The Adventures of Jeff, Teesha, Finn, and Cheddar!

6 Month Update!

2010-05-06T20:25:00.000-07:00

Height/Weight: 18 pounds, 1.5 ounces. 26 3/4 inches long

Milestones: He is sitting up pretty well, can blow raspberries, stick both feet in his mouth and stand when holding onto our hands! Also, he started going to daycare a couple weeks ago, for about 4 hours a day, 3 days a week. He loves his teachers and his new friends, and loves to play and laugh while he's there!

Eating: Still breastfeeding a few times a day, bottles of formula for a couple each day. He has eaten rice cereal, sweet potatoes, apples, peas, pears, and carrots. He just starting eating twice a day and loves everything so far! Next week we'll start on meat!

Sleeping: For over a week now, he has been going to bed on his own (only cried for the first night!) about 7:30 and staying asleep until about 4 in the morning! Then he eats and goes back to sleep for 2-3 hours. We are SO happy that we are better rested!

Silliest Moment: Probably learning to blow raspberries. Sometimes he does it for minutes at a time, and has us in stitches!

Newly Emerging Attributes: He is starting to act a little shy when he meets new people close-up, by burying his head in our necks and turning away. He smiles the whole time, though!

Looking Forward To: His visit from his Grandpa & Grandma Falke (they'll get in later tonight), our upcoming trip to Colorado in July for his Aunt Zhavanya & Uncle Zach's wedding, and continuing to teach baby sign language!

2010-04-10T14:40:00.000-07:00

How Old: 5 months, 4 days

Height/Weight: probably 16 pounds?

Milestones: He has become quite good at sitting up without wobbling too much! And he had his first plane flight over Easter Weekend

Eating: Alone with rice cereal once a day, he just started eating sweet potatoes, which he loves! Over the next few weeks, we’ll be trying a new food every week!

Sleeping: He had a little setback because of being on vacation probably, so no more 7+-hr stretches, but he is getting in 4 at a time, AND is doing that in his big-boy crib, which is a new experience for him. Mom and Dad finally have our bed back!

Silliest Moment: Probably when he’s eating, because we let him get as messy as he wants to. Also, coming back home to Oregon on the plane flight, he laughed and squealed for the last ten minutes and had everyone in stitches! And he loves laughing at Cheddar.

Newly Emerging Attributes: he has developed a little ‘shy’ thing when we approach someone new. He’ll smile and then bury his face into the person holding him. Cute.

Looking forward to: When he can fully sit up on his own and play with toys. Right now he does the dreaded head-bonk on the floor if we’re not watching him close!

4 MONTHS UPDATE!

2010-03-09T09:08:00.000-08:00

HOW OLD: 4 months
HEIGHT/WEIGHT: 14 lbs 10 oz, and 25 1/2 inches long
MILESTONES: full control over his head/neck, stuffing things into his mouth, chewing on his fingers
EATING: still doing mostly breastmilk, and just now started doing one meal a day of rice cereal! Loves it!
SLEEPING: he is a total champ - sleeps about 8 hours at night, gets up to eat about 5am, then back to bed for a couple more hours! His daytime naps are getting more sporadic, but he averages 3-4 of them, at 15-60 minutes each. He does the best when he is swaddled, still.
SILLIEST MOMENT: when he starts squeal-laughing to get our attention. Oh, and the first time he had cereal and he was basically wearing it, with a huge smile!
NEWLY EMERGING ATTRIBUTES: he is getting SO social, and even trying to 'talk' with Cheddar!
LOOKING FORWARD TO; him being able to sit up unsupported, so he can grab at toys nearby. Also, when he can really jump in his doorway jumper, which we're sure he'll just love!
Time is going way too fast...........- mama T

Big boy!

