Grandpa Korfhage & Grandma Cindy

On August 19th Grandpa Korfhage and Grandma Cindy made their way from a road trip through Wyoming with their ultimate destination to see their grandson Jack. They weren't supposed to be here until the 20th, but with the temperatures in the 100's and the anticipation of seeing their grandson they came a day early. My father was made to be a grandparent! I think the minute his kids were no longer living in his house he was ready. My dad loves kids and I think that this kid he loves the most. Soon he will have to spread his love to include 2 little ones since my brother and his wife are expecting a little girl in early October.

Grandma Cindy brought a beautiful quilt (pictured) for little Jack. She does amazing work and all her quilting is done 100% by hand. In addition Grandma and Grandpa brought him an elk t-shirt and a bear onesie from Wyoming. Leave it to my dad to make sure he is well outfitted for the outdoors!

Dad and Cindy came with an agenda...They knew that we needed to stain our large deck in a bad way. The 5 of us spent two half days (when the weather was cooler) to get the deck done...and it looks beautiful!!! Of course Grandpa Bob has a hard time sitting still and he trimmed our hedges and mowed and edged our lawn too. We so appreciate his hard work!

In addition to the joy in holding his grandson we took a trip to Cabella's. Jack had his first trip (and I am sure not his last) to an outdoor store. Grandpa Bob held Jackson and showed him all the large elk, mountain goats, and other animals. Jackson seemed to respond most to the gigantic fish tank. Grandpa liked to watch his grandson track the fish.

Even more changes have occurred with Grandpa Korfhage's visit. Jackson in now tracking most objects, he is cooing frequently and he gave Grandpa his first purposeful smile. Grandpa also was trying to convince him that he was a WSU Cougar fan, but at our house we know this is not the truth. His blood is a combination of green and red, but I am sure there is more Oregon Duck to him than there is Utah Ute!

Again we appreciated Dad and Cindy's visit more then they know! I think it is actually Daisy (our dog) who misses them the most. She got spoiled with 3 walks every day. I know they will be back soon! Thanks Dad. Thanks Cindy. We love you.

Grandma Kelty to visit

On August 5th Grandma Kelty came for a visit (my mom). Unfortunately, Grandpa David was unable to make it (He has plans to come out in November). We first surprised Grandma by Jack and I picking her up at the airport. She thought that Dustin was coming to pick her up. I think she liked the surprise, even if it did bring her to tears (me too!).

It was so nice having her here, she was such a big help. I don't think she knows how much help she actually was. When Dustin went back to work even simple tasks such as showering and eating became difficult. With mom here I no longer had to worry about that stuff. She even did the dishes and the laundry...it was great.

I don't think she minded the work...her payoff was her grandson. She said all of her friends told her how indescribably wonderful it would be to be a grandparent and she said that it really was true. Again, like being a parent I would imagine that being a grandparent brings the same immediate and unconditional love and joy.

The longer my mom was here the more she realized the constant changes in Jackson and the need to come back as soon as possible. In the short time she was here Jack was better able to hold up his head and he was beginning to track objects. He had even made a few cooing noises. I have to give my mom a hard time, however, she tends to spoil that boy beyond belief. If she doesn't go broke now, she surely will by the time he can actually vocalize what he wants!

Mom was here for Jackson's 2 week appointment. When he went to the doctor he weighed in at 7 lbs and 12 oz and he was 20 inches long. His doctor said he was developing normally and everything was looking good. She suggested I start pumping and to have Dustin start giving him a bottle every once and a while in order for him to get used to it (I just started pumping a couple days ago...I am such a procrastinator). Jack had to have his PKU test done (have is heel pricked) and he put up with it very well. His shots will be at his 8 week appointment so we don't have to worry about that yet.

It was great having grandma here for both Grandma and I...And of course Jack! I look forward to her many visits in the future. I have a feeling there will be many! Thanks Mom! I love you!

FIRST 2 WEEKS

Things have been going well. Dustin took the first week off and then worked half days the second week. It sure was nice having him here. Not only was it nice to have the help, but it was nice to have an adult to talk to. Jackson has been a very good baby. He does not fuss too much and he has been sleeping about 2-3 hours at a time at night. After getting up a couple of times at night our days are spent with him eating, sleeping and pooping. He sleeps a lot and if he is awake it is to eat or have is diaper changed.

His most fussy time is having his diaper changed. He doesn't seem to like being naked. Part of it is that his circumcision is still healing and he is tender. His umbilical cord is still healing and has not fallen off yet. The hard part is that when he gets really mad,like when having his diaper changed, he tends to pee. He has already peed in his own face and he was definitely not happy about that. With the occasional peeing on himself and with his leaky diapers I seem to change his outfits a couple of times a day. I have never done so much laundry and I hate doing laundry. The good news is that because of all our generous friends he has a lot of outfits to choose from and I don't have to do laundry daily.

