John Kemper turns 2 months old!

Our little man is already 2 months old.  He turned 2 months old while we were visiting family back in Annapolis, MD which means he had his first plane ride!  He of course did wonderful on the plane, and mostly slept in the Ergo carrier on mommy.  Kemper has been such a wonderful, easy going baby.  He adores his big sister and she adores him. 

Eating:
Kemper continues to be exclusively breastfed.  He is a champ at this now (moms sanity thanks him for this!), and eats around a total of 8 times per day for 10-20 minutes each time.  He also takes bottled breastmilk on occasion and does great with that.  We also introduced a pacifier this month, which he loves during the day, and often helps to soothe him.  We don't put him to bed overnight with the pacifier, however.

Clothes:
Kemper is a big baby!  He is currently wearing 3-6 month clothing for the most part.  Some of his 0-3 month clothes still fit him, but I'm sure this will be short lived.

Sleeping:
We have yet to get Kemper on a daytime napping schedule.  He is still sleeping quite a bit during the day, and if I had to guess I would say he takes around 3 naps per day.  He usally drifts off around an hour and a half after he wakes up in the morning, then takes another per-lunch nap, and then another one in the afternoon. 

His sleep at night was WONDERFUL untik we got back from Annapolis.  In fact, he was sleeping 5-6 hours his first stretch at night, and then a 3 hour stretch, and then usually up for the day after that.  This meant, I was only getting up about once per night.  However, when we came home from Annapolis, the combination of him having a cold and probably the disruption in routine and time change, we have been experiencing only about a 3 hour stretch his first stretch of sleep followed by anywhere from 1 1/2 hours-3 hours the second stretch, and another 1 1/2 hours-3 hours the final stretch.  We are hoping this evens out soon!

We moved Kemper this month from his co-sleeper that was in his room into his big crib.  He had no problem making this change and seems to really enjoy his crib.  He is still being swaddled at night.  We have started a night routine for his sleeping which includes a bath (every other night), then jammies, swaddle, and nursing in his room in the dark.  He typically goes down for the night between 8:30-9:00.

Doctors Visits
This month, Kemper weighed in at 13lbs, 5oz (76th percentile), and height of 23 inches (52nd percentile).   He was also given his first set of immunizations which included Prevnar (PCV) 13, Rotavirus, Hib, and DTaP/IPV/Hep B.  He did great with his immunizations, and did not ever develop a fever or need Tylenol.  He was a bit more fussy that evening and wanted to be held more, but that was all. 

Babysitting:
So far, we have not left Kemper overnight with anyone.  He has however been babysat by Nana (while we went out to dinner and a play), grandma (for a few hours), and aunt Trudy (for a couple of hours). 

Milestones:

• Smiling intentionally (LOVE)
• Cooing and "talking"
• Can follow an object or our hand with his head and eyes
• Still working on head control, he doens't have this ability fully quite yet
• No rolling over yet!

Peyton turns 3 years old!

Our baby girl is three years old!  We are so thrilled to be her parents.  Peyton is such an absolute joy in our lives, and adds so much to our family.  She is incredibly intelligent, caring, assertive, outgoing, independent, and adventurous.  Its has been such a joy to watch her grow over these past 3 years, and we look forward to many more adventures with her.  We are so proud of who she has become!

Learning:
We've been incredibly lucky to find a thriving preschool for Peyton literally at the house behind ours.  Roxanne is her preschool teacher and Peyton has flourished in her care.  She learns singing, science, art, letters, Spanish, numers and small group activities with her classmates James, Henry, Jack, Wren, Olive, and Hazel.  After having a bad experience with another preschool, we feel so blessed for Peyton to have such a great experience with Roxanne.  Here are some skills that she has obtained over the past year:

• Able to recognize all letters in the alphabet
• Can count to 20
• Can recognize numbers up to 10
• Knows all colors
• learnes about the human body (knows stomach, ribs, esophagus, skeleton, skull, muscles, and all basic body parts)
• Sings (along with her teacher) a good morning song and The Itsy Bitsy Spider in Spanish
• Writes with her left hand and can hold a pencil/pen/crayon the correct way

Sleeping:
Peyton continues to be a great sleeper.  Her bedtime is still 8:00 and she continues to take a nap everyday for about 2-3 hours.  Something new that we recently implemented was an alarm clock for her, which has helped mommy and daddy not have to wake up at 5:30am!  The clock turns green when she is allowed to get out of bed, and can be set to anytime you wish.  Peyton has really taken to this, and is even motivated by a treat at the end of the week if she pays attention to it.  I was really worried about how Peyton would adapt to Kemper being in the very next room to her and waking up in the middle of the night as newborn babies do.  However, she has done tremendously!  Not once has Kemper woken up Peyton in the middle of the night, so its gone better than anticipated. 

Eating:
Though Peyton does pretty well with getting balanced meals that include proteins, vegetables, and fruit, I would say that she is in full toddler food preference.  What I mean by this is that its always a sure bet that we could get her to eat things like mac and cheese, hot dogs, grilled cheese, chicken nuggets, etc.  That being said she still is ok with me mixing in pureed spinach into a lot of foods, she still eats tofu, and enjoys fresh fruit smoothies made by her mama.  I have to remind myself to continue to try new foods with her, even if she says no, something I often forget to do.  Squeezy fruit packets remain a favorite of hers and are great when you're on the go.