2010-02-28T19:29:00.000-08:00

Almost 4 months old! I am such a big boy! I sleep almost 8 hours in a row a night, and often sleep in until almost nine. Must be growing big, fast, and strong! I like to grab stuff and put it in my mouth. My favorites are my fingers and burp rags. I also like to go for walks with Mommy, Daddy, and Cheddar. Usually I am in my baby bjorn front carrier looking out at the world. My Auntie and Uncle moved into a house down the street a couple of weeks ago. I like to go over to their house and hang out. Well, time for me to take a nap! Love, Finn

3 MONTHS UPDATE

2010-02-04T09:38:00.000-08:00

Wow, it’s been 3 months already?! We feel like he is barely an infant anymore! So here is an idea I saw, on another mommies blog, about posting his ‘stats’ at every month milestone:

How Old: 3 months (tomorrow!)
Height/Weight: around 13 pounds, but we’ll find out for sure in another month when he goes to the pediatrician
Eating: He is still on breastmilk (and occasional formula) exclusively. He eats about every 3 hours during the day, a total of about 6-7 times in a total day
Sleeping: Here’s the great part!.... in the last month, he went from sleeping 6 hours straight at night, to nearly 8 hours!!! In the last week, he’s done about 4 nights of 7 ½ hr stretches, non-stop, then he eats about 5:30 in the morning and goes back to sleep for a couple hours. We are SO happy and feel so fortunate!!
Silliest Moment: in the last couple weeks, he has been giggling at us, which just melts our hearts. Another silly moment was a couple days ago when he pooped just like a toothpaste tube, all over my hand when I had his diaper off – nothing to do but laugh!
Newly Emerging Attributes: He makes silly faces like mommy, which we’ve been able to capture some of on the camera. He is very strong and ‘twitchy’ like his daddy, when he’s falling asleep! He is starting to look at and trying to communicate with Cheddar, and enjoys sitting on him and petting his ears.
Looking Forward To: when he can fully sit up on his own (soon!) and grab at toys. He is such a good boy, and hardly cries at all, so there isn’t any fussiness to look forward to going away!

If you have any additional updates that you’d like to see – let us know! And I’ll get another video up soon! don't forget to check his flickr pics - I love to put his new ones up!
-mama T

cha,cha,cha,cha-changes

2010-01-25T19:45:00.000-08:00

I looked down today and realized I have an actual little boy in my arms, not just a tiny baby! He still has his famous-curled-up-on-the-left-side elvis lip, like we started seeing at just a few days old, but now he is laughing at us, grabbing for our faces, cooing and gurgling, and showing us his emerging personality. Which, so far, seems to be pretty mellow and joyous! He is pretty happy just propped up sittin on the couch, or in his swing, or on my hip, or on the floor with his toys. Right now I'm watching him being mesmerized by his daddy's guitar-playing. He also likes it when mama holds him on her knee while she plays the piano and sings to him.
I think we're pretty lucky - not just to be parents in general, but to be Finn's parents. He is such a happy boy. Here in a week or so, I'll share his 3-month milestone stats with you all!
- mama T

2 1/2 months old

2010-01-18T18:19:00.000-08:00

I promise, I will try to get better at having one of us update this blog - geez there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day for everything! Watching and documenting this kids development is a full-time job in itself! Just recently, he's discovered the wonders of his hands, and sucks on them voraciously when he's hungry. He definitely smiles a lot at daddy and I, and makes silly noises at us. Just in the last week or so, he's been intentionally reaching out to grab toys that are in front of him, and seems to favor his left hand. This last week, he has given us about 4 nights of 6-hr blocks of sleep, so we're hoping that's a regular trend! He is such a good baby - hardly any fussing, and loves to go out shopping and to restaurants. We are blessed and amazed, every day.
- Mama T

6 weeks old....already!

2009-12-20T10:13:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe that Finn is 6 weeks old already! It seems like only yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital. He is growing up so fast! He got a play gym from T's friend Tawnya in WY, which he really loves. He is fascinated by the lights and sounds. He has started grasping at things, and loves to swat at the parts of it that rattle. We are gearing up for the holidays, when Grandma and Grandpa Pence will be here. Can't wait to introduce them to their new grandson!

-J
12/20/09

One Month of Adventures!

2009-12-08T20:01:00.000-08:00

Wow, I absolutely can't believe that our little guy is just over a month old now. The time has flown by, which makes me so sad!!! It's amazing how our lives have completely changed (in some aspects) and how my opinions on what is important have changed. We've been keeping busy, getting out of the house, and having visitors over. Just in the last couple weeks, we've gone shopping a few times, out to several restaurants, to the dog park, and out on neighborhood walks - being a super-organized person before having this baby has helped me prepare for getting out of the house on time with a baby, for sure! Those of you that know me well will understand how I would "get off" on having absolutely everything I need, for any type of emergency, packed up in the baby bag and with us at all times! haha. Maybe I enjoy it so much because it's the one thing that I still CAN control. We are on Finn's eating and sleeping schedule of demands; our time is not our own anymore! But no matter how terrible I feel at 3 in the morning when I'm hoping that he will just fall asleep already, or how frustrated I get when he poops through his clothes repeatedly - this is clearly the most awesome and wonderful thing I've ever done. I can't believe there's a little part of me, asleep here on the couch next to me, breathing out his milk-flavored breath and squirming to be held. I want to eat him up! So did Santa, this past weekend - ho, ho, gulp!
- mama T