While things have been going well it is amazing how tired you can get keeping up with a new born. My typical day is to get up in the morning and somehow get a shower. This occurs if I can put him in his bouncer and then put him in the bathroom. If this doesn't occur I have to wait until Dustin gets home from work. I then organize the computer, my book, phone, the TV remote and my water on the coffee table. These are the essential items I need for me. For Jackson I keep the Boppy, his swaddling blanket and several pillows on hand. We watch TV and sometimes a movie. I occasionally get on the Internet and I have to remember to get something to eat both at breakfast as well as lunch time. I have thought several times that I am a lazy bum and typing this out now, I really feel lazy, but during the day I feel like there is nothing else I have time for.

I have started walking Daisy again in the morning. Daisy is dealing well with the new baby. She generally tends to sniff him and occasionally lick him gently. She is a little pouty, but now gets excited when I get out Jackson's stroller because it means she gets to go for a walk. Dustin makes sure to cuddle her when he gets home from work and then he cuddles with is son and they fall asleep for a nap together.

Overall things have been going extremely well. I am healing from the birthing experience, but slowly and I feel a little better every day. I cannot explain the joy Jack brings to us on a daily basis. Looking back it seems there was a hole in our family that we were not aware of. It is amazing how much you can love such a little thing. I tell him I love him every day, several times every day!

THE FIRST NIGHT

The first night was challenging and not what we were expecting. I don't exactly know what we were expecting, but there is no way to anticipate the experience. The first night home definitely did not go as I imagined. If I could give any advice to future parents it would be to keep the baby in your hospital room with you after he/she is born. Because Jackson was technically in the NICU we were not allowed to keep him with us at night. The nurses would just bring him down when they had the time to do so. I didn't know what kind of sleep schedule he had or how often he was fussy. I didn't even really know how often he wanted to eat, the nurses just brought him to me when they could.

Before I actually describe the first night I need to explain my expectations prior to his birth. This is where I must eat a little crow. I had this idea in my head that Jack would sleep in his own crib from day 1. Our room is 10 feet from his and we do not have much room to put in a bassinet. I just figured it would not be a big deal to walk the 10 feet down the hallway to get him when he woke at night. So at about midnight when we were to settle down to bed I realized that I was not ready for him to be so far away from me and that Dustin should move the pack 'n play into our room. The crib was so big for such a tiny person! Of course we were both exhausted and to add to that the pack 'n play would not fit down our hallway. Our friend John helped set up the pack 'n play and we did not pay close attention to how it was done. I think this event was the first test of our marriage as parents. It was 30 min, several swear words later and some whining about how tired I was and the pack 'n play was squeezed into our bedroom where it didn't really fit.

At this point I continued to have this fantasy in my head that Jackson was going to sleep in that strange bed by himself. It did not occur to me that this cold, soundless place may be a little foreign to him. We swaddled him in a blanket, rocked him to sleep and then placed him in this lonely place. He slept for a total of 30 min to 1 hour. When he woke I found him completely unswaddled and moving his arms and legs and crying. Dustin would then change his diaper, I would then feet him, rock him, swaddle him and again place him in the lonely pack 'n play. We repeated this process about every 30 min to an hour until after 3-4 times it finally hit me. The poor little guy had spent 9 months in a warm place, listening to my heartbeat and unable to flail his arms and legs in the cramped space. I then swaddled him the best I could and laid him on my side of the bed (Dustin was afraid he could crush him) and placed my hand on his. I found that if I would lie my hand on his this would prevent him from escaping the swaddle and waking himself with the unfamiliar movements of his hands. Once I made these revelations he then would sleep for a glorious 2 hours at a time.

In the days to follow the following adjustments were made to help provide the most comfortable sleeping pattern for both Jackson and his parents: 1. The implementation of the swaddling blanket. The blanket we have is called the Kiddopotamus and it uses Velcro that even a escape artist like ours cannot get out of. When I first put it on I was afraid he would choke to death, but no...he sleeps without waking himself with movements of his hands...I highly recommend it. 2. The purchase of a second Kiddopotamus. This if for when his diaper leaks through to the blanket. Yes it is that valuable. 3. The purchase of a co-sleeper. It is about half the size of the pack 'n play and does fit in our room. I am just not ready to put him in another room, in that big 'ole crib by himself. Jackson is still rocked to sleep and placed in the co-sleeper. He sleeps for the first 2-3 hours in this bed by himself. When he wakes we change in diaper, I feed him and then he spends the rest of the night next to mom sleeping for 2-3 hours at a time.

My thoughts of spoiling him by letting him in the bed went out the window. I do eventually want to get him in his own bed, but he will only be this little for a short time and it has to be hard making the transition of being with mom for every second of the day to sleeping alone. While what worked for us may not work for everyone this was how we rectified the turmoil of the first night. I am sure there are flaws to our plan, but I think this is what makes parents who they are and helps them learn the ins and outs of their own particular child. Whether right or wrong, Jackson seems happy and we are at least getting some sleep at night.

