Just another day

Well, not much happened today. We brought the heart monitor back. It sounds like they won't have results back for several days, so no word on his heart rate yet. We visited with my little sister for a couple of hours. Came home, took a nap, and that's about what our day looked like. The pictures I put up today were taken at my brother-in-laws b-day party in the beginning of April. His birthday is actually in November however Quinn ruined it for him this year by being born that day. Hee hee. This was actually the third year in a row circumstances conspired against him to mess up his birthday.

Mary is very interested in her cousin Quinn.

Whenever we visit she gives him lots of kisses.

For the people who haven't had an opportunity to meet Quinn yet. This might give you an idea of just how small he is. This is Quinn sitting in one of Mary's doll strollers. He fits perfectly and looks very comfortable.

All dressed up and .... oops

So I was supposed to go to my friends surprise baby shower in New Bedford Mass today and I never made it. I had a miscommunication with Karra. She came to watch Quinn and got here when I was supposed to be leaving. I figured no big deal, I have a kid now I'll probably never be anywhere on time again. So I started to get ready to go. I was almost finished getting ready when Quinn regurgitated. Again, no big deal it just takes time to clean him up and sooth him. The shower was 1hr and 20min away and Quinn doesn't take a bottle any more so I was only go to stay for a half hour or so. By now I'm 45 minutes late and then I realized the baby shower wasn't going to happen for me. Sorry Andrea. I hope you had a wonderful time. We will get together for lunch or dinner and I can give you my gifts and we can catch up. So now I'm all dressed up with no where to go. It happens so rarely I had Karra take photos. These are for you honey.

Karra, Quinn, and I went to Friendly's and had ice cream. Yum. Then we came home and Qunna and I had a nap. Then we went to Joe and Kristin's for dinner and visited with them and Jess (what a bad sentence). When we got home I gave Quinn a bath and put him to bed. This is what he looked like after his bath.



My little wiggle worm. Shortly after this, he was out. I just thought he was too cute, so I posted it.


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Birthdays, Birthdays, and more Birthdays

Well, it was really only two birthdays, but birthdays and birthdays doesn't sound right. My dad's birthday is coming up on Tues. so we visited with him today. My sister and her husband Gordon were there as well. Our friend Scott also had a birthday party today. So I got to visit with some friends I hadn't seen in a long time. I don't know why, but of course I didn't get pictures at Scott's. I have to say though, I am very proud of Quinn. We left the house today at 11:45a and didn't get back until 9:30p. Quinn barely fussed the whole time. He smiled a lot and was very interested in everyone. He did so well even though he was tired. He is such a mild mannered little boy.

Quinn sharing a moment with tio Gordon.

And a moment with grandpa Dan. Although he is still staring at tio.

Tia Sarah's hair is very smooth

and some how I'm going to figure out how to eat it.

As a side note, Melinda's baby Sean or Shawn (I forgot to ask) is coming home tomorrow.

Heart monitors and play dates

I forgot to mention in my last post that Quinn's heart rate was being recorded for the last 24 hours. During our trip to Boston the doctors found out that there was quite a bit of time when Quinn's heart was dropping every other beat. So, our cardiologist sent us home with a nifty little monitor so all the doctors can get a real sense of what Quinn's heart is doing while he's home.

"Monitors my heart and makes a good toy. How great can this be."

I have a friend Katie who had a baby about 3 weeks after I had Quinn. I met her through my older sister who was taking yoga classes from her. Once she and I were too pregnant to do regular yoga, she started a yoga class for pregnant women. Which I took and we've been friends ever since. Her son Robinson and Quinn have had a couple of play dates (IE., Katie and I get together and have fun). Today was the first day they were actually awake at the same time, so I of course got pictures. My mom stopped by for a minute, so she's in a bunch of them as well.
"Grandma, your so funny."

"I am too cute for words."

"Who are you again????"

"I guess you're alright."



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All about the heart

So, we had an appointment with Quinn's cardiologist today. He is very happy with the way Quinn looks. Quinn had an echo cardiogram which assessed the function of his heart. The doctor found the hole between the cambers at top of his heart is still open, but he feels that is ok for now. Eventually if it doesn't close on it's own the doctors will close it. Luckily that is not an open chest procedure. It with be another catheter procedure.

As long as we are talking about catheterizations, the next time we go to Boston they will most likely put in another stint. They wanted to do it this last time, but the access to the location they wanted to place it was to complicated.

"Wow, so that's what my heart looks like!!!"


Quinn is now 11 lbs 2 oz. He is still not on the charts for his age, but this doctor looked at something a little different. Instead of checking by age, he checked Quinn's weight against his height. We found that for his height, his weight is actually pretty good. He is in the 25th percentile for his height. So, sorry my son, you are just short. That's alright, I have faith he will be a good height when he grows up.


This is how the echo is done



Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share PhotosAnd this is how we entertain Quinn during his visits.



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Where oh where did the nice weather go????????

It looked like it was going to be a nice day out. We got all dressed and ready to go for a walk and Quinn fell asleep. By the time he woke up the weather had gotten cool. But at least I remembered the camera. So here are some photos of what we look like on our walks, well at least what he looks like.


