Coming Home

I bought this little newborn outfit for Keeley to wear home from the hospital, and my friend Bridgette made the cute bow and headband. I wanted to get a sweet little picture of my new baby girl all dressed up, but she was not cooperating. I got this instead.

Almost the instant she was born, she scratched her right cheek pretty bad, and that is visible in the pictures. We went home on Tuesday May 1st, the day after she was born. Usually I like to stay in the hospital as long as possible eating food I didn't prepare, letting the nurses change some of the diapers, and having other people take over all my normal mom duties. But this time, we were just ready to go home. Unfortunately, we had to sit around waiting for more than an hour for the wheelchair to come pick us up, which is just silly since I was certainly more than capable of walking myself out of the hospital.

I was tempted to just walk out, but instead we sat around waiting...

So we took a few pictures.

Such a sweet little face!

We finally got home, and it was a relief to be there. Bampa and the kids had made some adorable "Welcome Home" signs, and Lexi and Grammy had taped them up to our door. It was so cute! A couple days later, I took some more pictures of Keeley when she was sleeping in the pack and play.

She was so tiny and so cute. She did this tiny little sleepy smile. Those are the sweetest, and I always wonder what they are dreaming about.

My baby girl, four days old.

Stitches for Isaac

We had some excitement over here two days ago, and I think Sareny's artistic rendering really captures the moment quite well. The kids were playing, and Isaac fell and hit his head on our stone fireplace wall. (I could mention here that I never wanted a fireplace in the first place, but that would be a bit hypocritical, as I have since come to really enjoy having it...) I was upstairs and started coming down when I heard him crying, but I started running when Sareny yelled that he was bleeding all over...you know how head wounds are.
I rushed him off to the urgent care down the hill, only to find that the building had been foreclosed on them. What a sign of the times. Took him to Goodnight Pediatrics, and after waiting there for over an hour, were finally seen by a Dr. who looked at his head, then told us we needed to go to the emergency room, because she didn't do stitches. I thought stitches was part of basic Dr. training, go figure.
So we headed off to the local hospital, where we waited for about 4 hours before they finally came in to put some stitches in his head.  When the Dr. finally came in, Isaac told him "You are slow as a slow-poke!" I was secretly glad.
The Dr., whom I can only assume got his medical degree at the backwater school of the Institute of Poor Bedside Manners, asked me loudly right in front of Isaac, "How is he with shots?" Really?? He's four, he's not stupid, and, gasp, he can actually understand what you are saying! Big surprise when Isaac started crying and saying he didn't want shots. I was so mad! But somehow, we got through the night and Isaac was pretty good, even when he was getting three shots in his head. 

The final part of the story was so absurd, I almost couldn't believe it happened. First, I have to mention that my dad likes to play around with the kids and asks them, "Who wants blisters?" Blisters being spankings, like if you were going to blister someone's bottom. It's all in fun, and the kids secretly love it and run around squealing and both getting and giving blisters.

So here we are in the hospital, about to leave. A nurse came in, gave us our discharge instructions, and we all stand up to leave. Isaac tells the nurse, whom he has known all of two minutes "I'm going to give you blisters," and he raises up his arm. I lunged and grabbed him and said "No Isaac!" The nurse was like, "What did he say?" I think that was a perfect time to play stupid and pretend I didn't understand him either, but instead, my tired and sluggish brain didn't think of that, and I tried to explain as best as I could. I was so embarrassed! Anyway, here is Isaac today, all smiles now.

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!

Wish us luck!

We're still here waiting for the hospital to call to induce labor, but I think I am actually starting labor on my own right now. So, we're about to head off to the Scottsdale Shea hospital to bring our new baby girl into the world. I knew I would start labor on a Tuesday, since I did with both my previous children. So much for being induced! We'll have pictures soon and hopefully a name as well!