Growing // Talitha came into the world at eight pounds even. On her three day appointment with her pediatrician, she was 7 lb. 15 oz. – just an ounce below her birth weight. On day six, she was 8 lb. 6 oz, and at her one month well check she clocked in at 10 lb. 15 oz. (approximately 92nd percentile). She was 21 inches at birth and at one month she is 22.8 inches (95th percentile).
Eating // Talitha eats super well, as evidenced by her weight gain, but she is not a bottomless pit like her sister. With Zianne, I was a stickler about her getting a “full feeding” on both sides, but sometimes Talitha can’t keep up with that. I try to nurse her on both sides, but sometimes she can only handle one and if I feed her too much she will literally puke on me and fall asleep instantly. I’m learning to back off my rigid sleep/eat schedule and let her be “Tiny T” for awhile…
Wearing // I took full advantage of the fact that Talitha was not quite as big as her sister and I squeezed her into any and all newborn size outfits I could for the first two weeks {but honestly, we only have like 5 items in NB size since Russums don’t typically make small babies}. Now she is wearing 0-3 month items and I’m sure we will be transitioning to 3-6 months within the next few weeks, since she is already 11 pounds. We moved from NB to Size 1 diapers around 2 weeks.
Doing // Other than the eat/sleep routine, Talitha enjoys being held. If she starts crying in the bouncer, she will stop the second another human picks her up. She prefers to be propped up on the left shoulder if she’s trying to fall asleep, and if she’s fussy she calms down as soon as I put her in the Solly Baby Wrap. We introduced Talitha to the bottle right at two weeks. She takes a bottle a few times a week and doesn’t seem to mind it. She likes the pacifier much more than her sister ever did. I don’t use it at night, but it helps when she is fussy or hungry and mom needs a couple more minutes to get to her. Talitha also attended two movies at the theater in her first month of life. When she was about ten days old, Micah’s sisters convinced me to go see Inside Out with them. Talitha was a champ in the movie. We held her the whole time and she nursed once. She did such a good job that a few days later Micah and I decided to go see Jurassic World. We had planned to see it before she was born, but when she came one day early our plans were foiled. I was worried it would be loud for her, but we kept her bundled up with a blanket over her ears and she slept the WHOLE time. I couldn’t even convince her to eat during the movie. The girl is completely indifferent to dinosaurs.
Loving // Being held, the Solly Wrap, looking at Dad, the ceiling fan, having her cheek stroked
Loathing // The hours between 7-10pm, being fed too much milk, when sister puts toys in her face or swats at her head {we are working on being “gentle”}
Nicknames // Tiny T, Sweet T, Squeaky T, T-Rex, Baby
Mishaps // We’ve only had one super rough night in our transition to a family of four, and it happened when Talitha was about 4 or 5 days old. It was around 10pm and Talitha was hungry. She was starting to cry right when Zianne woke up in her crib bawling. Z happened to get a cold the weekend Talitha was born, so our toddler was a worse sleeper than the baby those first few days we were home from the hospital. Zianne has never woke up as upset as she was this night. She only wanted mom, of course, and Talitha needed to eat. My hormones were crazy and Micah was stressed but couldn’t really help and all three girls just sat on the couch crying for a few minutes. Thankfully, this was our only instance like this. I was expecting the first month to involve way more tears than it did!
Milestones // Met Grandma, GaGa, Pa, Auntie Kayla, Aunt Malea, Cousin Haaken, Aunt Wanda, Krunkle; umbilical cord fell out with ease {much better than Z’s}, newborn shoot with Shal-Shal, first two movies in the theater; lots of smiles; has already slept a six and a seven hour stretch at night! {although it’s still not the norm}; goes to church every week; went for a brief swim in Ga and Pa’s pool
