Thanksgiving

Finlay had a wonderful 1st Thanksgiving. He went over to visit Grammy B in the early afternoon and then later he had dinner at home with Grammy Judy and cousin Macey. He enjoyed some snuggles with big brother and later snuggled with daddy. It was a nice relaxing day.

Today he is sleeping in his swing and just having a quiet day with Ethan and Mommy. Later we will be going to dinner with Grandpa Frank as we didn't see him yesterday. Tomorrow Finlay will be decked out in OSU wear for the Ohio Michigan game. We will also be working on getting our Christmas decorations up and will be going to the Lights at the zoo as well. I can't wait it will be Finlay's first time.

We have had a lot of questions about what Finlay needs for Christmas. He has plenty of clothes that are warm for the winter. He could maybe use a couple of sleepers that are 0-3 month sizes. Please no 3-6 month clothes I have more than I know what to do with and many of them were from Ethan and still have the tags on them. We don't need playmats I have 2, he doesn't need a walker I have one, I have a bouncer as well, and 2 pack and plays. I have plenty of little hats and blankets so I don't need anymore and I don't have room for anymore really. I have tons of little socks as well. As far as diapers go he is heading into size 1's. I prefer Pampers. Huggies are a horrible fit for him they leak like crazy. He is just too scrawny for Huggies. Honestly Finlay doesn't really need anything. I kept EVERYTHING from Ethan. Finlay is pretty much all set. He is wearing the same size of clothes (for the most part) as Ethan was at this time of year. Ethan was not wearing 3-6 month size until Dec. Finlay is still on the fortified formula and he is still playing catch up. He has been gaining about a pound every 2 weeks and growing 1/4 of an inch in the same amount of time. I don't need bottles I have more than I know what to do with. We can always use Diaper Genie 2 refills. We are good on formula. I have been using the Babies R Us Brand as it's a better deal ($15 for 23.4 oz) I just bought 2 containers this month and we should be good for the next 2 -3 months as I am still pumping for him so he gets breast milk too so that cuts down the amount of formula we are having to use. Maybe instead of giving Finlay gifts make a donation to the March of Dimes in his name. I haven't gotten a savings account set up for him yet but I will be getting that done soon. I will be opening an account for him at the credit union where Ethan is set up. I wish I had more to suggest but we pretty much have everything for him. Oh and please no more bibs the kitchen drawer can't hold anymore.

Finny's first Halloween!!!

Finlay had a great first Halloween yesterday. He stayed home and helped his mommy pass out candy to all the little spooks. I was planning on staying in the house with him and passing out candy but I ended up having to stand in the middle of our driveway so that the kiddy's would come to our door. I wrapped Finny in a blanket and then put a heavier blanket over him and held him to my chest so he would stay warm. I also kept the blanket over his head to protect his face from the wind. It was a chore passing out candy with only one free hand LOL. I managed though. We had fun getting to see all the little cuties come to our door. Some were so cute I gave them an extra piece of candy.

Finny has been keeping me up most of the night. He takes after his mother, he's a night owl. Unfortunately mommy is too tired at night to be a night owl b/c she has to be up all day with Ethan. Last night Finlay ate at 10:30, then he wanted to eat again at 1. No big deal right? Wrong. He did not want to go to sleep after his 1:00 bottle. He felt it was the perfect time to play. I tried everything to get him to go to sleep. I gave him his binky, I gently rocked the bassinet, I sang to him, I snuggled him, but he was just wide awake and by 3:00 he was ready to eat again. So I went downstairs to make a bottle and he managed to wake up his daddy who had to be up for work by 4:30. Daddy fed him at 5 and I was up again at 8. Needless to say mommy was very tired as Finny didn't let her go to sleep until almost 4 this morning then I had to be woken up by daddy's alarm. In the end 3.5 hrs was not enough sleep. Fortunately Ethan was in a snuggle mood this morning so I at least got to sleep in with him. I look forward to when Finny figures out that when the sun is up it's OK to be awake and when the sun goes down it's bed time LOL. Ethan has it down pat although he likes to question why the sun goes to sleep.

