Finley's First Pictures

As you can tell from some of the new pictures on the blog, we took Finley to have his pictures taken professionally. At 10 weeks he did wonderful-he fussed very minimally and I think we got some great pictures!! We can't wait to pick them up to put up in the house and share with family. We took along his Halloween costume for fun and Nate thought appropriate that he have the "Halloween" background. Here are some more of our favorites.






(Have you ever seen such a scary thumb-sucking monster?)

Crazy Cookies

For some reason I found myself in the mood to bake this weekend. I decided it would be fun to make Halloween cookies for Nate to take into work. Whew!! I think the baking thing is out of me... at least it was when I was frosting the what seemed like 100th cookie!!

It all started with Chocolate Chip...

A Sample of Cats (yes purple scary cats) and Pumpkins

Some of the many cookies...

This Weekend

Here are a few pictures of hanging out this weekend. It was pretty low key and Nate and I just enjoyed being together with Finley as well as getting some things done around the house.

All the best things

This is the result of a fun bath, a clean diaper, some cozy jammies and a warm bottle...

The Offering

Our dog Howie has this thing about pigs ears- we get a couple for free when we buy our dog food and I no longer take them as they have become a source of frustration in our home. Neither dog eats them and Howie takes it upon himself to offer the pigs ears to anyone he feels needs greeting or cheering up in our home. We're pretty sure it's Howie's little way of saying "I love you" but it's kind of gross- a "thanks but no thanks" kind of moment. I guess babies have become no exception. Finley was still asleep in his car seat after being out and when I looked to check on him a few minutes later this was the scene.

Play Mat

We recently bought Finley a play mat to help encourage rolling over and just to have something fun to play with at tummy time etc. He is getting very close to rolling over when you put him on his tummy because he pretty much hates being on his tummy. One thing is for sure, he is a strong and determined little boy. The play mat is also a hit among some others in the house. My theory is to let the dogs and cats check everything out of Finley's- even take a nap on it if they want that way I am not breeding any animosity towards the baby. I hear all of the sad stories of pets not accepting new babies in their homes and people having to re-home their pets due to this. I was determined to make a smooth transition and so far everyone seems to be fine with Finley. They even are curious and like to be around him and sleep on his things. How fortunate we are to have such good sports!!


Finley starting to grab at the toys


More play mat fun


Another attempt at tummy time


Not exactly the reason we bought the play mat


King of the jungle?

Lying Around

Just a few photos of Finley's tummy time and floor time. Notice there's always a pet nearby? I love the photo where Finley's just smiling at me from the floor. He's such a ham already and is amazed by the camera.

Pumpkin Farm and Corn Maze Fun

Nate and I took Finley on his first trip to the pumpkin farm and corn maze this week. It was a beautiful fall Wisconsin afternoon and we enjoyed being together as a family. We opted for the "small" maze because neither one of us wanted to be caught somewhere in the middle of 9 acres of corn with an unhappy infant! The maze this year at Schusters is to commemorate Gilda Radner and Cancer awareness. I am pretty sure the small maze was the part that says "Cancer Shucks". Here is the link of the maze picture http://www.schustersplaytimefarm.com/page.php?page=7
Finley did great as he rode in his Baby Bjorn with Nate. Truthfully- it took us all of 7 minutes to make our way out of the small maze. We probably could have tackled the large maze with supplies in tote. Finley then geared up in the stroller to pick out some pumpkins and gourds and of course some more photo ops.
On another note- I left my gourds out on the front porch on accident and the squirrels beat me to them. They took them all - okay there were only five, but still? Based on the sheer size of the squirrels around here I should have seen it coming. They are like small dogs. I am pretty sure some fat squirrel will be eating good all winter long if they ration. Bummer. They also tasted our big pumpkins... little stinkers.

Pumpkin Sitter


Sea of Pumkins


Here we go!!


Somewhere in the Corn...

Two Month Check Up

Yesterday was Finley's two month well baby check up and...first shots. He did very well at the appointment and the Intern, Doctor and nurse all commented on what a calm baby he was. Well, until the shots. Nate and I opted to space out Finley's vaccinations so he only received two of them yesterday. That means I will have to take him back just about monthly but being able to be a stay at home mom I have that luxury and it makes both Nate and I feel better about it.
Finley also was weighed and measured and all that fun stuff. He was 11.7 lbs and about 23inches long. This put him in the the 44th percentile for weight and 46th percentile for height. A little on the small side of average. His head circumference was only in the 26th percentile? Not sure what that means besides he doesn't have a huge head? Overall he was given a perfect bill of health. We headed for a quick trip to Target to grab some baby Tylenol and I would say he handled the shots well and had a pretty good night. I am thankful for that!

