Flanagan Clan

I hit 36 1/2 weeks in my pregnancy this weekend- which is when I went into labor with both Sammy and Ethan. I also had Patrick at 36 1/2 weeks, but he was induced due to high blood sugar and low amniotic fluid. So, really, the baby could come at any time now. It’s so weird to look at my countdown and see that there are only 23 more days left until my due date. I have no idea if I will make it to July, or if I will go past my due date. It’s really just a waiting game from here on out. Liam is the only baby that stayed in past 36 1/2 weeks, but when I was pregnant with him I did two weeks of bedrest and terbutaline to stop contractions that I was having. So, I have no idea if that made him stay in longer or not. I was induced with him at 39 1/2 weeks after begging the doctor to put me out of my misery!

So, that’s what’s going on with our family right now. I have been posting mainly to www.sarahflanagan.com lately, so if you haven’t had a chance to check out that website, I’d encourage you to do so!

I am going to try to start blogging everyday on my craft blog about things that I am doing to prepare for the baby. I’ll see you there!

The past two weeks have been somewhat of a blur for me. Between different church and social events and everything that is going on at home, we’ve been busy. I am continuing to prepare for the new baby- the nursery is *almost* done. We just need to hang some things, make a few wall decorations, and buy a few items to get it completely set. Once it’s done I’ll be sure to get pictures of the finished project!

Things have been going really well for Patrick lately. Not only is he doing a REALLY good job at coach pitch baseball this year, but he’s also now put together, completely on his own, 2- 500 piece puzzles. The baseball he gets from his dad, but the puzzles he’s getting from me. It’s so fun to see him grow and develop! He also just lost his first tooth on Saturday, for which he was given a golden dollar under the pillow. I just need to get him a presidential dollar folder now so that he can begin collecting them as he loses more teeth.

Sammy continues to be a little ham. He’s really funny- he’s got a quirky sense of humor and a rolling belly laugh. He’s starting to finally take off with preschool and I feel like he’s been making a lot of strides in handwriting and letter phonics. We don’t currently have him involved in any sports, although once Patrick is done with baseball I’m considering the possibility of signing him and Sam up for swim lessons. There aren’t a lot of chances to go swimming around here, so none of the boys know how yet and I feel that it’s probably better to have them learn sooner rather than later!

Ethan is continuing to grow up, too. He is becoming more and more expressive and communicative. He also has his own little sense of humor. He loves to come cuddle in our bed in the middle of the night, but from the look of him you’d never think him to be a cuddler. He has a very tough outer shell that is sometimes hard to get past. I can’t wait to see how he develops as he starts preschool next year.

Liam is becoming more and more independent. He continues to be a mama’s boy, but he’s starting to warm up to others, including Oma and Opa and Daddy. He has definitely learned how to hold his own against his brothers. Not that I’m encouraging it, but last week Ethan was picking on him and I watched as Liam began defending himself. He’s a short little squirt but he was able to knock Ethan to the ground and give him a few swats. I guess when you’re the fourth boy you have to learn how to be tough at a young age, and I am continually told that this is all just part of the fun of having boys…

The pregnancy is going fairly well. I will hit 29 weeks on Wednesday. At my last appointment the doctor mentioned that the baby is measuring small, but considering that several of the other boys also measured small at this stage I’m trying not to worry too much about it. I am definitely looking forward to being done with pregnancy- this one hasn’t been quite as bad as some of the other ones, but it’s still not exactly been a picnic and it will be nice when the baby finally gets here.

Andrew has also been doing well. He continues to be busy with work, his side job, church stuff, and helping to take care of our house. It’s a busy life for him, and it seems like we have little time to relax lately. I’m hoping that one of these days things will slow down a bit, but who knows when that will happen.

Well, I’m going to leave it at that for now. Here’s a picture of the boys on Easter. We tried to get a family photo, but for some reason they all came out blurry. At least one of the shots of the boys turned out somewhat well!

I hope everyone had a happy Easter!

After 4 1/2 years of seeing a blue nursery, we started the process of turning everything…. PINK!

