Walking!

Finn has been taking some experimental steps lately, and loves walking around with the help of his push toy, and tonight he finally decided to take the plunge!  We are all so excited for him - yay Finn!

Movin' on up!

I wasn't sure we would see this at all, but today Finn has moved up from his signature "wounded soldier" to a real hands-and-knees crawl!  We were all pretty excited for him this morning.

Finn's birth

Tomorrow we will be celebrating one year with Finn!

One year ago, when we were getting ready for bed, I started feeling faint contractions.  I knew that with both Molly and Elijah, I was already quite dilated when I started to feel contractions, so I paid attention right away.  When I timed them, the contractions were only 2-3 minutes apart, so we called the doctor.  We went to the hospital about midnight, and spent the rest of the night alternately walking the halls and watching the monitor.  My first two labors started slow, but went REALLY fast at the end, so we were all prepared for things to speed up at any time.  Finn decided to take his time, however.  Later in the afternoon, I got an epidural (my first - I was so scared!) and took a short, much-needed nap.  Finn finally made his appearance at 5:09 pm.  We were so excited to meet him!  He took to nursing right away, and we enjoyed spending some quiet time together.  It was a wonderful day.

Finn Patrick, 7 lbs 12 oz and 19 1/4", July 22nd

It was a very, very hot week.  During the first night it finally dropped below 100 degrees around 2 am.  The monitors around the halls of the hospital reported the temperature outside all night.  We were glad to be inside in the air conditioning!

Spring Finn

Here are just a couple of baby pictures from May.  Our little man is growing and growing ...

Finn is 10 months old and is getting around the house with his modified army crawl - using only his right arm and his big toes.  He is alarmingly fast despite the inherent difficulty of his method and shows no interest in trading up for a traditional crawl.  I suppose we can commend him for his tenacity - and attach a fuzzy rag to the belly of all his shirts so he can keep the floor clean as he chases, uh, follows me around all day!

Finn continues to enjoy being in the middle of whatever his brother and sister are doing, but more and more also wants lots of attention from his mama.
 

He sure is a smiley little dude, and loves to laugh at just about anything, especially Elijah being silly.  He has had the most difficulty/pain with teething of any of our kids, but still has plenty of grins for us!  He started teething late, but they came very quickly - the first four came one right after the other.

The night before Mother's Day, Finn slept for 10 hours straight - which was far and away the longest he's ever gone.  His sleeping is getting so much better all of a sudden!  I am thankful for every good night and each day with reasonable naps.  For so long it seemed we would never sleep again!  Hooray for a sleeping baby!

Sneezey giggles

Elijah is pretty creative when it comes to entertaining Finn - and he'll do anything that gets a laugh over and over again.  They never get tired of being silly together!

So funny

Finn and Daddy playing around last night.  Love those baby laughs!

Finn pics

All bundled up to go looking at Christmas lights.

This is the hat, sweater, and blanket set that Bobbi made for him.

Four (and a half) months

Finn wearing his Bobbi sweater and hat

Finn is four months old!  OK, four and a half.  Life all just got away from me lately. =)  He is a big, smiley, drooly snuggle bug.  We went to the doctor this week and he was proclaimed a big, healthy boy - 99th percentile in both height and weight.  Yup, he's a bruiser.  He was amazingly calm and happy, and didn't even cry when he got his shot.  He was not so happy later, but I was thankful for a calm appointment. 

Baby in the mirror

Finn loves to talk to Elijah and Daddy and Mama, is usually pretty happy to be held by anyone he knows and even smiles for strangers sometimes.  He is not a big fan of tummy time, and sometimes resents being put in his toy arch because he knows that means I'm leaving him.  He loves mirrors and and standing up and watching Elijah and Molly play.  He starts to laugh as soon as Daddy makes the "bum-bum" jaws-theme sound that means that he is going to get tickled!   Molly loves to bring me diapers when it is time to change him, and he loves to smile and talk to us while I change him.  Finn is getting a little better about riding in the car, which makes me happy, and sometimes talks to himself in the baby-view mirror. =)  He has been rolling from belly to back occasionally since birth, but doesn't do it all the time.  His legs and neck are both pretty strong for how young and big he is.

