Jack David - 1 Month

Wow!  How has it been a month already?  Maybe it's because it's summer or maybe because we've been crazy busy with house stuff, but this has been one of the fastest months ever.  Jack is the perfect addition to our family and the timeliness of his arrival couldn't have been more perfect.  He allowed his sisters to attend the birthday party of one of their best friends and made Father's Day extra special Daddy and his Papa's.

Weight: I'm guessing that he's around 9 pounds.  He was 8 pounds, 4.6 ounces at his last check up (18 days new).

Sleeping: He usually takes two four hour naps and several smaller ones throughout the day.  Nighttime sleep depends on how much he sleeps during the day.  He typically will sleep 3-4 hours night.

Eating:  Jack is still nursing on demand.  Sometimes it's every two hours and sometimes it's four.  It's not uncommon from him to want to nurse every hour in the evening.

Clothing: Newborn, but probably not for long.  Several sleepers are already too small.

Diapers: Size 1 because we recently ran out of newborn.

Likes: Being held and nursing

Dislikes: Being hungry, tummy troubles, and spitting up.  We're dealing with pretty bad reflux just like we did with Madi.  He seems to be happier since starting medicine (ranitidine), but still spits up a lot.  Hopefully, it only lasts a few months.

The Parents: We're tired!  David is still off work and will be for three more weeks so he can catch up a little in the mornings.  Daycare started up when Jack was two weeks old.  I hired a teenager to help me for the next two weeks, but it still required me to get up .at 6am to make sure that everything was ready for the day.  Occasionally, I took a nap during those two weeks.  As of yesterday, I am officially on my own.  

Last week, I battled with a clogged milk duct. It was terrible.  That was the first (and hopefully the last) time I've ever had one.  I kept thinking that it was going to turn into mastitis.  I consider myself very lucky than I have never had an issue with this before.

The Sisters:  They are obsessed with him.  They are constantly giving him hugs and kisses, which look  more like they're trying to smother him.  They've made me wonder (more than once) how the third child survives their older siblings.  I'm proof that we do live through it.  Madi makes us a little nervous when she is around him.  We have to keep a close eye on her.  I'm sure we'll feel more comfortable about her being around him once he's a little less fragile.   All joking aside, they are great big sisters and are usually willing to help with Jack. 

5 days new

No matter how I put him down, I almost always find him on his side.

Because I love comparison photos: 

We Might Be CrAzY

If you looked up the definition of crazy, you'd probably find Hannah and David Klinginsmith.  As if adding a third child to our family wasn't crazy enough, we decided to buy a bigger house.  Yes, you read that right.  At just one week postpartum, we were under contract on a new house and our current house.

For the last two years, we have tried to move.  The problem hasn't been selling our house.  In fact, we almost did two years ago.  The problem has been finding a house.  Since I'd worked from home for less than two years, lenders wouldn't use my income towards a loan approval.  As a result, we were stuck at a lower purchase price and there were very few homes in that price range. The few that were in our price range were all sold for well above asking price.

Like most people, we are always thinking of the future, which includes a bigger house.  We talked about waiting until spring to look again.  Then interest rates started creeping up (and are projected to continue to climb).  We decided that it would be worth taking another look.  So four days before Jack was born we got approved for a home loan that would allowed us to buy just what we've been looking for.  We began looking the next day.

Our new house was the second one we looked at, but we weren't sold on it right away.  The location was perfect and there were several pluses,  but there was also the huge yard.  So we kept looking.  We looked about nine more houses, but there was something wrong with every house.  The yard was too small or not flat.  The house smelled like smoke or rotten eggs or animal pee.  There were power lines were too close.  It was on a busy street.  There wasn't a walk out basement.

We kept thinking about this second house and the more thought about it, the more perfect it seemed.  It had four bedrooms, three car garage, huge yard, a walk out basement, and it was in a cul-de-sac.  It had absolutely everything we needed and wanted and every room was bigger.  It also went to to same grade school as our current neighborhood.  We couldn't find a more perfect home.  So, we made an offer and put our house on to market.  

On our eighth wedding anniversary we put our house on the market.  That day we had eight showings (and one second look).  By morning we had two offers and by the next day we were under contract.  

Inspections and appraisals are done.  All that is left to do is pack, hire movers, and pick paint colors so that we can move in on Jack's two month birthday.  It all happened so quickly and feels surreal.  We are so excited to begin our life in our new home.

