We caught this cute pose from Finn tonight as we were getting him ready for his bath. We’re not sure if his “S” is for Swaddle, Sleep, Steen or Something else…This was literally the calm before the storm. Our boy doesn’t like bath time one bit. After all the screams and quite a few kicks, flails and cries, we’ve got ourselves a clean baby. We got him all cleaned up so he’s ready to see Grandma and Grandpa Barry and Renee who are coming to visit for almost a week tomorrow!!! Finn is really excited to meet them, but probably not as excited as Grandma and Grandpa are to see him.

We got a nice card from Great Grandma Elsa Steen today. Finn sure is lucky to have so many people who love him. We are all looking forward to meeting lots of family and friends in MN/ND this Christmas.

As was noted in the previous post, our best plans don’t always work out they way we hope. We didn’t get the photos taken just yet…Even though we’re only sleeping 3-4 hours a night at most, it is hard to get stuff done outside of taking care of Finn. We’re doing our best and each day gets a little easier as we adjust to our new addition. Hope everyone is well.

Erik, Melinda and Finn

I think we’re starting to get the hang of this! Finn has settled into a nice pattern of eating and sleeping…and well, you know…we’re changing a lot of diapers…

Erik had to go to a work meeting today, so Mom and Finn stayed home alone for the morning…then we got some visitors. Janet C. and Kevin, Nicole and Esme all came over for a visit. These were our first home visitors. We’re thankful for the gift basket we received from Kevin, Nicole and Esme and the nice visits.

Hopefully we’ll have a new batch of photos for you to see tomorrow….but, as we learned before Finn was even born, our best plans are sometimes not the way things turn out.

Thanks for the continued congrats and well wishes. We’re thrilled to be parents and happy to have so many thoughtful friends and family!

We made it home after a bit of an extended stay in the hospital. Due to blood loss during the delivery, Melinda needed to get a transfusion to get her blood supply back up to a more normal state.

We’re now trying to learn how to live with each other. It turns out parenting is a lot harder than either of us were prepared for! We’ve both heard from every parent we know how tired they were when they first brought home their little one, but I think this is one of those that you just don’t get until it happens to you.

Yesterday (Wednesday) started out great. We went to Grandma & Grandpa Cox’s house to hang out and for baby Finn to meet Grandpa Joe. (Joe doesn’t like hospitals very much, so he chose not to visit us there). Up until about 5:00 p.m. all was going great…then on our way home, we couldn’t console our boy no matter what we tried. It was a rough evening and morning of screaming and fussing. We finally figured out that the only time he was quiet was when he was eating. It turns out this is one hungry boy! Melinda finally fell asleep about 6:45 a.m. for about an hour.

Today (Thursday) we’ve settled into a nice schedule for feeding and we’re learning his non-verbal (or should I say non-screaming) cues. We had our first doctor appointment today where he was given a clean bill of health. We were slightly concerned about Jaundice, but our doctor told us she thought Finn was just fine. Melinda got a nice nap tonight after feeding Finn. Two hours of uninterrupted sleep is the most she’s had in a row since Monday night. Melinda and I got to have dinner together tonight while Finn slept. The break was nice, but it didn’t last too long. It was time for another feeding…we did find time to trim his finger nails tonight…wow, what tiny little fingers.

We’re looking forward to another day tomorrow. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

Erik, Melinda & Finn

PS – We just found this link to the Steven’s Hospital e-nursery site. You can see the pics taken by the hospital photographer.

Our beautiful precious baby boy was born on Sunday, September 12th at 6:50 p.m. He weighed 8 pounds 4 ounces and was 20 inches long at birth. Baby and mom are doing great! Our birth plans went out the window as Finn came into the world a bit quicker than we expected.

We’ll spare you the details…You may have already heard the story, or you probably will eventually…

Our due date has come and gone. We’re thinking things are starting to happen, but there is nothing to report yet…no active labor, just some early signs.  In the meantime share a recipe. We want to start a collection here so we all can find them when we need them.  We’ll be posting photos on this site and giving all the particulars about the baby once he’s here.

Hope all is well.  Talk with you soon,

Erik & Melinda