First Bath and Emotions

Quinn's second week home was without any major incidents.  He gets up every 2-3 hours to eat, so I'm worn out.  Wesley gets up to help me when he can, but since I'm breastfeeding, I still have to get up every time.  I try to take naps when Quinn does, but that doesn't always work out.  Some days I don't get out of my pajamas, but who cares?  Spending the day cuddled up on the couch with my baby is a great use of my time in my book.  Quinn's umbilical cord fell off at 9 days old, so he got his first bath that evening.  Mia has always enjoyed baths, even as a baby.  Quinn, on the other hand, is not pleased when we bathe him.  Plus, there is the added fear that a yellow fountain will shoot up at any moment, so we have to cover him with a washcloth.

Quinn went for his first appointment with the pediatrician at 2 weeks old.  I was a little nervous.  I knew that Quinn shows all the signs of adequate nutrition from breastfeeding.  He is content after he nurses and has plenty of wet and dirty diapers.  However, the biggest factor for the doctor to consider is whether or not he is gaining weight properly.  I had difficulty producing enough for Mia as a baby and had to supplement with formula starting fairly early.  I've been trying to do all that I can to insure that my supply is adequate for Quinn.  So far, so good according to the pediatrician.  His weight was 9 lb, 4oz which means he's back up to his birth weight plus 1 oz which is great.  His weight puts him in the 75th percentile for his age, and his length was 22.5 inches (100%) which is up 1.5 inches from birth.  I'm a little unsure if the length is correct, though.  Can a newborn grow 1.5 inches in 2 weeks?  Maybe.

Mia's homework for school this week had to do with emotions.  The teachers wanted to make a display for the wall of the kids making faces depicting different emotions.  Mia and I had a photo shoot one evening where she made all kinds of hilarious faces.  We took them to her class, and her teachers loved them!  They said that almost all of her classmates brought pictures of happy faces, so they loved that we had fun with our pictures.

Quinn's first bath

 He certainly looks long when he's stretched out.

Quinn at 2 weeks old.

 The many faces of Mia

Scared...

Excited...

Sad...

 Mad...

One Week Old

Here are a few more pictures from Quinn's first week of life.  You'll notice more pictures of Mia holding him.  She constantly wants him in her lap.  She can't hardly walk past him without stopping to kiss his cheek or plant a smooch on his head.  He's used to it by now and doesn't flinch even if he's sleeping.  She tries to give him kisses when he's upset and doesn't understand when they don't calm him down.  She tells him, "Sissy's here.  It's okay!  Sissy's here."  She always refers to herself as Sissy and to him as Baby Quinn.

Little Batman

 

 Baby Quinn with Sissy at one week old

 

First Weekend as Family of Four

We stayed home for our first Saturday as a family of four.  It was nice to just relax.  Well, as much as you can relax with a newborn and a three-year-old.  Quinn eats every 2-3 hours, so I feel perpetually tired.  That's alright.  I knew what I was signing up for!  Haha!  On Sunday, we decided to take the kids to Lake Cliff Park.  Mia was ready to be outside and run around.  Quinn was still a little jaundiced, and the pediatrician had said that a little sun would help with that.  It was a little ambitious of me to try to go on an outing four days after giving birth, but I'll admit that I'd been wanting some fresh air, too.  We didn't stay too long, but Mia had fun playing on the playground.

Beautiful afternoon at Lake Cliff

Q's first trip to the park - slept right through it!

Home With Our Babies

Bringing Quinn home from the hospital was a great feeling.  It was exciting to know that our little family was complete.  Since so much of our focus was on Quinn, we wanted to make sure that Mia felt special as well.  I didn't know if she would be jealous of him.  I had bought a few things for her as "big sister presents".  She was super excited when she opened them.  It turns out that I didn't have to be worried about jealousy, though.  She LOVES her little brother.  Mia is a great helper.  She wants to get his clean diapers, give him his pacifier, and throw away dirty diapers.  Goodness gracious, if I forget to let her put his diaper in the Diaper Genie, I'm in major trouble.  That's her job, and she doesn't want to be cheated out of it.  She completely adores Quinn and doesn't want him out of her sight.  I love seeing my sweet babies together!

