Fun Facts About Finn!

So I had all these fun posts prepared about the end of my pregnancy including my last belly picture and our last picture as a family of three, etc.... turns out in the end there just wasn't time for any of that! We woke up, went straight to the hospital, and less than 20 minutes later had a baby in our arms!

Some fun facts about Finn so far:

-Kenna was born during my birthday week and our birthdays are 6 days apart (the 23rd and 29th) and Finn was born during Matt's birthday week... exactly 6 days apart too! (the 1st and 7th).

-Today (March 4) was his expected due date... instead we're already home from the hospital and went to his birthweight check at the pediatrician today!

Grumpy old man face:

-Finn's hair color is exactly the same as Matt's. I had wondered if he would have Kenna's red hair and though he does look a lot like her to me, he definitely has his own boy thing going on.

-Two friends of mine from high school were scheduled for inductions/C-sections on Monday and we came in Tuesday- our babies are a day apart in age and one of them's recovery room was right next door to mine!

-Kenna LOVES her "brother baby" as she calls him. She gets so upset when she can't hold him, and wants to check on his baby toes/hat/pajamas constantly. Before even leaving the hospital we had already intercepted her trying to feed him a hershey's kiss and a sour patch kid!

Meeting big sister:

-I prayed that Finn would not be born on what would have been my mom's birthday (Feb. 28th) but that he would hold out and have his own day. God answered by sending him on March 1st (the very next day) and it seems so appropriate that we started a new morning in a new month with a new baby in the first month of spring. God's timing has continually been such a sweet picture to us of his grace and mercy in every detail of life- they are new every morning!

-I went to dinner with my bother and sister in law the night before he was born and was asked "Is it twins?" I wish I could have known to reply, "no, he's just coming tomorrow!" Little did I know I would wake up the next morning in labor!

Here is a (ok, not so) quickie version of our birth story, since I am always fascinated by reading other people's:

At 7 a.m. Tuesday morning, I woke up wide awake with stomach pains that I wasn't sure wasn't just gas or something. I went to the bathroom 3 times and finally got back in bed, telling Matt I thought they might be contractions so I was going to try timing them. From what I could tell, they were about 7-10 minutes apart (I've never timed/counted contractions before because my water broke before labor started with Kenna). My Dad was coming to stay with Kenna, so I thought we should call him & just ask him to head closer to this side of town just in case. Matt also called my OB (located right across the street from the hospital, but about 40 to 45 minutes away) and they advised coming in for a check in case it was false labor.

I had left a few things unfinished because I had felt so lethargic the past few days, so I tried to put in a load of laundry and then hopped in the shower to wash my hair. By the time I got out of my 5 minute shower, I could barely talk or stand up through the contractions. Matt took the reigns on the phone calls and the next thing I knew my Dad and Jana had arrived and Matt and I were out the door... we both could tell by this point that we needed to go straight to the hospital, not the OB office.

On the way there, the contractions were coming hard and strong in waves and from watching the clock, were less than 5 minutes apart. Despite getting every stoplight red (or maybe it just seemed that way!) Matt managed to get us there in 30 minutes. As we pulled into the drop-off at Rex, I could feel immense pressure from Finn's little head and figured my water was about to break. We pulled up, grabbed a wheelchair, and were instructed to go straight to the 2nd floor maternity waiting room and someone would meet us.

By the time we got there, I had broken out in a sweat but couldn't even get my own jacket off (I realize now I was in transition at that point). A labor & delivery nurse met us a minute or two (eternity) later and we wheeled around the corner to a delivery room, me screaming like a bad actress in a baby movie. I'm pretty sure there's a young professional drug rep. who now never wants to have kids thanks to me wheeling by!

At that point everything happened very quickly, as though in fast forward. I needed Matt's help even getting into a hospital gown and the nurse said I was 9 cm dilated. Suddenly the room was full of nurses and our awesome OBs, Dr. Alvarez. I asked about an epidural and was told there was no time, and also no time for the antibiotics I was supposed to have for Group B strep). In a matter of mere minutes, they put an IV in, I pushed a couple really hard times, my water broke (with some meconium staining), Finn's shoulders got stuck coming out, Matt cut the cord, and I was stitched up... and Finn was in his Daddy's arms! From the time we came through the front door to when Finn was here, only 17 minutes had passed! Crazy!
From some where in the room I heard someone say "nine pounds"... an almost 10 pound baby with no pain medication. I do not hope to repeat that experience with any future baby-having if I can help it. We hadn't even had time to grab the camera from the car when arriving- these three were taken on Matt's cellphone!

I think I'm still in a little bit of shock at how quickly it all happened and how close we truly came to having our baby in the car/the parking lot/the hospital lobby! I have 100% confidence that Matt could have delivered him if he absolutely had to, and that God would provide what we needed in each moment, but I sure am glad that we made it just in time!

What a little trooper... so glad he's here safely!