Finley Lynn is here!

Our precious little Finley Lynn made her grand entrance into the world at 10:55 am on Wednesday morning. After being sent home from the hospital on Tuesday, I was pretty bummed out. Keith and my dad had plans to go golfing early Wednesday morning, but while Keith was in the shower I felt a real contraction and thought, "Oh yeah, this is what labor feels like!" I was going to tell him maybe he shouldn't go golfing, but I fell back asleep between contractions and they left before I could mention it. After another painful contraction, I decided to go wake up my mom, but before I could get out of bed my water broke! So I called the golfers to come home just as they were about to tee off at around 5:30 am. My mom and I took the time to shower while they came home since we had been swimming the night before.

Thankfully, I was able to get my epidural before the contractions got too unbearable, and I think the worst part of the whole ordeal was getting the IV put in--it took the nurse 3 tries before they finally got it--and those first two tries hurt SO BAD! I got the epidural around 9:00 am, and things progressed pretty fast from there. My doctor had to leave to take his wife to the airport at 11:00 am, so we made it just in time with 5 minutes to spare. I was so glad to have my mom there with me; she was a huge help; and it was also so nice to have my dad at home with Sare and Igits. This was the first birth Grammy Jo was able to be at (other than her own five) and she even got to cut the umbilical cord.

Finley came out looking pretty bruised and beat up around her mouth and nose, but the nurses still all said how beautiful she was. I decided that must be part of their training to make new parents feel good, because I thought it took her a little while before she started looking cute! I think she looks quite a bit like our other two kids, but she has her own look as well.

She weighed 7 pounds 13.4 ounces and was 20 inches long, so she was the biggest of our three babies. She came out with a little round face and a double chin. She has some light brown hair--more than Sareny had but not as much as Isaac. For the first day of her life, Keith and I debated over a bunch of different names before finally settling on Finley Lynn. It was a tough decision!

Sareny and Isaac love their new baby sister and couldn't wait to come and see her. Sareny is continually asking, "Can I hold the little baby?" and she is very good and gentle with Finley. Isaac just loves to give her kisses, but then like a typical boy, he is done and off doing something else. He is acting a little bit crazy right now running around and jumping all over on stuff. I think he just is trying to assert himself a little, but we get a little scared when he dives right at the baby!

So we are home now with our sweet baby girl; hopefully life will return to a semi-normal state in time! I'm not sure how I'm going to handle going to the grocery store or other errands, but I'm not the kind of person who can sit at home all day, so I'll have to figure it out somehow!