Clothes:
Peyton is currently wearing a 4T in most clothes.  She hasn't yet gone through the stage where she is insistant on choosing what she wears, but I'm sure that stage is close.  She does often have a prefernce on her shoes and her favorites include her "Ruby Slippers (aka pink sparkly TOMS)", and her "running shoes (aka Nike tennis shoes)."

Activities:
This year, Peyton took a Gymnastics class at Cascade Elite Gymnastics.  She enjoyed it very much and her favorite things were the foam pit, summersaults, and balance beam.  She never really took to the trampoline, however.  We also recently signed her up for ballet, which she will start this July.  I would love for her to try soccer and swimming this next year.

Doctors Visits:
This year, Peyton had both Croup and Hand, Foot, Mouth Disease (along with Daddy!).  She recovered well with both conditions.  Additionally, her 2 year stats were a weight of 37lbs (92nd percentile), height of 39 inches (92nd percentile). 

Peyton's Favorite Things

• Matching games 
• Puzzles
• Paint by Water
• Caillou
• Her doctors kit
• Stuffed animals (she has tons and tons!!)
• Books
• Playing outside
• The Lion King
• The Wizard of Oz
• The Sandlot
• All of her cousins
• Taking a shower "by herself" (we are of course very nearby)
• Anything that glows in the dark (her glowbugs especially)
• Flashlights

 

John Kemper is born and already 1 month old!

We welcomed John Kemper Kirkpatrick into this world on Friday March 22nd at 3:05pm.  It was so fantastic to get a full night's sleep the night before with our sweet girl home with us and wake up calmly and rested to head to the hospital.  A complete different experience from that of Peyton's birth day.  The big surprise is that we woke up from to snow...in the middle of March!  We probably had an inch on the ground and it was coming down hard the whole way to the hospital.  The birth itself went great.  We were origonally scheduled for 10:00am, but my doctor was busy delivering two sets of twins, so we kept being pushed back and finally headed for the operating room around 2:00pm.  Kemper came out weighing 9lbs, 4oz and measured 19 inches (though I think his length was measured wrong because he was almost 21 inches at his week appointment).  My doctor told us it was probably a good idea we were only planning on having 2 kids, as I apparently had a fair amount of scar tissue.  Peyton, my mom, John's parents, and Katie were all at the hospital when Kemper was born and all got to meet him right away.  It was great having all the support around us during this special time. 

 

Eating:

It was really important to me this time around to attempt to breastfeed and NOT exclusively pump like I did with Peyton.  Although it worked tremendously well for us with Peyton, I was hoping to not sign myself up to be hooked up to a breastpump every few hours with Kemper.  The first couple of weeks of breastfeeding was incredibly difficult.  Kemper had a hard time latching on (think crying for 20 minutes at EVERY feeding until he finally latched).  However, with some excellent help from Katie as well as having a lactation consultant come out to the house, we were smooth sailing by 2 1/2 weeks old or so.  Kemper eats about every 2-3 hours and eats for 10-20 minutes.  He received his first bottle at 4 weeks old (of pumped breast milk) from his daddy and did well with it. 

 

Sleeping:

At one month old, Kemper typically gives us 4 hours of sleep his first stretch of sleep at night (although this is new in the past couple of days and was 2-3 hour stretches before that), and then a 3 hour stretch, followed by another couple of hours.  This means, I am up between 2-3 times per night to feed him.  We have transitioned into the following for middle of the night feedings: Change diaper, re-swaddle, nurse in his nursery in the dark, and put right back to sleep.  The first couple of weeks, he slept either in his cosleeper, the swing, or on John or I during the night sleeps, but since about 2 weeks old, he has been exclusively sleeping in his cosleeper in his room all night.  We try to get him down for the night around 9:00pm.  His day time sleep is a whole other story.  If we let him, he would essentially sleep almost all day long besides feedings.  We are trying to turn this around a little bit in hopes his night sleep would be affected possitively.  He does not nap in his cosleeper or crib, and instead does so in his swing, or in the car if we are on the go, or in the Lascal if we are on the go. 

 

Clothes:

Even at 9lbs, 4oz, Kemper was wearing newborn clothes the first month.  However, yesterday on his month birthday, I got rid of all the newborn clothes as he was quickly growing out of them and he is now in 0-3 month clothing. 

 

Temperament:

John and I were both a bit nervous that Kemper would have a similar temperament to that of Peyton her first few months.  She was VERY fussy and essentially wasn't happy unless she was being bounced on the big excercise ball.  Kemper is certainly more calm than that and is relatively easy to calm down and make happy.  If he is fussy, its either he is hungry, tired, or has a dirty diaper.  He does like to be bounced, but what baby doesn't?!!  We just recently in the past week started giving him a pacifier, and that can help calm him down as well.  He LOVES to suck on John's pinky finger, which almost always works to sooth him. 

 

Doctors Appointments:

At Kemper's 1st doctors appointment when he was just 5 days old, he was still below his birth weight.  Because of this, we had to recheck his weight a couple of days later to make sure he was gaining weight and didn't need to be supplemented with formula.  Thankfully, he gained weight enough that it was no longer a concern and we never had to supplement with any formula.  Additionally, he had his circumcision done at my OB's office the first week of his life.  I decided to stay in the room for this, although John did not.  I had my face right up in there and was really interested in watching.  Thankfully, Kemper was a complete trooper.  He only flinched when the initially put the local anesthetic in his skin, and after that he slept through the whole thing with no crying at all.  At Kempers 2 week appointment, he weight in at just over 10lbs.  We chose to wait until his 2 month appointment to have any vaccines given.