Finnian the Fat

We had our 3 week appointment today, and if the wet and dirty diapers weren't proof enough that the breastfeeding was going well, the fact that he now weighs 9 pounds 10 ounces should be! What a little porker! hehe

We are all doing pretty well. We've all had colds, including Finn, which means the already somewhat fussy nights are a little fussier. The night before last he slept from 12-330 and then stirred and fussed the rest of the night. Then last night he fussed from sometime in the evening until just past midnight when I finally got him to sleep, and then he fed twice in the night and was able to get him to sleep fairly quickly after each feeding.

Sorry, no pictures for this post...next time I'll do better, I promise.

Some Recent Pics

Okay, here are a few more recent pics, but again, check out more by clicking here

I love this little "ohhh" face...he does it alot with his eyes wide open, just looking around

His adorable little hand

Conor took this one...so content

"What is this thing" hehe

My favorite thing that Finn does right now is this little "coo"/"sigh" sound after sneezing. He usually does about two sneezes, and then gears up for one more, but it doesn't come out, and instead he kinda sighs. It is SERIOUSLY the cutest thing in the whole world. Everytime he does one sneeze I run over to see if he'll do the sigh thing, it doesn't happen everytime though.

For the Australians

How's this for a white Christmas???

These were taken at my moms house today

I really do love that we have all this snow for Christmas...but I hope it doesn't ruin all out plans!

Tonight, Christmas Eve, is to be spent at my moms house, with our immediate family,eating dinner and opening presents...then off to midnight mass up the road.

Then back to Conor's house where we will open presents Christmas morning (or whenever everyone wakes up)...and then we have to decide if we will do Christmas dinner at Conor's house with his immediate family, or at my mom's house with a few extended family.

Then boxing day dinner with Sweeney extended family at Grannie and Papas...should be great!! (if we don't get stuck anywhere!)

Good news

This afternoon Finn and I got to venture out into the snow. I had to go to the bank and fill out some paperwork to put me on maternity leave, so I brought Finnian in to show him off to everyone.

Then we headed to the hospital to get the ultrasound done for Finn....Good news: It's not a hernia, just some excess fluid. The doctor was really nice, I wasn't sure if they would tell me the results right there or if I would have to wait for my doctor to call, but he did the scan and pointed everything out on the screen for us. Not sure what happens now, he said that if we haven't noticed the swelling go down then we should go back in in a couple of months for a follow up, then I guess they drain it if it's still swollen. Finn did really well! He didn't cry at all, AND he didn't pee all over the place! (I'm sure the doctor was thankful for that as well - as Finnian was aimed right at him!)

Tonight I'm left at home on my own since everyone is heading out for dress rehearsal for the Christmas Concert tomorrow. I think I'll have a nap!

Sweeney Family Christmas Concert

Taken from the local paper

MAKE your Christmas season complete by joining the Sweeney Singers for their annual Christmas Benefit Concert.

The concert is scheduled to take place on Saturday, Dec. 20, at 7 p.m. at Bakerview Church, 2285 Clearbrook Rd.

Winners of the 2008 ARTY Award, the Sweeneys have been performing together for nearly 20 years and their annual Christmas concert promises a delightful variety of the best seasonal choral music.

From traditional Latin sacred selections to contemporary jazz arrangements to ethnic carols along with well-loved classics, if you are a fan of good choral singing, you will love the Sweeney Singers’ Christmas performance.

A free will offering will be taken with concert proceeds going to support the Abbotsford Christmas Bureau.

For more information contact Janet Sweeney at 604-856-7765 or e-mail to:

mjsweeney@shaw.ca

Pictures

I haven't been putting up all of the baby pics on here, but if you go to the right sidebar under "Pregnancy & Baby Pics" there will be links to my facebook photo albums, so you can see the other pics there.

After posting yesterday about Finnian having fussy time at around midnight everynight, he had a fuss free night last night! It was great!!

Conor's family have a Christmas Concert coming on Saterday, so everyone was over to practice yesterday, and after I was done feeding Finn, we came upstairs and I sat in the recliner rocking chair with him on my chest and just rocked him...his eyes were open the whole time, but he was just so calm...it was great mommy/baby time!

He's definately having more awake time the last couple of days...today he was awake the whole time between two feedings, which I don't think has happened before. And for the most part he was calm and wasn't crying, but I gave him the soother near the end.

I don't want to just be putting up pictures of him asleep, so as he's awake more, I'll take more pictures to put up!

It's Beginning to look alot like Christmas!

