Finn gets a bath!

Today is Finn's two week birthday, and it has been quite eventful for him so far. We had a houseful of family and while it was hectic, it was so much fun. Finn has now been exposed to a lot of noise and activity which is great for him to learn to sleep through. Maeve has been worn out daily by her cousins and this morning she was so sad to come downstairs to an empty house.

My mom is still here for a few more days (thankfully!) and then I am on my own during the day. That's when the real fun will begin! If anyone has suggestions on the best way to wrangle a newborn and toddler, please let me know!

Day 5 at home

We have been home for 5 days now and Maeve is finally warming up the idea of having Finn around. She said 'good morning, finn' today and enjoyed patting his head and only tried to poke his eyes a couple of times. Overall, she is adjusting just great bit she did catch a bug at the hospital, so hasn't been feeling all that great. She is getting very used to having Zar around and loves to say "Hi, my daddy". I am a bit worried about how she will handle it when he goes to work next week.

Fortunately there will be a lot of distractions next week because we will have a ton of family visiting! liz's sister and nieces will be staying for a week and her Aunt Phyllis will be here for a few days as well. We are so excited!

New pictures!

I finally posted photos on our Shutterfly website! Email me if you need the password.

http://teamtoolan.shutterfly.com/

On the left is a picture of Maeve and Zar at brunch Sunday am after Zar ran the All Star 5K.

Below is a picture of Zar holding Finn right after he was born!


We have many more pictures that are on our camera and we will get them uploaded to the Shutterfly website tomorrow when we are home from the hospital. Yay!

Delivery Details..for those of you who are interested

And for those of you who aren't....just stop reading here and look at the pretty pictures that I posted.

As most of you know, I have been wanting Finn to arrive early as I just couldn't stand being pregnant any longer and I was really worried about delivering another large baby. I was doing pretty much everything possible to induce myself, but it wasn't working. I was walking a lot (mostly from chasing after M), eating spicy foods, and pretty much every other wives tale that you hear. Well, on Sunday night we had dinner with some of our friends and it turns out that Brad BBQ ribs did the trick! I started having some contractions around 9 pm, and they were somewhat painful (nothing like what you see on TV) and I wasn't sure if they were just muscle aches or real contractions. So, Z decided to download an iphone app that helps you time your contractions and it maps out the intervals...very fancy stuff. So I recorded my first contraction, started to read a book, and about 20 minutes later recorded my second contraction, read some more of my book and at about 10:30 pm my water broke. This was a new experience for me as I was induced my first pregnancy, so I wasn't really sure what happened. I woke Z up told him and he got a huge smile on his face and started furiously getting ready to whisk me off to the hospital.

Our friend Suzanne came over to watch M, and ended up spending the night with her while we were at the hospital. At first I was triaged in the pregnancy center and had the wonderful experience of working with a medical student and three residents. That just means I had to give my history to four different people, which got a bit annoying. Especially because they all asked me if I had been taking my prenatal vitamins and foolishly told them the truth...no. They confirmed that I had 'ruptured' and they admitted me to the hospital, and at the time I was 3 cm dilated and I wasn't having any contractions of significance.

So, we settled in and actually got a bit of sleep, when I started feeling some more contractions, not extremely painful, but definitely there. I hadn't progressed much in dilation (I was 4 cm at 3 am) so they started pitocin. I knew I wanted an epidural, so I asked when I should get that and the nurse told me there was about a 15 min lead time for the anesthesiologist and that it was a slow night, so we decided to wait a couple of hours. Well, the pitocin kicked in and I really started to feel the pain. The contractions were taking my breath away and were about 3 min apart, so I asked for the epidural. I had to wait nearly an hour for the epidural because the team was in another room at that point ( very difficult placement) and I was freaking out a bit that I would miss the window of opportunity for the epidural. These were seriously painful contractions, and I can see how women in labor scream profanities and really life. Well, they came in and placed the epidural at about 6:30 am and I felt SO much better. I even got some more sleep, anticipating at least 4 more hours until I would be fully dilated. The MD's checked me again around 8:30 am and concluded I had fully dilated, and was ready to go. It was so fast, and so awesome. She asked for a practice push and had to tell me to stop because he was crowning. After two contractions/pushes we had our baby boy at 9:13 in the am!