The Birth Story of Jack David

Thursday, June 15, 2017

I began having contractions around 10:00 a.m. They weren't anything consistent, but I was certain that they were no longer Braxton Hicks contractions.  They continued through the day and into the night and increased in intensity.  I was sure that we'd be meeting Jack the next day, so I cancelled daycare for Friday.  (Madi had also gotten sick twice during the night, so cancelling daycare seemed like a good idea.) 

Friday, June 16, 2017 

39 weeks, 4 days

By morning, my contractions had completely stopped.  I just couldn't wrap my head around that fact that they had been so strong during the night and then nothing in the morning.  I tried to relax and accept it, but in reality I was completely bummed.  

Throughout the day the contractions resumed Thursday's behavior and I was still having them at my doctors appointment at 1 p.m.  They still weren't consistent and my cervix hadn't changed any for two weeks.  I was still 3 cm dilated and 80% effaced.   I convinced the nurse practitioner to strip my membranes, but I wasn't overly optimistic that it would help.  The same thing had been done with my previous pregnancies without any results.  I was told to schedule an appointment for the next week and hopefully I wouldn't need it.  To say I was frustrated would be an understatement.  I was mad!  I was mad that I hadn't progressed any in two weeks.  I was mad that I had cancelled daycare for no reason.  I was mad that she didn't even offer to schedule an induction date.  I went home in a bad mood convinced that I would be pregnant forever.

Saturday, June 17, 2017

Saturday morning I woke up super early so I went for a long walk in hopes that it would help.  The rest of the day was pretty normal.  I cleaned the house, finished the laundry and took the girls to a birthday party.  

I didn't feel great when we got home from the party (7pm) so I told David that I was going to go lay down.  At 7:12 p.m., my back starting hurting in waves and then I got the worst back ache I've ever had.  I tried everything to make it stop, but nothing worked.  It continued to hurt for about 10 minutes and then I began having contractions.  Almost immediately after my contractions began, our dog Molly, began barking like crazy.  It's like she knew that something was about to happen.  She only left my side long enough to go bark at David and tell him.

At 8:00, we called our parents to make arrangements for someone to watch the girls and by 8:30 p.m. we were on our way to the hospital.  We arrived at the hospital around 8:45 p.m.and after what seem like forever, I was finally checked in.  

Once I was in a room, the nurse checked me and I was 4 cm, almost 5.  Within 2 hours, I was dilated to 6 cm.  Neither of my previous labors were super long, but I wouldn't call them short either.  (I needed pitocin for both and both were 8 hours.)  With the way I was progressing, I really thought that this labor would be even shorter.  Ha!

Around 11 p.m. I asked for an epidural.  Usually, the on call anesthesiologist is already at the hospital, but not this particular night.  Instead, he was at home, which was about a 20 minute drive, sleeping and his power was out due to a bad thunderstorm.  It took over an hour for him to get to the hospital once he was called.  As soon as he came into my room,  he began making jokes about having trouble finding his shoes in the dark and the he had to wear his sandals instead.  By this point, I had reached my pain limit and did not enjoy his humor.  In fact, I was quite pissed at him for taking so long (my nurse was too).  

Sunday, June 18th Father's Day

Once my epidural kicked in, I felt much better.  At 1:45, I was dilated to 7 cm and 100% effaced, but baby was still too high.  My my nurse had me try several different positions to help him descend, but nothing worked.  She said that most likely I would make any more progress until my water was broken.  I said "let do it."  However, I was told that it wasn't possible because the on call doctor was sleeping and they weren't supposed to wake him unless it was an emergency.  I told her to wake him up anyway.  (I later found out that he had been checking his pager all night assuming that I was ready.  He easily could have broken my water since he was already awake.)

 Around 5 a.m, I sent David home to get a couple things since we figured it would be a while before the doctor woke up.  Shortly after David returned, he remembered that he forgot to take his medicine.  So, home he went.  

Before he returned the doctor came in ready to break my water.  I told him that he would have to wait until David came back.  After all, I had waited on him all night.  It was his turn to wait on me.  That wasn't necessary because David walked in about a minute later.

Once my water was broken (at 7 am), we waited.  And waited.  And waited.

Still nothing.  

At 7:30, pitocin was started.  Still nothing.  The dose was increased twice before I began to make any progress.  

At 9:14 a.m., I was ready to push.  Ten minutes and three pushes later, Jack David  Klinginsmith made his entrance into the world weighing 7 pounds, 1 ounce and 19 3/4 inches long.

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