Well it is snowing like a madman outside!! It's so nice to look at - although I haven't ventured out yet.

Baby Finnian is doing well, and starting to get some sort of day/night pattern. Unfortunately that pattern involves being very difficult at around midnight for the past 3 nights! haha. But then after he finally goes to sleep, he wakes up twice in the night for feeding and usually goes right to sleep afterwards, which makes Mommy very happy!!

At Conor's cousins house, a couple of blocks away, they have a pond that freezes over enough to be able to actually skate on. So yesterday afternoon Conor and his siblings went and bought some cheap new ice skates. Right now they are over at the cousins testing them out! And it continues to snow and snow.

I was feeling a bit antsy yesterday, Conor has gotten to go out a few times, but I've only left the house twice, to go to the doctor...so I needed to get out of the house. Plus I had left all my pre-maternity clothes at moms house, and since I'm pretty much back to my pre-pregnancy weight, I needed some clothes! So yesterday evening we took Finn over to Grandmas house, his first time there. Mom was pretty excited, she gave Finnian a tour! haha. And it's a good thing we went yesterday, because the snow is not letting up here.

Doctors appointment went pretty well on Monday. Finn is up to 7 pounds 7.5 ounces! He was down to 6 pounds 10 ounces when we left the hospital, so he's doing well in the weight gaining. The doctor was a little concerned, however, about one of his testicles still being a bit big. And he said it didn't feel like it was just fluid filling it, so he's set up an appointment for us to have an ultrasound done to make sure that his intestines haven't slipped in there (a type of hernia) He's kind of a new doctor so I'm hoping he's just being extra cautious and that nothing is actually wrong...cross your fingers!!

Anyways, Conor just got back from skating, time to go!

Oh what a night!

Well last night was actually pretty darn good.

Finn didn't do any of his frantic snort-crying. He was feeding pretty good. Conor was able to get him to sleep fairly easily...and then he was sleeping longer stretches.

Finn and I after his first bath at home....he peed all over the floor right after this pic!

The only thing that was annoying was that he's so small that when he pees alot it gets his clothes all wet, so then I have to change him every time.

He has a little bit of a mullet!

So then when I woke up this morning to change at feed him at about 9 ( yay, I slept til 9!! ) I was pleasantly surprised to find that I didn't have to change his clothes, just his diaper. So as I was changing his diaper he sprayed POO ALL OVER ME!!!

Yawning, not screaming

Then, to make matters worse, as I was trying to clean up the poo a bit, he started peeing all of the comforter!

Soooo adorable!!

UGH!! Worst morning ever...now I'm really grumpy.

Also, this other annoying thing that he has started doing when nursing is keeping latched on and wrenching his head all around while pulling on me...it HURTS!

Conor took him out for a walk the other day...this is a hug-a-bub that a friend in Australia gave us...Finn was nice and snug

Okay, that's my venting for the day! One week old and his night habits are becoming better, so I guess I have to be thankful for that!

** I'm adding this part on, because the day is going much better now!! and I don't like ending things so negatively. Finn fed really well this afternoon, my brother came by for a visit, Conor's happy cuz he's out at the golf course right now, and I had a nice shower. I'm really starting to feel more like myself now. It's hard with the stitches and lack of sleep to feel like today isn't blending in with yesterday...but I'm starting to be able to do more stuff (putting away laundry, etc) and my stitches are healing up pretty well as far as I can tell.

So yes, now I'm happy...and hopefully soon I will have some more flattering pics of myself and my baby! haha...and not ones that look like I just gave birth to him or just woke up!

What's in a Name

Everyone has been asking why we chose Finnian Benedict...so here it is.

Firstly, since the mother seems to always name the baby, I really wanted Conor to find a name he liked (not to mention we were having a really really hard time picking possible boy names).

Anyways, it seemed that we had two girls named picked out right away and NO boy names.

Then Conor was reading a book by an Author he likes, William T Cavanaugh, and in the preface he mentions one of his sons name Finnian, so Conor asked me what I thought and I liked it.

We did have a back up just in case, but I'm not going to say what it is, in case we use it in the future :)

Then the middle name was easy: Benedict, after Pope Benedict.

The reason for this was that the first time I felt the baby kicking was at World Youth Day. I had felt it one day, but hadn't realized it was a baby kick until after it was over...so the first time I felt it and KNEW it was the baby, was while Pope Benedict was talking...and all weekend it seemed whenever he was talking the baby was going crazy.

Let the Induction Begin

Well we went in about 7:30 am on Sat morning and started the process. I don't think I started "the drip" (induction) until 20 to 9. It was rather boring there, doing nothing.

