Just A Little Busy

A little taste of a typical Saturday morning:

9AM: Soccer game for Reesie

10AM: Soccer game for Wyatt

(fortunately, this just involved us turning around our chairs)

11:30AM: Baseball game for Wyatt

(Changing Wyatt's uniform with limited van space is probably the most challenging part of this switch)

Okay, so none of that actually happened this weekend because it was rainy Saturday, but that's a typical weekend.

We have a MUCH slower week this week, so hopefully I can get back into the blogging groove!

Finley's Birth Announcement

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Not Locked in the Closet

I promise that I haven't had the kids locked in a closet or anything (which I think it what my brother accused me of doing the last time I went a really long time without a blog post)!  We have been crazy busy this week (school, sports, anniversary, Busch Gardens, booking our Disney vacation!) and our computer is dying a slow death.  The battery isn't charging, the charger isn't really working...basically, there's a possibility when I sit down at the computer that it may turn off.  Fun, fun!

I figured I could ease back into blogging with some sweet pictures of Hudson with his baby sister last Friday.  He was very eager to get on the couch, and demanded that I give him "boppy" so that he could hold the baby.

I'm not going to lie, she was screaming the entire time that he held her, but he was so happy to hold her.  Even though she was very unhappy, he kept saying, "Oooooh, baby cuuuute."

He was not interested when I tried to take her to feed her.  He kept saying, "No Momma!  No baby!"

I can't believe that she is 3 weeks old now, and I am also astounded that it's time for us to start planning this little fella's second birthday party!  He will be 2 in a month - absolute craziness!!!

Odds & Ends

Just a few random notes about what we're up to now!

This is what I feel like doing all day, every day.  I'm exhausted!  But cuddling with sweet Finley is a nice way to nap!  Reesie and I used to take little naps together, too!

Every one says that Finley resembles Wyatt.  I agree, but when her eyes are open I think she looks more like her big sister!  What's funny though, is that she has the exact same birth marks as Wyatt.  He has a "stork bite" in the middle of his forehead (they actually all do!), but he also has one right on the back of his neck.  I didn't even notice it until we gave her a bath last week!

A clean baby!  She is not a fan of her baths (although she does like it when I wash her hair), but she is the sweetest little girl!

Reese has been waiting for-e-ver (that's my best Sandlot impression) to have a little sister to match her!  Not kidding, this little girl throws a fit on the days that the boys match.  It's gotten to the point where she gets mad if the boys get the same color straws in their yogurt!  Fortunately, she and Finley were able to match last week.  We bought Reese her dress in the spring, and we bought Finley's as soon as we found out she was a girl.  Big Sister was very excited to finally have a "twin"!

Finley has not been a fan of pacifiers, but she has the whole sucking reflex thing down.  This led to many, many hand washings for me, and her using my pinky as a pacifier.  Nothing gets by big brother, so he decided to just shove his pinky finger in her mouth one day when she started crying.  Fortunately we're surviving on lots and lots and lots of hand washing right now.

You're probably wondering where Hudson is (Katie!)...

He's here.  Just far away from the baby.  Reese caught a cold last week, and he got the worst of it.  Runny nose, wheezy cough, fun times.  So I've been doing my best to keep him and his germs away from the baby...which is kind of hard when he's stinking adorable saying "Baby!  Baby cute!  Niiiiiiice to baby!"  It's even become part of his new wake up routine.  I go in and he says, "Daddy?  Wy Wy?  Eesie?  Baby?"

Her Name

In basically every single pregnancy post (including the last one!), I said that I was anxiously awaiting a decision on her name. And I know some people were thinking that we just don't share our names, so we had one that we were keeping to ourselves. I was not lying!  Brian and I both had names that we loved.  They were just four different names.  Brian had his heart set on Bailey (okay, or Darby) from the moment we found out I was pregnant.  I was pushing for Zoe or Quinn (Quinn was my top choice for Hudson before we found out he was a boy!).  But we were stuck at a stalemate.

I didn't like Darby at all.  I like the name Bailey, but I think people say it weird (It's Bay-lee, not Bail-ee.).  I also know like, 7 people with dogs named Bailey.  Not to say that I have anything against that, it just wasn't my top choice.  Brian liked Zoe, but it was too common for us.  Zoey and Zoe are both top 30 names, which means that people actually called Zoe are probably in the top 10!

