Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Turkey Day! We hope everyone is enjoying time with family and friends to celebrate the holiday. I'm generally not the sentimental type, but I think it's appropriate to take some time to reflect on all the things that John and I have to be thankful for this year. John is healthy and cancer free, in this tenuous economic climate we are both in secure jobs that we enjoy, we have amazing and supportive family and friends, and we have been blessed with the most amazing, healthy, happy little guy.

Jack is three weeks old tomorrow - I can't believe it - time is going by so fast. He had his first doctor's appointment last week and had already gained 13oz since leaving the hospital. I guess we don't have to worry about whether or not he is eating enough.

We were getting a little worried that his cord stump took almost three weeks to fall off since the hospital told us it would take about 7-10 days. It finally came off though, so John and I were excited to give him his first bath last night. Well, someone should have clued Jack into the fact that this was supposed to be fun time because he HATED it. He screamed the entire time and even pooped in the water as a little thank you for the experience.

Jackson's First Week

It has been just over a week with our little guy, and John and I are loving every minute of it. We have so much fun just watching all the little expressions he makes, and laughing at the craziness of it all - like the 3am projectile vomiting or the involuntary peeing when the diaper comes off...

We are starting to learn his routine. In general, he is a pretty relaxed baby. He sleeps away most of the day and night, except for eating every three hours. His internal body clock amazes me...he literally wakes up almost on the dot to be fed. The one thing he does get pretty angry about is having his diaper changed. In fact, if he could live the rest of his life in a swaddle, I think he would be happy forever. As soon as we have to take away the layers of clothes and blankets, he starts screaming.

This week has been pretty laid back, with both John and I off work and many visits from family and friends. My mom & sister Becky flew out on Saturday to surprise me, and John's parents came out over the weekend as well. Throughout the week, Jack has met some of our other friends and family too. Here are some of the pics from the week.

Papa Bill Bill and Nana came the weekend of Jack's arrival, and Nana stayed with us for a few days to help out at home.

A surprise visit from Grandma and Aunt Becky! I couldn't believe that John was in on it and managed to keep it a secret from me for almost a week. We are looking to next weekend when Grandma comes back to stay with us for a week.

Brian, Sarah & Miles Bhuta with Jack

Brian Wildeman with Jack - thanks for the yummy meals!

John with Mason Wildeman & Jack

Aunt Jo & Olivia Calnan

Welcome Jackson!!

We are so happy to share the news that we are the proud and giddy parents of Jackson William Claypool. He was born last night (11/6) at 10:37pm. The delivery went smoothly (and actually pretty quickly), and he is very healthy.

He came out with a full head of dark hair weighing in at 6lbs 14oz, and measures 20 1/2 inches. So far he pretty much sleeps and eats, and we can't help but just stare at him endlessly.

John's parents came up from Philly yesterday, but because of the swine flu visitor restrictions, we are still waiting for them to be able to come up for a visit later this afternoon.

As for me I am a little sore, but actually feeling pretty good. I haven't been feeling sick at all since yesterday. I'm still trying to decide if the hormones really do go away that quickly, or if I'm just too excited about this little guy to think about anything else. Either way, I'm feeling great!

So we picked a few pictures to post, which we had attempted to email out, but I think the file sizes we too big, so here they are instead.

37 Weeks

Another doctor's appointment this week to assess the baby progress, but not much has really changed. I am still dilated to about 2cm, with not much going on by way of contractions this week. Since I am still getting very sick and have lost a little weight again, it looks like they are going to induce me next week (unless by some miracle I go into labor on my own before then). The ultrasounds show that Jack is a great size (up to about 6 1/2 lbs now), and next week will be an amnio to determine if his lungs are mature enough to start the induction. If so, we will be on our way to meeting our little guy!

At this point I am grateful to have an end date in mind. Being sick for nine months has been difficult, and now knowing that I just have to make it through one more week is a blessing.

In the meantime, I am still holding out a slight hope that I might go into labor on my own. My midwife has suggested some "at home remedies" to try to get things moving. She is also hoping that I might either go into labor spontaneously or at least that some of the tricks will help make my body more ready for an induction. Some of them are not so great (castor oil anyone?), while others are pretty nice (prenatal massage)... So now we just wait and see.

Waiting...