I didn't like having the IV put in, but I survived! hehe. I started getting Braxton Hicks contractions, but no painful ones. After a couple of hours we all thought that maybe I would turn out like my Grandma and Mother, and have "painless childbirthes".

That was until around 12:30 noon I felt my first contraction, and it was NOT fun. I just looked at Conor with this look of horror on my face and said "I didn't like that....I don't think I'm going to like this"

Then I started crying...and then laughing, nervous laughter, realizing that I really was going to have this baby that day.Well the contractions came on regular, hard, strong, fast...what else can I say to describe it...painful! We decided that I would try laughing gas....I knew epidural would be my last option, because I didn't really want it...and I wanted to stay away from the other pain killers as well, because they can affect the baby.

So she got my the laughing gas and I got to use it with each contraction...from then on in, I would NOT give up that mask! The contractions were still as strong, and I still felt them...but it seemed to make time go by soo much faster. I started worrying that the contractions had slowed down, because they only felt like 20 seconds long...so I asked the nurse and she said that they were at least 60 seconds. At one point Conor left to go to the bathroom and I had a contraction...I told him he was NOT allowed to leave again! I kept thinking we should call our parents and tell them it was happening, but the contractions were just too close together for that.

Anyways, she checked me at I'd say 1:30 although it was probably later, I was pretty out of it, and I guess I was quite dilated, but then she wanted to move it along a bit, so she got me to get on my knees and lean over the back of the bed....that was HORRIBLE! and a contraction came before they got the laughing gas to me...I thought I was going to die.

It actually must have been closer to 2 at that point, because I think I started pushing shortly afterwards. I did a couple contractions of pushing with the nurse, and then the doctor got there and it was in full swing!

As you know, at 2:32 pm Finnian was born...which means I only laboured for 2 hours! It was amazing though...I seriously thought I wasn't going to make it. And when the nurse got me to go on my knees I was wanting pain killers sooo badly, but all I could think of was "this is almost over, it's too late for an epidural". Haha, I was pretty upset that it was too late...but luckily the pushing didn't take very long.

Introducing...

Finnian Benedict Sweeney

Born December 6, 2008 at 2:32 pm

Weighing 7 pounds 4 ounces

I promise I will put up pics as soon as things calm down!

So here's the beginning on our story.....

On Friday afternoon I was at my moms house while Conor was singing for an event, when my water broke. No huge gush, but I was 99.9% sure it was my water. When it happened several more times, I made my way back to Conor's house (he was back by then) and we decided to go to the hospital and have it confirmed.

I'm still kind of surprised that it happened so early, but also not surprised at the same time. He waited til I was done working, and Conor was done classes and here he came!

It was confirmed at the hospital that my water had broken, so they sent me home to have a good nights sleep (yeah, right!!!) and told me to call back in the morning. When I called back they said to come in by 730am and that I would be induced; I would be a mom by the end of the day!!

To be continued...

Coming Soon: Baby Sweeney

Well my water has broken!

This afternoon at about 12:30 it broke, and I wasn't sure so we didn't go into the hospital until 3ish, and it was confirmed.

I haven't had any contractions yet, so I'm at moms house for the night to see what happens...otherwise I call the hospital at 7am tomorrow and they'll tell me what to do (whether they want me to come in and get induced then, wait til the afternoon, or go back for another assessment)

I'm gonna see my baby soon!!

PS Strange but true fact, today (Dec 5th) was MY due date (as in my mother's due date when she was pregnant with me)...and my Grandpa Peters Birthday :)

37 weeks - 3 to go!!

I can't believe there's just 3 weeks left! It's very surreal.

35 weeks

37 weeks

37 weeks

Crib

I just have one shift left, on Thursday, and then I'm done working! I'm kind of glad, because we've moved to Conor's families house now and it's a longer drive to get to work than the 5 minutes from my mom's house.

Change Table

I think we have all the baby essentials now...we set up the crib today, although it's just going to be for storage for the first few weeks. I got a little bassinet that goes right beside the bed so that the baby is close for the first while. I've also got the babies diaper bag packed...still have to pack my hospital bag...maybe tomorrow.

Bassinet

I have no expectations as to whether the baby is early, on time, or late...but I want to be prepared either way. Right now, I want to have everything ready, because mentally I'm not prepared for the whole labour part!! At this point I wouldn't want the baby to be earlier than the 15th, but we'll see how we go!

Bedroom

Living Room

Well I think that's all there is to say for now.

Conor at the computer desk