The next computer Genius

What better way to learn about computers then to sit near it at 3 weeks old. We are trying to expose him to computers at an early age to work on his genius skills. We will see how that turns out.

Just wait until Caden sends out an e-mail. Won't that be impressive?

He is almost 3 weeks old now!

Well It's hard to believe but Caden is now almost 3 weeks old. Wednesday will be 3 weeks exactly. As you can see he looks a little different each day. He is definitely gaining weight and his face changes each day.

Last night, he ate about every 2 1/2 hours which was a great improvement. Hopefully this is a sign of what is to come.

Grandma has gone home now, so Justin and I are on our own with baby Caden. He is keeping us busy, but we are getting the hang of it.

Today we experienced what it's like when the diaper gets too full. As I was feeding him, he let out some serious gas. Afterwards I changed his diaper and had to change the onesie too. Lets just say it was a mess. Speaking of diaper changes.... I have been peed on already. this actually happened on his 1st week home. It took me a few seconds to figure out what was going on. Basically one minute I was changing his diaper and then the next thing I know, my shirt is getting wet. Turns out I need to be more alert when changing the diaper.

His new trick this week when he is awake is to open his eyes real wide and stick out his tongue. He smiles sometimes, but we don't think he knows that he is smiling.

I wonder what he is thinking when he looks like that.... Maybe "why do these people look confused all the time. Dont they know I am either hungry or wet?"



Well I hope you think he is as cute as we do. Even if you don't it's OK because we think he is pretty darn cute and fun to play with, even if all he does is eat & sleep.

Mom's on the move

Today I went to moms on the move. It's a support group for new mom's. all of the moms were impressed that I was there since Caden is only 2 weeks old. They all agreed they didn't attempt to leave the house until their babies were 5 weeks old.

The group is for mom's with babies 0 - 3 months. Caden was the youngest and there were 3 moms graduating to the working mom's group. I learned some things and was able to tell another mom about the fenugreek herb. It's an herb that makes your body produce more milk and gives your sweat the smell of maple syrup. They had never heard of it.

I also was able to weigh him today. he is now 7 pounds 1 ounce, almost back to his birth weight. Pretty good since at his 5 day old check-up, he was an underweight jaundicey baby. He is making great improvements. Way to go Caden. Gotta go, he's hungry!

2 weeks old today!

Today is Caden's 2 week birthday. We had a nice low key day. He had a lot of awake time today, and was also very fussy. Makes for a great day.





Baby Bjorn Came to the rescue. That was the only thing that would calm Caden down.

After all the fussing and eating (I fed Caden for basically 3 hours on and off this morning), Justin and Caden took a nap on the couch with the dogs.




As you can see, they were both very tired.

Happy Birthday baby boy!

What do you do during the day?

Some of you may wonder what we are doing each day. Well, since our day doesn't have a real "start time," it starts around 5am when Caden is hungry, I will just give you the overview.

Mostly we feed him (breastfeeding takes 1 hour each feeding). In the 1 1/2 - 2 hours between feedings, we pick small tasks like - changing his outfit or diaper or both. 1 of us will get to shower if we are lucky, or take a nap. Sometimes if we feel ambitious we will go somewhere.

On Monday we went to Joanns Fabrics, but we did not time it right. It fell into feeding time. I am not that skilled at breastfeeding yet, so Justin went to Target to buy a bottle and our preferred formula and brought it to the store for Caden. We just sat in the pattern section, fed him a bottle and continued to shop. Very exciting for all of us.


So that about sums it up... We basically don't do anything except feed and diaper the baby.

I am pretty sure that is the theme of parenthood. :)

Meet the Great Grandparents

Sunday was a big day for Caden, he met his Great Grandparents, the Finnegans, and his Great Aunt Shelly.

They are in Phoenix for the winter, staying with Aunt Shelly who lives here year round.

Piper & Rocky are always interested in the baby when it gets near their level, as you can see by Rocky trying to lick Caden.

You can also see Caden's red hair in this picture.

Caden is wearing one of his new outfits from the Finnegans. In these photos he is modeling his new dog onsie and dog pants.

