Little Finn

There are so many things that have happened in the last week and all need to be recorded. I'll just start at the beginning and catch up everything else eventually.

Last Monday the 19th I went in for my last check up. We were told everything looked good and we set up my induction for Wednesday morning. Since it would put me just a couple days shy of 39 weeks (and she's not allowed to schedule an induction without a good reason before 39 weeks) she did a couple quick ultrasound pics to sort of justify the induction.

We had a great day on Tuesday. Glenn stayed home from work and we just played all day as a family. We took Tate to Jumpalooza, did a little shopping, and played at home. It was the perfect last day together. Then at 9:30 that night my doctor called and told me that the hospital wanted official ultrasound pics to justify the induction and the ones she took wouldn't cut it so...she told me to just come into her office the following morning and she'd break my water and send me over to the hospital. My doctor is the absolute best. She felt comfortable with my baby's development and knew she was going to be out of town and wanted to make sure I was taken care of so she just made it happen. I love my doctor. The last few weeks of pregnancy were so much easier because I knew how long I had to last. I knew that I didn't have to worry about planning to have Tate taken care of spur of the moment, I didn't have to worry about giving birth on Christmas day, or of having an enormous baby, because she was comfortable with him coming a little early. It was perfect. Man, do I love having a plan!

We dropped Tate off with our friends the Dursts at 6:30 Wednesday morning and went to our doctor's office downtown. She took us back to an exam room, broke my water and then asked, "So, what time should we tell them your water broke? How about 6:15?" Then she walked us over to the hospital where she had some patients to check up on. It was hilarious.

We went to the labor and delivery floor and met our darling British nurse, Jillian. She was a crack up the whole time. So sweet, very straight forward, and funny. What a darling. She confirmed that my water had broke. At this point my doctor came in to check on me and she said, "So when did your water break?" I had to stifle a smile and thought to myself, "Well, you should know doctor, since you did it." But instead I replied, "At about 6:15 this morning." I got started on pitocin at 9 am and about 20 minutes later I started feeling some pretty good contractions. After an hour they were quite tough, and long, and only 2 minutes apart. I got my epidural 15 minutes after that and it was great from then on! Glenn wrote sweet letters to our boys while I tried to get some rest. Jillian took it upon herself to help us decide on a name for our little boy. We had it narrowed down to 3 but just couldn't decide between them. Finn, Kellen, and Brennan were our finalists. She immediately eliminated Brennan as his initials would be B.M. and she wouldn't have that. Then she wrote down Finn and Kellen on a paper towel and asked every person who came into the room what their opinion was and marked it down. After a couple of hours there was only one mark under Kellen (Glenn's vote), and 8 or 9 under Finn. I don't know if that's what changed Glenn's mind about the name or if he decided it wasn't so bad after all.

Jillian checked me at about 1:30 and said I was complete. Seriously, everyone should have an induced labor WITH an epidural. The whole process went so much faster AND I didn't feel the pain. Awesome. She paged my doctor, I pushed through 4 contractions, and little Finn was born. It was wonderful. Glenn and I kept looking at each other saying how we couldn't believe how fast it went. It just flew by.

Little Finn weighed 8 lb. 2 oz and was 20 inches long. We think he's darling and feel so very lucky to have him. Glenn and I were reminiscing last night and remembering how last year at this time we wondered if we'd ever have more children. And now here we are with another little boy. We feel incredibly blessed to have him and love him to pieces.

Glenn went to pick Tate up from the Durst's and brought him to visit us at the hospital. It was so great to see him. I have a friend here who warned me how big Tate would look after having a new baby. She was right. He seemed to have grown and gained 20 pounds since I saw him last just that morning. He looked enormous! So grown up and so sweet wanting to hug and kiss his little baby brother. He loved seeing his tiny nose, his tiny feet, and his tiny ears and fingers. It made my heart just melt to see him beam at his little brother.

Then Glenn took Tate to spend the night with the Johnson's so he could stay with me in the hospital. It was nice to have Glenn there but it was hard to know Tate was with someone else for the night. I knew he'd be fine and have a great time with them but I wanted him with us so badly!

The time in the hospital went so fast. It was a great hospital. Good food, most of the nurses were nice, and I was able to spend plenty of time resting and staring at my new baby. Tate came to visit again the next day and we spent some time snuggling, watching Tangled on TV and playing with the buttons on my bed. Very exciting.

