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.