Lots can happen in 2 weeks

As you can see Finn is 2 weeks old today! We are so excited to hit this milestone. Notice that he's chubbier and sleeping:) We love both. He's started going about 4 hours between feedings a night, which allows Patrick and I to get about 2 1/2 hours of sleep between feedings....I never thought that 2 1/2 hours of sleep would sound like a lot, but man it sure makes a difference.

My very first walk...in a stroller

These pictures got loaded backwards.....So scroll down to the bottom and head back up.

Patrick and I took Finn on his very first walk today in his stroller. It was a tad chilly here, so we really bundled him up. We ended up walking down to the elementary school and back (which is only about a ten minute walk, but we were both so paranoid that he might get sick from the cold.....but I just had to get out of the house a bit.....I'm getting a touch of cabin fever.

We are hoping for the weather to warm up here soon so I can get out of the house with Finn a bit more.

The pictures directly below are from when we got back from our walk, we tired Finn out (hence his limp right arm just dangling:) but oh, what a cutie!

Living "Extra" Large

Patrick is such a sweet heart and was kind enough last night to help me out (and give me a little rest) and feed Finnegan his bottle after nursing. This is the picture of Patrick's first Finn feeding:)



I thought it was so cute how tiny Finn looks in his hands:) and how concentrated Patrick is. He was determined to do it right....and he did a great job!

And here's a picture of our fat little baby........yea, we are hoping we don't have to enroll him in Jenny Craig anytime soon. But we are happy that we no longer have to supplement the nursing. Notice his adorable double chin....i love kissing that up all day long. Last night was a great night, he ate well and slept for about 3-3 1/2 hours between feedings. I actually woke up a few times wondering why he wasn't crying out in hunger yet. 2 1/2 hours of sleep is wonderful. I know that sounds crazy, but compared to 1 hour it's a utopia.

Houdini 'aint got nothing on me

Okay, so this is Finn our little tricky monkey. We have him in a swaddle blanket, which is a velcro blanket that is supposed to keep all of the baby's limbs tucked in tightly so they feel like they are in the womb and they rest better....but somehow Finn has mastered how to get at least one arm out here. Last night somehow he managed to kick his leg out, I have no idea how that happened...and if you own one of these you know how impossible that sounds, but leave it to our overly accelerated child he did it:)

ps. you gotta love the smushed grandpa face:) it's one of our favorites.

More Pictures and Stories

A big huge thank you is due to Pappa Bob for taking me (Katie) and Finn to the pediatrician this morning. There was good news from the pediatrician. We no longer have to supplement with formula, we are strickly nursing again:) yea! Finn weighed in at a whopping 8 lbs and 12 oz today which the Dr. said was a gain of twice what he was expecting....so Finn is defnitely getting enough to eat.

This one is Patrick this morning, hesitating going to work.....I mean it's gotta be hard to go look in people's mouths all day when you could be looking at this cute kid all day:) but Patrick is doing a great job for all of us.

This is daddy and Finn having a good laugh together....I hope this is the first of many. And personally I think Finn is smiling, not just passing gas, but whatever.

Here's Aunt Julie getting a little rest in with Finn, while mommy takes a nap too.

She's a natural!

Finn the Super model











Finn McCool












Mom is tired.












Dad is exhausted.
















Finn's ready to Party!

'Finn'ally Home

After staying in the hospital almost a week, and having some dehydration/fever scares, we brought Finn home Thursday afternoon and have been trying to figure out how to feed him formula and change his diapers every three hours since then.

Last night, I tried to comfort him to sleep for thirty minutes before I realized he'd wet himself. I guess I win the award for naive father today.

Here are some pics of where Finn and I have
watching March Madness. We just settle him down in a little snoodle pillow and watch in awe as Clemson looses to 12 seed Villanova.

On the last photo you'll see I caught Finn starting to do his best impression of 'black power.' It's, by far, the funniest thing he does. He'll stick his chin down in his chest and thrust a fist in the air. Sometimes he grunts while it's going on...my little activist.

Day Two

Aunt Julie came to visit. He seems to be warming up to her a lot.









I was secretly hoping he'd poop in this shot so that I wouldn't have to change him, but he failed me. Maybe next time Julie! It's like a game of Russian Roulette every time you pick him up!



Finn wakes up a little and has some breakfast.











Katie makes faces while watching a scene from Braveheart. She always does this, and sometimes I find myself watching her instead of the television. Today I knew what scene was coming and thought I'd save her response for posterity.