It's been a crazy week. I can't believe little boy is already a week old. I have so much more to record but it will have to wait. I'm going to take a nap!

I'm going to do weekly picture postings of my little babe again. It's so fun to see him grow week to week, and it's an added incentive to make sure I get the camera out at least once a week! So here's our first picture Wednesday: our little one week old Finn.

Announcing Finn Arthur Makechnie!

It's been a long two days, and I want Kim to be able to share her experiences in her own words, so I will keep this short...

Finn Arthur Makechnie was born yesterday (December 21st, 2011) at 1:54 PM. He weighs 8lb 2oz, and is 20in. He was a very easy delivery and labor... I should know because I watched and did none of the work myself.

Everyone is doing well, and we expect Kim and Finn to come home tomorrow. We have had some very generous friends, the Dursts and the Johnsons, watch Tate for us. It is nice to have friends who are willing to pitch in so we don't have to worry about The Tate-O. He has been a really good sport the past few days, and he has been so cute with Finn, but I can tell he is a little stressed out. I am home with him tonight.

As I said, I am going to keep this short, but I know Finn's adoring public has been clamoring for some photos, and If I don't publish something soon the Paparazzi is likely to beat me to the punch, so here you go! He is still pretty new and squished up in most of these, but I will get some more normal looking pictures tomorrow and post them.

Songs

This past week we borrowed the old Winnie the Pooh movie from the library. Tate has learned a couple of the songs from it and is constantly singing them to himself and jumping around the room. This one is my favorite.


Lately we've been singing Christmas songs for bed time songs and "the angel song" is one of his favorites. Yesterday he was in his room talking and singing to himself during nap time. I snuck up and listened from the bathroom connected to his room and caught him singing "in excelsis deo" over and over to himself. It's pretty delicious with his little lisp.

Goings-on

We've had a lot of fun the last couple of weeks. First, Glenn's work threw him a surprise baby shower. It was amazing. A sweet lady he works with called me a couple of weeks before and asked about dates and times and then planned a fake meeting to get Glenn there without suspecting. Tate and I were there, they'd made a cake and set up a bunch of tables and some decorations. Glenn walked in and was completely surprised. (That's Martha in the purple, she set the whole thing up.)It was awesome. Tate was excited all day about going to a party at Daddy's work and he was not disappointed either! I thought it was pretty amazing that his work would throw him a shower to celebrate our second baby boy. It was SO thoughtful and Glenn just ate it up. They gave us this huge wrapped tower of diapers and wipes and even got a new dump truck for Tate. It was really fun and so sweet!Thanks Newfield!

Once we finally got out tree up we pulled out our new Christmas tree train. Tate's been fascinated with the concept since he first heard that they existed and wants to look for Christmas tree trains any time we're in a store. We got it all set up during his nap and when he woke up, there it was, around the tree. He loves it and it's super fun to watch him just stare at it and then push all the buttons on the remote to make it go and whistle and such. Last week our little community had their winter festival and Glenn and I, keen not to miss out on a good/free time, checked it out. Our community is awesome. They have fun festivals and family events all the time and this one didn't disappoint. They had a petting zoo. This time Tate was more intent on bothering the animals by pulling their tails (poor little piggy)and checking out what kind of food they were eating to pay much attention to the animals. They also had a horse drawn carriage, a trackless train AND camel rides. We couldn't miss out on that! Glenn wouldn't let me ride with Tate...but the boys had a good time. I wasn't sure how Tate would feel about climbing on a huge hairy beast but he ate it up. He calls them "canamals" and he still talks about how he got to ride on a canamal.

Lastly, we've been to 2 Christmas parties in the last 2 weeks. Glenn's company Christmas party which he's dubbed "grown up prom". It's a nice dinner and entertainment/dancing after. It was a fun date night. Then last Saturday we went to his company's family Christmas party. They do such a good job planning these parties. This year was a Hawaiian theme. We had a yummy breakfast and then went upstairs for a bunch of activities. Cookie decorating, balloon animals, a hula contest, (this is what happens when mom and dad can't tell Tate "no" and he wants to see us hula)and of course, a chat with the big guy. Tate was a little hesitant at first but warmed up quicklyand was soon chatting Santa's ear off about the train and bicycle he would like to have.

On top of that Glenn's been really busy with some new things at work which we will post about soon, I've been busy with planning a couple of young women's activities, and we've all been doing some shopping, shipping presents, and general readying the house and ourselves for little babe's arrival. 9 days and counting, by the way!

