Finn Abel Cochran

Baby Finn joined our family on February 12, 1016 at 2:19am. He was 8lb. 1oz. 21 in. and has large hands and feet. 

He came in his own way. I didn't really know I was in labor really. I woke up Thursday morning and my back was killing me. I was in so much pain I couldn't pick Quentin up to get him on the changing table. After sitting on the couch most of the morning I started having a little bit of an anxiety attach so I called Johnny to try to calm me down. I think he was pretty worried cause he told me to come in to see my doctor. While I was getting the kids ready and making lunch I started having contractions, but nothing really consistent. When we got to the clinic they hooked me up to the NST and I was contracting every six minutes and I was dilated to a 5 so they sent me up to the hospital for triage. I had an ultrasound to make sure baby's head was down and it was. By the time I was done with the ultrasound Johnny had finished his last patient so he could help me with the kids. After some snacks for the kids and Palmer and Brian coming to visit us they checked me again and I had progressed so we were admitted to the hospital!

Johnny took the kids to the Taylor's for a sleepover, Dr. Jenna when home to get ready for the night, and I got to answer about 3000 medical questions. When Johnny got back he and I took a walk to try to get baby to drop some more. We ran into Jenna and we all walked around and talked about stuff. When we got back to the room she tried to break my water, but couldn't. She left and Johnny informed me he already picked names when I tried to get him to talk names with me. Dr Jenna tried to break my water one more time and it didn't work again, so we decided to wait for the attending doctor, Dr. Mirrad. My nurse was getting a bath ready for me so I could soak in the tub and relax when Dr. Mirrad showed up. We decided to let me get in the bath for awhile and then they would come back and break my water. By the time the nurse had everything ready and I was getting out of bed I had started shaking really bad. The nurse wanted to check me because she said that the shaking could be a sign of late stage labor. I was at an 8 and low so she called Dr. Mirrad back to break my water. The doctors left and I had a few contractions. It could have only been 10 minutes when I felt baby go into the birth canal. The nurse called the doctors back in and I tried to breathe through the pain. I felt baby coming though and told them it was coming so they flipped me on my back and I heard the nurse say "the head is out". So they told me not to push then to push and baby was out. It was so fast the doctor forgot to tell me the sex and I forgot to ask. Johnny asked me if I wanted to know and I of course said yes! It's a BOY! I was so excited, but sad for Daphne. I got to hold him for and minute and he was so quiet and small. I was instantly smitten. They took him away and weighed and cleaned him, while I got stitched and cleaned up. After everyone was done with the work and fed him and Johnny and I talked names. He said he had picked Finn and I loved it and said I would love the middle name to be Abel after my grandpa Burns.

We got about an hour of sleep before it was time to get things done. Johnny had to go get his patients for the day covered and get the kids from the Taylor's. He brought them to meet Finn and they loved him they were so sweet and loving. Daphne just wanted to hold him and Quen was so soft with him. I had a good stay in the hospital, but I always just want to go home afterward. 

We have been home over a week and we are pretty settled. I am so happy this sweet boy is in our family. He is so good and we all are loving him. I'm so grateful for all the meals and people who have come to visit. It has made this first week so enjoyable.

So it goes...

 

Well the month and a half went by too quickly. We had such a great time over Christmas! We enjoyed a great ward party where the kids got to "shop" for gifts for the family. I also had a super fun night at a gift exchange with girls in the ward. Once Joey got here things went into high gear. We started his visit by going to see the new Star Wars film. I thought it was great, but I think the boys had warm up to it. After church on Sunday we headed north to the Twin Cities to go to the Mall of America. We did it last year and it was a ton of fun and we thought Joey might enjoy it. It was a short trip but we had good time. 

It snowed Christmas Eve and we had the best time going out to play in the snow and we made a pretty good snowman. Christmas morning came with lots of great gifts and food. We had fun Skyping with the grandparents too. Johnny was back to work after Christmas so we spent the rest of the days trying to keep ourselves entertained. Joey gave me a day off which was greatly appreciated. I went to my doctors appointment sans kids and then had lunch with Johnny at the hospital. then I took myself to see Star Wars again!