My Brother Dan and his wife Melonnie got to hold him. They waited through the entire labor with my folks and Katie's sister Julie. But this is the first chance they had to hold him.








Crystal gave us a bear to compare finn's size as he grows. Looks like the bear has him beat so far.









Andy and Cary are expecting Winifred Murphy in two short weeks. We'll be hanging out with them in another hospital soon!






And that's it for today. I can hardly wait till Kate gets back on the blog train. It's hard to come up with semi-entertaining thoughts for what basically has become a slide show. More pictures of the kid tomorrow. I got a few good ones today.

Day One

Here Katie is, waiting for the kid to drop.

Mid way through the c-section we got to bring Finn over to say hello.

Finn gets weighed in. He dropped in at 8-8.

Katie is doing great. She had a bagle for breakfast and hass been a real trooper. She's also on a bunch of morphine so she's in a really great mood. Will post more pictures later. Hope everyone is having a good sunday. Katie just started watching 'Full House' episodes. I think I'll see if they can drop the drug dosage.
Patrick

At the Hospital!

Katie's water broke this morning at 8:10! We rushed to the hospital and are currently waiting for her to dilate all the way. She's at two-three centimeters right now and the baby's head is down. She's having contractions every two minutes and they look like they are pretty painful. Luckily the epidural is working wonders. Will post pictures when there are things to show!
Patrick

Quick Update

Just to let everyone know, today is our due date. However, it seems that this baby is a lot like me already and doesn't like change.....and wants to stay inside of me forever. But, thankfully there are technologies and medical procedures that will prevent this child of ours from graduating college while still inside me:)

My wonderful doctor has said that if we do not go into labor by Monday, March 17th (St. Patrick's Day) that they will be inducing us that morning. How fun a real Irish baby:) We will keep everyone posted on any labor news. But if you don't read a post about our new baby before Monday, then expect that we are in the hospital being induced on Monday.

Have a great rest of the week (and if you are in STL enjoy the nice, nice, nice weather today)

Girls with Cankles need love too

Just a quick warning, this post is not for the feint of "stomach"....it includes some very graphic pictures, if you have small children that are scared of chunky looking ankles or feet or even puffy looking stuffed animals, you may want to remove them from the room before you go an further today. Let me explain, I'm pregnant. That should suffice, but really it doesn't. About a week ago I started having the full effects of pregnancy on my feet and lower calves. My feet have swollen to rediculous sizes, the only shoes my feet fit in are my crocks (which if you read my post from yesterday about the snow) is not very convienent this time of year. In the scary, yet very realistic picture below you can see that my toes actually touch eachother. If you knew what my feet looked like before....the toes resembling more of a finger-like skinniness, this is somewhat scary. Oh, but I guess I should mention to those who don't have children, or haven't been pregnant, this is just a normal side effect to being pregnant. Ooops, did I say side effect, I meant normal condidtion occuring during pregnancy. I acutally think I'm lucky that they just started to do this last week. To all of those non-pregnant women out there, I envy your flip flop fancy feet right now.
Yet again....WARNING......do not scroll down if you think you might get queezy.

Patrick has this fun little party trick of squeezing my feet and then laughing at the indentation that stays in my foot (for at least a minute or two). It's actually pretty weird. But, before I end the post I have to compliment Patrick on being such a loving husband, because lately he's been taking at least an hour each night, while we watch the boob tube, to rub my feet and help my little swollen sausage toes return to their normal size (even if only for a few minutes). I just have to brag about him once in a while.

Ps. Please excuse the pasty white-ness. I'm Irish and it's winter....enough said.

Snow Daze

Okay, so those of you who live in St. Louis know the crazy snow storm that we had today......I think Kirkwood got somewhere around 6-8" and down by the office we got at least 8-10". CRAZY! Now, let me educate you all who are not from the midwest. This is not actually a werid occurance. It was 74* on Sunday afternoon. In fact, Patrick and I took a nice walk to the Oberweis just down the street from us and each of us was wearing a t-shirt, and Patrick as even wearing flip flops. And low and behold, today, it was blustery, snowy day. Above you can see my car snowed in the driveway, and Patrick getting back from his walk to the grocery store. Yes, I did say walk....he said it wasn't that cold and we needed some food, so he walked. It was actually quicker than if he'd driven, considering all the accidents on the roads with St. Louis drivers. Plus, this is one of the perks of living in K-wood, you can just walk to the store if you need something, it's not a 30 minute drive. We sure love it.