3-wk-old baby video

2009-11-29T21:31:00.000-08:00

I can't believe Finn has been part of our family for almost a month now. I am starting to understand what everyone means when they say there isn't time for stuff like this when you're a parent! haha. Much to tell but for now, am going to post this cute video. He's going to grow up so fast, so I'm glad we're capturing the tiny-baby stuff! This is of him strengthening his neck muscles during 'tummy time' - Captivating stuff!
- mama T

Finn's Labor & Birth Story

2009-11-11T15:55:00.000-08:00

In case any of you were wondering how Finn’s birth went, (and mostly for my own posterity in order to remember my version of things!) I decided to write down the details of the crazy labor and birth experience. This is a little long but full of details……

So we had been told by our midwife/OB-GYN staff that they like to get mom’s “with A.M.A” delivered near their due date. Oh my gosh, I thought, I’ve got some kind of weird condition I didn’t know about?! No – just means that I’m OLD! AMA=advanced maternal age=over 35. Geez! We asked them to give us a few days past our due date before they induce, in order to give him a chance to come on his own. We had scheduled that for Friday the 6th. By Wednesday, Nov. 4th, 2 days after he was due, I woke to some new cramping that I was unsure of. This ended up being the start of his early labor, thank goodness! We went into their office that morning for a fetal heart monitoring session, something they routinely do for mothers past their due date, just to make sure all is going well. During the monitoring session, my contractions were running about 5-6 minutes apart. By the end of the 40-minute session, they suggested we head right over next door to the hospital for an extended monitoring, as they were a little concerned with his heart “decelerations” that were occurring after each of my contractions. More than likely, this meant that we’d be staying and having him that day or the next, so we realized that we weren’t going home. Luckily, we had packed the car with all the gear that morning, and Truen & Julia were ready to go watch our stinky baby Cheddar for a few days! Seeing how it was then about noon, I suggested we run quick and grab a “last lunch” before baby arrived, so of course, we swung by Taco Bell! After being admitted, we were ushered into our labor and delivery room, which was a nice corner suite with a pretty view of the surrounding hills. Shortly after being hooked up to all the monitors, our midwife came in and decided to speed up our process by breaking my bag of waters. This was around 1pm and I was measuring about 3cm. This was the start of a long labor that we chose to experience without pain medication if avoidable. I’m so lucky that my husband is a supportive and fully-involved partner. He quickly got in the groove of coaching me through the Lamaze breathing, rubbing my back, and offering words of encouragement. After several hours of labor, I wasn’t making much progress down there, and our midwife started to become concerned with baby’s heart pattern again. She brought in the on-call physician, Dr. McCann, and together, with us, decided that if things didn’t start looking better, we would be headed towards a C-section. This of course saddened me greatly, but I was willing to do whatever was necessary to deliver baby Finn successfully. Dr. McCann allowed us to take some more time to find a more comfortable labor position before making the final decision to go ahead with the cesarean. It was now probably around 8pm. Luckily, we found a position, sitting on the exercise ball and leaning against the bed, that seemed to be less stressful for Finn. This would become the position that we spent the next 6-7 hours of active labor in. Since I still hadn’t made much progress (maybe now 4cm) and since we had temporarily averted the immediate need for a c-section, they started me on a low dose of Pitocin to help speed along my contractions. This intensified things quite a bit! My account of the next several hours is quite hazy. My contractions were about 3 minutes apart, and both Jeff and I had to employ every relaxing coping skill we knew. I can honestly say, after having 37 years under my belt and many hours of tattoo work done, that I have never known such intense pain. Staying relaxed became a brand-new challenge every couple of minutes. I thank Jeff so much for doing all the things he did to get me through it. They steadily increased my pitocin level for the next several hours and by about 3am, I felt myself teetering on the edge of my threshold. Those last few hours of my labor are a complete blur. I really have no idea how I did it that long! The midwife checked me and said I was then at about 6cm, which frustrated me greatly – 14 hours of intense labor for a measily 3 cm advancement?! And 4 left to go?! The midwife recommended that I get an epidural at that point, since I was so exhausted and there was no telling how much longer we’d have to labor through those last 4 cm. I was in no mood to argue, and greatly encouraged her to make it happen asap! The anesthesiologist got there quickly and had me hooked up by 3:30. And here’s where things start happening REAL fast………….
With my lower extremities starting to get numb, I laid back down in the bed and after a couple contractions, turned to Dr. McCann and said:
Teesha: It kinda feels like I have to poop
McCann: Oh really? Maybe we should check you and see what’s going on
Midwife: Oh wow, you are a 10! Give us a little push………….Yup, his head is right there, let’s have this baby!
The next several minutes are a complete blur – more people came into the room, I told Jeff to turn on the video camera, he was instructed to put his gloves on quick if he was going to help, I was told to turn to the side and grab behind my legs and push a few times…………..
So after 14 hours of natural labor without pain medication, and after only half an hour with an epidural and about 4 minutes of pushing – out he came, with his daddy helping to pull him out!!! Born at 3:50 am on 11/5, weighing 7 lb. 6 oz. and 19 inches long. They whisked him to the other side of the room quickly to clear out any merconium that could have gotten into his lungs, the midwife distracted us for a little bit by showing us the placenta, and he was placed him in my arms minutes later with a clean bill of health and very high apgar scores! I was shaking (from the epidural medication) and joyous and overwhelmed and totally pumped with adrenelin and amazement! Jeff and I looked like we both got plopped into an alien world! I vaguely remember whatever they did to clean me up (was pretty quick-I hadn’t even torn) and clear out of the room, I just remember holding my new baby, gawking at my husband, taking pictures, and overflowing with emotions. It was the most incredible experience of my life and I still can’t believe it happened to us. We haven’t watched the birth video yet, so I don’t know if my account is totally accurate, but this is how I remember it! Every agonizing second was worth it, when I get to look down into this perfect, precious face sitting beside me right now. My cup is overflowing in a way I could never think possible. I’m so glad Jeff and I were given the opportunity to be parents. Now our objective is to be the best ones we can be. Finn deserves no less. We love you so much little man!!!!