So we kind of gave up.  And then we searched separately.  We came back to the table with new names.  Our final three were Finley, Quinn, and Harper.  I loved Harper.  Brian loved Harper.  She was super close to being Harper Quinn.  But I'm not a fan of names that end in -er with our last name.  Brian isn't either.  But we really both really liked Harper.  So we thought about it a bit longer. And while we were thinking about it, Finley came up.  I don't know who suggested it first - maybe Brian, but it was a name I liked, but never suggested because I thought it might be too out there for him.  We thought some more.

And finally, on the Friday night before she was born, we sat down to talk about it some more.  We were pretty settled on Harper Quinn or Finley Quinn, but we weren't sure which.  Harper has gotten insanely popular.  I felt like Finley needed a really girly middle name.  And then at the same time, we both kind of just knew that she was Finley Quinn.  Of course, this gave us 2 full days to get used to her name, which was different.  By the time the other kids were born we were used to their names, and we called them by their names towards the end of my pregnancies.  But with Finley there were just two days.  I remember sitting on the table while the nurse anesthetist did my spinal just whispering, "Finley, Finley, Finley," over and over again.  Mainly because that was the worst experience ever, and I just needed to remind myself that my baby was waiting on the other side of the spinal.

We are in love with this little girl, and I think we chose the perfect name for her!  She is definitely our little Finley Quinn!

Fall Sports!

Fall sports are back with a vengeance at our house!  Wyatt is playing soccer and baseball, and Reese is playing soccer.  She's also taking dance, but that's at school in the afternoon (thank goodness!).  I can drop her off when I pick Wyatt up on Tuesdays, and she stays for lunch and dance for about two hours.  It's nice that I don't have to worry about another week night activity!  Last week was our first week of all sports, so we had Monday night soccer practice for Reese,  Tuesday night soccer practice for Wyatt, Wednesday night baseball practice for Wyatt, and a Thursday night baseball game!  It is crazy - and his baseball games and soccer games overlapped, so he didn't even play in his soccer game this week!

Reese had her first soccer game at 8:30 on Saturday morning.  I did my very best to get us all packed on Friday night so that we could get out the door easily.  The diaper bag was packed, a snack bag, and the kids' uniforms were laid out on the kitchen counter.  We managed to make it out the door only 10 minutes late!  Ha!

They were not fans of posing together in their uniforms.

Reesie did a great job at soccer!  She is the youngest on the team (instead of the oldest, like she was at the Y), but she is doing a great job keeping up with the bigger kids!

Wyatt and Brian are on the Dodgers again this fall.  Brian had 7 kids come back for the fall season, and they all requested to be on his team.  I think that says a lot about what a great coach he is!  He does a great job with the kids, and he really likes teaching them to play.  They really like the baseball cards he gives them at every game and practice!  Ha!

They have had three games so far this season.  Wyatt is having a lot of fun playing with his friends, but when you gather him together with that many friends it does get a little crazy.  He's working hard on being a team player and a good sport.  Some days he doesn't do so well, but I've already seen some improvement. I would like to see more, but we're working on it :).

The funniest thing about the game this weekend was that Wyatt and his friend Hunter were at first and second together one inning.  They are good friends, and both get really excited about all the "outs" they think they're going to get when they're in the infield together.  I'm not kidding, those two went out on the field and were giving Braveheart-esque cries from first and second.  I asked Brian what was up with them after the game, and he said, "They were just excited to be in the infield together!"  Crazy boys!

Our week is a little less hectic this week - we have everything BUT baseball practice on Wednesday night!  A night off, thank goodness!

The Big Kids

Even though we have added a new baby to the family, and our lives stopped short with the addition of our first born (mainly because we had no. idea. what. we. were. doing and it took two hours to get out of the house!), our lives have pretty much continued full speed with the addition of our little Finley (not unlike when Hudson joined the family 22 months ago).  The big kids still have school to go to every day (well, Wyatt is there every day), soccer practices and games, baseball practices and games, doctor's appointments, food that needs to be shopped for, and on and on and on. 

While Brian has handled a lot things himself, we have tagged along on a few occasions, and today I was finally able to do the drop off/pick up, errand running on my own!

These guys have certainly kept us busy!

Hudson (and Finley) just LOVE Wyatt.  Really.  He is the BEST big brother to them.  His big brother skills lack a certain je ne sais quoi when it comes to Reese though.  Cats and dogs I tell you.  Cats. and. dogs.

They can all play together nicely for a little bit though!  Don't mind Reese's band aid collection.  The poor girl had to get 4 shots at her 4 year well child check up on Tuesday!  The nurse actually had to call the doctor in to hold her legs down because she was so strong and kept moving.  Fortunately, she's done until she's 11!

