finley rose is 1 month old...

actually...almost 6 weeks but we were at the beach when she officially turned a month old and then i wanted to wait for her official doctor's appointment before i made this post. to be fair, all of the pictures are of her at the beach, so they are historically accurate :)

finley has grown so much over the past couple of weeks and i am watching her infancy just speed by. everything seems intensified since i know this is the last baby. i mean, i won't toss one back if it happens, but it is definitely not in the plans. when i left the hospital i had this weird feeling knowing that i had just left the hospital for the last time for something good happening to me. when i see my family i have a sense of joy and completion paralleled with the knowledge that everything is moving forward. life is moving forward. finley is our little caboose. and as i watch her pass through stages i know that those are stages i will never pass through again. not as a mother anyway...one day i will be a grandmother i am sure...but my turn as mother to a baby will be over. i take my role as mother very seriously and i will admit that i am quite selfish with that role. i have realized over the past few weeks that i do not like passing the responsibility of my children over to other people. i like the break. i like the time to myself. i do not like sharing. especially since my little caboose has come along and made me realize how quickly this is all going. she will be 5 like harper soon and that will mean that harper will be 10!

what a blessing to have a reminder that i need to appreciate the 5 year old that harper is, the 4 year old that calvary is, and the 1 year old that oliver jack is because it is all happening too fast.

finley is a great sleeper...at night that is.

during the day she takes minimal naps and most of those naps are in my arms. which is sweet. ooo and ahhh...but i have 3 other kids! and a house! and a husband! so, needless to say, i have to work on this. i love to snuggle, but sheesh baby, i'm not a machine!

most nights she goes down between 8 and 8:30 and then i wake her at 10:30 or 11:00 to eat and then she sleeps until 6:00 and then goes back down until 7:30-or 8 when we all start the day. i am thankful that at 6 weeks she is sleeping so well at night. she continues the streak of breaking the mold of my babies. she is still sleeping in our room at night because she sleeps so quietly. everyone else had been kicked out long ago because i would wake at every grunt, whimper, or movement. but not finley; she sleeps soundly...at night.

i am interested to see how her disposition continues to develop. in many ways she is very laid back and unscathed by the madness around her, but in other ways she is very particular. she is a very sweet baby and seems to love being around all of her family. of course we all love her but i wish i had some sort of photographic proof of how much oliver jack loves his baby sister. truly, words do not do justice to just how much he adores her.

stats:

height--21.5 inches (75%)

weight--10lbs 12 oz (90%)

head circumfrance--16 in (>97%)