1 week check up

I can't believe that Finlay is going to be a week old tomorrow!! The last 6 days have flown by so quickly. Things have seemed so hectic and crazy. At times I think that I am dreaming and Finlay is really still in my belly kicking me in the ribs LOL. Last night he started eating 30ml's every 3 hrs. So since being born he has gone from 15ml's to 30ml's (or 1 ounce). I am very impressed with how much he has increased his feeds. Also in the beginning he was slow to take the 15 ml's and was taking so long to eat that he was wearing himself out. Weds night/ early Thurs morning he began downing the formula in 20 mins or less and is able to do so without being to sloppy. He is coming a long way in a short amount of time. Finlay is NOT on straight breast milk. He is getting both formula and breast milk and we have pretty much been mixing it 50/50. I have not yet been able to produce enough to meet his demands. I have been pumping every 3-4 hrs and have just started to be able to produce 2oz. I was trying for a 2 hr schedule but unfortunately was only producing every 4. Now that it is starting to come in more that shouldn't become a problem. I would like to be on the 2 hr schedule so that I can make sure that he is getting breast milk with each meal alongside his formula.

We took him today to the Dr for a weight check and his 1 week check up. He has gone down to 5lbs 2oz which is a 9% drop. She said that in the first week babies can lose up to 10% of their birth weight before they gain it all back. So he is in the normal parameters for a newborn. She told us that now that he is showing more interest in eating we can go ahead and let him be an on demand eater. If he wants to eat every 2 hrs we can go ahead and let him but not to let him go past 3 hrs. Monday morning when he was being assessed by the Speech Therapist and the nurse we were told not to let him eat for more than 30 minutes, to keep him on a 3 hr schedule that anything less than 3 hrs would cause him to have to burn more calories than he needs to. Now that he can be more on demand and now that he is more awake to eat he should pack on the weight quickly. So the Dr wants to have his weight checked again by Tues. We asked if I could bring him in on Thurs as I have a 2 week OB appt and her office is across the hall from the peds. It would save me a lot of time and gas to not have to make 2 separate trips. But she doesn't want to wait that long. She said that they can have a home nurse come and check his weight this weekend to see if he has put on any weight but she still wants to see him close to 2 weeks so he will be back to see her on the 19th. Overall he is doing well. She is starting him on vitamin D which is required now for ALL newborns by the government. It is over the counter drops that we can just mix in with his bottle in the mornings. Apparantly all newborns are vitamin D deficient and it can lead to problems in the bones, cause juvenile diabetes, and a few other things. Formula is fortified with vitamin D but apparently breast milk does not have it. Even if the mom is getting plenty of it her breast milk will not receive it. I find that interesting information considering that if all newborns are deficient how is it that most of us never had problems from it when we were little? Hmmmm, something for all of us to ponder.

Happy Birthday

Finlay Matthew Pacholski entered into this world on Oct 8 2011 at 4:34 pm. He was born at 35 weeks 4 days, weighed 5lbs 12oz, was 19.5" long, and has 10 fingers and 10 toes. Finlay came as a very unexpected surprise he was not expected for another 2-4 weeks. My water broke at home and 4.5 hrs later there was Finlay. He had no complications but due to the fact that I had not been tested for Strep-B I was treated like I had it when we got to the hospital. I was put on antibiotics and needed to be on them for 4 hrs before his birth but unfortunately only received 2 hrs of them before we had no choice but to push. So he was put on AmpGen (which can cause hearing loss) as a preventative in case I did have it and passed it to him. Fortunately he did not have it all blood work came up clean. He had to remain in the hospital for 48 hrs though b/c of the drug. Finlay did pass his hearing test which by the way was done by his Grammy B. He needs to get rechecked though in a couple weeks b/c of the drugs. He had a rough first night and was kept in the nursery all night b/c he was having difficulty eating. He was only eating 15ml's every 3 hrs but it was taking him too long and he wasn't consistent. By the 2nd night he was doing much better. Finlay and I went home Monday afternoon, it was so nice to be home with my family. It drove me nuts to be separated from Matt and Ethan. Since coming home he is eating 25ml's every 3 hrs. He has his days and nights reversed right now so he likes to keep us up all night. Unfortunately he is unable to breast feed at this time so I am having to pump several times a day. He has a small chin just like Ethan did and it prevents him from being able to make a good seal around the breast. Personally I don't care how he gets the breast milk as long as he is getting it. Right now he is sleeping in a bassinet next to our bed. B/c of him being so small and not being an on demand eater it makes it much easier to just keep him next to us. Ethan was much bigger and was an on demand eater when he came home from the NICU so putting him straight to his own room at night was OK. In a couple weeks Finlay will probably be sleeping in his own room. I do not sleep with him in bed I am just not comfortable doing that. Tomorrow he goes in for a 1 week check up with the pediatrician. She came to see him when he was 24 hrs old and was just a little concerned about the amount of formula (we are supplementing until my full milk supply comes in) he was taking in at a time so she wants to make sure he is gaining weight. I think that him being home has made a huge difference in how he eats. For one thing no one is interrupting him in the middle of eating to take his blood or poke and prod at him. When that happened at the hospital he just didn't want to eat afterward. He started taking 20ml's every 3 hrs with in 1 day of being home and today he started taking 25ml's every 3 hrs. So IMO he is doing well and I know will have put on weight. Right now he is sleeping on Matt's shoulder while Ethan is laying in Matt's lap and Peek-a-boo is laying next to them on the arm of the chair. It's a very cute site.