It took the doctors a little bit of time afterwards to take care of some bleeding that I had, which was unexpected. After about 45 minutes, things were all taken of and a little later we headed up to our room.

The recovery process is a bit difficult, but I am feeling much better now than I did earlier today. My iron levels are a bit low, so Z brought me an O'Connell's burger for dinner, and even snuck me in a pint of Guinness to celebrate our lucky Irishman, F.

Day One

Things are going great here for TeamToolan, which we are aptly named because there is some serious All Star fever going on in St. Louis. We like to think that the onslaught of celebrities, including the President, and all of the commotion going on in the city are to celebrate our newest "All Star".

Last night was our first night with F and it wasn't that bad. You get interrupted a lot at the hospital, but they did a great job of just letting us 'do our thing' and leaving us alone. F ate a couple of times during the night, but for the most part enjoyed a really nice slumber. This morning was a different story as we were awoken at 6:30 am by the first resident, then the housekeeper, juice lady, birth certificate lady, hospital photographers, lactation consultant, the attending physician and the food service worker. While I appreciate all that these folks are doing for us, it was quite a bit of commotion for first thing in the morning.

M has handled the transition quite well so far and she has now come to see her 'baby brotha' twice. Z and my mom are doing a great job of shuttling her around from the hospital to home while still keeping somewhat of a routine for her. We owe a VERY special thanks to our friends Suzanne and Brad for stepping in and watching M in the middle of the night and the next day while we were at the hospital. We also have an awesome baby sitter, Catherine, who was able to step in at a moment's notice and help out as well.

The troops have retired back to the house for a while to take a nap and I am happy to have some quiet time while F sleeps....something that I know will be hard to come by in my near future.

Thanks to everyone for the well wishes and prayers!

Finn Charles Toolan

He's finally here! Z started live blogging the event 7 am when I was 7 cm but was interrupted from posting it when the doctor checked me and I was fully dilated!

After two quick contractions (< 15 min) we had our precious baby in our arms at 9:13 this morning. He is healthy and happy and we are just over the moon! Finn Charles Toolan born 7/13 @ 9:13am 7 lb 7 oz 19.5 inches

A Room with a View

This was Z's attempt at a 'live blog' of the delivery.... Although he is quite humerous, I am happy that he was interrupted and that it was a quick delivery!

All right, folks, we're moving into the top of the seventh. Pitocin is moving things along, epidural is keeping things tolerable. L is 7 cm as of 7:30 am. We watched the sun rise over the park from Room 5484 as we settled into the day's events. Our whiteboard reads the following: "TODAY IS: 7.13.09. PLAN FOR THE DAY IS: Hold that Sweet Baby Boy!"

We had what can aptly be summed up as an All Star Weekend. M and I started Saturday with a run around Tower Grove Park ("Wheeeaaah arr u skwirrrel??? There he is!!") followed by swim class at the Y. Saturday afternoon included live blues and BBQ

It's happening!

Finally, it is time! I started having some regular contractions around 9 pm and they were low in intensity and about 20 min apart. Z quickly fell asleep as we had a pretty busy weekend only to be woken up by the infamous phrase "honey, I think my water just broke".

We quickly called our friends Brad and Suzanne to come watch M and headed to the hospital. We are now in the l&d unit getting settled in for the night. I hope we will get a bit of sleep before he gets here, but we are very excited to meet him!

Yesterday we received a 'sneak preview' of our family photo shoot from a few weeks ago. Our photographer was amazing and I think she really captured the essence of our family. She will come back after Baby Boy is born and take come newborn photos of him, which I can't wait to see! As a budding photographer, I can really see how much better the photos turn out for someone who knows what they are doing, but I will still do my best to capture the memories of our newest addition.