These were taken just after a feeding session. This is what we like to refer to as the "milk coma." Basically after eating, he goes to sleep with a smile on his face. There's nothing like going to sleep full.

Nice Flowers!

Just to illustrate the size of Caden, this is him on the kitchen table, next to the flowers sent from Uncle Pete & Aunt Vanessa. (Thank you, they are beautiful).

We like to keep Caden wrapped up (like a burrito). The last few days he has decided that he likes his arms to be free, so we are modifying the wrap technique to accomodate him.

Never a dull moment.

Where should he sleep?

Caden has been sleeping in the laundry basket during the day.

It's pretty amazing what seems to work the best for us. We have a crib and a bassinet, and we find that during the day, sometimes the laundry basket is just easier.

Don't worry, Grandma padded the laundry basket with the alphabet quilt.

We put the laundry basket on the coffee table and then we don't have to worry about the dogs getting to him, and we don't have to move the monitors around the house.

Basically everyone wins.

Weight Update

Caden is gaining weight! After we came home from the hospital, he went below his 10% weight loss that is normal after birth. (In Weight Watchers you get a key chain for losing your 10%). When this happened, the lactation consultant and doctor became very concerned. We had to supplement the feedings with Formula. We didn't like doing this, but it was necessary. Today, we had him weighed and he is at 6 pounds 10 ounces. We also weighed him before and after a feeding and he is getting enough to eat with breastfeeding. Yeah! I still have to pump in order to get the milk supply increased, but we are definitely making progress.

Who knew that with his genes he would have a hard time gaining weight. It must be a Finnegan/Gair gene that keeps him skinny!

Tomorrow he meets his Great Grandparents the Finnegans! Should be an exciting day.

No Sleep? No problem

Sleep is becoming a foreign concept to us here at the Finnegan household. Justin and I are excited if we get 2 hours in a row of sleep. We are taking turns getting up. If it's around feeding time (every 2 1/2 hours) I get up, anything else, it's Justin. This is working for this week, but we are both very tired. I actually was able to take a nap today for a few minutes, 20 minutes actually. I definitely needed the power nap.

This was Justin's discovery at 4am - Our baby Einstein chair. It's meant for him to be entertained, but works well to turn it on vibrate and Caden will calm down.

We have also learned that if he is crying, there are only a few things that it could be: he's hungry, he's got a dirty diaper, he's hungry, he has some gas, or he's hungry. Since he is breastfeeding, I handle the hunger cries and Justin handles the other ones. - Breastfeeding could be a whole other blog. Let's just say that it does not come as natural as everyone would have you believe, but Caden and I are learning the skills. We hope to master the technique soon.

Red Sox Fan

I am sure that anyone who knows Justin is not surprised by this, but Caden already has his very own Red Sox outfit. (He actually has 2, but one won't fit until this summer - thank you Lloyd for keeping Caden dressed appropriately). So to commemorate this, we have a father son Red Sox Photo. Don't worry, we are already making plans to go to the game when they come to Phoenix in June. It will be the first father & son sporting event. Go Sox!

New Parents

Justin and I are learning very quickly that things are changing. We have to have a plan of attack for everything that we are trying to do. For instance, today I didn't get to shower since all I did from 7am - 12:30pm was feed the baby. It basically alternated between breast feeding and pumping milk. At 12:30, we went to Costco to get lunch and our pictures. We then came home and feeding began again. It makes for a long day when you don't get much done.

Anyways, here are some pictures of us with our new pride and joy, as well as a picture of our new family.

Grandma Irene & Caden

Grandma Irene is here and she is helping us get the dogs acquainted and acclimated to the baby. As you can see they are very curious about our little bundle of joy. So far, we have had a lot of sniffs and a few licks. Piper is definitely more curious than Rocky is.

Caden's First Bath

Giving a baby a sponge bath is not easy! It took both of us to do this, 1 person to hold him, the other to wash him. He definitely didn't like it and was very wiggly. He let out a few wails before we were done.
As you can see, we are actually bathing him in the kitchen. It has good lighting and makes it easy for us to move around in. Also, a special thanks to our photographer - Grandma Irene. Without her, there would be no pictures of this event. My mom has actually gotten quite good with our camera. She has figured out how to zoom in and out, which is half the battle.