Sailboat Bed!

We got a package in the mail today. It was from Nanna and contained some real treasures. Two presents for Tate which he very reluctantly left under the tree and this:A gorgeous sailboat quilt that Nanna made for Tate's new big boy bed. (In the picture he's already hiding under it and asking me to come find him.) Tate's been in his bed for a couple of weeks now but just sleeping under a sheet and some of his little blankets. He's THRILLED to have a big quilt just like mom and dad's bed. Now he can play "cave" and hide and seek in his own bed under his own blanket! He calls it his sailboat bed. He absolutely loves it and so do I. I love the fabrics and the colors are just perfect for my little boy's room. All of the time that went in to piecing all those sailboats together is just plain incredible. It's an absolute treasure. And I love that my mom made it for my little boy.

Thanks SO much Nanna! We cannot wait to see you in a few weeks!!!

I have a collection...

A collection of quotes from the Tate-o. I've been scribbling them down, texting them to Glenn, and trying to remember them for a while. It's time I get them recorded before I forget them all!

Lately he's been playing a lot of make believe. He becomes an animal or a character from a movie and suddenly I'm another animal (the mommy animal) or another character from the same movie.
- "Mommy, I'm a dinosaur. This is my blue tail. I'm extinct!"
- "The little lion cub named Simba is sleeping on this grey couch while his mommy lion is doing her exercise movie."
- "Mom, you are Kanga and I am little Roo."
- Sometimes he doesn't clue me in on the animals we're playing, he just calls me an animal. Most of the time it's just fine but every once in a while he calls me something unflattering. I was talking to him about how he needed to tell me when it's time to go potty and he just looked at me and replied with a , "Yeth mommy walruth."
- Sometimes he likes to distinguish the kind of animals we are by the color of shirts we're wearing. I was wearing a pink shirt and Tate was wearing a black shirt with an orange car at the time, "The pink elephant wants to take the.....(looks down at his shirt) orange car elephant down the stairs to get him some orange juice!"
- When he's in a Fox and the Hound mode, I'm Copper and he's Todd. "We'll always be friends forever, right Copper?"
- When we play Winnie the Pooh I'm Christopher Robin and Glenn is Eeyore. "Christopher Robin, can you juggle?" No Winnie the Pooh. I'm sorry, I don't know how. "Eeyore can juggle. I think he'll be home soon."
- In the movie Bolt, the dog thinks he has super powers that have been taken from him by being in contact with Styrofoam. Tate was trying to lift something really heavy one day and muttered under his breath, "Ooo, must be made of styrofoam."
- One day on our morning walk we stopped to feed the ducks our left over pancakes and one snuck up and bit a piece right out of his hand. He jumped, whimpered a little, then shook it off and said, "Wo, that thurprithed me!"
- "I know just what to do! Watch Toy Story!"
- He has this darling idea that hugging makes everything better. So once when I was throwing up he heard me and told Glenn, "I want to make her happy." Glenn tried to hold him back for a minute but Tate just ran in and hugged me over the toilet and said, "Mom, I'm hugging you to make you happy again."
- When he was sick and about to throw up he'd just start sobbing and saying, "Mommy, make me happy. Make me happy!" Broke my heart.
- In the bath tub, "Mommy, you want to kiss this mean turtle so he'll be nice."
- Crying in his room while not taking his nap, "My face is all wet! Wipe this water off my face!"
- Sometimes he narrates what he's doing as he's doing it. "The big boy hugged his mom." "The baby tiger is playing with his train."- When Glenn was playing with him the other day, "Daddy, you will take me to the movie theater and we will watch the lion king and you will get popcorn!"- Then there's the just plain sweetness. "Mom, I'm happy playing with you." - Lately he likes to hide under blankets or especially under the covers on our bed. "Daddy, can we all three hide in the cave?" Most of the time he wants to be found. Sometimes he gives us instructions that go something like this, "Mommy, can you say, 'Where's Daddy and Tate?'"
- When talking about new baby brother and how sometimes he will cry, "I will make him happy. I will sit with him and we will watch my Christmas tree train. And I will show him how to watch a show. We will snuggle on the couch and watch Toy Story.
- And my latest favorite on a particularly emotional morning in his high chair, "I have tears that are wobbling on the corner of my eyes and splashing onto the tray. Make me happy again."

