Tuesday, December 15, 2009

New Pics...




Hello from Babyland...Sorry I haven't posted more pics of our little guy. Life since Jack's arrival has been great and strange and funny and crazy all at the same time. It's weird how I don't manage to get anything done besides feeding and changing diapers, and yet I feel like things are so hectic and busy at times. How is that possible?

At any rate, we are still enjoying him immensely. We especially can't wait to see the rest of the families for the holidays, so they can meet him, but also so we can meet our other two new nephews - Samuel - "Webb" - who arrived last week, and Ethan who should be joining us any day now!

Thursday, November 26, 2009

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.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

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

Saturday, November 7, 2009

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.

Friday, October 30, 2009

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.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

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!

Monday, October 19, 2009

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.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

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...

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Heading Into Week 34

Well, we're in the homestretch...at least I hope. John and I have been busy getting things ready for Jack, although I don't feel like we are near ready enough. His room is done except for the lack of baby furniture, which is looking like it won't arrive until Nov 6. We'll have to take some pics when it's all set up.

I had an appointment with my midwife on Thursday. All seems to be going well. I had been wondering if it was normal to be having contractions this early, but truthfully, never having felt them before I wasn't really sure if I was feeling contractions or if it was just Jack moving around in there. Well, it turns out I'm not crazy...I am in fact having contractions because I had one while I was in the office. She was using the doppler to listen to the fetal heart rate, and she suddenly stopped and said, "You're having a contraction right now, do you feel that?" It was actually a little reassuring to know that I wasn't crazy in thinking that I had been having these for a while. So now I have to be on contraction count until my appointment next week. The thing is, sometimes I have them every 10 minutes or so, then I will go a while without having any. It's hard to count them. It's definitely a little too early for the arrival of our little guy though, so we'll see what she says when I go in next week.

I have pretty much already decided that anything beyond 36 weeks is fine by me. The nausea has not let up at all, and throwing up multiple times a day has become part of my routine despite all the meds they have me on...at this point I have tried Reglan, Compazine, Phenergan, Zofran, Pepcid, and Tums...The zofran is new as of this week and so far it has helped a little more than the Reglan without completely knocking me out like the Phenergan. Oh the joys of pregnancy...

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Summer Fun

The past few weeks of summer have been spent with family and friends. First we spent a week in Michigan with my (Sara's) family. While there, my Aunt's threw us a baby shower, we hung out at Coast Guard festival with the nieces and nephews, and of course stopped in for the Russ' soup bar as we always do when we get to go home. Some pics from our Michigan visit:

Avary "Ava", who has the bluest eyes and pudgiest little face...

...her twin brother Aiden...
...and big brother Ben.

We did a tour on one of the Coast Guard boats with Nick & Rachel and Austin. The kids could put on the body armor and hold the gun, which Austin thought was very cool......it turns out guns and armor are very cool for the big kids too.

Nick & Rachel and Austin on the Coast Guard boat.

On the drive back from Michigan, we stopped in Rochester for a visit with Joe & Sam. We got to see their twins too...so cute. John and Joe have betrothed Jackson and Ella, so John thought it was very important for Ella to meet her future husband ...in utero...
Ella (aka "future daughter-in-law") Cassara...and Brett Cassara ...Don't worry Brett, we'd all get scared from that face...

Since being back in Rhody, we have been spending time down in Jamestown, RI where John's parents are renting a house for a few weeks. His sisters and their families have been visiting as well. A few pics from our time with the Claypools:
Claypool family pic...not bad for a remote timer and two fidgeting toddlers...

John with his sisters, Lee & Emily

John & I...and baby Jackson

Nana Cis and Papa Bill Bill with the two grandsons, Liam & John Ber...
by Christmas we'll have two more boys to add to the bunch...

Alex & Lee with Ber, taking a swim off the dock at the house in Jamestown.

Liam, hanging at Bonnet Shores beach.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Staying Busy

Hi all, I realized it has been a little while since last post, so here's a quick update on things with us...