Right in the middle of the action - perfect.

Finn is still eating every three hours during the day, and usually getting up once during the night.  We are working on consolidating his daytime naps into three longer ones, and it seems to be going pretty well for him so far.  I'm hoping that he'll be ready to give up that nighttime feeding soon!  The doctor said it's not surprising that he still needs it because he continues to grow so quickly.  We are all just enjoying his cute baby laughs and noises and smiles - we love having him in our family!

Three babies

Do you think these babes look alike? 

Elijah

Finn

Molly

Baby, sleeping

 love.

After a bath - you can see a little of the cute, goofy long hair around his cowlick. =)

Happy 2 months (belated)!

Finn was 2 months old last Thursday, and 9 weeks on Friday.   Today we went to see the doctor and got him all checked out.   He is well and GROWING ... 16 lbs, 3 oz.  Oh. my. word.  We shall call him Biggie Smalls.  He is doing well!  The doctor thinks his weight is just fine. (Tell that to my poor tired arms and shoulders!)  He sleeps more than the other kids did at this age, but it must be exhausting growing at that rate, so you can't blame him.  Finn has rolled over from his tummy to his back a couple of times now, and has started smiling and cooing.  I love baby smiles!

Smalls is ready for some Penn State football!

Trying to get a good smile picture ... 

Pictures this week

 They're both getting pretty brave and fast at coasting down the driveway.

We had a fun pizza & movie night when Daddy was out of town.

Molly is still totally in love with Finn - and she is so excited to get to hold him!

 Apparently Finn thinks his bib is really a cape.  Super baby!

Some pictures of Finn

Finn is seven weeks old! Tonight he is very fussy, but mostly he has been sleeping better at night and pretty easy going during the day. Here he is in his bath the other night - so chubby!

He looks calm and happy, but ...

this is how he usually looks in the bath!

What a big boy!

Finn's baptism

On Saturday, we were so blessed to have lots of family here for Finn's baptism. Nana was here all month, and Grandpa came out for the weekend. My Aunt Louise also came out from western PA, and Bobbi & Papa and Danny & Lorrie's family were able to come as well.

with Aunt Louise

with Maiah

so cute!

Yes Finn, Bobbi is laughing at you!

the five of us

with Nana & Grandpa

with Patrick's side of the family

with Bobbi & Papa

all the grandparents

with my side of the family

Mama & Daddy and our little man.

Chunky Monkey

Finn just keeps on growing! On Friday we went to see the doctor for Finn's one month check up. (He was actually 5 weeks old that day.) I knew he was looking chubbier and chubbier, and getting quite a bit heavier, but he was even bigger than I was expecting. He weighed 12 lbs, 13 oz, which means he gained 5 lbs (plus those few ounces all babies lose in the first couple days) in 5 weeks. Yowza! The doctor commented, "It looks like breastfeeding is going well," with a bit of amusement. Yes, it sure looks like it's working out OK for Finn.

Big brother is always interested in what Finn is doing and is very gentle with him.

I don't think either Finn or Nana minds him taking naps this way.

With Daddy (their matching chins = cute)

He doesn't seem to mind taking a bottle. =)

I have been blessed to be able to nurse all three kids without any major issues - the first two until they were about a year and ready to be weaned. So we've never needed to use bottles - much. But I did learn a couple of things about giving a bottle with the first two kids. First, from Elijah, I learned to pump and freeze some emergency stock, just in case. Worrying about the baby refusing to eat is the last thing you need in an emergency. Even if we never use it, I need to have a stash in the freezer for my own peace of mind. Second, from Molly, I learned to continue to give the baby a bottle periodically, so that if you need to, you can give the baby a bottle. The emergency stash is no good if the baby refuses to drink out of a bottle. And anyway, it's nice for Daddy to get to feed him once in a while.

Both kids have been great with him, and are really looking forward to the day when he starts paying attention to them. =)

Little man, we're so glad you're doing well!

Besides, chubby baby cheeks are about the cutest thing in the whole world.