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. . . .

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.