See why we can't stop kissin' her?

At Daddy's Office

Thursday we visited Daddy at work and took some lunch to him. We also had to show off Quinn to his coworkers! Two of the ladies there took her while we ate, which was nice! Miss Quinn voiced her thanks by peeing on them when they were changing her diaper. (FYI--if you change my girl's diaper ever, watch out...she likes to let it fly when she feels air on her tooshie!!) Luckily they were good sports and got her all changed without us even being interrupted from our lunching. Quinn and I returned home from our visit....to our power going off. After we sweated long enough, we made ANOTHER trip to Matt's office to enjoy the AC. We ate dinner with him and all headed home, planning to pack up and head to his mom's. FORTUNATELY, our power came back on right about the time we got home. Just in time for the season premier of The Office, the only show I watch religiously. As you can see, Matt is a big lacking in the writing utensil department. We may need to begin taking up some contributions to get him stocked up. :) The funny part is that I found a pencil I got in 12th grade German class among his stash. He's pretty amazing in his pen hoarding!!

3 weeks old!

It feels strange to think you've been with us for 21 days!! You are growing so much. You can almost hold your head up on your own (we have to watch you, though, because every now and then you get a little wild with it and swing it around a little too hard if we're not holding it), you will look at us for longer periods of time, and you are getting used to diaper changes, getting dressed, and baths, so much less crying during these times. You slept for 4 hours at a time last night and the night before, which is great (for me, especially!). You are still wearing newborn clothes, but will be in 0-3 very soon, I can tell! You have been really congested lately, so we battle with that a lot at night. You wake up very mad that you can't breathe....Your hair is also growing! It's so blond that it's hard to see, but it is definitely getting longer.




Look at those chubby arms!!

Zzzzzz.....

Here are some pictures of you doing what you do best!! You'll sleep wherever we put you, as long as you're swaddled!! You love being all wrapped up and cozy.
In your crib....
On your tummy...I only let you stay that way for the picture, though...you fell asleep during some tummy time.
I love when you curl your legs under and stick your bootie up! And you always keep your hands under your chin when you snooze on me or daddy's chest.

Milky Baby

Our nickname for you, little girl, is Milky Baby. Whenever you finish nursing, you always have milk all over your face...you're kinda a messy eater. Then, you reach your arms up and s-t-r-e-t-c-h, ever so content. Then you look a little drunk on the milk. It's pretty funny. Daddy has started giving you a bottle of pumped milk every night, and last night you drank 3 ounces in the bottle, which is the most you've done so far!

We Love Daddy!

I always knew that Matt would be a great daddy. Turns out, he is an EVEN BETTER daddy than I imagined! He is so calm and patient with Quinn, even when she is screaming. He's an expert at getting her to sleep and giving baths...He has gotten her to take a bottle after several tries...He can swaddle her tight enough so that even her wild hands stay still...He holds her at the doctor's office when she's furious about being naked and prodded...he changes all her diapers when he's home...and he even read Quinn her first story, by lanern-light, as we still didn't have electricity that night. She was enthralled, and it was the cutest thing I have ever seen...the two of them in the nursery cuddling and reading. I am so thankful that he views parenting as a partnership and not as "babysitting" (okay, bit of an inside joke...) I love my baby's daddy!!!

Soooo Sleepy....

We've been having problems with our internet connection and I haven't been able to upload in a while. It's working right now, so I am getting caught up!
(From last Wednesday 9/23)
Quinn gets a bit fussy in the evening...last night we were up late trying to calm her down. This morning we had an early doctor's appointment. Matt had the morning off because he is working on Saturday, so he came along. Quinn got a glowing report!! She weighs 8lbs 11 oz (chunky monkey--almost a lb in a week!) and everything else looked great, as well. We had to take her to the hospital lab to get her PKU lab test done, so Matt held her while they cut her heel and squeezed out the blood. I sat in the reception room because I couldn't handle watching. Poor girl, but some cuddles from Daddy calmed her pretty quickly. When we got home, the two of them took a little nap together before Matt went to work.

Sweet Ride!

On Wednesday we tried out the baby jogger. You're not really supposed to use it until the baby is 6 months old, but I rigged it up with a headrest and packed Quinn in with some blankets and it worked perfectly. Alie was so excited to get to go for a walk again, as she'd gotten quite used to an evening stroll the last month of my pregnancy and had obviously been missing them! The jogger was great, the only problem was trying to keep the sun off of Q. I had to stop and readjust the sunshade about a gazillon times--each time we changed direction slightly. Quinn did wear an outfit with a pocket, so of course we had to fill it with some posies!

