Are we having fun?

Aunt Carrie took this picture of Finn and Sean yesterday when they all went ice fishing. Finn is getting a bit tuckered out!

Pacifiers, Sickness, and Sleep

I have been meaning to post about a lot of things lately, but there is just never enough hours in the day.

First, two weeks ago, we decided to go for a pacifier-free household. We had weaned Finn down to pacifier use at naptime and bedtime only for almost a year, but at Finn's two year dentist checkup they strongly advised us to wean off the paci to prevent any teeth movement. We decided to do it sooner rather than later in hopes that Finn would adjust to this change before Peapod arrived. I was really nervous about it. Just when we were getting to a good place in sleep, we had to do this. I researched a lot of theories on how to make the transition an easy one. Everyone recommended a slow weaning, but we were already down to nap and bedtime only, so we had to just go cold turkey from there. I got a book from the library, "pacifiers aren't forever" and we read that for a week before, the big "bye-bye paci" day. We talked to Finn about the day we were going to put the pacifiers in the mail. Then on that day, we went and picked out a monster truck that Finn wanted and a pillow pet to cuddle in bed. We put all the pacifiers in and envelope and put them in the mail to say bye-bye. Finn seemed totally cool with it. I expected a lot of crying at bedtime that night, but he really didn't fuss. The problem was, he didn't sleep either. Poor Sean took the brunt of bedtimes and sat in there with him for up to 2 hours as he tossed and turned and chatted and jumped around. As Sean put it, it was like he was a junky going through withdrawal and couldn't calm down. Luckily, he still stuck with one wake up a night and he was actually easily soothed at that time. It took a good week for Finn to get better at going to sleep quickly at night. Naptimes have been hit or miss ever since. Some days, he will sleep, others he won't. And it seems to have affected length of naps too. For about a week, he would also ask for a paci in the morning and then promptly say, "paci's all gone." I guess in retrospect, it wasn't too bad, but at the time it felt pretty rough.

Then, just as we were adjusting to our paci-free life, Finn got really sick last week. One night out of nowhere, he would not sleep. I mean, he literally did not go to sleep until 5 am. Then, he slept til 11am. It was so weird. Sean and I were trying to figure out what was going on. I was a little frustrating after all of our napping issues. And, lo and behold, Finn spiked a crazy fever of 104.4 F! He was so lethargic and just fell right asleep on the couch (unheard of in this house):
Luckily, we were able to get the fever down to 102F with motrin and we just rode it out for a little over three days. The nurse warned us that a fever typically last for three days and then we would see other symptoms of the cold. On Wednesday, we saw the last of the fever and Finn now has a bit of a cough, but nothing much to speak of. It was a strange illness. He is still more tired and easily cranky, but he has his appetite back and a good amount of energy to play during the day. So, with the sickness, he was up a lot at night again and he still is going through that, but he goes to bed earlier and actually sleeps in a little, which has been nice. He has also been a bit more reliable in nap taking. We will see what happens when he is fully recovered. One thing I know, is you just never know!

30 Weeks

I am not really a fan of this pic, but here it is for belly purposes at 30 weeks:

I feel ginormous and it is a bit daunting knowing I still have 10 weeks of good growth to go. Finn informed me the other day that my belly button was broken. Boy, is it ever! Finn has also taken to peering into my belly button to look for the baby! He is flip-flopping now as to whether the baby is going to be a boy or a girl. Typically, he says boy, but the other day he confidently said girl and that he would have a sister. I am still convinced Peapod is a boy, but I seem to be in the minority. It is such a fun guessing game, but still 10 weeks until all is revealed!

I had my 30 week check up with my favorite midwife yesterday. She said repeatedly that she thinks Peapod is a girl. Peapod gave her some good kicks while she was listening with the doppler and you could see the bump in my belly each time. The heart rate was a good 155. I was measuring at 29cm (average for this week is 30cm). My blood pressure is great and my glucose test and blood screen came back all very normal. All in all, just cruising right through.

