Some more pics...

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the last couple of months!

Finn's first Jack-O-Lantern - I made it a 'self-portrait' for him.

Kedron's first time off of the diving board at swimming lessons - he was SO excited!

Our 3 kiddos!
I asked Anya to help me get Finn to smile for a picture - here was her honest interpretation...



Every year we do Christmas Wish Lists at Grandpa Dave & Grandma Pat's house...
Anya & her cheesy grin
Kedron almost done!
Finn's not really sure what to do...

Crazy Christmas

Okay....this is really silly, but couldn't resist!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Halloween

Well - I know this is a little belated, but Kedron turned 8 on Halloween, so wanted to share some pictures from his special day!

Kedron with all of his birthday loot! He decided to be a skeleton for his party!
All of the kids at the party!
We decided to join in the fun - can you guess what Adrian & I are supposed to represent? (Since I was a banana, Finn certainly had to be a monkey - and a very upset one, at that!)
Our little princess... in more ways than one, I suppose!

The last month...

My friend Do Re gave us a zebra themed baby shower - we tried to dress for the occasion!

It was a wonderful party - Ad & Dan took the kids out to the back yard,
and all of the ladies got to eat eclairs and make flower petal dolls... Thanks, Do!

This is the beautiful diaper cake that Melanie made for the party!
Nancy made little party favor boxes with scrumptious handmade green & white mints in them, but unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of them! She also made Finn an absolutely STUNNING quilt....I am amazed at how much time she devoted to it, and adore the quilt!

I just loved this expression...

This is Finn's friend Paige - she's a month older than he is!!!

Our 3 kiddos!

We've been weighing Finn on my postage scale, just to check his weight gain - babies are supposed to gain about an ounce a day. One week, Finn gained 18 OUNCES!!! He's up to about 13 lbs. now!

Grandma Jan bought him an activity bouncy seat...he loves looking at the toys!

Catching up...

Well - it's been awhile - for some obvious reasons, it seems as though there's hardly ever time to sit down and update the blog! (It's kind of difficult to do it one-handed!) However, we made a wise purchase yesterday that is allowing this update:

It's a Papasan swing....Finn seems to be content with it for the time being! He's actually staying asleep!

Here are a couple of other cute pics of him that we've taken in the last couple of days - can you believe he's 3 weeks old already? Time is flying by way too quickly! I'm desperately trying to savor every moment of newbornness that I can!

Finn & his zebra from Grandma Jan

Wow - this kid can YAWN! He usually makes himself cry!

Look, Ma, NO hand!

And in other news:

We have a little girl who just started Kindergarten last week - who just happens to be quite excited about that!

Anya & her teacher

Anya getting on the bus for the FIRST time - she was so excited she forgot to look back for her picture to be taken!

Anya literally RAN off of the bus at school - I think she was the first one off!

Big Brother Kedron is in 2nd grade now - and more than willing and eager to help his little sister around the school (so far!) I love this picture of him & Finn:

Baby Details

Whew, we're FINALLY home! This has been a very interesting couple of days. But first...

So, the details....Jen's water was broken at about 8:15am, and we immediately saw that the fluid was tinged with meconium. We knew that this was a sign that baby was stressed, but we didn't know why and had no specific reason to worry yet. By 10:22 Finn was delivered, with an unpleasant surprise - his cord was wrapped tightly around his neck. Luckily, the OB had called the pediatrician and was very quick to unwrap the cord, but Finn still had a little difficulty. He had aspirated meconium, and had to have his tummy pumped. He was also immediately given oxygen (blown across his face) to ensure that his oxidation levels stayed up, and was rushed to the nursery.

Finn spent the rest of the day under observation. He only needed the oxygen for about 20 minutes afterwards, but his breathing was a bit labored and he was breathing too often: he was taking over 80 breaths per minute, when the norm was around 60. He needed to remain in the nursery, which was especially tough on Jen, who had only had a single, very short chance to hold her new baby. Meanwhile, Jen was having her share of challenges - she had to be on a couple of different medications due to her hypertension, which not only made labor more difficult but caused her initial recovery to be that much more unpleasant.

Finn really was a trooper - while his respirations stayed a little high, he otherwise did very well and we were able to send all of our visitors through the nursery to see him. Finally, Wednesday evening, the nurses gave the okay for Finn to go to Jen for feedings! He was given 45 minutes every three hours to spend time with his family outside of the nursery before returning for further monitoring.

Finally, on Thursday morning, Finn was given the okay to stay in the room with us, to our immense relief! He and Jen both recovered very well, and everyone was given the okay to come home Thursday evening. So, now we are home and all Finn has to do is adjust to our chaotic household.

Thanks to everyone who was (and is still!) helping us, we are very grateful! We'll post more pics as they come, but here are a final two for you.

It's a BOY!

Finn Xavier Leon D. was born at 10:22 a.m. on Wednesday, 8/27. He weighed in at 9 lbs, 6 oz, and was 20.8 inches long!

Despite a somewhat exciting birth, mom and baby are doing just fine now. We can't upload any of our own pictures yet, but if you want a preview check out the Harrison website at http://www.harrisonhospital.org/ and click on the "See Our Babies" button at the top of the page. Use the password "public" to access the site!

We will post more as soon as we can, but right now we're very tired.