All dressed up for church!

Last Sunday was Quinn's first time to go to church. She was all dressed up in my sister's baby dress (mine was long sleeves...too hot), some shoes my sister gave her, and even a headband. Daddy got her all dressed on his own, and I was impressed he was even able to include all the accessories I'd laid out. I had a vision of a cute little family "first Sunday at church" photo...but that got a little altered. I got peed on at lunch, and since we were already out, I needed to stop by the mall and get a security tag removed from a shirt I'd bought the day before that had gotten left on. I ended up having to purchase some dry clothes, as well, so I was way too scrubby to be in the church picture. But Matt and Quinn look lovely!

Busy Tuesday

Tuesday was a busy day for us! Quinn and I headed out early for Ladies' class at church. Yikes, packing up to be gone for the day with a little one is more work than I imagined! We had the diaper bag, stroller, carseat, baby, my bible study stuff, purse, sunglasses, car keys...But we made it! Class was great and after the study I went to lunch with two friends....they are both mommies that I admire so much, so of course I got lots of good advice from them! I was so proud of myself for surviving our first big outing....but I wasn't impressed with myself for too long....when I took Quinn out of the carseat once we arrived home, I realized I hadn't changed her diaper since I had gotten her dressed that morning. Needless to say she was VERY wet. Oops.
In the afternoon I had my two-week doctor appointment. It was Quinn's first time to go, on the outside, that is!! It felt strange not to listen to her little heartbeat. Instead I heard her snoring away from her stroller!

Newest nursery addition...

My Grandma made this bird hanging for the end of the crib. I love the fabric she chose! The door was in the way, and I wasn't ambitious enough to remove it for the sake of a good photo. But you get the idea.

Nice Little Saturday....

Well last night Matt installed a window AC in our bedroom that we are borrowing (the ac, not the window). I will have to take a picture of his ingenious creation, because he had to do a little customizing as we have side sliding windows and the unit is for an up/down type of window. Anyhow, we were all much happier last night to have cool sleeping experiences....the rest of the house was rather muggy. Today we have been trying to stay in some AC....we went to the mall for a while, and now we are at Best Buy, where I am able to finally get online!!

We tried out Quinn's stroller for the first time and it pretty much rocks. Daddy also did his first diaper change in the car trunk. :)

Home Depot

Today was a proud moment for Daddy...Quinn had her first trip to the power tool isle at Home Depot.
We went in to look for a battery-powered lantern (none to be had anywhere around) and somehow found ourselves browsing power tools. Hmmmm, sounds like a conspiracy to me! :) As you can see, Miss Q was VERY interested in checking out the tools.

We're going home!

Here's my cute baby today....sleeping away.
Matt and I are excited because we get to go home tonight! Matt's uncle Mike has a coworker that has gotten power back and is letting us borrow their generator, so we are taking it to our house tonight. We have had a great time staying with Mike and Lynda, enjoying a very comfy bed, great food and lots of time together, and we will miss that. However, we haven't had a chance to be home alone together as a family and just enjoy Quinn at home....She hasn't even been in her nursery more than 5 minutes. So we are looking forward to those things, as well as not living out of a suitcase! The downside is that Comcast is down in our area, so we will have no internet at home, so I don't know when I will be able to get online again. So don't worry if you don't hear from us!
We are off to run some errands and pack up all the stuff we've draged over here....

41 weeks made daddy crazy!

Hey Baby Quinn!
Here are some pictures I found on my computer that were taken the night before you were born. As you can see, your daddy was going a little crazy by this point....and I am looking a little rough. We were BOTH ready for you to come so we could hold and kiss you! You were definitely worth the wait!

At the doctor...

Today we finally got Quinn in her for 1 week pediatrician visit. She was not happy to get stripped down to be weighed, so Daddy had to pull out all his tricks to get her to stop screaming. She weighed 7 lbs 12 oz. She is really gaining weight! The doctor said she looks wonderful and was really pleased with the weight gain. Quinn will go back next week for her 2 week checkup and another heel stick, which makes us all sad because she does not like that at all.
I have noticed she is developing a bit of a double chin, so I think our scrawny girl is going to be a chunker before too long if she keeps eating so well!
Here is Quinn's unhappy face at the pediatrician's. Matt calls it her "old man face" because she wrinkles her head all up.