Over the 4th we headed down to D.C. to visit Lee & Alex and finally get a chance to meet our nephew John Berihu. So much fun. Lee & Alex are doing such an amazing job settling in with him. While we were there he had his "baptication" as it has been referred to...He was already baptized in Ethiopia, so rather than re-baptize him, he was dedicated at Lee & Alex's church. John and I get to be God-parents! Some fun pics from the D.C. weekend...Our attempts at a family picture are pretty amusing with the little ones...it should get even more challenging by Christmas when Emily and I both have babies to add to the mix! : )
We have started to try to clean out the guest room and attic in order to make room for a baby nursery. Last weekend we finally had our yard sale which was a culmination of over a month's work sorting out boxes of random stuff that John and I have been carting with us over the years. Our dining room had become overrun with piles and boxes of stuff that is finally gone. It was definitely a lot of hard work, but we made a surprising amount of cash, so it was worth it. We were taken aback by the way people haggle over the smallest things...it's crazy. So many times the thought crossed my mind...Do you really need to haggle over a quarter? When it was over, we just boxed up any leftover stuff and headed straight to the Salvation Army...nothing allowed back in the house.

We also finally sold my car...the old Focus is no more. Well it is, but now it is for a teenage girl. We are grateful that it sold so quickly. Between the car and the yard sale we have a little extra cash on hand to buy some baby furniture.

I had another OB appointment yesterday. All is going well. Our little guy, who we have decided to name Jackson "Jack" William Claypool is growing well. He is moving around all the time now, and John can actually feel it too, which has been fun for him. When we were discussing names and had decided on Jack, John felt him kick for the first time, so he feels like Jack was giving his approval for the name. I had another ultrasound, and my direct quote from the tech that I took home to John was "Wow, his legs are huge - look at those thighs." John is now convinced that he has passed on his "pear-shaped" man thighs to our son. Some new US pics...

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Boy...oh, boy!

Well, as most of you know we had the joy of finding out the sex of our little one today.
The results are in: IT'S A BOY!!!

John had been rooting for a boy all along, so he is on top of the world today. I will admit I had been hoping for a little girl (Bill, I know you were on my team...), but was just so happy to see a healthy baby, and I am getting used to the idea of thinking of him as a boy now.

I also had to have a vascular ultrasound done to rule out a DVT in my leg. All is as it should be...both mom and baby are healthy. Here are a few picks from today's ultrasounds:

He's very obviously a boy...
I could see it before she even pointed it out,
and he certainly wasn't shy about showing it to us.
He wasn't cooperating with the US tech
who needed to get some pictures of his face.
He seems to spend most of his time curled up with his face against the wall.
When we went to the next US later for the vascular study,
he was a little more cooperative for the tech,
so he showed us his face for a brief moment.
Here's a little profile pic.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Excitement

All is well with John and I and baby Claypool. After a trip into the ER last week for IV rehydration and nausea meds, I am feeling great. While I was there, they did an ultrasound to make sure baby was doing okay. We have quite an active little one in there. This baby was practically dancing all over the monitor. It was so cool to see. With all that moving around, I can't believe I haven't felt any of it yet. Definitely looking forward to that.

Anyway, I have started weaning myself off the nausea meds over the last couple days and am still keeping food down, so hopefully it's a sign that I have made it through the morning sickness stage. I had my follow-up appt on Wednesday, and I actually put on some weight over the last week, so no nutritionist required. Yay!

Now John and I are looking forward to the next ultrasound at 19 weeks. We are both really anxious and excited to find out if this baby is a boy or girl. Not only because we are just dying to know, but I look forward to being able to call "it" something other than "it." We have decided that it's probably a girl. Except for the Price's, all of our friends and family that have had or are having kids lately have had boys, so the law of averages says one of us is bound to have a girl, right? I am putting out the disclaimer that as long as this baby is healthy, I will be happy either way... (read: please, please, please let it be a girl... : ))

We spent an evening browsing at Borders, and came accross an add in a pregnancy magazine for something called Intelligender. We were intrigued enough to look it up when we got home. Apparently it is a urine test you can do that will change either green or orange to predict boy or girl. The adds say it is 94% accurate, but I can't seem to find anything online beside their own advertising that says it really works. And to quote a line from The West Wing, "If no one on the Internet wants a piece of this, just how far from the pack have you strayed?" I guess we will have to stop trying to rush this along and be a little more patient.