Well, another week gone by. Some slight progress on the baby front, but it is definitely slow going. I saw the doctor on Thursday, who says I am dilated 1-2cm, which I guess is good, but doesn't necessarily mean there with be any progress. She reminded me not to get my hopes up because some women can be dilated at 2cm for weeks. I had pretty frequent contractions most of the day yesterday, so I did get a little excited that maybe it was happening, but today the contractions have died down almost completely. So, we wait...

In the meantime, we have been getting last minute stuff done to get ready for Jack. The nursery furniture finally arrived this week, so we got it all set up. It looks great, and now we can officially say his room is complete. Another HUGE thanks to Nana Cis and Papa Bill Bill for Jack's baby furniture. We love it!

Passing the Time...

What a great weekend! We went down to Philly for a short visit this past weekend for a friend's wedding, and also a baby shower. The drive down could have been a little better, as I required a few stops to deal with being sick, but the weekend was fun, and I felt relatively okay.

Maureen & Chandler's wedding was beautiful. It was great to see everyone one last time before we have baby in tow. Also, John's sisters took advantage of friends being in town for the wedding, and threw us a wonderful baby shower brunch. We are so thankful for such generous friends and family! As for me, I have officially passed the first week of my maternity leave. Being off work has its perks, but I have to admit, I mostly feel as though I am kind of bored. I shouldn't be because there are about a hundred things I could do around the house here that probably should be done before Jack arrives...but really, if I wanted to do those things they would have been done already and not firmly planted on that mental to do list that never really gets done. : )

So instead of doing all that stuff that I should do but don't want to do, I am starting a couple projects. First, I am making a baby book. I decided to do a hybrid of a standard baby book, a digital scrapbook, and photo album. I just didn't really like any of the ones I saw in the store, so now I have a little project for myself. I'll have to post some pages as I start making them. I also started knitting Jack a blanket about 4 months ago, and the progress stalled pretty quickly after it started, so I better get cracking on that as well.

Anyway, the other new trend seems to be that I wake up really early in the morning and don't fall back asleep. John thinks my body is preparing itself for a "baby schedule." Maybe, but for now I would rather have the sleep. Although, I must admit, getting to the grocery store at 6:45am to get a quick shopping trip done is really nice. You get the closest parking spot, you pretty much get the whole store to yourself, and no lines at the checkouts. That's because all the normal people are still in bed. Oh well, all the more time to get to work on my new projects.

Week 35...and already on leave...

So another week has gone by - now 35 weeks into the baby extravaganza... At my appointment last week, I was told that I need to stop working. Partly due to the contractions and partly due to the fact that I am still not really gaining much weight...in fact I lost a little again. So here I am now on maternity leave, still sick as a dog, but with no baby yet.

I am kind of torn about having to be on leave this early. My employer gives me 13 weeks leave, which is really great, but I was hoping to work up until delivery, so that I would not have to waste any of that 13 weeks before the baby is born. Now I can't help but think that every day I sit home before he is born is just one less day I will get with him afterwards before I have to go back to work. On the flip side, this nausea/vomiting situation is worse than ever, and I was starting to have major guilt about calling in sick to work, so at least now I am just sick without the guilt. Not to mention my energy level is at an all-time low considering I hardly keep any food or nourishment actually in my body.

I don't know what has to happen in order for a doctor to be willing to induce labor, but I am hoping that either I spontaneously go into labor soon, or that they will take pitty on me and induce me soon. I know it is not ideal, but this vomiting is out of control and taking both a physical and emotional toll on me that I am at my wits end with. I see my midwife again on Thursday, so who knows? They are going to do another ultrasound to measure Jack because I lost more weight last week, and maybe from there they will have to weigh the pros and cons of how long we will keep this up. I have to believe that he would be getting much better nourishment outside that inside at this point, but I am no doctor, so I just follow orders.

In the meantime, John and I are getting ready for Jack as much as we can. We still haven't gotten our furniture for the nursery (crib, changing table, and dresser) delivered yet, but hopefully it will make an appearance before Jack does. Last week I had a little panic attack because we didn't have our carseat yet, so we rectified that situation and have a carseat installed in my car - all ready to go.

Otherwise not much else going in our neck of the woods. We are finally getting a new furnace installed to replace the 80 year old bohemuth that currently resides in our basement - neatly wrapped in asbestos... Hopefully switching to natural gas instead of oil will be a little less costly for heating in the winter.

Baring any sort of labor scenario for the weekend, we are hoping to make it to Philly for our friends Maureen & Chandler's wedding this weekend. John's sisters are also throwing a baby shower for us. Something fun to look foward to...