We had a baby

We had a baby!

Finn Ricker Milligan finally made his debut on Friday the 13th. 

In the middle of the night, of course. 

Nine pounds two ounces, twenty-two inches long. 

He's pretty perfect.

  

  

He was pretty hairy, just like we thought he would be. My doctor actually said there's real science backing up that heartburn/amount of baby hair link, it's not just an old wives tale. 

Finn has the unique experience of being both my most horrible and my easiest labor. I'd been nervous his whole pregnancy that he would be sunny-side-up like Nora was, and when I woke up around 2:00 in the morning with the same back pain I had with her I knew we were in for it. 

We got to the hospital around three, and by the time I got changed and in bed my contractions were only about a minute apart. With back labor, at least in my experience, I pretty much can't feel the contractions in my uterus at all because they back pain is so overwhelming it totally eclipses anything else. Even deploying all the many pain management techniques I've developed over the years it was seriously one of the most painful things I've ever encountered.

One of my nurses didn't think I would be in labor long enough to get an epidural, especially since I had to wait for a whole bag of fluid to go through my IV before I could get one. Luckily my other nurse took pity on me and convinced the anesthesiologist to hook me up without having to wait on the IV. Good thing too, because it still took him about 40 minutes to get there, and the bag wasn't even half gone by then. 

He gave me the usual dose, but 15 minutes later I could still feel the contractions full strength, so he came back and gave me an extra dose. It was pretty much the strongest epidural ever. In fact, he came back again about a half hour later to dial it back a bit, although I didn't feel much of a difference after he did that.

Anyway, my doctor came in right about six and was surprised that I was totally ready to go. She broke my water and three pushes and nine minutes later he was here! I couldn't believe it. Nora took two hours of pushing because she was face up, so I was expecting something similar with Finn, too.  He'd had meconium in his fluid, so they had to whisk him off right away. My doc said it was unusual to have two sunny-side-up babies in a row, and that there must be something about the way my pelvis is shaped that makes my babies come out that way. I can't be sure, but I'm gonna go ahead and blame my twisted spine for that one.

So, he was the worst, because the contractions were so much more horrifyingly painful than either of the girls, but the easiest because he came out so quickly. He got me out of bed at 2:07, and Marc was cutting the cord at 6:31.

We really like him.

The girls were so excited to meet him, of course. Nora hadn't seemed thrilled about him while they were at home that morning, but the second she walked in she was ready to hold him and just wanted to touch all of his little features. 

  

The nurses had given each of the girls a sticker before they came in, and Nora pulled hers off right away and said "here you go, Finn!". She was a little bummed he couldn't take it from her, but she settled for sticking it to his blanket instead.

We were able to come home on Saturday, and his two big sisters have been loving on him ever since. 

He even let us sleep for four hours last night. We specifically requested a good sleeper this time around, so we definitely expect him to keep that up. 

Pre-School

I was reading an article somewhere recently that talked about how narcissistic this generation is, and cited all the 'selfie' pictures they post places like Facebook and Instagram. I can't even imagine how much worse it will be as T and Nora get older, because they already ask us just about every day to take pictures of whatever they are doing. "Mom, take a picture of me like this! Send it to Granny and Gigi!". Or, T frequently asks me to take pictures of her drawings and send them to the museum. Anyway. Here's a picture they wanted of them playing with blocks. 

But really, I'm posting because I sent my little four-year-old off to pre-school this week. She's been SO excited all summer. Poor kid has been waiting for both school to start, and her brother to get here, it has been pretty hard for her, especially the last few weeks. She had absolutely no qualms about going off to school without me. I was trying to get her to admit to any nerves the day before, but nope, there were none. Once we got in the car to take her she did say "Um, I think I might miss you guys a little bit while I'm at school. But only a little". Marc walked her in, but I got out to give her a hug, and barely had time to hug her before she was pulling away, ready to go. Poor Nora had the hardest time, she kept saying "but I want Teresa to come back!". We took her to Costco and got some ice cream, and let her walk instead of riding in the cart, so that made up for being left behind quite a bit. 

Of course I had to send Marc out to take some pictures before school started.

Oh, the back pack. We went to Target a week or so ago to get the few school supplies she needed. We made the huge mistake of going after Marc got home from work, so it was closing in on bedtime. Anyway, backpacks are expensive, y'all! I found a cute striped one that was in our budget but didn't feel like it was super cheap, and had almost gotten T convinced that she loved it when she spotted the Hello Kitty back packs. She likes Hello Kitty, of course, since she's a 4-year-old girl, but it's not like it is her favourite thing ever, so I was pretty surprised when she had a complete breakdown about NEEDING that HK backpack! Yeah, we were totally that family in Target. Luckily the other moms in the school aisle were all smiling at us and commented that they'd been there before too. So. I knew Costco had nicer HK backpacks for a better price, so I told her that she could either get the striped one at Target, or wait until the next day and get an HK one at Costco. She finally decided she would rather have the striped one right away, so that's what we got. The next morning she came in my bed good and early, and just burst in to tears over how much she wanted a Hello Kitty backpack instead. Good grief. So, we ended up returning the Target one and Marc took her to Costco and got the very last Hello Kitty backpack they had. 

  

  

Girl loves to pose. She came up with all the poses herself. 

Nora needed a turn at pictures, too. 

"Dad! Take a picture of me looking at that bird!"

Nora is pretty bummed that she will not be going to pre-school as well, but I am excited to get a little bit of alone time with Nora during the day. I don't want her to feel like the neglected little middle child, so hopefully we can do some fun stuff together. We'll just tell that baby brother he has to nap from 12:30-3:00 everyday. 

I thought I would have a harder time sending T off to pre-school, but she is just so excited for it, that I'm excited for her. Ask me again next week when she starts riding the bus. I'm a bit nervous for that. Her school is only pre-K and Kindergarten, and that is the only reason she gets to ride the bus, too. No way would I send her on the bus if there were bigger kids, too.

Marc went to pick her up and found her like this on the playground.

She was pretty excited that she got to pick a prize for  being such a good listener the first day! She was so cute, once she got home she spent ages in the bathroom, just standing in front of the mirror looking at herself in her "Mr. Man face" and saying stuff in a deep voice.

She was nice enough to let Nora try it out, too.