Virginia and DC Vacation!

During our visit we were able to see and stay with my sister and brother-in-law as well as with some friends of ours.  The boys loved seeing them and playing with them; it had been so long! We were able to see many new things and get in some good talking and playing time.  Thanks to Mandy and Brian and and Read and Charlene!  We love ya and had a great time!

Invading the Kid's Room at Mount Vernon with Auntie



Modeling my cute new outfit from Auntie



 Auntie, Riley, and Me (out in Read and Char's backyard)

 

Special Auntie time

The fam after our tour of the Bureau of Printing and Engraving. We got to see money being printed, whoo hoo!

 

The Girls!  Mandy, Charlene and Me

 

Finn and Bella hamming it up at the Battle of Manassas

 

It was cold in Virginia!  Loved the puffy jacket and skinny jeans combo

Patriotic sightseeing: the White House!  Obama didn't come out to say hi, rude.

A very impressive rock, of course I can't remember why it was so impressive but that kid sure looks cute

Brothers at the National Air and Space Museum. We liked it but Finn was itching to get back to the dinosaur bones at the Natural History museum

In front of George and Martha Washington's tomb

Finn's first mini-golf adventure.  He loved it! 

Loving the golf

Virginia!

We recently returned from visiting family and friends in Virginia.  I plan to post more pictures, but here is a start.  These are our friends Bella and Ellie.  Any idea how difficult it is to get four kids to look at you at the same time? I failed. :)

In Riley's defense, there was a fascinating fan on the ceiling, he is an infant after all...

A Hot One

Jamie got to go into work late yesterday so we had some water play fun out back.  It was hot, low 90's and kinda humid, for San Diego anyway.  Finn was all about pouring water on us, which was just fine by me!

 Cooling off brother's feet

Silly face!

Riley always has to be a tough guy

He made it!

I suck at blogging!  Been a bit busy but guess what, Riley James Kelly was born on May 14, 2012!  A day before 38 weeks.  After all the drama he stayed put until he was nice and ready.

I love this new tiny guy.  His brown hair, his little slightly upturned nose, his chubby everything, his toes that are just like mine (poor kid), his gummy grin, his perfect ears. I could go on and on. :) Finn totally loves his baby brother, goes on and on about how tiny he is and gives him kisses every chance he gets.

 We did it!  From start to finish he was here in one hour!

 Newborn faces are the best

 He wanted to hold him.  After a minute he started sinking into the bed and said, "You hold him, he's really heavy."

 Opposites attract

 Week old faces are also the best

 I hope these guys stay this happy together their whole lives

  Nothing sweeter

Finn the Ringbearer

Love this photo from my sister's wedding in September.  He's such a handsome little man, if I do say so myself.  Can't believe he will soon be a big brother.  Wasn't he just a baby himself??

35 Weeks

Here are a couple recent pictures, the first is on Easter.  The second is tonight, I am now 35 weeks. Really didn't think I'd make it this far. Ended up back in the hospital for 8 days for preterm labor again, we released last Wednesday.  Man it felt good to get back home!  Now we are just waiting, it's pretty safe to deliver now and after another week the doctors say we'll be in the clear.  It would be funny (not really) if he was full term or even late after all we've been through!  Regardless I can't wait to meet this fiesty little guy!

 33 weeks

35 weeks

30 weeks

In my last post I mentioned that this new baby would probably come early. I didn't realize he would try to come at 28 weeks! Luckily we were able to stop his arrival.

On March 8th I was minding my own business having lunch with friends when I started to feel a few contractions.  They felt like Braxton Hicks and so I wasn't alarmed at first. However, they began to come every five minutes and I knew that wasn't right. I went back to my office and decided to call it a day so I could go home and lie down.  When I arrived home I hopped into bed with my phone and my insurance card, just in case.  Half and hour later I'd called my mom, Jamie, and the Labor and Delivery center and waited for my mom to pick me up and take me in to the hospital as the contractions were not subsiding.

Jamie met us there with Finn and after a little while my Mom took him home for a weekend getaway to Gonah's house.  He was a little unnerved at the whole hospital scene but didn't get upset which is good.  The doctor did an exam and some tests and they decided to admit me and put me on a magnesium IV to stop the contractions. That stuff makes you feel pretty weird, let me tell you! It worked okay for the first 12 hours and then I passed out when they were trying to take yet another blood sample. Awesome!  They thought that the magnesium might have something to do with it so switched me to a different med in pill form.  They also gave me two steroid shots to help mature the baby's lungs in case all their efforts failed and he was born anyway. The steroids raised my blood sugar levels and so I had to have insulin shots after eating and was put on a diabetic diet. 

Luckily through all of this the baby was still moving around and his heartbeat was strong and steady.  I'd forgotten how difficult it is to sleep in the hospital and, even though they came to visit every day, really missed my family.  I was delighted when they did an ultrasound (he's a cutie already!) and things looked like they were stable.  The doctor decided to release me on Saturday night, with meds every four hours for the next couple of months and bedrest for the remainder of my pregnancy. 

