we're all done drying her off, lotion-ing her and dressing her, because she's pretty upset by the end. I'm sure she's wondering why we keep being so mean to her!

The part she actually likes...the little cup has holes in the bottom, so it kinda showers her with water






I love the look on her face in this one! I think she knows the part she doesn't like is about to start...

Father's Day Weekend

We took Teresa to Baytown for Father's Day weekend, to visit the Milligan side of the family. She's not such a fan of riding in the car, unless someone is in the back seat with her. I sat by her for the first part of the trip, until she fell asleep - right around the time we hit some really rough patches of road, I think all the vibration lulled her off to sleep. We had a fun visit, and the four hours in the car was so much easier now that I'm not pregnant anymore!

Here are some pictures from the trip

Sleeping with Gigi


Her new swing...she loves it when Marcus swings her back and forth in her car seat, so we figured an actual swing would be much easier on him ;) She immediately fell asleep when we put her in it the first time. It's been so helpful this week, she will actually let me put her down for a little while if she's in the swing. It's so cute to watch her watch the mobile.


After church. Of course, she slept pretty much the whole time at church. Before she was born, I kept getting all sorts of advice saying I could get enough sleep as long as I slept when she did, even if it meant not getting laundry or something done (not that I need to be told to put sleep ahead of laundry ;). Unfortunately she has made a habit of mostly sleeping when it would be impossible for me to...I mean, I guess I could have slept through church too, but it would have been a little more awkward for me to do it...


Here's Teresa with her Great-Granny Milligan. Teresa is the newest of her 18 great-granchildren! (She'll have twenty by the end of this year!) We took her to visit on Saturday, but she was pretty upset. Poor girl had been woken up to go somewhere, or be held pretty much every time she fell asleep on Saturday. We had much better luck on Sunday after church. She was so good the whole time, even when some of the nurses stopped by for a turn at holding her. She's so cute when she's sleeping!


Aunt Melissa, Granny Milligan, Marcus, and Teresa


Hmmm...I just realized that she's asleep in all of these pictures. Don't take that to mean she sleeps a lot. She doesn't. She hardly ever sleeps during the day. If I'm lucky she'll take one two hour nap during the day. Then she'll just cat nap for maybe 20 minutes or so here and there. That's okay with me as long as she keeps sleeping well at night. She's had a few rough nights, but usually she's good for one four hour stretch and then a 2-3 hour stretch. She starts all that around eight or nine, but we are totally okay with going to bed that early nowadays!

She's the cat's pajamas...

Also, how cute are her little cat pajamas? (Answer: not nearly as cute as she is!)



Granny was helping Teresa get her thumb in her mouth...she tries to do it on her own, but isn't quite coordinated enough yet. She much prefers it to her pacifier though, so I'm sure she appreciated Granny's help. Here she is on Granny's lap:



Sorry if this post is a little picture heavy...we just figure everyone else should want to look at her as much as we do! Her umbilical cord fell off today...it was almost off yesterday after we bathed her (which she was NOT happy about), it was kinda just hanging on by a thread...pretty much one of the grossest things I've ever seen. I was really hoping it would fall off one of the times Marc was changing her diaper, and luckily it did. I guess this is just the beginning of all the yucky things that come along with having kids. Luckily for Teresa, she's cute enough to make it worth it!

Just finished eating




She's really sneezy, and of course is ridiculously cute when she sneezes.





This one just makes me laugh...I'm not sure what she was reacting to here.




Sleeping like a baby...

We've had Teresa home with us for a whole week now, and we are loving it! She is such a good little girl, she is so happy and hardly ever fussy. I can't believe how much she eats! She had been eating for about 15-20 minutes at a time when we first brought her home, but now she goes for 45 minutes to an hour each time! And sometimes she'll only take like, a 30 minute break between feedings. The pediatrician told us he wanted her back up to her birth weight or more by her next appointment on Thursday. I was a little worried that she wouldn't get there, but the way she's eating now, I'm pretty sure she will be at least back to that. Luckily, she's been really good about sleeping at night so far. We're hoping that continues! She usually gets up around 11 or 12, and then at three or four, and finally again at 6 or 7. We're so grateful that she lets us sleep for three or four hours at a time sometimes. She is so snuggly! We just can't put her down sometimes. Not that she minds, she much prefers sleeping while we hold her to sleeping in her cradle.

She makes the funniest faces!






Falling asleep on the Boppy



Sleeping with Daddy



She is so long! We had her all swaddled up for a nap, so she was stretched out all the way, and I couldn't believe how long she is!




She's so cute when she yawns! This cute yawn was right before she decided to spit up all over her blanket. She'd just finished eating for 40 minutes, and I'm pretty sure it all came up. I've never seen that much spit up! Not that I have a lot of experience with spit up anyway...well, not only did it get all over that cute blanket someone made for her, since it's got a pretty open weave it also got all over the carpet! And my foot, but that was the most easily washable. Someone tried to warn me about all the laundry babies generate, but I didn't believe them until this week. Anyway, the spit up didn't even phase her, she didn't complain about it or anything. She's so good natured, we love having her around!

Newborns never sleep

So, newborns never sleep. Ever. I think we were a little deceived in the hospital by our little one's perfect schedule. She slept, never cried, and always ate. This was obviously her way of making sure that we brought her home, where she promptly decided that an hour of sleep in one shot was plenty and that 10 minute meals would do.

Tara has actually been really good about getting her to eat, so much so that if she isn't eating during the day she's making a new diaper for daddy to change. Do you know how often these little ones poop? What to Expect the First Year says that if your little breastfed baby is having at least 5 dirty diapers a day then you know she's eating enough. Teresa must be a competitive eater because some days shes putting out 3 times that much.

I know it sounds like I'm complaining but actually she's been the best thing to happen to us. One day in the hospital, Tara and I commented to each other that we were happier when she was born than we were on our wedding day. Less stress maybe? (Tara says that it wasn't so easy for her) Anywho, there's nothing happier in life than a newborn sleeping on your chest.

We took her to the doctor the day after we brought her home and were happy to learn that she had gained back some of the weight she lost in the hospital. When we left the hospital she was 9lbs 1.6 oz. and the next day she weighed in at 9lbs 4oz. She had to have another jaundice-related blood test but it only showed a minimal increase. The doctor told us to make sure that she got some time in the sunlight, ate plenty, and had dirty diapers. She willingly complied. Below are some pictures we have taken since bringing her home. Ironically, she's asleep in most of them.


Falling asleep


Love that double chin!




Little feet




We love her!