We talked a bit about birth plans. I am lucky in that generally, anything I would put into a birth plan is standard practice at Concord Hospital, but I do have a few requests based on my experience with Finn that she thought would be worth writing down and having attached to my file. These include:

- no artificial rupture of membranes
- no iv fluids unless medically necessary
- no continuous fetal monitoring unless medically necessary
- the cord is not to be clamped until it has stopped pulsating

Overall, I just want a very natural, peaceful birth with no medical interventions. The midwife assured me that overall second births tend to be much "easier" and I don't have some of the concerning complications with Finn so it will be easier to do without a lot of the monitoring that occurred with him. It was crazy to start talking about birth plans as it really it home how soon this is going to happen. I am getting excited.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Finn and I went to a Valentine's party yesterday. There were 14 kiddos total, so it was quite chaotic. Finn did a lot of playing:

Then, it was time to decorate cookies:



Finn quickly lost interest in the frosting and decided to just eat it:



Another mom at the group had a super fancy DSL camera so you can tell the difference in quality of photos from mine to hers.

All of the kids exchanged valentines and Finn was so proud to look at all of them when we got home.

28 Weeks

Well, its officially third trimester! I knew this pregnancy was going quickly, but it wasn't until I hit third tri that I really feel the panic of, "oh my goodness, I have SO MUCH TO DO and NO TIME TO DO IT!" And the funny thing about babies, is they come whether you get all that done or not.

Well, here is the latest belly picture. You may notice I have suddenly gotten a lot bigger in the last two weeks. I was reading in a pregnancy book that peapod has increased his/her weight more than 10 times in the last 10 weeks and doubled in weight in just the last 4 weeks, as evidenced by my growth too!

I am definitely feeling big and movements are becoming more awkward. Finn really wants to challenge me in his games too; asking me to crawl around the house pushing motorcycles, playing "sleep & get up" which happens in about 5 seconds over and over again, wanting me to do "big jumps" just like him, not to mention the snow games. The trouble is, I really want to do all of it and it is just becoming really difficult!

Finn thinks my belly is really funny right now too. He likes to ask me to show my belly and then when I lift my shirt he laughs and laughs and says, "mama, big belly." When we play playdough, he has several cookie cutters that compose a family of mom, dad, little boy, little girl, and baby. He loves to make them and role play, but now he insists that the mama has a big belly. He also likes to point out in books or toys, who is the mama, the daddy, and the Finnbar. For instance, he has three tractors of different sizes. Typically, the littlest is the Finnbar, the middle is the mama, and the biggest is the daddy. Last week, he changed it to make the biggest one the mama....this is not so great for my self esteem :)

Every time we ask Finn if he is going to have a brother or a sister, he says brother!

I had my 28 week checkup and all is going well: heartbeat around 148, low blood pressure, good weight gain. I also had a full blood work up along with the gestational diabetes test. We will see when those results come in. My midwife let Finn put the doppler on my belly to hear the heartbeat and he thought that was pretty fun. I am now scheduled to go to checkups every two weeks, which also adds to the feeling of how soon May 1 is coming.

I guess that is all pregnancy news for now.

Finally, A Snowman!

Since our first snowstorm, Finn has been asking to make a snowman. Unfortunately, the snow has been so dry that it just wouldn't stick together. Finally, we got a good wet snow storm last week and the snow is really good for snowman building. Here is Finn and Sean's first snowman of the season.

Roll and pack the snow:

Carrots and Cranberries for the face:

A pine needle mustache/goatee:

Ice Fishing

Finn and Sean took their first ice fishing trip of the season. Finn had a fun time running around on the lake. Apparently, it was quite slushy and he thought is was run to run and slide into the slush:

Standing around the traps and having a snack:

Nothing like a pb&j on the ice:

ABCs

Finn has taken a big interest in letters lately. He loves to point at each letter and ask what it is when we read books. And, he has suddenly picked up the ABC song:

Snow Belly

Oh, my poor snow pants!

Snow Dog

Lily pretty much has to swim through the snow these days, but she loves it!

Snow Fort

It has snowed so much, Sean was able to build a good play fort with lots of tunnels for Finn to play in with his trucks!