New Years Eve Johnny was working so Joey and I took the kids to a party some people in our ward were having. We played volleyball at the church for a bit. While everyone else had dinner we went to the hospital to see Johnny and have some ice cream. We went back to join the party at the Henderson's to eat and play games. We had a great time and good laughs. 

Once Joey left it was back to our normal routine which now includes weekly doctors visits and weekly ultrasound and NSTs. The kids are not loving being at the doctors so much, but I am enjoying getting to see my baby once a week and getting to spend lunch with Johnny at the hospital. Things are going well with the pregnancy. Baby is growing at the right pace and heartbeat is good. It looks like a Cochran and we got to see some hair today in the ultrasound! Daphne is not enjoying school very much this week. We had been having so much fun with it and then we took a break while Joey was here and ever since it has been a little bit of a struggle. Johnny has been looking at job opportunities for the last couple of weeks and has had a few phone interviews that have gone well. We are heading to Wisconsin in a couple weeks for a face to face, which I'm excited for, but we are going to have to wait til after baby comes to go visit other places.

A long time coming

If I waited to post this next week it would have been a whole year since I wrote anything on here. I just couldn't let that happen, so here it goes! 

This year has gone by faster than I can believe. I cannot fathom that it is December today! We are in holiday mode and I couldn't be happier about it. I LOVE the holidays, always have, always will. We had a great Thanksgiving week. No family again this year, but we did spend it with great friends. We are expecting Joey here for Christmas, which the kids a super excited about. They love Uncle Joey! 

Johnny's year has been good. The beginning was a little rough. He was just getting worn out from all the long hard rotations at the hospital. He would come home looking so tired and drained sometimes. I worried for him, but he made it through.  We had to take a little vacation for him. We went to our favorite place Disney World. It also worked out that Joey got to come which made things even better for Johnny! I love how much more time he has now that he is into his second year of residency. He gets a little more freedom, but more responsibility now. I think he likes it that way though. 

 I haven't been up to much. Spending time with my kids, being pregnant, working on my little sewing job, serving in Primary! I did get to take my first trip by myself since I have had children. I wasn't for the best reason, My Grandma passed away, but it was a great visit with my family.

 Daphne and Quentin are growing up way to quickly and soon they will have another sibling to love. They are great little friends and I love catching them being sweet to each other or playing nicely together. Daphne is so silly and comes up with goofy ideas and Quen thinks its hilarious! They fight too, but what siblings don't? I am doing school with Daphne to get ready for kindergarten next year and she is doing amazing! Quentin is such a boy and loves to run and throw and get into any trouble he can. 

We are loving life right now and I hope things keep getting better everyday. I also hope I can get back into the groove of my blog again. I hate that I missed documenting a whole year of our lives. I can remedy that though. I WILL do it!

Singing Girl!

We had a great week! The beginning of the week I was doing little jobs around the house and playing with the kids. Wednesday after dinner I went to the church to practice a song I will be singing. I had a great time. The ladies that are singing with me are great and we sat after practicing and talked for awhile. It was nice to get to know them better and to have a little girl talk! I also took advantage of having the car and no kids, so I went to a couple stores.

Friday was the big night! We were having a party at our house. Johnny wanted to get together with his resident friends, so we made Elizabeth's birthday the excuse to get everyone together. We had a nice time. People brought over great food and my cake turned out great! The residents in Johnny's year are so nice and it was great to have company. You all know how much I love to host!

Yesterday was a busy day. I woke up early to get my shopping done. When I got home Johnny and I decided to go get Family pictures done. So after getting ready we headed out. We were happy with the pictures. We went to Costco and Lowe's while we waited for the pictures to be printed. 

