The One Week Birthday

Q turned 1 week old this morning at 6:42 - we were asleep and missed it, but were sure to tell him Happy One Week Birthday when we got up later.

He seems to be changing so much each day, and Katharine and I are both learning many new things as well. Most noticeably, Q seems more comfortable stretching out. After being cooped up inside Katharine for so long it was no wonder he wanted to keep his arms and legs in. He still holds them close frequently, but is reaching out and up with his arms, and using his little legs to push off anything he can reach. He is also starting to focus in on things, or stare blankly past them . . . it is hard to tell which. The first video here shows him in tune with Mom and Dad who are hovering, a common new parent symptom, watching his every move.




This second video is much more "Youtubable". I was warned that when little babies get hungry, they are not too particular where they get their food. I have noticed that he makes a little sucky face and does these little sucking kisses type things on your shoulder as I carry him to his Mom to feed him. This afternoon he was conked out on my chest, asleep for quite some time. He woke up and decided he was ready to eat, and didn't care who he ate from. Mom, the quick thinker, decided that it would be better to quickly film him to share this moment with all of you. She did then turn off the camera and allow him the real deal.

Parenting time . . . the trials of new parenthood.

Today we had lots of fun times. After Mom did a little experimenting with the breast pump, Dad got to give Q a bottle first thing today. Quin did great and we are glad to know that works, but we're hoping to hold off as long as possible. It was a new first thing for Dad and Quin to experience together.




Later on we had another mini-cleaning after yet a new diaper experience: something about making sure the absorbent middle is in the right position to make sure that it really absorbs.



We took a long afternoon in bed. Q hung out with Mom and Dad, and Mom was able to rest a little bit. Q has been showing off his strong arms and neck when he is on his belly, picking his head up and trying to look around.

We survived the first doctor appointment

Little Q hit the big 8 - 0 (80 hours after birth), and we got to take him to the doctor to celebrate. It was quite an adventure starting with a triple threat - what appeared to be just another wet diaper turned into a tsunami of diaper-free pooing and peeing. All taken care of and buttoned up, Q finished the storm by spitting up. Yes, planning on being early to the doctor appointment only works when you are able to leave at the time you planned. Jared is learning - life is not what it once was, we are now officially on Q time. Driving over to the appointment, we called to let them know we would be a few minutes late. I explained that clearly Q didn't like the outfit he had on because he insisted on changing.

Quinlan was born at 8 lbs and 7 oz. 18 hours after that he was weighed at 8 lbs 3.6 oz. Today at the doctor he weighed 8 lbs 5 oz. Mom's clearly doing a good job.
Q's doctor, Dr. Eady, said that he looked perfect and everything checked out okay.

Q's at Home

We were thrilled to come home from the hospital last night. Q, Mom and Dad all had a much better evening with plenty of rest. Sunday was spent learning routines and teaching Dad all about tricks to changing a dirty diaper.
Lessons learned:
1- When you have a solid waste diaper, remove socks also, even though the baby doesn't like to be cold. It is better than having to take off the poopy socks that got kicked into the dirty diaper.
2- Cover the little guy parts to avoid having the clean clothes you are about to change the baby into from being sprayed down.
3- When you cover the little guy parts for above, do it with something heavy enough to keep from being sprayed up and away. That little towelette sure looked funny floating away.
4- When you try to schedule the baby into set times, he will inevitably decide he wants to do something else. Mossil and Fossil had to wave hello and goodbye at the same time as Q was not going to be kept from eating. Again.
5- When people say babies eat, sleep, poop and repeat, they are right.

It has been awesome. Every dirty diaper, every spit-up, and every little scary noise that makes me jump out of bed and check on him. We have a wonderful son who is constantly growing and changing.

The First Bath

Katharine was very specific - no filming at the birth. I can understand that, however, it does deprive everyone of seeing how wonderful she did, how hard she worked and what great support helped bring Quinlan out into this world. Aunt Liz was amazing in her efforts and we are so appreciative that she was able to be part of the birth.

So, since there is no birth video - we have Q fussing over his first bath. Hmm....looks like Katharine will have to work to get him all excited about the swimming pool. The nurse who is helping is Jill, a friend we know from connections at Katharine's school. She was a great help and spend the first 12 hours of Q's life making sure his Mom and Dad were ready for everything they needed to know.



We are so excited, joyful and thrilled that he is here. The anticipation was getting to be a little much.
Thanks for all the positive well wishes from people today - in phone, e-mail, text (even though we don't do that yet.....) and in one case - in person. We will continue to look to our extended support groups in the coming weeks for the encouragement we are told we will need when there has been very little sleep.

Are we there yet . . . .?

That is for me, not for Katharine. She could probably do this forever; well, not forever, but you get my point. I am excited and anxious, ready to meet my little boy: to see what he looks like and what his budding personality will become. (Katharine definitely agrees with this, though--the pregnant part, not so bad, the waiting, atrocious, or so she says.)

Liane, one of our midwives shot our video again - lots of fun. We got cut off at the end, but Katharine was complimenting my baby heartbeat monitoring skills and telling me I could switch careers. I made a bad joke and said I would go into "mid-husbandry," and our midwife took a moment to educate us both. We found out she is a professor with Philadelphia College (yeah, in Philadelphia - strange small world we exist in), which has a midwifery program. Being a midwife is gender neutral and goes back to the Old English "midwif" which means - "with wife". (Yay high school German, I knew "mit" was with.) So a midwife is with the wife when she gives birth, very cool. Liane said she had only ever come across one male student studying to be a midwife, but come on, there has to be more than one out there.

The official due date is next Tuesday, 2/24. If nothing happens before then, we have one more appointment next Monday. Of course, the due date is only a suggestion - we are officially on Q's time and will be sure to let everyone know if anything interesting takes place.

Another week down . . .______ to go?

Another appointment with the doctor telling us how wonderful Katharine is. I think her quote was, "Why aren't all our patients as relaxed as you are." Nothing new or too exciting to report. Liane, the midwife, was able to do some of the video shooting so Jared (The Dad) makes an appearance. Katharine has a question at the end of the video which we turn the video off for. It had something to do with payment, but neither Katharine or I can remember today, 24 hours later.



For those of you who are long distance relatives, Jason has been slowly trying to get everyone into webcamera usage. We did a test run the other day on Skype and it worked very well. Katharine and I will try to do a few "live" video visits with Q. for eager relatives who are unable to visit immediately. If you have an account with skype e-mail me your user name. If you do not, go to www.skype.com and click on download, and follow the directions to set up and account, and then e-mail your user name. Gotta love the technology that keeps us all connected.

Head down and ready

At our most recent appointment we were able to confirm that Q is hanging out with his head down. Kathy, one of our midwives, did an ultrasound to make sure that everything was okay and ready. The video of the ultrasound is 4:00 and you can clearly make out his beating heart, his head and brain as well as the chest, spine and various other bones.
He is visibly much larger than the original ultrasound, which makes sense, that was 17 weeks ago, almost half his development.



We have been working on preparing Q's room, but since we are planning on keeping him in our room for a few weeks we are not really that pressed to be completely finished. We did receive a present from Fossil and Mossil's recent trip to Las Vegas for Q's room. I have two photos - one of the present, and one of the crib and mobile.



The regular doctor video with the beating heart is here. Katharine is perfect and doing great. We are both enjoying the unusually warm Austin weather and walking as often as we can, as well as preparing the final things and finishing packing the hospital bags so we are ready. Getting ready to be out of school is another matter entirely. . . .