Jen Russum

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Eisley Avalon (One Month)

Growing // Eisley is our largest baby yet (and that’s saying something!). To my shock, she was born at 9 pounds, 4 ounces. She dipped below 9 pounds at a few days old, and she was back up to her birth weight in less than a week. I’m guessing she is around 12 pounds now, but she won’t go in for a well-check until 10 weeks. She was 21 inches at birth (although Micah says it was a sloppy measurement), and she was 22 3/4 inches at two weeks of age. Basically, she’s a darling giant.
Eating // Eisley could star in one of those YouTube videos that shows a newborn baby instinctively climbing to the breast to eat. She basically did that in her first ten minutes of life. Ever since then she’s been a champion eater, just like her sisters. However, she eats faster than Zianne and pukes less than Talitha, so it’s a win/win all around.
Wearing // Eisley has been in 0-3 month items since birth. I just pulled all of our 3-6 month clothing out of storage, because I realized she will probably need to start wearing it before we move in a few weeks. I got tons of size 1 diapers at my baby shower, and I frantically tried to use them up before Eisley got too big. I moved her into size 2 about a week ago. I try to err in switching diaper sizes too soon, because blowouts are caused by too-small diapers.
Doing // That ol’ sleep/eat/wake cycle… eating every 2-3 hours, napping anywhere from 40 minutes to 2 hours. The trick to ensuring a long afternoon nap is giving Eisley a quick bath right before it’s time to sleep. After her bath, I put her in just a diaper, swaddle her, and she usually sleeps deeply for a couple hours, which is great because I’ve needed time to wrap up some stuff for the school year. On the days Z and T are home, I usually put Eisley in the Solly Wrap and walk to the park with all the girls. I should also mention that Eisley has gone to at least 15 house showings in her first month of life. We have been trying to buy a house, but have also been looking at rentals as a back-up, so she has seen a lot of real estate in her short-time on earth.

Loving // Milk, baths, being swaddled, being held, having her butt patted, hearing the word “hi” in a high pitched voice (good thing I’m a master at this)

Tolerating// Talitha in her face for approximately 12 hours every day…

Loathing // Red stop lights and stop signs

Nicknames // Eisley girl, Baby Sissy, Eyes-ee (Talitha’s pronounciation)

Mishaps // Pink eye invaded our house when Eisley was two weeks old! Zianne got it, then me, then Talitha. Eisley had a clogged tear duct at the time, so I had been massaging her eyes with my fingers multiple times a day upon doctor’s orders. As you can imagine, I was pretty horrified when I discovered I had been touching my newborn’s eyes repeatedly with sick pink eye germs. I really don’t know if Eisley got it or not. For a few days, both her eyes were goopy. Now it’s just back to the one eye with the clogged tear duct which is finally getting much better. Upon the advice of a pediatric nurse and many friends, I shot breast milk into her eye at least once a day to try to keep her eyeballs healthy. Side note: pink eye is the WORST.

Milestones // Met Ga, Pa, Bestemor, Auntie KK, Gee and Wanda, survived the most stressful newborn photo shoot ever (because it was sabotaged by the awful behavior of her older sisters), slept five hours at night (once), attended a conference in San Diego with mom and dad and got to stay in a hotel