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.  

It's a BOY!!!!

Check the video out and see for yourself.

Sydney, who ran the sonogram, said it doesn't get much clearer than that. I'm sure in about 12 years this little dude is not going to like the fact that we posted these videos and photos. Oh well. He'll get over it.
We've talked to several people already and we are discussing names. We've already ruled our Redrock, Jason, and Rick - the first three we heard, no offense intended. We are auditioning interim nicknames and so far the contenders are B.S. (no, not that - boy Stevenson) and Sammy Stevenson. Neither nickname has any validity in the name consideration process.

Here you can see the sonogram and the beating heart. The sonogram itself was so cool. We could see toes and hands, the face, arms bones and the leg bone plus the spine. All very cool. Katharine was awed by how her body is making all this.




And here we have a still shot of a more personal nature. Yep, that's definitely a boy.

Alright, we all knew that having a new child would bring some changes, one of the biggest changes I have to do is getting used to riding around in air conditioning. Yes, I finally have given up the Jeep. It took a little while to come to terms with this fact, and I will always have the memories that come with having a car that you love. I guess I can always stare longingly as other people drive past me in a Jeep of their own. Plus, Katharine said maybe one day, when we aren't worried about jostling and overheating our child, then we can think about going back....but somehow this still feels like the end of an era.  

Watch the video to say your last goodbye to the Jeep and take a peak at the new "baby safe" car we have in the garage.