The Final Month Begins!

Today, Katharine and I visited with Kathy, one of the midwives with the doctor's practice. She reported that Katharine and Q are growing and doing perfectly, with a strong healthy heartbeat. We are preparing at home: over-cooking and freezing some things to help out after Q's arrival, working on plans for school and substitutes, and packing for the hospital.




We enjoyed a walk in the warm, sunny afternoon weather after returning home. As we finished, we were delighted to meet neighbors a few houses away down the adjacent road to ours. Sherry brought over their 3 week old baby boy to introduce herself and offer to let Katharine hold him, since she had noticed the obvious belly. We enjoyed visiting with her husband and her for a few minutes and we were excited to know that there will be a little boy growing up with Q who is the same age.

Week 34 - (T-minus 6 or 7 weeks, depending on who is in charge)

We both know that Q will come whenever he is ready, but Katharine is hoping for week 41, so as of our 34 week appointment today, we are looking at only another 6 or 7 weeks.

Q is continuing to grow, and we are continuing to prepare for his arrival, thanks to the generous support from family and friends who are passing tidbits of knowledge, books to read and shower presents. Who knew a baby wore so many clothes? We started pre-washing some of them to get ready to pack a bag for the hospital, I think I folded more clothes for Q then I have have worn in the past month. I guess we'll be ready with clean clothes for the moment he spits up a snack. One of the many things I am learning.

Katharine is doing great and also dealing with the changes that are going on, both inside of her and around her as we prepare. She has been so fabulous for the first 8 months and I am sure she will finish it out just as beautifully.

Happy New Year

Undoubtably, the one thing Katharine and I are looking forward to in the New Year is meeting little Q. Who, as of Dec. 31st, is doing quite well. He did attend his first show today after the appointment. Katharine and I attended the 2009 Christmas Spectacular performance by the Rockettes (The Rockettes - our own little piece of NYC right here in Austin). To see the show was pretty cool, but Katharine said that Q definitely dug the loud music and the deep reverberating base.

We did come home after the appointment before the show - it was a bit of a task getting up for a very early doctor appointment (though I am told this not sleeping thing is to be expected) and Katharine was able to change into a new maternity dress (thank you MJ, she looked great) that she got for Christmas. The picture is not of the pretty dress but in the next outfit which I felt obliged to take and post after I saw the first shot of the video. I guess I need to add editing the videos to the list of things I need to learn how to do.

Doctor visit - week 30

Katharine and I went to visit the doctor today. It was an exciting trip for us, mostly because we had a half day of school today, the last day before break. So, we came home and then went to an afternoon appointment. Not that we aren't always excited to check up on our little baby, but the thought of not having school for two weeks is almost over-whelming.

Nothing different seems to be going on. We are now in the phase where we need to visit the doctor every two weeks. Inside there are a lot of changes happening, but not too much is visible. At the appointment, Little Q was moving quite a bit so his heart rate was up, just like anyone else who starts moving around too much. Maybe that athletic gene is in there somewhere.

In the next few weeks I hope to have some time to work on things here at the house to be ready for Q's arrival. At the least, that should include crib construction. There is an outside chance I may attempt to tackle the tiling project I have been putting off. We see the doctor again on the 31st, so if anything exciting happens we will be sure to let you know.

I started the video with a shot of the mobile. Each room at our doctor's office has a mobile and a quilt. The mobiles are pretty cool and when my Mom was down recently, we visited Salado and saw little people like they have in the mobile. I am still working on my eye for art and thought they were priced way more than they were worth, but I guess if people are buying them at that price....anyway, here it is.

Week 28 appointment

We went to see the doctor (midwife) on Wed. the 3rd of December.  It has been a hectic few weeks and I finally have the video, such as it is, ready to post. 

The appointment went really well. Little Q is growing and his heart is beating. Our midwife had me use the little Doppler instrument to find his heartbeat, and since I was finding the heartbeat she held the video camera and pretended to film. Katharine and I rehashed the appointment afterwards in the car, so the video is not quite as baby-exciting as normal. 

