Tenley Louise's Baptism

Friday evening we had our precious little girl baptized.  She was surrounded by her family and lots of love.



All 6 of us have now been baptized at the church I grew up going to, plus Andy and I were married there.  It's really special to me.  But the unique thing is every one of us was baptized by a different priest!  Usually a priest will spend 7-10 years in one parish but for one reason or another our priests have been moved or transferred around.

The boys were all baptized in the gown my dad was baptized in.  And now Tenley has been baptized in the gown I was baptized in, along with my niece, sister and Mom!  Here are some close up pictures of the gown.

Tenley also wore a silver locket that was mine as a kid.

My boys looked so handsome!

Four generations!

My sister, brother in law, Andy's brother and sister in law are Tenley's godparents.  She's a pretty lucky little lady.

After the private service at the church we went to my sister's house for supper.  My intention was chili over fritos but things were super chaotic here at home as we were trying to get everyone ready and I accidentally burnt the pot of chili.  So Pizza Hut to the rescue!  Tenley changed into her fancy outfit my dad's cousin, Gena, gave her for her party.

She slept through her whole party, silly girl!  It was a really nice evening, though, and we are so happy our little Tenley Louise was so blessed!

Tenley Louise || One Month Old

Beautiful Tenley Louise is 1 month old already!  It has been the fastest month on record.  Here's what Tenley is up to at 1 month old.

Sleep:  Tenley is still in newborn mode where she does a lot of sleeping with no schedule, rhyme or reason.  She falls asleep for the night usually between 9 and 10 and wakes up once or twice a night.  Sometimes it's as early at 1:15, sometimes she'll make it until closer to 4:00.  If she's up between 1 and 2 then she'll be up between 5 and 6 for her second nighttime feeding.  We have noticed that now when she is awake during the day she is more 'with it'.  Not so much open eyes staring into nothingness, now it's open eyes really seeing things and looking around and taking in her surroundings.  The first sign she's leaving the newborn stage.  I'm anxiously and not patiently waiting for our first smiles while she is awake!

Eating:  We are 100% breastfeeding.  Tenley nurses every 3-4 hours during the day.  She will cluster feed in the evenings sometimes but it doesn't usually equate to longer sleep at night for either of us.  This past weekend she was being a very fussy eater, wouldn't stay latched on, would do her tiny little cute scream at me and just wouldn't be satisfied.  I had plenty of milk so I'm not sure what that was all about.  Yesterday she was back to normal, latching on for the entire feeding and seeming much happier about it. Now we just need to get her back to nursing for 10 minutes per side so she fills her tummy and gets to that hind milk.

Play:  Tenley is still too little to really play, but she seems to like laying on her playmate looking around.  Her playtime consists of laying quietly looking around her, taking in all she can.  And then her big bruiser of a brother, Tate, comes along.  He absolutely LOVES snuzzling her.  He'll rub her head, point out all of her features, baby talk to her (which I can't get enough of), say "Hi-eee" to her over and over, and get his face as close to hers as possible.  She takes as much of it as she can until finally letting out a little yell, which is when I finally rescue her.  The whole interaction just makes me giggle, I wish I could catch it on video sometime so I never forget it.

Big Brothers:  Tenley has survived being stepped on by Aiden and picked up and carried (without my permission) by Tate.  Now the stories:  Aiden was walking over to me and somehow didn't notice Tenley was laying on her playmate and totally stepped on her little foot.  She was quite the drama queen and was quite inconsolable about it.  I saw the whole thing happen and Aiden barely grazed her foot so it really couldn't have hurt that much.  I laugh when I remember her little face all pouty, just begging for sympathy.  And Tate.  After lunch one day I was getting Tate down from his booster seat.  I sat him down and walked over to get a diaper to change him.  I had my back turned for literally 4 seconds, max!  As I turned back around there was Tate with Tenley, bear hugging her across his chest, carrying her towards me.  My heart stopped!!!  I just calmly walked up to him and grabbed her from him. She was wide awake but didn't make a peep - must not have been too scary for her.  But oh my, I think he shaved a few years off my life with that little trick!  Besides these 2 incidents she has adjusted to life with 3 big brothers. And they have adjusted to life with a little baby sister.  They all dote on her, it's a very sweet sight.

