Finn's Arrival

"This is the day the Lord has made, Let us rejoice and be glad in it."

Finn Rodenberg
December 18th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
7 lbs 15 oz

What a week it has been!! One of the most trialing and difficult times Tradd and I have endured BUT one of the most indescribable, miraculous, joyous moments that we could never even have dreamed of. It all began last Thursday night when we went to the hospital for a scheduled induction...

So much excitement filled us as we had been counting down all week to meet our little Finn :) I started laboring at 3 in the morning on Friday and did not stop until 10:52 Friday evening when sweet Finn was born. It was a long and rough day of almost 20 hours of labor and no progression! We were very bummed, but truly felt the Lord's hand in every decision we had to make throughout the day. It finally came down to the decision of having a C-section and we felt so much of God's peace as we decided this with our doctor, even though that is not what we initially wanted. We couldn't have asked for a more supportive and trusting doctor. She was not on call Friday night but she actually went home and found a babysitter for her kids so she could be at the hospital to deliver Finn! Praise God!! I quickly was rolled to the OR and endured an out-of-body experience. There is no way to really describe being able to feel people pulling, pushing, and poking around inside you yet not feeling the pain. Tradd was amazing as he encouraged me throughout the process and then I heard the beautiful sweet cry of our little boy!

Saturday was a complete blur and a struggle as I was in so much pain and came to find out that my pain had not been managed properly throughout the night Friday after surgery, and into Saturday. It was very frustrating as I felt discouraged and was now a day behind in the recovery process. Tradd literally had to take over and become a new parent all by himself as well as take care of me because I could not do one thing for myself. Tradd went above and beyond my expectations and served me so well throughout the weekend and continues to all week long.

Sunday we had many visitors and Finn was able to meet some of his friends and family. It was such a joy to see loving faces in the midst of an exciting but difficult time. Monday late afternoon I was discharged and we were set free on our own!!!!

Here are some shots from the weekend...

We'll put up some more shots of the munchkin from this week soon...

Love,

C&T

Christmas Card

So, I love to send and recieve Christmas cards, but this year we just have had a few other things going on :) It actually was on my "to do" list but quickly got scratched as it wasn't a priority. So here are some (cheesy) Christmas pictures to say Merry Christmas!! 7 more hours till we roll into the hospital. So excited!!

Sooner than Later

It has been an interesting week in the Rodenberg household. I finished classes for school on Monday knowing I had 3 weeks to prepare before this little boy was coming! That was, until Monday night (1:30a.m., actually) when my heart decided to start racing at almost 200 bpm. We were ready to go to the ER, when it decided to calm back down. It has been a long week of Dr.'s appointments (everyday except Wed.) and my doctor decided it was best to induce me on the 18th instead of waiting for his arrival naturally (due date Dec. 25th). So then the fun began...

My nesting, motherly instincts kicked in to SUPER high gear with a million things that I realized that needed to be done before Finn's arrival but trying to obey the Dr. with modified bed rest. So the "To Do list" began...

We were very hesitant about decorating for Christmas as we thought we would be in the hospital over Christmas and didn't want to deal with the hassle but now that we know we will be home for Christmas, I decided it was of the most importance to have our house decorated and ready for Finn. Not only Christmas decorations up but the garage cleaned, closets organized, cupboards stocked, Christmas presents bought, car detailed, phone calls and e-mails returned, finish baby room etc, etc. You would think the world was coming to an end! Tradd was like, "Its not like Finn is going to know if the garage is cleaned or not," and my friend Lindsey said it perfectly... "For some reason you think you won't be leaving your house for months and you need to stock up on a 6 month supply of everything." So we are trying our best to prioritize.

(We found the perfect Christmas tree after driving to multiple places)

Thank you mom for the long days of running me around to do errands, cleaning our closets, washing load after load of laundry, organizing my life, and dealing with my hormones and tiredness! Thank you Robin for running errands for me and making sure we have the perfect labor nurse and best hospital experience! AND...Thank you Tradd for being so loving, supportive and PATIENT in helping me check things off the list! For all the hard work I ask you to do and most of all for being sooooooo stinkin' excited about being a dad :)

Tradd and I truly appreciate everyone's prayers and support!

Quit Your Belly Achin'

For all of you out-of-towners who have been dying to see my belly, here it is!

8 weeks pregos

15 Weeks


24 Weeks


31 Weeks
(oops! forgot to take a pic between 24 & 31 wks)


35 Weeks

39 weeks

Baby Rodenberg has a name...

Ernest Adolph Rodenberg, V

After many hours, days, weeks and months we have finally decided on what baby Cinco will be called. It was very hard to decide what to call him since we wanted to continue the Rodenberg tradition of "E.A.R." but wanted a name for short. Since the 1st EA Rodenberg came from Germany, we decided to call baby Rode "Finn" because finnif means five in Old German (the Yiddish translation). Below is the picture of the first 4 generations of E.A.R.'s:

Ernest Adolph Rodenberg, called Adolph
Ernest Adolph Rodenberg Jr, called Dolph
Ernest Adolph Rodenberg III, called Dolph
Ernest Adolph Rodenberg IV, called Tradd

And in 9 weeks...

Ernest Adolph Rodenberg V, called Finn
(fyi, pic is at 24 weeks)