Finley's Big Arrival

Our first child, Finley Nathan, was born August 14th, 2008 at 9:21 am. He shares his birthday with Nate's brother Joshua which was kind of cool. Josh got a great present from us this year!
My due date with Finley was actually August 7th and we found out a few months before that Nate would have his annual training (AT) for guard up at Fort McCoy, about 2 hours away. He was set to be gone the week before my due date through the 14th of August. Did I mention that we started our long put off kitchen remodel and re-roofing about 2 weeks prior to that? So basically our plate was about as full as it could be at this time. I guess you could call it nesting to the 10th degree! Well the kitchen and roof came together beautifully a few days before my due date which was a huge relief. My mom came down and stayed with me for a few days to help re-assemble our chaotic kitchen and house and my sister Chris, who lives nearby, was on call the rest of the time for any laboring I might have. August 7th came and went and I must say I had the best pregnancy a girl could ask for. I felt great despite my big baby belly, the weather was wonderful and I seemed to have tons of energy. I even steamed cleaned the carpet that week. I had a Doctors appointment set for the 13th since no baby had come yet. My doctor was letting me go a week overdue and then assessing the situation with stress tests etc. I decided to convince Nate to leave Fort McCoy a day early to come with me to my appointment just in case. The were ordering another Ultrasound for later in the week so I thought we should just play it safe. I woke up on the 13th with mild contractions and at my appointment my doctor set me up with an induction date of August 19th but decided to strip my membranes too see if that would do anything at this point. Well I am pretty sure it did... I started having stronger contractions about a half hour later. We packed up for the hospital a few hours later at about 2:30pm only to be sent home. Though I was dilated to 3cm (I had been for awhile) it wasn't good enough and they weren't convinced my contractions were "real" yet. You could say I was a bit shocked. I went home, watched the Olympics in pain for a few more hours, having regular contractions the whole time and we decided at 8:00pm that this had to be it and hauled back to the hospital. This time I had dilated to about 3.5 cm but they still weren't convinced this was real labor and ordered me to take Ambien (because I ensured them I would not be able to sleep through these contractions) and sent me home again! You could say both Nate and I were tired and confused. It was 11:30pm, I had been contracting all day and getting to the point of being angry. I followed the orders, took the Ambien and tried to get some rest as I was just desperate for something. The nurses in OB triage said it would take my contractions away and if it didn't then I WAS in real labor. Well, the Ambien did nothing to take any pain, help me sleep or anything. I did make me vomit though. I basically roamed around the house trying to find a position that was comfortable. By 2:30am I had had enough. I woke Nate up and told him we were going back and getting admitted no matter what! I was even tempted just to go to the other big hospital here in Madison if I had to. Well no need for that. We got to the hospital by 3:00am. The nurses checked me by 4:00am realized I had dilated to about 6.5cm at home and immediately asked if I wanted an epidural because it was almost too late to get one. I was admitted, got into my suite, had my epidural all by 6:30am. Then they let me rest before starting any pitocin due to my horrible night. The nurse started pitocin at 8:00am and told me she anticipated me to be at 10cm and start pushing by noon. Well, I sure surprised them because within an 40 minutes I was dilated to 10cm and told them I needed to push... now!! Nate was off getting coffee for nurse and himself and walked back in the room shocked that I was pushing already! About 40 minutes later, Finley entered the world weighing 8lbs 1oz and was 19 inches long. After a VERY rough 24 hours I think I was the happiest person on earth. Exhausted but happy! It was all worth it for the end result.


Last picture together before becoming parents

Morning of "labor day"




Finley on the scale
The little thinker

A little background...

Nate and I go all the way back to high school. We started dating our senior year at Milton High. Nate joined the Wisconsin Army National Guard way back then too so you could say the military life has been our way for a while. We both graduated from the University of Wisconsin- Whitewater where Nate also completed his ROTC program to become a commissioned officer. We have lived in quite a few places including Milton, Whitewater, Augusta Georgia (OBC) and Madison where we are today. We bought our first house in Madison about 2 years ago and that is where we reside today. We have already been throught one deployment when Nate spent a year in Iraq almost 4 years ago. We finally made the decision to have a baby last year and along came our first child, Finley Nathan, on August 14th of this year. Added to our household of 3 cats and 2 dogs we couldn't be happier. As Nate gears up for yet another overseas deployment I gear up for keeping down the fort at home. The next couple of months are dedicated to family time and enjoying each other and our wonderful son. It will be a long year ahead being apart but we will endure and come together again only to pick right up where we left off! Enjoy the ride!