Getting big!

I took Finlay to the Dr this morning for his 12 month check up. He weighed in at a whopping 17lbs 8oz and has grown to 28 inches. He also got his vaccinations which he sobbed for. He was all smiles and then came the mean lady who caused pain in his little legs. He was still hiccuping a bit when I checked him out and made the appt for his 15 month check up but by the time we got to the car he was all smiles. He fell asleep on the way to pick up Ethan from school. He's doing very well right on track physically. At this time he only says 1 word (Mama) and according to the Dr most kids have 3 words by this time. She considers that slightly behind but I don't considering that his older brother only had 1 word by 12 months. She also said that he is just barely on the growth chart. He weighs about what Ethan weighed at age 1 but is 3 inches longer. He's just long and skinny but he's proportionate so she's not concerned. He is just creating his own growth curve and he is growing at a steady pace.

Now that he's 1 he's starting to use the furniture to walk and he is able to balance for a few seconds without holding anything before plopping on his booty (good thing he has some padding back there). I've started to introduce him to sippy cups as well. He isn't interested much in bottles and he is the same with the sippy cups. We've started him on cows milk but he's not a fan of it yet. We'll continue to work with him.

Happy Birthday Finlay!!

My dear sweet Finlay,
     Today you are 1. One year ago at 4:34PM you can screaming into this world. You weighed 5lbs 12oz and you were a whole 19.5 inches long. Now you are 1, crawling around, starting to talk, begging for us to share food, and starting to get into your brother's things. This last year has been filled with smiles and you have brought even more joy into our lives. We love you so very much.

Happy Birthday sweet boy!
Love Mommy and daddy

Finlay had a wonderful birthday today. He got to spend his first birthday with his daddy, mommy, and big brother. For a special treat he got to have his first ever frosty from Wendy's. He spent his morning with just mommy while daddy and Ethan went on a school field trip for Ethan's preschool. We played and then he took a little nap on my shoulder looking oh so precious. After dinner we gave him his gifts. Ethan picked out a nice little truck for him since he is always playing with big brother's cars and we bought him the Elefun ball popper which he just loves. He went to bed one happy little boy. Now he gets to gear himself up for his birthday party on the 13th.

11 months old........

Almost. Finlay will be 11 months old in just 2 days! I can't believe that much time has passed already since he surprised us with his cute little self. He is getting to be such a big boy. He's figured out how to pull himself to standing and now he's trying to figure out how to take steps. He is such a happy baby and the complete opposite of his brother. While Ethan is rambunctious and wild Finlay is quiet and reserved. He likes to take his time with things and tends to just go with the flow. He still only has 7 teeth but he is always chewing his fingers. So far Mama is the only word he has said (unless you want to count Na na na na while twisting his tougue LOL) When he says Mama it just comes out of nowhere. I can't get him to say it when I ask him too (go figure) but then when he just sitting and playing with his toys he will just suddenly start saying Mama repeatedly. I'm going to be making an appointment with Julie (the girl who handles his hearing aid) and have the volume on it adjusted. Now that he is bigger and sitting well on his own she can put him in the sound booth to help measure where his hearing aid needs to be adjusted to. I will make the appointment for a time while Ethan is in school, much easier that way.

Finlay is becoming quite the little beggar when someone has food. He will follow us or Ethan around hoping that we will share. The other day Ethan was sharing some Cherrios with him. Fin loved those. Matt shared some Kiwi with him a few nights ago. The little piggy got mad when it was all gone. Of course Fin's favorite game is to chase one of the poor kitties around until they leap over the gate. He has a thing for Peek a boo because she will let him pet her on occasion as long as she can lay in someones lap. Carmel never shows his face when Fin is on the loose he remembers what Ethan used to do to him. Although Finlay is much more gentle that Ethan was but he still likes to pull their fur. Ethan was the eye poker. Fin just likes their softness.