I don't even know what to say about this.  Except this is their father's influence. This little guy seems so big to me now.  I knew it was going to happen once Finley came, but just two weeks ago he was my baby.  And I mean MY baby.  I was so worried about leaving him when I went to the hospital.  Since I got home, he's literally wanted next to nothing to do with me.  Definitely not the little guy that I left!  Of course, he got to spend a TON of time with his grandparents while I was in the hospital and he loves them (he's been calling around the house for Pop Pop all week!), and he's getting the quality time with Daddy that he missed during the summer, but now he's letting Brian put him to bed, and he's refusing to give me kisses and squeezes.  Oh, how I broke down about this the other day.  I know it will get better, but it has been driving me crazy!  At least he's been nice to Finley and hasn't shown an ounce of jealousy towards her though, thank goodness.

We are on the move this weekend!  Soccer and baseball on Saturday, and goodness knows what else the rest of the weekend.  I am so ready for some fall fun with these guys, though!  Can't wait!

Newborn Pictures!

On Sunday, Sarah Halstead came over to take newborn photos of Finley!  She was absolutely fabulous to work with, and I love, love, LOVE the pictures.  Finley was not quite the sleeping baby I thought she would be, and the big kids were the big kids, but I love every single one of the images she captured of our family and sweet little baby!

Head over to her blog to out the sneak peeks from our session!

Leaving the Hospital!

We were given the all clear to come home from the hospital last Thursday.  Because it was my fourth C Section, they wanted me to stay at the hospital for an extra day (I was out in 2 and a half days with Hudson).  I was hoping that we could leave early in the day, but I gave up that hope when I realized that I hadn't seen the on call doctor before 5:30PM every day we were there.  THAT many babies were born last week!  Ha!

My doctor actually made it through around 1, and they finally started the discharge process around 3, so we started to get ready to leave with Finley!

First, we had to take some pictures!

Oh my goodness, too funny!

All dressed up in her coming home outfit.  I was finally able to find what I wanted for her in her size. They seemed to make it available at stores in 3 months and up, but I couldn't find newborn sizes anywhere.  When I finally found it, I scooped it up! It's by Petit Ami, and I love it!  Especially the bonnet.

Seriously, so precious!

Getting ready to leave!

She looks sweet here, but she is very touch and go with her car seat.  Sometimes she loves it, sometimes it's  a screamfest.  When we're actually in the car, she is usually fine if we listen to music that she's familiar with from the womb.  Which means that if we listen to Fun. or the Foo Fighters or some of the kids' music (and we're moving), she's quiet!  She doesn't like getting in, and she certainly doesn't like being stationary.

In her seat!  My van is packed with car seats now.

Little Miss Finley!

Here are some picture of Finley that I took in the hospital on Thursday morning!

We had a (long!) good hospital stay.  Out of the 4 I've experienced, this was by far the best.  It was at the newer hospital, but they've changed procedures and they have added some really excellent nurses to their staff.  I have to say that I have left hospital stays before really let down (and annoyed) by the experience, but they were all just wonderful!  With this being my fourth C section, I was much more high maintenance this time, and seriously, they never made me feel like I was a problem, and they took great care of me!

On Thursday morning before we were discharged, the doctor came in and told me that Finley has a small infection on her belly button, so we have to give her antibiotics right now.  He also told me that she's lost some weight (she was down to 6 pounds, 7 ounces), but that it wasn't 10%, so I shouldn't let anyone bully me into giving her formula!  Ha!  I don't think a pediatrician has ever said that to me!  I just had to call and schedule a weight check for today to make sure she was still gaining (my milk is in, so she packed on 2 more ounces with no problem last night!  This little girl is an eater!

Reese's First Day of School

Our big girl had her first day of school yesterday in the 4 year old class!  She is going to school on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays this year - which means that the two big kids will be in school at the same time 3 days this week!  I know it was weird for Brian  to drop them both off at school.  We're so used to them each having their own day!

First day of Preschool-3

We were a little sad last year when Wyatt's fantastic teacher told us that it was her last year at the school, but she seems to really like her new teacher, Ms. Stephanie!  When she got to her classroom she went straight to playing.  Brian said her teacher tried to talk to her, but she was preoccupied talking to her little friends from her class last year.

She and Wyatt came to visit Finley and I after school.  When I asked what she did she said that she played in the kitchen with Emma, she colored, she had animal crackers and juice as a snack, and then Daddy came to pick her up.  She cracks me up!