We had to head straight to the church to help set up for our ward Christmas party. We got there late, but everything got done and it was a great night. We had dinner and then there were a couple of musical number and then a good ole carol sing! We did another short little practice for the song I'm singing which went great! Johnny dragged us to two more stores after the party so the kids and I were pretty pooped today. We all took a long nap after church. Daphne got to come in to primary today to start getting used to Sharing time. She did okay, but it was hard for her to stay in her chair. I can't believe she is going to be in Primary already. Where is the time going? 

Here are some cute videos of Daphne singing Christmas songs!

Thanksgiving!!!

Well all week led up to the big Turkey Day! I hadn't been excited about it this year for some reason. I think it was our trip to Minneapolis started our Christmas season early. But over the weekend we invited our friends the Harts for dinner so I was a little more excited then. I love hosting things for people! So I woke up and made monkey bread, shoveled snow, and put the parade on for the kids. Friends came over at noon and the kids were having crazy fun. The turkey took longer than anticipated, but it was so worth it! BEST TURKEY I EVER MADE! 

We had a great time with them and Daphne was sad to see her friends go. We talked to family on skype and then it was off to the races. I "love" our tradition of Black Friday shopping. We got to Wal-mart right at six and the WHOLE parking lot was full we had to park across the street. Let me just say it was crazy in there. We also headed to Target which was much less crazy.

Dressing up the house happened over the whole week. I did the outside of the house all by myself! both trees turned out good too. 

I am so excited for the Christmas season! So many things to look forward too! Lots of parties and visitors and a trip to AZ!!!!

Helpful Friends

This week was a normal one. We spent a lot of time hanging out, doing school, trying to keep warm. We had a visit from my visiting teachers on Tuesday. I love that one of them is my good friend Mindy. She has three little girls and Daphne adores them. She loves when they come to play. I told them about needing to get some things done around the house, but not having the required tools. The most pressing being our bathroom door. So Mindy, the kids and her husband, Steve, came over yesterday to help us. It was great fun and we got the door back up so win win!

M.O.A.

Sunday night it was looking like we weren't going to go on our little mini vacation. There was going to be a big snow storms in the area so it looked like a no go. We woke up in the morning and Johnny checked the weather and the traffic. It had snowed in Minneapolis, but not much and the roads looked good. So we decided we would chance it. We got in and we went out to eat Indian food. We don't have it very often, but I always enjoy it. Then it was off to the hotel to swim. This is what Daphne was asking to do ALL DAY. We had a great time. Daphne loves to swim and Quentin had a good time too. That first night was rough. We are all used to our own space and sleeping in the same room was not fun. 

We ate, got ready and then headed out to the Mall Of America. We walked around for a minute, but then we came to the rotunda and it looked like something for toddlers was about to start, so we decided to check it out. They were doing Dancercise and I thought Daphne would love it so Daddy and Quen headed to Barnes and Noble and Daphne and I stayed for Dancercise. She had a great time! So I'm glad we happened to find it right on time. 

We walked and walked and walked. It was an awesome Mall. It was four stories and each story was about a mile walk. In the middle there is a small amusement park. I wish we had the extra money to get to do some rides, but we had to pass on them. We didn't have any problem filling the time until Santa came though. There were so many stores!

I'm glad it worked out that the day we were going to be there was the day Santa was arriving at the mall. I think it is pretty ridiculous he comes so early, but it was cool for us. They had a live band playing Christmas songs and dancers. They passed out cookies and milk as well and jingle bracelets and decorative sun glasses. Then the Big Man arrived. He came over to say hi to Daphne and she ran away from him. She has always been wary of dressed up characters. We went and got pictures on his lap and then our day was over.

We got a much better nights sleep that night since we were all exhausted. We got up and took our time getting home. We stopped at a couple stores. After the Santa arrival we were all in a Christmasy mood. So we got a couple gifts and listened to Christmas music on the way home.

Friday we had one of Johnny's co-workers, Elizabeth, over for dinner. She was very sweet and indulged us in a game of Clue. Johnny's back to work with no breaks for awhile. So me and the kids are going to get back to our normal routine.