First words

Finlay said his first word on Tuesday. Guess what it was? MAMA!!! That so made my day. We went up to the hospital to have lunch with daddy and then go to visit Grandma Judy. As we were sitting at the table eating Fin was babbling away when all of a sudden he just blurts out "Mama mama mama" Then on Weds I was sitting on the couch playing with Ethan (he learned something new on his Mobigo) and Finlay pulled himself into standing position (yes he has mastered that) and reached one little hand up to me and said "Mama" I scooped him right up and got big smiles from him. He is growing so fast. He started pulling himself up to standing this week, I now find him standing in his crib every morning waiting with his award winning smile. It won't be long and he will be cruising around with the furniture to guide him.

Every morning I get to listen to him giggling in his room because his older brother comes in and plays with him. He loves when he gets to play with big brother Ethan. He likes to wander into the toy room and play with Ethan. This afternoon Ethan was pushing him on the swing and Finlay was laughing and just loved that his brother was paying attention to him. It was just too adorable.

On the move

Finlay has been on the move now for about 3 weeks and he is working on pulling himself into standing. He has accomplished it once so far in his pack and play. Now that he is able to move around he is always chasing after his brother. He doesn't do too bad keeping up with Ethan. He sees it as a game. Naturally he likes to chase after the cats too. They tend to run from him but he is all about catching them and he thinks it's funny.

Fin had his 9 month check up today and he is up to 15.2lbs and 27" long. He is growing so fast. He's small for his age but developmentally he is doing great. Ethan was small for his age too for about the first year. He tended to hover around the 20th percentile and then he just started sprouting upwards. It will probably be the same for Finlay.

Fin is doing all sorts of things now from crawling, to holding his own bottle, to trying to stand, and of course he always has something to say too. He likes to put in his 2 cents on things. He also popped another tooth a little over a week ago so that makes 7 teeth (4 on the top 3 on the bottom).  He is getting too big too fast that is for sure.

He's crawling!

It's official Finlay has become a crawler today. He has been on the brink of crawling for about a week or so. He has come close a few times but has been thwarted by his older brother who thinks he should just had Finlay his toy LOL. Today I put my ring on the floor to get his attention and he was all about getting to the shiny pretty. It was an awkward crawl but he got to what he wanted. He thought he was big stuff then. I guess it will be soon time to put up the baby gates and cover all chords and outlets. Soon enough he is going to be covering the room.

He had another first today too. He has started clapping for himself. It was so cute he was sitting playing with his toys and every time it played music he would clap and give me a silly smile. He can be such a goofball sometimes.

Finlay has started holding his own bottles too. He's been on and off with it for the last few weeks. He seems to just enjoy having someone else hold his bottle so he can snuggle or grab for things. He is a little stinker in the grabbing department. I call him "Grabby Gus" all the time. He thinks it's funny.

He is getting to be such a big boy having all these firsts at the age of 8 months old. He is growing up so fast. I keep telling him that he doesn't have to be in a hurry to take his time I'll be OK with that but apparently he doesn't want to take his time.

I need to post some pictures of Finlay on here but I can't move the pics from my phone to my computer for some reason. I will have to figure out another way to post those pictures of him.

Happy Mommy's Day To My Mommy!!!

Dear Mommy,

     I wanted to do something special for you on Mommy's Day. I though and thought about what I wanted to do for you. I don't have any money so I can't buy you anything. So I decided to surprise you by sitting up all on my own!! I hope you were surprised I've been working on it for a month now. Thank you mommy for changing my diapers, feeding me, and being up with me at all hours of the night. I love you Mommy!!!

     Love your very cute, adorable, sweet angel
                             Finlay

7 Months Old!!!

I can't believe that my little man is 7 months old already! He is getting so big so quickly. He cut his first 2 teeth at 5 months old. He figured out how to roll over (back to front) at 6 months, and now he is working on sitting up on his own and he is cutting another tooth on the top this time. He's such a big boy now.

He has been doing great with his hearing aid. We just had it adjusted last week. They started him out on a lower volume to help get him used to hearing sound. He went in for a 2 week check up and they wanted to wait another 2 weeks before adjusting the volume. They want to wait until he can sit on his own before making another adjustment. This way they can put him in the booth to test his hearing with it so that they can be more precise in the adjustments.