Other:  2 weeks ago we started Tenley on Zantac for acid reflux.  All 3 of her big brothers had it so we were ready when the symptoms showed up.  She has not gotten used to the medicine and gags every time we give it to her with the dropper. We tried putting it in a bottle nipple but she saw right through that because it tastes funny to her.  Yesterday morning I pumped a little and put her medicine in 1 oz of breast milk in a bottle and tried feeding it to her that way -- she took it!!!  She drank that bottle like she'd been taking a bottle ever since day 1! I was so excited!  So now, if I can get enough pumped, we'll be giving her the medicine with breast milk in a bottle.  Yay! And maybe, because of this, she will be able to take a bottle if ever I need to be away from her.

Stats
Weight: 2 weeks ago she weight 9lbs 12oz so I am guessing she is firmly in the 10 pound range

Height: again, 2 weeks ago she measured in at 21 1/2 " and I know she has stretched out even more because she is pushing out the footies in her sleepers

Diaper size: We used up the Newborn diapers just over a week ago and moved up to size 1's because we didn't figure she would last through another package.  Andy got out the size 1's, put it on and exclaimed "These are granny panties!"  Ha ha, they were much bigger than the newborn size but they are doing a good job of keeping everything 'in' so we went ahead with the 1's.  

Clothes size: Tenley is still in 0-3 month clothes!!!  This is exciting to me because Tate was out of this size by the end of week 1 and the bigger boys were out of this size around the 1 month mark.  One piece sleepers are getting small in the length but she still has a little more time in them.  2 piece outfits, though, have a lot of wear life left in them!

One month old, we can't believe it!  Having Tenley has completed our family and made life even better than it was before!  Sometimes I sit and hold Tenley and just cry over how happy I am to have her here.  Other times I sit and hold her and just giggle at the cuteness that is Tenley.  I find myself sitting and staring at her all the time, and am never quick to lay her down when she falls asleep - I just want to savor every second of her.  I am having so much fun dressing her and putting bows in her hair. Saturday at the boy's church Christmas program we dressed Tenley up in her Christmas dress (I figured we should get some use out of it) -- oh my goodness, was she precious!  I'll share pictures of her in the dress at Christmas.  But, a tiny baby in flouncy Christmas plaid - swoon!!!

I could go on and on and gush about little Tenley Louise all day but instead I'll end this here.

What We've Been Up To

I can't believe it, but Miss Tenley is 2 1/2 weeks old already.  In the big picture that's not a very long amount of time, but in Newbornese it is!  A lot changes in that short amount of time with a newborn.  For instance, just as I was starting to write this at 4:00 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, December 2nd, I realized that today I haven't heard any of Tenley's newborn sounds all day!  That means she's moving from the newborn stage to the baby stage, already.  *sigh*  I miss those squeaks and pops already.  (As I was finishing this post she started doing her rapid fire grunt noise she has - so they aren't all gone quite yet!)

***

Saturday my cousin's sweet wife took Tenley's newborn pictures and a few of our family and just the kids.  They turned out so great!  Here are just a few.

Tenley was such a dream subject - she slept almost the whole time. We took a 20 minute break for her to nurse and pass back out before taking some more.  Then, we laid her on her tummy and she kicked out her arm and dangled it over the side of the basket, we all swooned. Then, she kicked out her leg, too, and dangled it over the side along with that arm!  We all giggled.  She was so darn comfortable!  I think when she's older she's going to be a tummy sleeper like me, I could tell she just loved laying like that!  (I do, too, Lou!)

***

Tuesday after Andy got home from work the big boys, Andy and I made a couple of Christmas recipes.  It dawned on me that we don't really have anything Christmasy planned this month, I didn't put out all the decorations this year (and I let the boys do most of the decorating which means it's not quite as put together as I normally make it) and I just didn't want the boys to get jipped because my hormones are blocking my Christmas festivness.  So, we made some peanut butter sandwiches and peanut clusters. 2 recipes that are easy for beginners and allow for everyone to dig in and have some Christmas fun.

