Finley Blair O'Rourke was born on February 10th at 7:46 am. We checked in to the hospital at 5:30 that morning for my scheduled c-section and when they hooked me up to the monitors to prep me for surgery, we found out I was in labor. I had been having random contractions for about a week and they never amounted to anything, but that morning they were about 3 minutes apart. Apparently she was coming that day no matter what :)
I opted for a repeat c-section with Finley since I had one with Cam. With him, I was induced, labored for about 24 hours, pushed for 2, and ended up with a c-section because I wasn't progressing and his heart rate was doing weird things towards the end. We found out after he was born that the c-section was the best choice we had ever made because he had a complete knot in his umbilical cord. I had so much anxiety over his birth that the prospect of a quick delivery by c-section seemed fabulous to me.
Finley entered the world screaming and then fell asleep (we learned pretty quickly that this is typical...she loves her sleep, just like her mama).
Camden came to meet her as soon as I was out of recovery. He wasn't very impressed with her since she was sleeping but LOVED my hospital room. It was toddler heaven with all sorts of tempting buttons and cords and un-childproofed (not a real word?) electrical outlets. She woke up later and he thought she was acceptable, especially after he realized that she had toes that he could play with and a house arrest-style ankle bracelet he could try to take off.
He's doing okay adjusting to being a big brother. He absolutely adores her and gives her kisses all the time, but he is still trying to come to terms with the fact that she is sticking around. The biggest issue we have had is that he gets really jealous when he thinks that Finley is going to be alone with us. We were having a hard time getting him to go to bed until we realized that he thought we were leaving him alone in his room to go play with Finley. We started having him help us put her to bed so he could see that we weren't having an all night dance party minus him and then he started going to bed without freaking out or waking up all night long.
I can't wait to see what kind of relationship they develop as they get older. He is constantly bringing her things to look at and trying to get her to play with his cars (that are overtaking my house). He gets so worried when she cries and brings her a paci and tries to shove it in her mouth. She gets a big gummy smile when she sees him and loves to "talk" to him. They are so similar in a lot of ways but completely different at the same time.
In case you were wondering if the old wives tale about having heartburn when you are pregnant is true--it is. Very much so.
Since Camden's birthday was only a few weeks after Finley was born and I was still recovering from surgery, we didn't have a party for him this year and just had family over for brunch and cake instead. As you can tell from the picture below, Camden didn't mind. He went from politely eating his cake with a fork to shoving it in his mouth like an apple in about two seconds.
We took Camden to his second LPA regional conference at the Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg the weekend after his birthday. Unfortunately, he was sick with a stomach bug and ear infection (his first since October) but he still managed to get the attention of all the Irish dancers ladies.
He also got to hang out with his buddies Brea and Betsy Grace and we got to spend time with their wonderful families. We are so blessed to have them and all of our LPA family in our lives.
I am really loving being at home with Cam and Finley. I miss my class, my colleagues, and teaching, but nothing beats spending the day with my babies.