We've started on baby food. He's been eating it now for about a month. He's not a fan of green beans, they make him gag. He isn't a fan of peas either but at least he doesn't gag on them. His favorite is sweet potatoes and just about any fruit although he loves peaches. He's been doing very well with the baby food. He can be quite the piggy at times.

Last week Finlay was introduced to musicals. I took him with us to my niece's high school musical (Oliver). He did great for the first half, slept right through it. In the 2nd half Matt ended up taking him out b/c he was wanting to just be on the move (so like his brother there LOL). I figure they are never too young to introduce to the musical arts. He likes it when I sing to him, most of the time it will calm him down right away (also just like his brother). I don't know why they like it when I sing I'm a horrible singer! Guess they just take after their mommy and like music.

6 months old!!

My sweet little Finlay is going to be 6 months old tomorrow!! I can't believe that! He is getting so big now!  Tonight we started the little porker on baby food. I gave him banana's and he was not a fan LOL. Ethan loved his banana's when he was a baby and he still does today. The look on Fin's face was priceless. He had his whole face all scrunched up and was sticking his tongue out at me. He didn't take much of it but it was a start.

He is very taken with his older brother. He just thinks Ethan is hilarious. The other day I was sitting in the chair feeding Finlay and Ethan came over and wanted to sit with us. He sat down and just held his hand and Finlay just started busting out laughing spraying me with formula. He can't even look at Ethan without busting into a huge smile. Most of the time Ethan doesn't have to do much to get him laughing.

Fin has had his hearing aid for 2 weeks now and he is doing great with it. He goes in on Monday to get the volume adjusted. He has never been interested in his toys before but now he is all about them especially his jump-a-roo. He just loves to sit and bounce in it. It took him about a week to get used to loud noises (aka Ethan) but now it doesn't phase him other than make him laugh. It was funny when he finally heard himself babble he looked around for the thing that was making that noise and then realized it was him making that noise. He doesn't really bother it much. He does like to reach up and make it whistle and then he looks at me with this grin before he pulls it off. He knows what he is doing when he does it he just wants to be funny.

He cut another tooth this week. It still doesn't seem possible that he is old enough to be getting his teeth in. He chews on everything he can but his favorite thing is daddy's fingers. Apparently daddy has nummy fingers. It won't be much longer and the little munchkin will be crawling. He is already trying to get up on his hands and knees. He just can't yet hold that position very long but soon enough he will have it figured out.

I was putting away the clothes that he has already outgrown today and realized that a lot of the outfits he only wore once or twice before outgrowing them and most of them were Ethan's old clothes. Now he is in 3-6 month sizes (no he does not need anymore I don't have space for what he does have LOL). I have so many clothes in that size he will probably wear each outfit a couple times before he outgrows those. He is growing so fast. He has long legs unlike Ethan who has a long torso. I am so glad I kept all Ethan's clothes b/c at least they will get worn by another little baby.

Of course Fin is a good sleeper. He goes to bed every night around 9 and he gets up by 5 for a bottle but always wants to go back to bed and then he sleeps until 10. He takes a nap around 1:30 every day and he let's me know when he is ready for a nap. He will sleep until about 4:30 and then he's raring to go until bedtime. He hates sleeping on his back and if he rolls over he wakes up b/c he hasn't figured out how to get back on his belly. There is just something about having his butt in the air for sleeping.

He is just a little cutie. We keep telling him not to be in a hurry to talk we get enough of that from his brother LOL. He can just take his time that's for sure.

Finlay can hear!!!