Finlay will soon be introduced to friends and family but Ethan has been sick so we have been unable to invite anyone over. Hopefully this weekend we will be able to introduce him to a few people. Matt has been home on vacation all this week and will be home all next week as well. We have worked hard the last 2 days to make sure Finlay does not catch what Ethan has. I have not been allowing Ethan to touch Finlay near or around the face and hands, we have had him keep his distance from Finlay's face altogether. If he touches Finlay's binky or bottles they are immediately sterilized before going to Finlay. We have been spraying Lysol on the furniture and other surfaces to help kill any germs Ethan leaves behind. So please do not come visit if you are sick or have ANY cold/flu symptoms, also no children if they are sick or have been sick and have not been symptom free for at least 72 hrs. I really want to be cautious because of his prematurity and because I don't want him to be exposed to too much all at once. I also want to be cautious b/c neither Matt nor I want to end up getting sick. We are keeping hand sanitizer all over the house and no one may hold Finlay unless they have sanitized their hands. Also if you smoke please don't smoke around Finlay or right before handling him. His lungs are premature and it could cause him problems. I know that everyone already know this stuff and I sound like an over-protective mother but it makes me feel better to say it. I carried him for 35 weeks and I worked hard to bring him into this world. Now I am working hard to keep him healthy. All these things were actually things that the pediatrician discussed with me on Sunday when she came to assess Finlay. His immune system is just not ready to be able to handle everything yet and getting sick really could send him to the PICU so I don't take it lightly.

Finlay only a few minutes old

Big Brother Ethan

Mom and her boys

First Family Picture

Going home

Only 4.5 weeks to go!

My little man has officially made it to 35 weeks. I never doubted him for a moment that he couldn't make it this far. He is doing amazing according to the Dr yesterday.

Everything is going the way it should. The baby is head down still she was able to feel his little butt up by my rib cage and his head was down on my hip bone. He's laying on the right side (his favorite place) and he just loves to kick me in the ribs which has been leaving them very sore. I did ask her about the pain I've been getting on the right side of mt back right in the ribs. I understand why it aches but the pain is so bad I have been sleeping with an ice pack in it to numb it and make myself a little more comfortable. She said for every woman it's different it just depends on how much pressure the lungs are putting on the ribs and how much the ribs need to expand to accommodate the lungs to allow them to expand. In my case he is right up in my ribs so they are having to expand quite a bit to make it all fit. All she could recommend I do is continue with the ice packs and Tylenol even though at this point Tylenol really won't help. Once he drops the pain will most likely diminish and once he is born it will go away almost immediately. So unfortunately for me it's pretty common and I just have to deal. I was just concerned about the intensity as I never got this far with Ethan so I never experienced it.

