Welcome to the world Finley Ford

Ok, just to make sure you know, this is not Mandy. This is that annoying husband of hers. And since I know there are some of you out there who are impatiently waiting at your computer for this update, here goes:

Just to remind all, #3 was due on March 1^st. Now as many of you know, #1 and #2 are fairly stubborn and impatient people (Not a reflection of their parents in anyway). Anyway, Mandy decided to schedule the c-section for Monday February 23^rd. She wanted it done first thing in the morning so she could get some good sleep before the pain. Well, little demon #3 decided he would show is mom a thing or two about picking his birthday for him. Early in the afternoon on the Sunday the 22^nd Mandy started having contractions. This appeared to be no big deal, because even though Mandy said she was in pain, there was really no outward appearance of such. I couldn’t even tell when she was having one (except she would curl her toes and grit her teeth a bit). Quite a little trooper actually.

Well, as the day wore on the contractions appeared to be increasing in frequency. She called the Doc and he told her to take a warm bath. In our entire Married life, I can count on 2 fingers the number of times Mandy has taken a bath. Needless to say, she wasn’t too happy about the prospect of taking a bath, but she did anyway. Now I am not really sure what the Doc’s intention was here. I thought he was trying to slow the process down because he didn’t want to come in on his day off. However, the reality was that it seemed to speed the process up. When Mandy came out of the bathroom she immediately grabbed her suitcase and said “let’s go.”

Now, I had always secretly hoped for one of those high speed chases through the city weaving in and out of traffic trying to get my wife to the hospital before there was a baby in the back seat. This was not like that at all. I was told to drive slow, no music, and avoid bumps if possible……boring. Oh well, we got there safe…..all 1.5 miles of Sunday evening traffic. I think it took me longer to park the car than to actually drive to the place.

Upon arrival, they checked her in and things started to happen (faster than I thought).

I brought a book because I thought we would be waiting all night. I never even cracked it open. We got there at about 7:15pm and at 8:35pm Finley was born. Now, I have always thought that babies look a little like aliens when they are born. Finley was no exception.

Given Mandy’s size and the experience of #1 and #2, I thought this little creature would be about 6-1/2 lbs. if we were lucky. However, he tipped the scales at a whopping 7lbs 5 oz. Almost triple the size of his brothers.

The next day the alien business started to wear off and he started to look more normal.

I will try to upload some better pictures in the next day or two. I was a little disappointed with some of my shots. Must have been the awesome fluorescent lighting.