***

More on Tenley - from the beginning she has been a very good, easy baby.  She was only up once a night, nursed great and had multiple wakeful periods during the day.  Then Friday came, and along with it her 2 week growth spurt.  All of a sudden she was fussy, wanted to eat non stop and was up 2-3 times a night.  I couldn't help but wonder where my sweet little dream baby had gone!  I figured it was just her growth spurt and that it would pass but still, I was a tad worried and frustrated.  Turns out, I was right.  Monday and Tuesday she still wasn't 'normal' - she slept all.day.long, had no wakeful periods but would only nurse 5 minutes and then pass back out again.  At night she was still up twice to eat, but then she wanted to be up.  Totally had me worried the growth spurt had messed up her days and nights.  Today, though, she's nursed MUCH better, took good naps but also had a 2 hour wakeful period and an hour long wakeful period.  We'll wait and see how tonight goes but I'm hoping we're back on track.  We have her check up tomorrow, anxious to see how she's growing.

You'll probably not believe me but yesterday Miss Tenley rolled from her tummy to her back TWICE!  Yep, we have an overachiever here!  Actually, this isn't new for me. Aiden did the exact same thing at the same age!  My bookends - we already notice similarities between them. :)  She has a natural tan, just like Aiden.  She rolls from tummy to back at 2 weeks old, just like Aiden. :)

***

Tomorrow night the big boys have their school Christmas concert.  This will be our first event to take Tenley to.  6:30 is when it starts and I'm a tad nervous about it - I know she's going to want to eat while there and I have no idea where to go to nurse her.  If I was at the mall I'd sit out in the middle on a chair and nurse her, no big deal. But this is a small town, I know these people and I am NOT comfortable nursing there in front of them.  So, I have 26 hours to get it figured out. :)

***

That's a little of what we've been up to lately.

The Name

You all know how much I stressed over Tenley's name.  It wasn't an easy decision.  If we hadn't named Tate what we did she would have been Katherine Louise, called Kate for short. But you can't have a Tate and Kate, so Katherine was out.  Totally broke my heart, I love the name Katherine, and it has my name in it! :)

So while pregnant with Tate I had suggested Tenley if he was a girl.  It never really stuck, mostly because of Katherine, so it was tucked away and forgotten.  When we found out we were having a girl this time we threw a ton of names around, but none seemed to fit.  I reminded Andy of Tenley and he was all over it.  I, right away, said no way, it was a fake name and to forget it.  He didn't.  It kept popping back up. Then Bachelor in Paradise was on, and there was a Tenley!  I though for sure he'd veto it then, but no, he still really loved the name.  Hmm, ok, I'll add it to the short list but never in a million years did I think it'd be a real contender.

Finally, with about 6 weeks to go, we were no closer to having a name picked out.  Avery was tossed around but Andy was still in love with Tenley.  Finally I started using the name when talking about her.  I made sure Andy knew I hadn't agreed to it, I was just testing it out.  It started to grow on me. And finally, I fell in love with the name, too!

Louise.  That is my sweet grandma's middle name that she went by.  Her full name was Marjorie Louise, but her mother never really liked the name Marjorie so they always called her Louise.  I have always known my daughter's middle name would be Louise, also.  Grandma and I were kindred spirits and had a very special connection, I couldn't imagine using any other name for my little girl.  Before Grandma passed away, when I was pregnant with Aiden, I told her if we ever had a girl her middle name would be Louise.  In her sweet little way I could tell she was so pleased.  Gosh, I miss her. She would have adored little Tenley Louise.

And that's how we came to name our little girl Tenley Louise.  She already has many versions of her name said to her: T-Lou, Tenley Lou, and my favorite, Tallulah.  Andy came up with that one.  It was some morphing from T-Lou.  I never have any idea how he comes up with his nicknames but he's a champ at them!

Thank you again for all the sweet messages!  We are so blessed to have our sweet little Tenley Louise.