My Dr is expecting this baby to make it to full term just like I have been saying all along. She did however tell me that should he decide to come sometime before Tues he would be perfectly fine. He is a healthy weight, about a pound over the norm and the last ultrasound I had done a couple weeks ago showed that his lungs are fully matured so he won't have any problems breathing. She said that he had a 90% chance of never seeing the NICU but if he did it would only be for 24 hrs for observation and he would be going home with us. Should he come after Tues he would be 36 weeks and there would literally be no reason for him not to go home with us. I do not feel that he will come before 37 weeks though. I don't think he's done kicking me in the ribs yet. I think he wants to torture his mommy a little bit longer LOL. There's a reason I deemed him my MMA Fighter. He's got some strong kicks. Somedays I find myself begging him to stop and explain to him that Mommy needs her lungs to breath. It's kind of an important thing.

We just about have everything done and ready for his arrival. I need to get out the onsies and get them washed, I also need to get the Pack 'N Play sheets washed, and get the cover for the bassinet washed as well. I guess I will have to go get some baby blankets to wrap him up in as well I was just planning on using all the ones I had when Ethan was a baby but Ethan doesn't want his baby brother to use them. So we will have to go out and get some new ones. I still need to pick up the changing pad from one of my friends. It's brand new she never used it for her son so she is giving it to us which is great because those things are not cheap!! Otherwise everything is all ready for him to come. Now that everything is ready I am really looking forward to finally meeting this little boy who has been kicking me in the ribs and causing me to pee every half hour. It's going to be so worth it. Ethan has been talking a lot about when he baby brother will come. He asks me every day if he is coming today and I have to tell him that he has to stay in mommy's belly and cook just a little bit longer but soon he can meet him. He is so excited to have his "baby bruder" watch Baby Einstein with him and he wants him to come play in his room. It's so cute. We have tried to explain that in the beginning his brother is essentially just going to be a little lump that cries and is full of smells. I guess he will just have to see for himself. Ethan has been such a big help over the last month around the house I really hope that he will want to continue that and be a big help with his baby brother as well. It's good bonding time when he helps me and it would really help him bond with his brother if he helps do little things with his brother. He will be a great big brother it's just going to take time for all of us to adjust.

Only 6 weeks to go!!

Yesterday marked 34 weeks for Mr. R.A.P!!! That means now only 20 days to go before he is considered full term. He is starting to cause his mom some pain now that he is getting bigger. I was concerned about the ache that I have been feeling in the right side of my ribs in the back. I brought it up to my Dr and she assured me it is totally normal. I haven't found too much that helps to relieve it but I will push through b/c I know that as soon as he is born it will go away. I had an u/s done just to check and see how he was positioned and he was head down with little feet in my ribs (guess that would be what explains the pain). He still has plenty of room yet to grow but most likely he will now remain in the head down position. According to the Dr very few babies flip once they get in that position at this stage.

His room is all ready for him now and it looks so cute. I need to go through all Ethan's 0-3 month clothes and get out all the onsies and also go through and see what we have as far as warm clothes. I have a friend who is holding her sons clothes for me. He was born end of Oct so they would be for the right season. Ethan was wearing 3-6 months by Oct/Nov and he was about 8 or 9 pounds at that time so I have a feeling most of Ethan's clothes will fit this baby. Already R.A.P is close to 5lbs so he is going to be a good sized baby at birth. I am getting anxious now and am so excited that soon I will be meeting him and holding him. It's going to be a great holiday season this year that I get to share it with my 2 beautiful boys and Matt.

A message from R.A.P

Guess what! My mom tells me I have officially made it farther than my big brother Ethan! I am not 31 weeks 2 days and I plan on baking for a while yet. I'm happy in my nice warm location. I have this great pillow to rest my head on. Although mom doesn't seem to like it. She says it makes her have to pee every half hour practically when I do that.

I had a check up today and everything is looking good for me. According to the Dr I am roughly about 4lbs. I even cooperated and let the Dr listen to my heart. Normally I am all over the place and like to make her chase me. Today I was too tired for the chase so I took a nap instead.

My parents have been working with my room. They say I am going to really like it. But I don't know what this Lion King is that they keep talking about. Mom said she got the wall decals up and some pictures. From what I hear from mom it's coming along quite nicely and should hopefully be completed by the end of this month. I can't wait to see what my parents have done for me. I guess I will find out in 9 weeks.