Babies are gross! (but still cute)

So little Miss Quinn might be adorable and sweet...but she can be mighty gross, too! This morning Matt volunteered to change her diaper after her early-morning feeding. He took off her first poopy diaper, replaced it with a second, and she promptly pooped in it again. So...he was taking that one off to get a third when she pooped yellow runny breastfed baby poop all over the place and then gave it a good sprinkling of pee to really make it run all over the place. So now our sweet girl had grossness from head to toe. I grabbed her and dashed to the bathroom, where the only possibility was holding her under the sink and washing her off (which really made her start wailing). Matt was left with cleaning up the rest...and then washing all the towels, clothes (see picture above), etc. in the kitchen sink, as we can't use the washer.
Then this afternoon we went back to our house to disinfect the fridge and clean out the deep freeze. Matt had another repeat of the morning, only now he'd learned his lesson and kept diapers under her bootie at all times, so there wasn't much of a mess.
I was kinda laughing at him from all the yuckiness...but I got my paybacks. Quinn had just finished nursing when she burped and spit up pretty much everything she'd just eaten all over herself and me. Daddy cleaned Quinn up, and I had to get in the shower, there was so much spit up on me. So we have another little pile of laundry to was in the sink tomorrow. At least she's cute!!!

1 Week Old

Today Quinn is one week old!! We were supposed to take her to the pediatrician yesterday, but the office is closed due to the hurricane. I can tell she is growing, though, because we don't have to cross the tapes on her diapers near as far anymore!! Matt said this morning that for someone who really doesn't like pink, Quinn has worn a lot of it lately. That's because the only clothes that fit her right now are newborn ones. 0-3 months are still a little big. All of the newborn clothes I have seem to be pink!!
Quinn is the noisiest baby. She makes noises 24/7. When she's awake....when she's asleep. When she's sleeping I think she sounds like the little catfish we catch down in the bay...they make kinda a grunty noise that she does quite well. When she's awake she coos and grunts and says "ahhhh" all the time. Matt says she is definitely my baby...not sure what he's implying there. :)
Our adventure today was a walk to Walmart. We put Quinn in the sling and she slept the whole time, grunting away, of course. We had to take a picture of her first trip to Walmart....
Walmart was a little crazy. They are running on generators and all of the perishables are gone. It looks so strange to see rows and rows of empty shelves!! The other food was pretty picked over, too. We did buy Quinn two little pairs of pants at Walmart that were non-pink. I picked out the turquoise ones and Matt chose navy.
Luckily it is beautiful here today, so we are surviving quite well without AC....still no power and still only a couple stations that have gas, and of course the lines are hours and hours long. Pretty much the only place open around is Walmart and Lowe's. We still have no cell phone service.

More pictures...click here.

This is Quinn's sad face....

Today Oma and Opa flew back to Wyoming, a bit later than they had planned due to Hurricane Ike. We miss them already. My mom had been here for two weeks, and I don't know what I would have done if she hadn't been here. She helped me keep my sanity for the week I went over my due date. I was already getting so restless and bored before she got here...and then adding on an additional week would have driven me crazy if I wouldn't have had so much fun with Mom. We walked a gazillion miles during that week...she and I got to know the neighborhood very well. She got up with me the morning I started having contractions and stayed in the living room with me until I woke Matt up to go to the hospital. Then the day Quinn was born, they decided to come up to the hospital to see how I was doing, and they ended up arriving ten minutes after Quinn was born, so they got to see her brand new!! They hung out in the hospital for two days with us and went and brought food for lunch and dinner (and a mid-day Sonic happy hour drink, too!) because the hospital food was beyond nasty. When we got home Mom had done all the laundry, changed our sheets, cleaned up, taken care of the animals, and my dad had done some work on the truck for us and also helped Matt replace the brakes. Mom changed all Quinn's nasty diapers, burped her when I couldn't get anything out of her, cleaned her up when she spit up all over herself, watched her so I could get a nap, and these past couple of mornings I have dropped her off in their bedroom and gone back to bed. Matt, Quinn, Alie, Beaux and I are all going to miss them. :( I am already getting my hopes up that we will be able to go to Wyoming for Thanksgiving and see them soon!