THE BIRTH

I know it has been 15 days since Jackson Brian Treanor has blessed our lives so this info is coming out a little late, but life has truly changed...more about that later.

Jackson was ready to come before I was. While many mothers are begging for their babies to come a little early, I was begging him to wait for his due date. This was not to be the case. My doctor discovered that my amniotic fluid was low, indicating that my placenta was aging a little faster than normal and she would need to take Jack early. On the Friday before his birth Dr. Cannon looked at Dustin and I and said, "Do you want to have him tonight or tomorrow night?" We must have looked like a couple deer in headlights, it was not what we expected. We were in such shock that we asked the doctor what would work best for her. She kind of laughed and said her job was a 24 hour kind of job. It was decided that we would go for the latter and were to check in at the hospital on Saturday night. I didn't have a bag packed and we had nothing ready so we could use the extra time to get all of our stuff together.

That night at home we got things ready for the next day. In addition to getting our plethora of stuff together (changes of clothes, nightgowns, iPod, camera, video camera, birth ball, pillows, blanket, cooler and snack food, etc) Dustin went frisbee golfing in the morning and I went to Babies R Us for some last minute items. That afternoon Dustin, Eric and I went to see the new Batman. We didn't think we would be able to go the the movies for a while so thought this would be our last chance. It was such a good movie and I was so glad that we went.That night at 9 pm we headed for the hospital. We met our Doula, Rachel, at the admitting desk and headed for our birthing room.

The plan was to start with a drug called Cytotech, which is to ripen my cervix and hopefully put me into labor. I am to take three doses of it, 4 hours a part. If that doesn't work then they will start the Petosin. After my second does I was having small contractions that were about 2 minutes apart. After my third dose they thought that I was going to have to have the Petosin, but just before they were going to give it to me my contractions started coming harder and when the nurse checked me I was 100% effaced and dilated to a 3 cm. This was at about 12:30 pm and my labor started coming harder at that time with my contractions 2 min apart. After my water broke I started bleeding a lot more than they were comfortable with and almost took him c-section, but then the bleeding slowed. There was also a point when Jack's heart rate dropped and they considered taking him c-section again, but they put an oxygen mask on me and this brought his heart rate back up. He was pretty stubborn and was rotated the wrong direction and the most painful part of the whole labor was when Dr. Cannon had to go in and try to rotate him. Ouch! She rotated him about a 1/4 turn and he went the rest of the way himself. I labored from about 12:30 to 4:20 pm with Dustin and Rachel there the whole time helping me stay focused and encouraging me the whole time. At 4:20 they let me start pushing and what a relief. It felt so much better to push, is was what my body wanted to happen and it made the discomfort so much less. It is hard to explain how your body knows exactly what to do and if you can just go with it how much better it feels. We tried pushing in several different positions, but with my contractions only 1 min apart I was getting so tired. I pushed so hard and there was a time where it felt like we were going nowhere. I pushed and pushed, so much that a blew a blood vessel in each of my eyes. I cannot say how wonderful my support was during the labor. I was mostly focused on Dustin and Rachel, but I could hear my nurse Mardi and Dr. Cannon encouraging me to push and doing everything they could to help me out. I could not have asked for a better support system or a better birthing experience. Jackson was finally out at 5:49 pm and what a relief.

While he was out, he was under a lot of stress and was taken immediately away from me. I didn't even get to see him. I just kept waiting to hear his cries and they weren't coming. My doctor assured me that his color was good when he was born and Dustin was over with him, but he didn't cry for what seemed like the longest time. When he finally did cry it was such a relief. They did finally bring him over to me for a minute and then it was off to the NICU because his oxygen levels were low. Dustin went off to the NICU with Jackson while Dr. Cannon was finishing up in the delivery room.The anticipation of waiting for Dustin to come back with news of how Jack was doing was terrible, I just wanted to know that my baby was okay. Finally he came back to let me know Jack was doing well, but his oxygen levels were low and they wanted to keep in in the NICU for observation and oxygen. Dustin went back to the nursery to give Jack his first bath. Rachel stayed with me, which was great. She kept me company and answered my millions of new mom questions. Finally around 8 pm they wheeled me down to the NICU so I could see him. This was awesome to finally see him, but he was hooked up to all these wires monitoring him so I couldn't pick him up. The nurses thought he would get to come down to the room to nurse a little later. Around 9:30 pm he did get to come down to the room and had no trouble with nursing. Rachel stayed until he was done and Dustin and I were both sad to see her go when she finally did go. I cannot say how valuable it was to have her with us. For anyone considering natural childbirth I would never do it without a doula! Dustin too felt her presence was invaluable.We spent the next two nights in the hospital and the first day I had to go down to the NICU to do all Jackson's feedings, but by the second day he was off oxygen the whole day and they let us finally leave the hospital the third day. I had an awesome group of nurses both in labor and delivery as well as in post-partum. I had a great birthing experience and feel very lucky.