Changes

Today was a big day. I took Tate to my OB appointment this morning. We had a really long wait so he got super antsy, but he's been sick again this week (bronchitis this time) so I didn't feel like I could pass him off to anyone. We've been reading books lately about new babies and he remembered from past appointments and books that when the nurse puts the "microphone" up to my tummy we can hear baby brother's heartbeat. This time he sat really still, listened to the swishing sound, then started mimicking it from across the room. It was really funny. The nurse just smiled.

Today my Dr. gave me some GREAT news. I'm trying not to get my hopes up...but I am getting my hopes up. She's going to be gone a few days before Christmas until a few days after new years so she may let me be induced as early as December 21st. I'm thrilled. I love to plan so very much and having that date as a possibility and all that entails (planning early for Christmas, being home from the hospital for Christmas day, not having the possibility of giving birth on Christmas day, knowing when to ask for help with Tate, etc.) makes me very happy. There are a lot of reasons the Dr. is willing to let me go that early. It's 10 days before my due date but little boy is measuring a week and a half ahead of schedule and she says considering Tate was so large this guy would be very big if we let him go full term. I hope that can stay the plan. I love having a plan!

I spent all morning just elated at having a plan and having so many concerns taken away. Then there have been a few melancholy moments this afternoon. Realizing that our time as a threesome is quickly coming to a close makes me a little panicked. And at the same time I can't wait to see and hold this little boy, introduce him to his big brother, watch his daddy love him to bits, snug his possibly tiny body. I'm so excited that Tate will be the big kid and get to help and be the example to this little guy...and at the same time I'm mourning the loss of my first little baby boy. He's not a baby anymore and that fact is really in my face this week.

Tonight is his first night in his new room. His room is now painted (thank you Glenn) and has a big boy twin bed and a little dresser of his own. A few other things need to be hung and finished up, but his little body is in that big bed tonight and that makes me...pretty sad. He's excited about his new room, which makes it easier. I'm going to have to figure out how bed time songs are going to go. There has got to be some snuggling during the songs. Tonight I missed the snuggling in the rocking chair during song time. It's my sweet snug time with my not so little boy and I'm going to figure out a way to keep the snugs coming even though he's in his big bed.

Lots of mixed feelings today which I'm sure are going to be tumbling around in my brain for a while. I know this all comes with the territory. I know it will all work out as it should and we'll be a very happy foursome in the end. Right now, I'm missing the way my little tiny baby Tate looked in his great big crib. I swear it's like someone pushed a very fast forward button the moment we became parents and all we can do is try out best to savor the moments as they fly by.

Still Pregnant

I'm now 34 weeks along and I don't think I've recorded anything about this pregnancy since I first recorded that the little guy existed. I figured I'd better get on that before it's all over and I forget everything!

This pregnancy has been different from the first one. Either I forgot how sick I was last time, or I was just more sick this time. It was pretty bad for a long time and every once in a while there's still a bad day or a bad smell that just kicks up the contents of my stomach. Good stuff. Even so, it was still not too miserable. I'm grateful I'm not one of those people who is throwing up constantly through all 9 months, or who has to be hospitalized because literally nothing stays down. It's not that terrible for me, and for that I'm very grateful.

This time I was having crazy sciatic pain until about 6 months...when I finally stopped jogging. Turns out that was the instigator and since trading my morning jog for a longer morning walk, that pain has almost completely vanished. While I miss being really sweaty after a little run and all of the good mental health and confidence boost advantages that come with it, I'm glad to not be in terrible pain most of the time! Fair trade I suppose. This whole loss of the control over the way my body is going to grow and change during pregnancy is not my favorite. Wouldn't it be nice if you could decide where and how much pregnancy weight you were going to gain? Mmmm, I would really like that. I just keep telling myself that I got back into shape once and I can do it again. It's part of the process. And if this process results in another sweet little baby boy...I'll take it.

While the beginning of my pregnancy was rather rocky (Glenn was a sweet, patient angel), the last month or so has been great. I'm enormous. I hear that it's normal to be more enormous with #2 but it's still kind of unsettling. How on earth is there room for 6 more weeks of growth in there? How enormous is this little boy going to be? Does he know that he's welcome to come out a little earlier if he's ready so that he doesn't surpass his big brother's birth weight? Tate was quite big enough, thank you. While I feel like I look like...something huge...I still feel great at this point. I know that the really uncomfortable last few weeks are coming, so I'm just trying to savor this time of not feeling claustrophobic in my own body. It's nice right now.