Baby Finn!

2009-11-08T11:56:00.000-08:00

First day in the world and happy to be here!

Open Mic Night! 10-19-09

2009-10-28T20:28:00.000-07:00

We played a couple bluegrass songs at an open mic night recently and ended up winning the competition! Woo-Hoo! This is the warm-up round....

And here is the 1st place-winning masterpiece!

Any Minute Now!

2009-10-26T12:35:00.000-07:00

So here I am, sitting here 39 weeks pregnant, and bored to tears as well as being more anxious than I've ever been! I have had so many hormones, emotions and thoughts rushing through my body lately, I didn't think that blogging would be too great of an experience, haha. I've got a journal that I write in, where all the truly crazy stuff goes, so I'll try to keep it light here. :-) This pregnancy has been such a roller coaster, and I can't believe it's coming to a close soon. We can't wait to see our little guys face, any day now, and be in the next crazy phase of babyhood! Trying to "enjoy" my sleep now is impossible - I am so uncomfortable and anxious and pee'ing all the time, I can't get more than 2 hours at a time anyway! Medically, everything has been fine, though I am over 35 and in the high-risk group - whatever! The only problems I've experienced have been about 5 months of nausea, and about 9 months of emotional craziness - Jeff is a saint :-) So as the gestation winds down, I am flooded with love, hesitancy, anxiety, and hope: this is going to be a crazy and awesome adventure, but I feel he'll be coming into a wonderful family and making it even better! Hurry up and get here, Finneas Randal Falke!
-Teesha

Cheddar goes to the pool

2009-10-04T10:19:00.000-07:00

Well, today was the last day the outside pool was open at the Osborne Aquatic Center in Corvallis, so they let it "go to the dogs". Cheddar attended but was not particularly thrilled with the deep water and ruckus caused by all the water-loving dogs. All in all it was fun though, and a chance to meet some new doggie friends.

First Post!

2009-10-01T18:11:00.000-07:00

Well here we are, trying to figure out how to use this technology. 36 weeks pregnant and trying to figure out what to have for dinner....as usual! Looking forward to sharing stuff with friends and family on our blog.