The newborn photographer came to take pictures of Finley right before Brian left to get the kids.  She asked where they went to school, and when we told her the name, she said that she had worked at a sister school before she started working at the hospital.  She went on and on about how great the curriculum is...which we know, but it's always nice to hear :).  The foundation that they're getting and the love of knowledge that they have is just amazing!  I can't wait to see how much they learn and grow this year!

Kindergarten!!!

When it was time to schedule our C section, we knew that school was going to start this week.  We wanted to make sure that Brian would still be able to take the kids to their first days without missing the baby's birth.  When they said that my doctor was available on the 3rd, we booked it immediately.  Part of all of the stress last week when they called to change it was that they wanted to schedule me on Reese's first day (with a different doctor), which just wasn't going to happen!

Wyatt's first day of Kindergarten was yesterday!  Brian left the hospital at 7:15 to get home and get him to his first day.

Three Year Old Class

Four Year Old Class

I know I've said it a million times, but I'll say it again.  KINDERGARTEN?!  How did he get to be 5 and in Kindergarten so quickly?  It seems like he was born yesterday (and not just because one of the kids was in fact, born the day before yesterday).  The time flies by, which is something that I'm trying to remind myself while I snuggle Finley at night.  I know that she will grow right before my eyes, and one day it's going to be hard to remember what it was like to hold my second baby girl!

Wyatt walked into school and straight into his classroom.  His teacher remembered that the day before was Finley's C section date, so she congratulated him on being a big brother again.  Then he literally sat down and got right to work!  Over the next few days he has some assessments (checking to see if he needs to do a review of his readers, etc), and they start learning about all the fun units.  His teacher sent home each month's curriculum, and I am so excited to see everything he's going to learn this year!

We were worried because he's the only one of the boys in his class from last year that is moving up to K.  The rest are all in Pre-K because they don't meet the cut off for September 30th birthdays.  It turns out though, that just because WE didn't recognize and of the boys' names, it didn't mean that Wyatt didn't know any of them. Apparently one little boy that he played with on the playground a lot last year is in his class, which made it better for him!

We are so excited to watch and help him learn more new things this year - I know Kindergarten is going to be awesome for this guy!

Finley Quinn!

Brian and I woke up early yesterday (on very little sleep) and left for the hospital to have our little Labor Day baby!

Last pregnancy photo - 39 weeks, 4 days!

We got to the hospital and got set up for our delivery.  The big issue last week was that the hospital was going to be short staffed because of the holiday, so we actually ended up going in to surgery around 11:00!  After getting the spinal and getting situated, Brian was finally able to join me!

At 11:52 I felt a little bit of pulling, and then heard the sweet cries of our precious little baby girl!  Meet Finley Quinn!

We are so in love with this baby girl!  She looks a lot like Wyatt did as a baby, but she makes little faces when she pouts or when she cries and she looks like one of the other two. Other times she is perfectly all Finley!

Finley Quinn is our smallest baby.  She weighed 6 pounds, 14 ounces and was 19.75 inches long.  She's over a pound smaller than Hudson was!  She has lots of really dark hair (not a trace of red that I've seen).  Her eyes are big and dark blue right now, but they may get darker.  She is absolutely perfect, and I am so thankful that we have this wonderful, beautiful baby girl.

I love the look on her face in this sweet picture.  She must be so confused about what is happening to her, but I can tell you that she had her Daddy wrapped around her finger as soon as she was born!

I spent a few hours in recovery, and only Brian was allowed back with me.  Brian brought her back after her bath and I got her latched on and breastfeeding.  She was so good - and she must have been hungry.  She's using me as a human pacifier right now, but she loves to eat!  

After we got situated in our room with our sweet pea, my parents came to visit, followed by Brian's parents and some super special visitors!

The big sister, who is so happy to finally have her baby sister here!  She is in love!

And this very proud big brother.  He actually held her for a long time, and he did a good job keeping an eye on her.  I have a feeling he might be a really great helper for me.  And he started Kindergarten today!

Reese cuddling with me.  She kept telling me that she misses me very, very much.  Hudson basically ran around the room with very little regard for his baby sister.  I'm not completely sure that that isn't a good thing right now.  He can be a little rough!

We are in love with this baby girl, and I am enjoying all the little moments that I'm getting with her right now!  Yesterday on the way to the hospital I was telling Brian that it's so weird, but I don't remember our family before Hudson.  And I don't remember what it was like to not know him, or not know what he looks like.  Those final moments while I was still pregnant and waiting to be surprised by this little girl were very sweet.  But I'm so glad that she's a part of our lives now.  We are so in love!