It is official, Finlay has his hearing aid and he is hearing with it. We went this morning to get him all set up. Right now it is set at a low volume to give him some time to adjust to hearing sound. We need to go back in 2 weeks for a follow up and she will up the volume a little bit. It is set below the normal level but the level he is at he can still hear just not soft sounds. For the most part he has done well today. Initially he freaked out and had a tantrum but he settled down after she played with the volume a little and got it to a setting that he was comfortable with. After we left there we headed up to see daddy for a moment, then we made a run to the mall so Mommy could pick up tickets for a movie for tomorrow. Finlay did not react well to the sounds of the mall. As soon as we walked in he started screaming, Even after picking him up there was no consoling him so I just made the decision to remove it from his head so he wouldn't go into overload. It was just too much at once for him. We had lunch and then headed home. He doesn't wear it during naps or at bedtime. He did well in the car with music playing. We'll see more reactions later when he gets up. Fortunately it's a good weekend for him to be starting out hearing we don't have much planned so he can just be in his normal environment around every day noise. At least he won't get over stimulated. I'm just so excited that he will finally get to hear his name and our voices. Thursday I was playing with him on the floor while the other 2 boys played outside. I had Fin working on sitting up with the Boppy and decided to get a picture of him. I kept having to get his attention with motion but still called his name. It was a little heartbreaking seeing him not respond. When we hold him we don't need motion to get his attention he will stare us in the face. I always talk to him just incase he is hearing but it's become more apparent as he's gotten more aware of things that he doesn't hear much. So it's exciting to know that he is hearing the world around him.

Finlay is 5.5 months!

It's been a while since I last posted. I can't believe my sweet little Finlay is 5 months old already. He is getting so big but he's still a little peanut :) He is such a little talker (takes after his brother lol) especially when he's taking a bottle. He will just babble away instead of eating the bottle he scream for. He sleeps through the night. We put him to bed about 9 every night and he gets up with daddy about 5 and they spend some time together before daddy has to go to work. Then daddy will put him back to bed and he will sleep until 10. He takes a nap every day about 1 and will sleep until 4 in the afternoon. We brought out the jump-a-roo about a month ago and Finlay just loves it. He hasn't figured out how to get it bouncing but he just loves the toys on it. I've been working with him on getting him to sit up assisted and he has been doing very well with it. Since it was so nice out today we had the boys outside and I was sitting him on the grass in the front lawn while Ethan was riding his bike up and down the driveway. Finlay actually sat unassisted for about 5 seconds before he started to do a face plant into the grass. After that he didn't want to sit anymore.

As far as his hearing goes he is all set up to get a hearing aid. We had a consult last week now we are just waiting for it to come in. He will be wearing a soft band BAHA. In case there's someone reading this that doesn't know what that is, it's a band (like a headband) that goes on his head and the BAHA snaps into the band. It can be positioned anywhere on his head and he will hear through his bone conduction. The ideal places for it to be positioned is in the back of the head for when he is on his tummy or crawling and on the forehead when he is in a stroller or carseat. There is also a special back that locks so he won't be able to easily get to the battery compartment. We have chosen a Navy Blue band and the back will be a soft black but the audiologist was going to try to get a few extra backs in different colors as we should change the back every 3 months. We also will be receiving a special clip that has a stretchy thin like that loops through the BAHA and then clips to his clothes. This way should the BAHA come off it won't get lost. So sometime either this week or next week Finlay will be hearing the world around him.

Finlay's last weight was about a month ago and he was just a little under 11lbs at 4 months. He has had a steady incline in his weight since he was 2 weeks. The pediatrician wanted to see him at 5 months old just for a weight check. Even though he is gaining at a steady rate. I didn't agree with that so I cancelled the appointment. I haven't been too thrilled with her I think that she is a little too over-cautious with Finlay. I have no problem with a pediatrician who is cautious but she goes beyond that in my opinion. We are going to be looking for a new pediatrician. We feel that as long as Finlay continues to gain weight at a decent weight there is no need to monitor it on a monthly basis. He is just growing longer faster than his is growing wider LOL. You can tell when you hold him that he is gaining weight and just by looking at him as well. He has filled out nicely in his face and he even has a cute little pot belly. Finlay is doing just fine. He's not the worlds best eater but he does OK and he is thriving. Next month I will be starting him on fruits and vegetables.

We have an appt scheduled this Friday with PT b/c at his 3 month appt the pediatrician didn't feel that he was holding his head up very well. The day he turned 4 months old he gained full control. He pushes himself up with his arms when I place him on his belly, he started rolling over from belly to back which he now does it all the time in his sleep, he bears weight on his legs, and like I mentioned above I am working with him on sitting up. It was recommended to us to get an eval done so we are just doing it to appease the Dr but we think he is right about where he should be at this time in terms of his milestones. I think that the Dr isn't getting that he was born exactly 1 month early and he is hitting the milestones 1 month late. Realistically she should be taking the prematurity into consideration and base things on his adjusted age not his actual age. That's what we had to do with Ethan.