I'm amazed with how fast this pregnancy has gone. These last six weeks look rather long from this end, but the fact that I only have six weeks left and that over 7 months have passed is crazy too. Just six more weeks of being a family of three. Six more weeks of being able to give 100% to Glenn and Tate. I'm just planning on the adjustment period after babe is born being pretty rough. Then if it's not so terrible I'll be pleasantly surprised. I hope Tate handles it well and knows I'm still crazy about him. I wanted him to have a sibling for so long. There were times I wondered if that would ever happen. I know it's the right thing for our family. I know he'll adjust eventually if not right at first. And I know that in order to be a well-rounded person he has to learn that he isn't the center of the universe. He can't have everything he wants in life and he can't have everything right now. He needs to learn to be patient, to share, and to take turns. What better place for him to learn those things than in a home where he is loved so very much? This will be good for him and his little brother will just adore him...and hopefully be just like him.

Messy Job

Yesterday there was a very wet accident at church. It was gross. Will there ever come a time when potty training is 100%? Will it be years from now?

This morning I was lucky enough to have Glenn home for a few hours. He's playing in a company golf tournament today and he didn't have to be there very early so he had breakfast with us and then went for our morning walk with us. On the way home Tate threw up. A lot. He was soaked, huge puddles in the stroller, and he kept unloading in the woods. Excellent. I was SO grateful that Glenn was there! My poor sense of smell has been pretty sensitive lately and we would have had to take several barf breaks on the way home if I had had to carry little soaked boy and push the stroller by myself. Oh yes, and our washing machine isn't working so all the vomit laundry will have to just pile up for a bit until the guy comes to (hopefully) fix it tomorrow...or I make a run down the street to a neighbor's house.

All in all, today could have started out much worse than it did! Glenn helped hose things down before he left for golfing, we don't have anywhere we have to be today and kiddo is acting quite happy in between barfing sessions so hopefully it will pass quickly. It's funny how your perspective on mess changes when it's a sweet little boy who you adore making the messes and he's saying things like, "I'm not very sick mom (as he's crying and vomiting). I'm very happy!" Or, "Mom, hug me and make me feel better!" It's one of those things that are hard to imagine being possible before you have a kid of your own and you love them enough to just keep cleaning up after them. Sure, it gets tiring and there are times I get fed up, but he's a very sweet boy and the snugs and sweet paybacks are frequent with this job too.

Halloween Festivities

We had a whole weekend of Halloween this year. Friday night we had our ward trunk-or-treat. Tate was so excited to wear his Peter Pan costume. He still hasn't seen the Disney version, but he LOVES the musical and kept wandering around the house us as Glenn and I got ready saying to himself, "I look just like Peter Pan" and smiling.

Glenn decided last minute that we should dress up for the trunk-or-treat too. His idea was that we should dress up as each other. So there we went, to our ward function, Glenn dressed in my maternity clothes stuffed with a pillow, and he suited me up in his lacrosse gear. The stake president is in our ward. I'm pretty sure he didn't approve...oh well. We thought we were funny.

Tate got lots of lollipops. He would have been just as thrilled with just one. Kiddo loves lollipops.

On Monday morning I wrestled Tate into his costume again (for some reason he was very anti-costume that morning) and we went to visit Glenn at work. We brought him some Halloween treats, Daddy got to show off his cute little boy at work, and Tate got to watch Daddy fly his toy helicopters in his office. Tate knows that Glenn's toy helicopters live in Glenn's office and always asks to see them when we visit.

Finally, last night we got kiddo in his costume one last time and took a few pictures out front.

Here he is showing off his flying skills.

Then we walked down the street to a little neighborhood partywhere we shared pizza, conversation, and toys with neighbors before heading out for some trick-or-treating. Tate was quite happy borrowing other kids' toys. He needs a bike in a bad way.

Then he and Glenn went around the neighborhood while I manned the door. It was so cute watching little Tate walk down the street in his costume holding his pumpkin bucket and his daddy's hand. This year he "got" Halloween and was thrilled every time he said the magic words and people put candy in his bucket. He thought it was so cool. It was a very fun weekend. I've never been a huge Halloween fan. But this year, with Tate having so much fun, I quite enjoyed it. Happy Halloween!