Tomorrow we will give him a real bath since the umbilical stump fell off yesterday while I was feeding him. It was almost a sex in the city moment since I couldn't get the stump and the dogs were eyeing it. Luckily, grandma came to the rescue and got it before the dogs did. Thank goodness for grandmas.

Caden at home

Caden is dressed in his fireman outfit. Just like grandpa he loves the firetrucks.

It turns out he is smaller than most of the clothes that we have (even the newborn size), so we are rolling up his sleeves and hiking up the pants. I am sure that he will fit in the clothes by next week.

Proud daddy Justin with his son. Caden is doing what he loves to do, sleep when we are awake.

Naked Baby! He looks a little yellow in this picture. It turns out he has a little jaundice, but it's going away.
Caden is keeping us busy. We are getting up every 2 hours to feed him and change his diapers at night. He prefers to be awake at night and sleep during the day.... Not the most convenient schedule for us, but we are trying to change that.

Life has definitely changed around here and will continue to change for us. We are looking forward to it! We love our little guy! His nickname is Popeye because he will open just one eye and look at you and then close it. Kind of like Popeye. :)

Introducing Caden Jacob!

Caden Jacob is here! He arrived on Wednesday February 7 at 10:14am. Weighing in at 7 lbs, 1.9 ounces and 21 inches long. He is our little bundle of joy. We think he even has red hair (it could change, but looks red right now). He has blue eyes.

Labor was intense, but relatively quick (9 hours). Once the water broke, the contractions were intense, but the epidural helped get me through that.

There was 3 rounds of 3 pushes each, the doctor had me push 1 more round, and out came Caden. According to Justin - "he shot out like a rocket!"

We will keep updating the photos, but this should give everyone something to look at for now.

Getting Induced

Well,

So far I haven't gone into labor on my own. That means I will be induced. The hospital will call anytime after midnight to let us know when to go in.

If you want to check on the baby, before I can post a picture, go to this website and see. Baby Finnegan should be on here most likely by 2/8. http://www.growingfamily.com/webnursery/hospitals/template/hospitalpage.asp?hospitalID=7165

Next post - Meet Caden Jacob Finnegan

False Alarm

So I thought I was in labor last night. I was having contractions about every 10 minutes, so we called the doctor. They said when they got to every 3 - 5 minutes, that we should go in. When it got to that point, we went to the hospital. They hooked me up to the monitor, and I had 2 contractions in 15 minutes. They un hooked me and told me to walk around for an hour. We did that, and when they hooked me up again, I had no contractions. Justin likes to say I was flatlining.

So, needless to say, we came home at 1 am with no baby.

Jeannette is here, so we are staying entertained and playing with Charlie. Justin is staying distracted with Charlie, so we are all having fun. Each time Charlie eats, Justin is tasting the baby food to see what it tastes like. So far, the meat ones, are not tasting like anything that it says on the label.

Here are some pictures of Charlie's visit so far. Sorry there aren't any of Charlie and Caden yet, we just couldn't make that happen yet, but we still have about 24 hours before they leave.

Last Day at work until April 16

Well, I made it at work until the bitter end. Today was my last day at work. I am now officially on maternity leave. If I could just have the baby, it would all come together exactly as planned. I guess now I hope I go into labor after Jeannette arrives tomorrow. Charlie is coming too!

It was hard working until the end, but I am glad I did, that's just more time with the baby once he is here. It's hard to walk around the hotel and check on your group when your stomach is so big and it's so uncomfortable to move. Also pretty great when 1 leg is swollen. Can't wait for my block foot to go back to normal.

For all the Seattle people, I look forward to seeing you in April. We will be up for a visit for my cousin's wedding 4/15, so I hope to see everyone on 4/12 or 4/13. I am hoping to stay at the Hyatt - I booked my room, but am not sure if they let you keep the comp room if you are on a leave.... Justin will be flying in on either 4/13 or 4/14, that is not determined yet. It will be everyone's first chance to meet Caden!

I had 1 contraction today. Hopefully I have more. Justin is beginning to think that the baby is never coming at this rate, especially since each day I tell him "I think that today is the day!"

Hurry up and get here Caden, we are tired of waiting! :)