She's Here!!!

I'm so happy to introduce you to our sweet little girl,

Tenley Louise!

She arrived Sunday, November 15th at 4:58 p.m.  She weighed 8lbs4oz (!!!) and was 21 1/4" long (and perfect as can be!).  Here's her story...

We arrived at the hospital at 8:00 that morning to begin our induction.  It was about 8:30 by the time I got laid down in bed and our nurse Brittany started hooking me up to the monitors and got the IV started.  The Pitocin was started at 9:30 and away we went.  I was dilated to a 3 when we arrived and at 2:00 I was still only at 3cm.  I was a tad frustrated, the meds were working pretty good all morning then started to peter out a bit after noon.  I asked the nurse what I could do to help things along, she suggested laying on my sides or sitting on the exercise ball.  I rolled over to my left side and almost immediately the contractions really started up again, including back labor pains which were awful.  I told Andy 5 minutes into that to go tell the nurse I was ready for my epidural.  He questioned me ("Are you sure you want them now?") and I told him "GO!"  So she called in the anesthesiologist and by 3:00 I was all hooked up and the pain was starting to go away.  At 4:30 she checked me again and in the 2 hours between when she checked me last I was dilated to a 10!  Yep, went from a 3 to a 10 in TWO HOURS!!!  Our little princess was about to make her debut!

The doctor came in at 4:40 and at 4:45 I started pushing.  13 minutes and 5 contractions later Tenley Louise was born!  It was so amazing, that was the shortest time I'd ever pushed, she came so easily!  I had no tearing so no stitches, which was great.  They laid her right on my tummy and wiped her all up, then we had skin to skin time for a good 5 minutes.  We've never done that before and it was so wonderful to have that contact with our little girl.  She was pretty calm for most of that, just a few little cries here and there.  Her eyes were wide open and she just looked around her at her new world and her daddy (who she already adores, by the way!).

After that they took her to do her APGAR tests.  Andy was there with her the whole time.  Meanwhile, they cleaned me up and removed the epidural.  Then I laid there and waited for my little lady.  Finally she was all ready for some snuggling.

We made a few calls and then my parents came in with the boys to meet their new baby sister.  They each came in carrying a pink gift bag - each boy had picked out a stuffed animal for their sweet sister. They were all immediately smitten with her.  Tate was so excited to see the 'bay', he kept giggling and pointing out her features.  He'd point and say "eye!"  He'd squish her little nose. He'd rub her little head.  She'd make a little noise and he'd giggle all over again.  We took some really cute pictures of those two together.  The big boys were like old pros, they were so gentle with her and just sat and cuddled her.

Tenley has been an amazing sleeper at night from the beginning. The first night she slept 8 hours.  At 5 a.m. I finally asked the nurse to take her for her first bath so she'd wake up so I could feed her.  The second night she was a fussy little gal so I had the nurse keep her in the nursery so I could try and get some sleep. She was brought in at 1:45 to eat, then again at 5:30.  She was still a little fussy that morning, then at 9:30 I fed her and my milk had already come in. That calmed her right down!  She was super calm the rest of the day.

We were discharged at 10:00 Tuesday. Bringing her home was emotional - Tate was so excited that the 'bay' was at his house.  The boys came running home from the bus stop after school, super excited to see their little sister!  That night she slept in her crib all night, waking up twice to be fed and going right back to sleep.  This was all new for me, we were used to babies being up a lot the first few nights getting used to their surroundings, not sleeping alone in their crib all night long!  I figured it was a fluke but here it is, Saturday morning, and she has continued to be an awesome sleeper!  The nights since I have only been up with her once, just to feed, diaper and put her back to sleep.  Awesome!  All of this sleep has helped a ton with my baby blues.

We are all doing awesome, adjusting well.  As soon as I get the last couple of things for her room in I'll do a nursery post.  I LOVE her room!

I am busy taking care of all these kids (and husband!) so if you don't hear from me don't panic - I'll be back!  And thanks in advance for the kind comments, I probably will not have time to reply to those but THANK YOU!