Well, since it's midnight and the episode of Band of Brothers that I was watching just got done, I guess I should call it a night.

Love from Rhody

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Happenings...

John thinks I've been neglecting the blog these days, so here I am with an update while he is sound asleep on the couch...

In baby news, we had our 14 week check up on Thursday. All is well with baby Claypool. We got to listen to the heartbeat with the doppler, which was pretty cool. My midwife says everything is as it should be for the moment...for me it is a little different story.

A not so fun part of this pregnancy for me has been the constant nausea and frequent vomitting... From week 6 to week 10, I had lost a couple pounds, which I attributed to being sick all the time, and my midwife said not to worry about it. Well, from week 10 to week 14 I have lost another 14 pounds, which she is a little concerned about. Go figure, I have been steadily gaining weight for the past 8 years, and now that I am pregnant I seem to have suddenly found a way to lose weight instead. Anyway, I have to go back in two weeks and I am under order to gain weight by then or she is going to have me meet with a nutritionist to develop a weight gaining plan...awesome - as if I really need a strategy to gain weight.

Work has been going well for me. I was actually charge nurse for the first time today, which was a little surprising, but went well. Now I can actually check off one of those personal goals on my performance evaluation...

John is doing well too. He is chomping at the bit for the school year to be done, as the students are getting a little restless for the end of the year too. He has been having more problems with his back lately, so he saw the orthopedic specialist last week. He recommended that John schedule a Cortisone injection for next week, so we are hoping that does the trick.

Monday, May 11, 2009

We made it!

Well, we officially made it through week 12 in this whole pregnancy adventure. Admittedly, this week doesn't physically feel any different that the weeks that preceded it, only psychologically. It's not to say that miscarriages can't or don't happen after 12 weeks, but we are at less than 2% chance right now, which is making us take deep breath and feel very secure about this whole thing.

Now for the morning/mid-day/evening sickness (yes, I seem to have them all) to pass...

Monday, April 27, 2009

Not much going on...

Hi all...It has been a while since I posted, probably because there really isn't much to write about these days.

We just got back from Philly for a weekend to visit John's fam and his high school buddies. Brian & Sarah had their first baby shower, which we have all described as "lovely" in the way baby showers usually are.

John is back at work after taking a group of 8th graders to Washington D.C. for Spring Break last week. He got to see Lee & Alex before they headed off to Ethiopia at the end of the week to pick up their new little guy. We can't wait to meet him.

Work is trodding forward, same old - same old for me. I'm pretty exhausted, so 12 hour shifts seem longer than ever these days, but working only 3 days a week is a definite blessing. In baby news, all looks to be going pretty well. I had my second appointment last week, and she says everything is on track. I have been feeling pretty sick most days, which is not at all pleasant, but actually a little reassuring at the same time because it must mean my hormone levels are much higher than last time - silver lining to everything, right?

Anyway, I should be getting ready for work now,
Love From Rhody :)

Friday, April 3, 2009

Our News!

Some of you already know this, but for the rest: I'm pregnant again!!
I am just under two months at this point, and based on our doctor's appointment last week, the baby measures exactly right, and has a heartbeat already. Seeing the heartbeat was so amazing and reassuring after last time when we never got to that point even at 10 weeks. We are due in November '09. John is hoping for a boy, but I really want a girl. Obviously we will be content either way, but we joke about it now. At first we were somewhat reserved with our excitement, but after seeing this we feel much more secure. We were thinking that we should wait until the 12 week mark, but through a combination of my own silly comment and my mom's, we kind of got outed on facebook today, so here it is.

I've been feeling pretty good so far...just a few episodes of nausea...mostly just fatigue. The main thing I have noticed is the effect that certain smells have on me. Some things I never used to find offensive, some others that have always bothered me now seem to be more intense than ever. Other than that, feeling pretty good.

So thanks to our family and friends who have already been praying for us...here we go again.