The good news is we have another appointment this Friday, for week 30.  Mom and Q are doing well - hopefully we will get the new post up this weekend. 

A rose by any other name . . . .

Katharine's very astute Mom pointed out that as beautiful as Katharine is, the videos that show up are not the most flattering. Here is a picture of Katharine looking happy and pregnant in week 27 (for those of you non-savvy pregnancy folk, that is the start of the third trimester and evidently little Q has been opening his eyes in there and trying to figure out where the heck he is.)

I've had several people ask about little Q's name - Where does it come from? Is there any significance? How do you spell that? Well, we (read - Jared) thought we would clarify in writing.

We sort of worked backwards with the naming thing. Katharine and I knew right away we wanted the middle initial to be "R". For a few misguided days/weeks I was even thinking maybe just leave the middle name as the initial R. I'm glad many people looked at me funny when I shared that, and I talked about it with Katharine enough that she helped me see the light. But why R, you might ask? Well, some of you know, Katharine has kept her last name the same, never changing to be a Stevenson. We don't hold that against her, and I even like to tell telemarketers that, "No, Mr. Riedlinger is not available right now." So, without saddling poor little Q with a hyphenated last name, we thought the R could partially represent the Riedlinger part of his Mom's name. We were also lucky enough to have several very important family members with names that start with R, which for a while was why I liked the stand alone initial with no name, so we could represent all of those Rs without favoring any one of them over the others. Just to share we have Grandpa Roy (Katharine's Dad), Grandpa Rick (Jared's Dad), Great-Grandpa Richard (Jared's Grandfather), and special Grandpa #3 Fossil (Rocky - for those going, that isn't an "R" name). Katharine and I were also blessed to be loved and influenced by grandparents who have passed away, Katharine's Grandmother Rita and Jared's Grandfather Roger. So, Rian, is the R - for so many reasons. We found we liked the meaning of the Irish / Gaelic name and depending on where you look it will tell you Rian means king, or little king. No, we don't want him to find this out for fear it may inflate an feelings of self-importance more than necessary.
How about Quinlan? Well, when we had the middle initial "R", even before I was convinced to not leave it as "R", we both really liked the flow of the initials, Q. R. S. We both know, this is a little dorky, but there is a certain charm to it. Looking through the Q's in those baby name books can be interesting, though really not overly time-consuming. We both really like Quin (normally found as Quinn) but played with Quinlan off and on for a while. For a brief moment I considered Quincy (as in our 6th President, son of John and Abigail), but wasn't happy with a name that means "fifth". While searching and considering, we kept coming back to Quinlan, which is also Irish/Gaelic and means, strong, well-formed or well-shaped (or, Jared's favorite--son of a strong or well-formed man).
So, Quinlan Rian Stevenson a well-formed, strong little king. We were hoping not to tell him for the first 20 or so years, we want to try and maintain a semblance of us being in charge.

Preparations....

Katharine and I had another doctor appointment this past week.  All is going well with the continually growing little boy, who we have possibly come up with a final name for - Quinlan Rian Stevenson.  So, little Q. is growing and his little heart is beating. Probably the coolest thing so far in the pregnancy has been being able to feel him moving around. For a few weeks Katharine would take my hand and place it on her belly, asking, "Can you feel him?" I would press and hold and wait, and only ever feel the pulse of blood in my fingertips as I desperately felt for anything. Then one day I got a little rolling feeling past my hand. I wasn't sure at first, but Katharine confirmed, that was Q. moving around.  Since then I have been able to feel much more powerful kicks, sometimes even in response to slight pressure on Katharine's belly. 

Check out a short video of Quin's little beating heart inside his Mom, when the midwife is able to find him as he moves around. 

Other preparations have been slowly coming together as well.  It was nice to have the construction help from Grandpa-to-be "Fossil" Ingalls.  I have yet to attempt the crib construction if anyone wants to come play one day.