I am still waddling around and waiting for some contractions to start. I am walking A LOT (mostly running after M) as I have been trying to keep M out of the house as much as possible before it is super difficult for us to get places with a little baby in tow. The nursery is fairly well put together, and all the essentials are in place. We haven't done much decorating, but that doesn't stress me as I know now that it doesn't really matter until the baby is older anyway. I am just happy that M continues to sleep in her bed and the crib has been taken down from her room and is hidden away for a bit. We'll probably pull it out once the little guy gets too big for his bassinette (maybe as early as a month, if he really is 8 lbs already!) and hopefully M won't want to sleep in it instead of her bed.

My hospital bag is packed and I am ready to go--wish that this baby felt the same way! It must be pretty comfortable in there...

37 week check up

My doctor's appointment went very well today and Baby Boy is doing great. My BP is fine, his heart rate is great and I even lost 1 lb! My doctor's are not concerned about his size and as one MD told me today, "You've proven that you can deliver a 8lb 11 oz baby, so don't worry!". That's not really what I wanted to hear!

Actually, I felt really good about the appointment and that I was listened to by the doctor and not simply patronized in my late pregnancy. She said that I am now 2-3 cm dilated and she felt that if I progressed this way for next week we could plan an induction at 39 weeks, because I am a favorable candidate for induction. According to her, my risk of C-section will not be different at this point if I go into labor naturally or if I am induced. She won't induce me before 39 weeks though (despite my questioning and encouraging....), and while that is still two weeks away and I am getting so anxious, I still feel good about having a specific end date.

Of course, it would be ideal if this little guy would simply decide to join us on his own! I keep telling him that it's really nice here and he will have all sorts of room to stretch out. Let's hope he starts listening to me!

We'll keep you posted!

July 4th fun

We had a great 4th of July weekend here in St. Louis! On Thursday we kicked off the weekend by going to a cardinals game and listening to some great blues music a little dive bar near the stadium. The rest of the weekend was spent getting ready for the baby, working in the yard and resting. It rained on the 4th so we spent the morning at the City Museum, and then went out for pizza and ice cream for dinner. We were all three asleep before the fireworks, but it was a perfect day nonetheless.

Big Baby Boy

I went to the doctor yesterday for an ultrasound just to check in on our little guy and see how big he is. My doctor's don't want me to deliver a really large baby because of the complications we had with M. At my last visit, I was telling the doctor that I felt this baby was large, and I could tell she was thinking "All pregnant women think that..." but I really meant it! I also explained to her that while my belly is not large, that is just because of the way I am carrying and trust me-there is not a spare inch of room in this belly. So, she conceded and scheduled the ultrasound.

The ultrasound tech was great and she did a thorough exam. She even got us some 4D pictures that Z promptly sent to facebook. Our little guy looks just like M did when she was born. It's crazy! He is also very healthy, complete with chubby cheeks, and even some fat rolls on his neck. Needless to say, when she came back in the room and told us that she estimates him to be 7 lbs. 4 oz right now I nearly started crying. Ultrasounds at this stage can over or underestimate weight by 1/2 lb, so he really could weight anywhere from 7-8 lbs but with three weeks left to grow that means he could be 8.5-10 pound by the time my due date rolls around.

The good news is that I had some Braxton hicks contractions a couple of days ago and I think he is really getting ready to come out. I say, let's the get this show on the road...the sooner the better!!!!!

Zar, the Toddler Whisperer

Last night marked a huge milestone for our little girl. After numerous attempt to cajole M into sleeping in her 'big girl bed', including special toys, book, extra privileges with binkies, I have been unsuccessful at getting her to stay put. We have been talking about the bed a lot and how special it is, but she would still require the confines of her crib to fall asleep.

Last night while I was out, Z decided to take matters into his own hands and see what all the fuss was about. He simply asked M where she wanted to sleep (crib or bed) and at her first hesitation, he plopped her into the bed, let her drink her bottle, handed her a teddy bear and quickly left the room. She cried for a bit, but never got out of bed and eventually fell asleep hugging her three foot tall clown, Gymbo.

Way to go, Z! I guess sometimes you just need to rip off the bandaid.

Wish us luck today continuing this trend!