Also (as I was typing this came to mind) I should mention that I was looking through Ethan's baby book and Up until he was 12 months he tended to hover in the 20th percentile for height and about the 10th percentile for weight so Finlay is following in his brother's footsteps. I think that Fin will catch up by age 1. It will help once we get him on baby food I think.

All in all Finlay is one cool baby. He is just a little doll. He is always full of smiles and is just a happy little guy. Now all he's gotta do is grow some hair LOL.

Coming up on 4 months!!

In just 6 days my little Finlay is going to be 4 months old. I can't believe that 4 months has passed since my Lil' Pumpkin ( he was supposed to be a Lil' Turkey) was added to our family. It doesn't seem like it's been that long. He is still such a little peanut but he just gets cuter by the day. He still doesn't have much hair, he has what I call old man hair. Bald on the top and hair around the bottom.

Since Finlay was born we have been testing him on his hearing. The day he came home from the hospital he had the standard OEA hearing screening. He passed in the left ear but essentially failed in the right ear. So when he was about a month old we had the BAER screening done and they repeated the OEA. He failed both tests in the right ear and passed in the left. At 3 months of age we did another BAER test but this time it was more extensive and he failed in both ears. We took him to see the ENT and he ordered a CT scan and another hearing test. He was unable to see all the way through the right ear but said that the left ear was clear. So yesterday we took him in to have both tests done. He was fed at 4:30 in the morning and then I held off feeding him until his testing so that he would be content and would sleep through the tests. He slept all the way through the hearing test but was calm and awake for the CT scan. The CT scan was only about 5 mins in length and the hearing test took a little over an hour. He failed the hearing test in both ears. Matt was able to talk to a radiologist and we were told that in the right ear the canal does not go down to the Tympanic Membrane it seems to just end about half way or so down. The inner ear is fully intact but because of the canal he is hearing nothing in the right ear. In the left eat the canal is very narrow but widens near the Tympanic Membrane. The membrane is a bit thicker than normal but the rest of the inner ear is fully intact. It means he is hearing some but how much is unknown. The canal is so narrow that it is limiting how much sound is getting to the inner ear. It was recommended to us to get him fitted with a hearing aid which may only be temporary. It was mentioned to us that it may be possible to widen the canal in the left ear which will possibly make his hearing in that ear significantly better. That is something we will have to discuss with the ENT. What we are going to do for now is get him fitted with a soft band BAHA. The BAHA device is snapped into a band and then the band just fits around his head. Since he is an infant the BAHA will sit either on his forehead when he is laying down or on the back of his head when he is on his tummy. This will actually allow him to hear in both ears. There is a small possibility that as he grows his ears will grow too and he will begin hear better through them but most likely he will need surgery for that to happen. We have already gotten the ball rolling on the BAHA. We called the ENT who needs to write an order and submit that to insurance and then we need to wait on insurance. After that we will get him fitted with the BAHA.

Other than the hearing difficulties Finlay is doing well. Tomorrow he has an appt with the pediatrician so we will find out how much my little peanut weighs. He has been taking about 5-5.5oz every 5 hours and sleeping about 6-7hrs at night. Compared to how he was doing when he came home he has made up for that. He will have his days here or there where he just doesn't want to eat. Instead he screws with me and plays with the nipple taking little sips from the bottle making it so the bottle won't be good after an hour. I can tell he is messing with me b/c he is looking right at me and grinning like a fool. He is also starting to babble. I can have entire conversations with him. Tonight at dinner we were discussing which preschool we were going to put Ethan in in the fall and Finlay was just sitting in his chair putting in his input on the subject. Of course he was doing it with a huge smile on his face. Later Ethan was messing with Finlay's feet and Fin was like a grinning fool. He was loving having Ethan play with him. Finlay loves his big brother and he loves it when his big brother plays with him. As he gets bigger they are going to have so much fun together.