Which brings me to today, at home on bedrest!  The baby is still doing fine and the medication to stop the contractions seems to be working pretty well though it does give me a lot of headaches.  I am now on a quasi-diabetic diet; my blood sugar is still a little higher than they would like it to be (have taken two different blood glucose tests, the 1 hour and the 3 hour. I don't recommend the 3 hour) so I have to watch was I eat.  I will have to be tested again in 4 weeks to make sure I don't develop gestational diabetes.  No orange juice or big bowls of ice cream for me!  (Though maybe a small bowl, once a week!)

All in all things are okay, just a BIG change from my life two weeks ago.  I am so blessed to have my mom living in the same town as she comes over to help with things almost every day.  It's only been a week and a half, still hopefully have about 7 weeks to go. Bedrest is strange, not going to work, not being able to get up and grab something or take a box down from the closet or get the mail.  I am trying to stay busy with little organizing projects, the internet, reading and TV.  Of course I'd lay here and stare at the wall all day if that's what it takes to keep the little one safe and sound another week or two. 

Wish us luck!

A Little Boy

As most of you know we are getting ready to welcome a new member to our family in May.  I'm due May 29th but as Finn broke out almost three weeks early we are expecting a similar performance from this little one.  We could not be happier about having another baby and Finn is super excited to teach the baby all the tricks he knows. :)

We had our 20 week ultrasound a couple weeks ago and found out the baby will be a little boy. He was squirming around and sucked his thumb a bit, just like Finn when he got a peek at him.  Two boys!  Well three if you include Jamie, ha ha.  It's gonna be rowdy over here! 

Now we have to choose a name, that's not easy for us!  Leave us a comment and some name suggestions!

Christmas Morning 2011

Finn asked Santa for a bike this year and he was a good boy so Santa listened!  He was very excited to see his shiny new bike waiting for him in the living room!  Jamie and I did our presents for each other that morning too, it was a fun time. 

Merry Christmas!

Cookes for Santa the night before.  Goodnight!

 "HE BROUGHT ME A BIKE MOMMY!"

 Now, after all this excitement lets get down to playing with my new toys!

The artist

Christmas Eve 2011

Christmas is such a hard blog post, there are always a zillion pictures I want to share.  I'll choose a few favorites as I usually do. 

Finn totally "got" Christmas this year and was loving it.  He understood Santa and was able to connect being good with Santa's impending visit, though I think next year we may be able to use that leverage a little more, he he.  We talked about Baby Jesus and I was able to find the cutest kid-friendly Nativity Set for him to set up and play with.  My sister and Brian spent their last Christmas here for a while, they moved to Virginia a couple weeks later, sniff sniff.  My Grandma Janet was able to come down for it so it was a big happy family affair. 

It was Finn's last Christmas as an only child so we wanted it to be extra special!

 Gonah and Finn

 Big Gonah and Gonah

 Sandy, Geoff and Mandy

 Our little family, notice Finn's brother starting to make himself known

 Merry Christmas!

A shot of opening presents

Christmas Cookie Party

My mom, Mandy, Finn and I had our annual Christmas cookie making party the Saturday before Christams.  It's funny, we are always afraid we made too many at the end of the session but somehow I find myself rationing them a couple days before Christmas. Hmmm...

 A big hug for Gonah before we begin

 No one is looking...

 Still sneaking tastes

 Let's get this party cleaned up!

Disneyland Trip

We decided to take Finn to Disneyland during December to see the Christmas decorations and enjoy the park.  Jamie and I took an extra day off work so we could go during the week (MUCH less crowded) and opted to stay the night at the Disneyland Hotel.  I stayed there as a kid and remembered how much I loved it, really made the whole experience extra special.  The hotel was recently renovated and now reminds me more of a Marriott, with a few Disney touches thrown in.  Nice but not quite as special. Although they installed a huge headboard that lights up to display a starry sky and the castle, and plays "When you Wish Upon a Star".  That rocked, even the 45th time Finn flipped the switch.

Some of you may remember that last spring we took a family vacation to Florida and visited Disneyworld, and that it was not a huge hit with the Finner.  We knew we were taking a change but hoped that by pumping him up about it and the extra 6 months of worldly experience he'd like it.

He did!  We had a little trouble with the darker rides (didn't realize how many Fantasyland rides are dark and scary, nice job Walt) but he LOVED the Teacups, Toontown and the Jungle Ride and many others.  Because we stayed at the hotel we were able to ride the Monorail into Tomorrowland an hour early, no lines, no hassle.  That in itself was pretty much worth the extra money. 

We met my brother Geoff and his girlfriend for dinner the night before which was a bonus.  He lives about 20 minutes away from Disneyland. Loved getting to spend a little time with him and of course Finn is a big Uncle Geoff fan.

The morning after Disneyland Day we had breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen and met a few random characters before heading back home.  A great mini-vacation!

 Geoff, Sandy, Finn and Jamie

 This is fantastic!!  He loves to spin around so this was heaven.

 In front of his beloved Snow White and animal friends statues.

 Steering the ship in Toontown.

 Composing a love song for Abi in Toontown.

 Jungle Ride

 Waving to Santa in the Christmas Parade.  Huge hit.

 Goofy's Kitchen

 Bashful with Alice, she was so pretty he got nervous.

Hamming it up with Dale (or is it Chip? I forget).