Things have been pretty busy around here. With 100 days left until the baby’s due date, I’ve found myself trying to do at least one big thing a day to prepare for the baby. This usually involves knitting or sewing something, although I’ve also made a lot of progress in organizing the boys’ closet and all their clothes and last week I finished organizing the linen closet as well. Life has been quite busy for us. In some ways I cannot wait for July to finally get here and for this pregnancy to be over, but at the same time I feel like there’s so many things that need to be done before we can get to the point where I’m ready to have this baby. This week I’m working very hard on finishing up my newborn cloth diaper stash for the baby, and after that I want to make a set of one size diapers for her and Liam. In addition to making diapers, I’ve been working on knitting a blanket and I finished making a set of newborn woolies to go over her cloth diapers. I need to make a set of smalls next, although I’m not in any rush to start on those yet. I also have a baby birth announcement cross stitch to make, burp cloths to embroider and crochet, and a nursery to decorate. We have only just put the first coat on the walls in the room- I am hoping to do a second coat this week, and once that is done I’m sure we’ll have a lot of touch ups to do. The closet will be painted a light green, which I haven’t purchased yet. I did get some beautiful light green curtains to hang on the windows and I have a Pottery Barn Kids bedding set for Baby that I bought a long time ago and tried to sell several times when we found out Liam was a boy- there was definitely a reason that never sold!

The boys are very excited about having a new sister. Ethan likes to talk about how everything is “pinkie”, and Sammy and Patrick are very eager to tell anyone and everyone they meet that they’re going to have a new sister. Liam doesn’t quite understand what is going on and will probably be in for a bit of a shock, but I hope it won’t be too bad of a transition for him. His birthday will be in late July, so the baby will probably be here by the time he turns the big TWO!

Anyways, that’s what we have going on right now! Maybe one of these days I’ll become a more regular blogger again. I have been very good about keeping a pregnancy journal this pregnancy, however a lot of the details I’ve put into my journal probably aren’t the sort of thing most people would really rather not read about. So, I’ll keep my pregnancy journal private and hope you will forgive me for the lack of posting I’ve done!

Well, things have been pretty busy in the Flanagan household. Here’s some quick updates on what we’ve been up to!

Andrew has had a new job for a little over a month now. Back in January he was laid off from his position with SAIC in Kent, but thankfully within two weeks he had landed a new position working for SAIC in Poulsbo. The commute has been a lot longer, but he has less traffic, the commute is pretty, and he gets to go over the Tacoma Narrow’s Bridge every time he goes to work. Right now it looks very likely that he’ll be able to start working from home two days a week, which will definitely make things a lot nicer all around.

Patrick has been pretty busy with Kindergarten. He is doing quite well- we just got his second report card last week and the teacher says he’s doing great. Patrick will be starting coach pitch baseball next week, and he couldn’t be more excited. We had the option to do coach pitch or another year of t-ball, but after seeing how well he was doing with hitting balls that we threw to him, I am confident that he’s going to do quite well this year in Little League. In his spare time, Patrick loves playing the Wii,  and he is much better than either of his parents.

Sammy is finishing up his first year of Pre-K and will be going back next year for a second year.  Although he will be old enough for Kindergarten, after speaking with his preschool teachers we felt like he would benefit from another year of preschool. Sammy loves preschool and has a lot of fun. He is a very friendly and curious boy, and has an infectious belly laugh. Sammy is very protective of his little brother, Liam, and always gets very upset whenever Liam gets hurt or in trouble by his parents.

Ethan is preparing to start preschool next year. He is almost completely potty trained (still having an accident or two at nighttime), and is starting to really build up his vocabulary. Ethan is a very sneaky child- he likes to wake up in the middle of the night and steal cheese from the fridge. He normally steals the string cheese, however one morning last week we woke up and found a bowl with the remains of shredded cheese in it. Ethan also likes to sneak into our room in the middle of the night and either sleep on top of or to the side of our bed. He’s a bright child, although he can be quite stubborn and a very big challenge at times. I am hoping that once he goes to Preschool he’ll break out of his shell a little bit 🙂

Liam is growing and developing more and more every day. He’s become a fairly confident walker, and recently has taken to climbing. The only problem is that while he has no trouble climbing up on the couch or the kitchen table, he doesn’t know how to get down, so he will get stuck and start screaming until someone lets him down. While he is still definitely a mama’s boy, he’s starting to warm up a lot towards his daddy and his grandma Feucht. I fear that he’s going to have a big shock in a few months from now when the new baby comes, though…

Things have been pretty busy with me. Still working through the shock of finding out that we’re having a baby girl. I’ve been doing a ton of knitting lately, and I’m also working on making a stash of newborn diapers for the baby. I will be 24 weeks tomorrow and it seems like there’s just not enough time for me to do everything that I’d like to do before July rolls around. I’ve made it a goal to do at least one thing a day to prepare for the baby, and that has been good. I am really looking forward to this summer!

One picture for now- The boys on St. Patrick’s Day!