Leah Loo, Jelly Boo, and Teddy Too: Week 1 with T. Bear

I waited a long time for this sweet boy, and he is proving that he was worth the wait. Teddy Bear is the sweetest baby to ever live. Even the girls agree, without even questioning if he's sweeter than they were (of course not--3 way tie!).

Like our other babies, Teddy is a bit orange. At the newborn session the photographer kept asking if he had jaundice. She didn't believe me at all when I kept replying, "no". We just make orange babies.

We went to Teddy's 3 day appointment after his birth and found out that his weight had dipped to 7 pounds even. Because he had lost 10% of his birth weight, he had to be monitored more carefully. My milk took a day or two longer than I remember from Leah and Juliet to come in. The pediatrician said if it didn't come in by that day, we would have to do formula. Uh---no. Luckily, it came in that day and Teddy gained 5 ounces in a day (2 of those MAY have been the copious amount of Vaseline I put on his ding dong before the appointment--haha). She also wanted a blood test for jaundice--but I convinced her to put it off because the same thing happened with Juliet and she screamed bloody murder--and her numbers weren't high at all (because we just make orange kids!). Because Teddy had already been poked so many times in the hospital (they monitored his blood sugar via heel pricks every 3 hours for 24 hours) because he was so big for his gestational age, I did not want my poor boy poked anymore. It all worked out--after 3 appointments in 1 week, it was determined that Teddy is a healthy, thriving boy--no jaundice, no failure to thrive, nothing.

Teddy makes the best facial expressions. He smiles and laughs in his sleep often. I swear that some smiles have seemed pretty close to purposeful. He does great eye rolls with excellent comedic timing. He opens his eyes often to check that someone is holding him or close by. He often tries to keep his eyes open, but they just roll back into his head as he goes back to sleep.

Teddy's umbilical cord stump fell off ridiculously early (like on day 3), which meant that he could get a bath. The smell of Mustela is like crack to me. It brings back so many memories of the girls as babies. I love the smell and will sit and hold Teddy and just smell his head for hours after his bath.

Watching Teddy get a bath was pretty funny. Everyone wanted to be part of the action. I was pretty much in the standing room section. Even Ollie had a better seat than me. Teddy isn't the biggest fan of baths. I try to make Chris do it because I don't want Teddy to hold it against me.

Everyone wanted to help give Teddy his first bath. Poor T. Bear HATES being naked. Just hates it. He cries and cries like a mad little Billy Goat. Once you even start to dress him, he calms down. Chris jokes that all he really needs is a scarf, and he's fine. Luckily, Teddy has some adorable outfits to model.

I spent way too much money on a Dock-a-Tot because I read that all babies love it and sleep like 8 hours straight on the first night home from the hospital using it. Chris has always been a bit leary about co-sleeping with tiny infants, so I thought it would help that, too. Teddy does well for the first few hours of the night, then wakes up EVERY SINGLE time I try to transition him back after breast feeding him and changing his diaper. I have mixed feelings on it. We will keep trying. Currently, he sleeps in it until around 2 am, then just sleeps right next to me.

Currently, Teddy wakes up every 2 hours-ish. He usually doesn't cry--just grunts. I love holding him and talking to him in the middle of the night. He's always so bright eyed. Usually, he does a good job of going back to sleep pretty fast.

What helps me sleep most of all is the Owlet that goes around his foot. It monitors his heartbeat and oxygen level. I sleep so much easier knowing that an alarm will go off if there's a problem. One of the first nights back, the alarm went off while we were all in the master bedroom watching TV. Leah absolutely freaked out and ran out crying, "NO, NO, NO!". Poor girl was convinced Teddy had died. We talked a lot about false alarms, and reasons they can happen. Luckily, it hasn't happened again. I don't know if Leah's heart could handle it.