Tessa is 1 Month Old!

Today is the 16th so Tessa is 1 month old as of yesterday!  I tried to start a post about her being 1 month old last night but I didn't get very far.  At this time one month ago she was not yet 24 hours old!  It has been a fast month.  When I look back on it, I am amazed that both Ben and Tessa are still alive and I am maintaining a basic routine, change out of the clothes I slept in every morning and am keeping up with baseline household obligations.  And I mean reaaaally baseline.  For example, I haven't run the real vacuum cleaner since before Tessa was born (I have used the small electric Dirt Devil) and the kitchen floor is an abomination.  But I do keep up with dishes and laundry.  Buuuut...the laundry often sits folded in the basket for many days while another pile accumulates on the floor where the baskets should be.  I haven't seriously cleaned the bathrooms since before she was born but I have wiped the surfaces with Clorox wipes a few times and the trash cans are not overflowing.  It could be better but could be worse.  I'm still waiting for that "full" night of sleep.  It's hard to believe it has been a month since I have slept longer than a few hours at a time.  It has been longer than that if you add the uncomfortable nights of pregnancy. 

In the days after her birth I meant to write many posts about her, including one about how we chose her name.  So I will discuss it now.  As we did with Benjamin, we had a hard time picking a name and nothing really jumped out at us.  There was the usual issues where we liked a name but already knew someone with that name or one of us had a negative association or it didn't work with our last name.  We went to the hospital with two finalists and even after her birth we still wavered on which one to choose. 

I saw Tessa on a name website and thought it was cute and different but not really out there and also not overly popular.  Upon reading the meaning and history I learned that it is a version of the name "Theresa".  I remembered that Justin's German great grandmother was named Therese, pronounced the German way so I thought that was kind of a nice connection.  Theresa and all of the related names, including Tessa, means "to reap, gather and harvest".  I didn't worry about the meaning, but it is kind of fitting for a baby born in the fall around Thanksgiving.  Her middle name, Margaret, comes from my side of the family.  My mom's grandmother was named Margaret.  She died young (but not until she managed to have 14 children) and my mom has Margaret as a middle name as well.  I asked my grandma if there were any other women in the family who were given Margaret as a middle name since I couldn't think of any with it as a first name and she said she couldn't think of any besides my mom.  So her name shall live on.  Not that she needs her name to have her legacy live on since she has approximately fifty grandchildren and eventually will have hundreds of great grandchildren. 

And guess what...I was revisiting my scanned pictures last night because a classmate from high school was asking on Facebook if anyone had a picture of our class in our graduation robes (I had one!) so I know that I have pictures of the original Therese and the original Margaret.  Therese lived a long life, and sadly Margaret didn't.

This is Therese, Justin's mom's grandmother.  I am not sure when she died but I am certain it was before Justin was born.  It looks like it was probably in the 70's.  Any lady who had a bright pink house dress like that must have had some personality. 

 

 

The mom in the front row is Margaret.  I think this might be the only picture of her that I have ever seen.  This is also one of the few photos of the whole family of 16 together.  It might be the only one.  My grandma is one of the older daughters in the back to the right of her oldest brother.  Yes, the one with her eyes closed!  She died from a sudden stroke in, I believe, 1954 or 1955. 

A few facts about Tessa at 1 month:

-Not sure about her weight but I would guess between ten and eleven pounds.
-She likes to be held and carried around if she is awake.
-She recently started grabbing handfuls of my hair when I hold her.
-She wears size one diapers and can still squeeze in to some of the roomier newborn clothes but also fits in 0-3 month clothes. 
-She is starting to make more "talkative" sounds besides just newborn grunts and crying.
-She is starting to use her legs more to try to "stand" and lock her knees.
-She has been on a few road trips and is good in the car. 

I took a picture of her on my phone to upload but the Blogger app is acting up and failing to publish.  So you get to see pictures of two long deceased great grandmothers but no new Tessa pictures.  Oh well...I don't have time to figure it out right now...it's Christmas in nine days...eeeeeh!  We might go visit Santa at the all tonight.  That will be fun even though I think they rip you off by making you purchase their overpriced photos.