Four Month Well Baby Check-up

Well, you most certainly are a well baby, Tessa.  You thoroughly enjoyed hamming it up for your audience of nurse and pediatrician until the needles came out.  Your stats are as follows:

Weight: 14 lbs 6 oz / 70th %ile
Height: 25 in / 75th %ile
Head circumference: 16.25 in / 50th %ile

You rock, Lady!

Nobody told me about baby getting sick

You've been so sick over the last couple of weeks and I am exhausted.  I thought parenthood was a giant piece of cake up until this point but watching terrified as your child turns a bit blue in the mouth because she can't breathe slams you back down to ole Planet Earth from Cloud Nine pretty fast. 

On Thursday, January 27th I picked you up from Gramma's after work and I noticed you had a little "wet" cough.  On Friday, Gramma reported that it was obvious you were a little sick since you didn't eat very well.  Saturday seemed a bit better.  Then by Saturday night, we were in the ER.  Sunday, urgent care.  Monday, pediatrician's office.  Those were the longest three days of my life.  It was awful beyond words to see you so ill and not know what to do.  It's clear by the way you look at me that you trust me to fix things.  I'm the Mom.  That's my job.  But I couldn't fix this.  All I could do was wait it out and help you along as much as possible.

Thank God.  Thank God.  Thank God.  You are getting stronger and feeling better every day.  I've been appalled by the amount of weight you lost while sick.  I can see your little ribs and feel your little shoulder bones.  I'm so happy you want to eat like a starving lion cub now.  Hopefully you'll catch up to where you were soon.

Tessa has a fan base

I've noticed that small children are especially fascinated by babies.  Picking up the girls from school one day over maternity leave, I happened upon a class of kindergartners and they all wanted to see Tessa.  One little boy said, "I like your baby."  They were very curious about the stork bite mark on the back of her head.  And one little boy even reached up and patted her on the back in passing.

Another time, I took the girls (my nieces) for a walk around the little lake near my house.  We were passing the park and this little girl came running up to the stroller and grabbed ahold for dear life.  She was barely tall enough to see Tessa.  I let her look for awhile but after a few minutes of her clinging to the stroller, I was at a loss about how to get her off.  Luckily, I think her sister noticed and came to retrieve her.

Well, today beat all.  We were both having a bad morning.  I tripped and fell at the post office and the bottom of Tessa's carseat clunked on the floor which scared her really bad.  We met Valerie at IHOP for breakfast where the morning started to get more fun.  Out of nowhere, this toddler comes running up to Tessa's carseat to look at the baby with her Dad in tow.  He had to keep telling her not to touch the baby.  It was so adorable.  Tessa gave her a great big smile.  Then the tiny little girl made oinking sounds at my daughter.  She was talking, not to Tessa, but to the pink piggy toy on her carseat.  As we were leaving, she tried to follow us out...still oinking.  SO CUTE!!!

What a difference a day makes!

Sorry for changing the person of reference here but I'll probably easily go back and forth between creating new posts for Tessa, using 'you' and new posts about Tessa.  Not an English major. lol. 

So between Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon, I noticed that Tessa is babbling differently.  I can't even determine what is different about it.  Maybe her babbling is clearer or more purposeful--or just louder.  And, get ready for this one, she's reaching out for objects that pique her interest.  I fed her a couple of bites of cereal last night (it doesn't help her sleep longer but she kind of likes chewing on the spoon) and she reached out and tried to grab the spoon!  So I gave Tessa the spoon and watched to make sure she didn't bonk herself in the eye with it.

We will be playing with spoons more tonight.

New skills

You learned a couple of new skills while I was on vacation this week (gotta love working at a University).  On Christmas Eve day, you started making a sort of kissing sound by sucking on your upper lip.  I was and still am very entertained by this new skill however I fear it may get a little old after I hear you make the same sound every fifteen seconds all day.  For right now, though, it is super cute.

You also rolled over onto your side!

First day back at work

Monday, December 13th was my first day back at work after a nice break of about ten weeks.  I thoroughly enjoyed all the time I spent with you during my maternity leave.  It wasn't nearly long enough and even though I never understood the whole stay-at-home mom lifestyle, I sure would like it now.  You aren't really a morning person other than being super happy when you first wake up so that means Mommy usually got to sleep in (YAY). 

Gramma is taking good care of you while I'm at work.  I have the best job ever but it is hard to explain so suffice it to say that I help students make their way through college.  I miss you so much during the day.  Sometimes I call just to hear you babble.

But this story isn't about work; it just happens to fall on the first day of my return.  I retrieved you from Gramma's house and you were fed before we left.  I had to run a quick errand at Target so we stopped there before going home.  I parked in an odd place so we didn't have easy access to a cart meaning that I had to carry you into the store to find a cart.  I figured it was okay to skip the diaper bag since we were only buying a few things.  (colossal mistake).  Mommy's still learning.

I noticed the carseat rocking slightly in the shopping cart but didn't think anything of it and off we went.  We were so close to finishing up the impromptu shopping trip and looking for a box of diapers when I heard you spit up a little.  (Uh oh, no diaper bag).  I rounded the cart to investigate, thinking "meh, what's a little spit-up between friends."  Upon seeing me, you THREW UP--literally, like, you threw it--ALL OVER THE PLACE.  All over your little outfit, all over the carseat.  Wow, gross...and no diaper bag.  Since I was still using the hospital blankets to stabilize your head in the carseat, I had to use those to clean you off.  You were still very wet and it was cold outside.  I felt terrible because, of course, it was all my fault for not burping you long enough and leaving the essential diaper bag behind.  Clearly you survived and now it's just a funny story but it was so unfunny at the time.

I suspect many of these entries will involve yucky bodily functions of some sort.  Ah the life of a baby.

Your name

Names are important and I thought a long, long time about yours.  I even had a spreadsheet going with a 'boy' tab and a 'girl' tab.  I know, I'm a dork.  Let me tell you about your name.


Tessa.  Tessa is a derivation of the name Teresa which is, yes, GRAMMA's name.  You love you some time with the gramma, that's for sure.  This is a tradition that started with Grandma and I always thought it was cute (once I got over the required childhood period of hating my own name).  See, my name is a derivation of 'Virginia' which was my paternal grandmother's middle name.  And Uncle Chad's name comes from our dad's name, Carl.  'Tessa' also sounds like 'Trisha' because Aunt Trisha's name comes from Gramma's name as well.


Jewel was your great-great grandmother's first name.  I grew up calling her Gramma Jewel.  I always thought that was a beautiful name.  Luckily 'Tessa' and 'Jewel' sound good together.


I gave you your last name, Case, because I wanted you to have another physical connection with the family that loves you. (Although grampa loves you too and you should never forget that).  I also knew that I would be the one taking care of you.


You are one well-connected girl.