Quinn on the day we brought him home from the hospital

Big sister presents!  Look at her face.  She was so excited about the sparkly pink shoes!

 

 

Grandparents Day with Mimi

Mia's daycare always celebrates Grandparents' Day each year.  In the past, none of Mia's grandparents have been able to come.  It just so happened that the Grandparents' Day party fell on the Friday right after Quinn was born, so my mom was still down here.  She let Mia wear one of her "party dresses" to school which is always a treat for Mia.  Mom hung out with her and they had a snack.  The kids all made cards for their grandparents.  It was a sweet way to celebrate all of the amazing grandparents.  Quinn and Mia are lucky kids.  They have the best grandparents who love them so much!

We Meet at Last!

I think it's safe to say that nobody was more excited to meet Quinn than Mia.  She was beside herself with anticipation the day after he was born.  She and my mom stopped by the gift shop to get Quinn and I presents.  Mia picked out a plant for me and a blue giraffe with a balloon and candy for her little brother.  Let me tell you, she was so proud of herself when she brought the presents into the hospital room to us.  In a single second, she saw her brother and fell in love.  She had the biggest smile on her face!  She wanted to always be touching him and asked repeatedly to hold him all afternoon.

We had a full room of visitors all day.  My parents were there as well as Nana, Uncle Darvey, and Aunt Kenda.  Mia got a little restless as the afternoon went on.  It was hard for her to be confined to a little hospital room for several hours, so some of the others took her on walks down the hall or to the cafeteria so that she could stretch her legs a bit.

Coming to meet her little brother!

 Look at her face!  Pure love!

This little boy sure is loved!

Papaw and his grandbabies

Quinn and Nana

Kisses!

Introducing Baby Quinn!!

As you may have guessed by my long blog absence, Baby Quinn has arrived!  He was born Wednesday September 5th.  Despite my attempts at self induction such as walking, eating Mexican food, etc, Quinn would not be hurried.  He was born exactly on his due date.  I had gone to my 40 week appointment that morning with my mom.  The doctor had done an ultrasound and said everything was still looking great.  She said she would induce me one week later if he didn't show up on his own.  I went on to work, but I couldn't concentrate very well.  I wanted to see my baby so badly!  A couple of hours later, I noticed that what I had been calling Braxton Hicks contractions had actually began to come at regular intervals.  I had discovered an online contraction timer that I began using after lunch because my friends kept insisting that I was probably in labor.  Sure enough, after timing them for an hour, I could see that they were coming five minutes apart and lasting for a minute each time.  They weren't extremely painful, though, so I told my co-workers that I would walk myself upstairs in the hospital to get monitored. 

After being examined, the nurse told me that I was dilated to 5cm and would be having my baby that day.  After some hurried phone calls, the grandparents were on the road and headed to Dallas for his arrival.  My mom was already here because she had been helping me out for the last several days.  I was so pregnant that I wasn't really able to do much around the house! Mia got to have her very first sleepover at her friend Reese's house.  Scott and Holly said that she did really well, and the girls had lots of fun. 

My labor went more quickly this time.  Quinn Marcus was born at 10:22pm that evening.  He was 9lb, 3oz, and 21 inches long.  He is a beautiful baby!  Most everyone that sees him says that he looks like Wesley.  We don't see it as much, I guess, but Wes and I agree that Quinn looks just like Mia did as a baby.

Didn't get a chance to take a 40 week picture that morning, so here's Quinn and Mommy at 40 weeks going through a contraction...

 ...and here we are when the contraction was over.  Much better!

Quinn and Daddy

 Quinn and Mommy with Papaw

Mimi and Quinn

Chillin' with Papaw