Also, as I mentioned yesterday, Quinn loves his Noohno. Here they are having lots of fun.

Here's a photo of Quinn and Dans mom. It makes it pretty obvious where Quinn gets a lot of his features from. Well, that's what I think. You can tell me what you think.

Lately Quinn has been looking at everything like this. "Hmm, so how can I fit this into my mouth?"

The end result!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, more tomorrow. I hope you are all doing well.

Me and my man ..... well, one of them

My sister-in-law sent me a couple of photos of my little man and I, so I figured I'd throw them up here.

Not too much happened today. My mother-in-law came over to spend time with Quinn. He loves his Noohno (grandma). His face really lights up when friends and family come to visit. We've been really lucky. Even after everything his been through Quinn still loves new people.

Quinn and I went for a walk at bluff point today with my sister and of course I left my camera at home. What was I thinking. It's such a beautiful area and Quinn was so peaceful there. Ah well, next time. By the way, apparently my hair makes a good handle.

Good morning

I was woken up this morning by the sweetest thing. Quinn was playing with my lower lip. Normally I hear him stretching and sturring before he wakes up. This morning he woke up so quietly. I have no idea how long he was awake before he started playing with my mouth. I woke up and he was just looking at me like, "Aha, I knew you'd wake up soon." I just can't convey how cute that was. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of that. I do however have a picture of him playing with the toys on his bouncy chair..... with his feet. You can't see it here, but he hooks his foot around the toy and pulls it to his hand. Is this lazy or cleaver?

Our friend Toby finally got to meet Quinn today. I got a couple of cute pictures of she and Quinn and then she got a slightly obscene picture of the cat. Dan remind me to show you, I didn't know the cat could be that flexible.

I won't be able to tell you how much Quinn weighs until next week. Our nurse was supposed to come tomorrow and give Quinn a vaccination against RSV (basically baby pneumonia). Unfortunately our insurance company decided that the weather is so nice that cold and flu season must be over. This means that children don't need their shots anymore this year. So the nurse will be here next week and in the meantime I just have to be very careful with Quinn. If cold and flu season is truly over then it's fine. But I still know several people who are sick.


Feedings with Quinn are going really well. He is eating solids twice a day and likes it so much he tries to feed himself. We are on to carrots this week. Which taste a lot like the sweet potato. Sorry Quinn, I tried to give you something different. We have sweet peas next. That will be very different.


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Dan called tonight. It was so good to hear from him. We miss you love. He wanted me to say hello to everyone and that he is doing well. I hope you are all taking care of yourselves, more later.

Lounging

It's about time the weather here turned nice. Quinn and I have been taking long walks the past couple of days. He really loves them and hopefully I can work off some of my baby fat. Too bad I can't donate a couple pounds of it to Quinn. He'd be all set ;o). It's been really nice and he sleeps a little more the days we go for walks.

He also relaxes a little more. He decided today was a day for lounging. It was very sweet. I'd love to tell you how much he weighs right now, but it's been almost two weeks since he was weighed. The nurse is coming some time this week, so I can update you then. I think his face is getting pudgier.

Take care of yourselves. More tomorrow.

Happy birthday love

Oh no. I am just minutes too late for Dan to see this today. Well I love you honey. Happy birthday. Please take care of yourself. I'm glad you're enjoying the posts. It's my part in the war effort so to speak. Thank you for your notes. They make my day too. I can't wait to see all of your photos. I hope this is an amazing experience for you. I also hope you have a lot of band-aids for your feet. We miss you terrible. We love you and think about you all the time.

Auntie Karra with Quinn


A mothers view. This is my view of Quinn most of the day.

He's getting to be such a big boy. His physical therapist says that developmentally he's catching up very quickly. Much more quickly then they had expected him to. He my not even be a month behind any more. We'll see how he does with his latest set of exercises. Alright everyone, take care. There will be more again tomorrow.

Internet access!

So you pay the hotel this ungodly amount of money for internet access, and a timer starts to show how much time remains until you lose service. I don't have my wife's email address, because I've never emailed her. So I'll just post on here for the world to see. Hola mi esposa! Those pics are fantastic. And the videos make me utterly homesick. As my dad said, having pictures and posts about my little family while I'm away is too good for words. We're working our tails off, more so than any other deployments I've been on. The places are remote. Thankfully, our local escorts are always willing to help with the heavy stuff. I didn't expect this much travel by foot. I'm turning 30 today but right now I feel like 90. I got the mean farmers tan going again, and buying new boots the day before I left was a bad idea. This isn't the time to be breaking them in. Other than the constant heat, this place is exotic. I won't get into details here, but I will have plenty of stories and cool pictures when I return. I love you and thank you for updating this. It's fantastic seeing mi chico pequeño.

What's this........twice in one day?!?!

I'm just trying to make up for missing last night. Thanks for all the positive feedback by the way. It's just that Dan is such a hard act to follow ;o). Unfortunately I was gone almost the whole day because of classes so this will be a short one. Grandma Barbara got to watch him today and it sounds like they had tons of fun.



As you can see from this picture the hair on his forehead is starting to grow back. For those of you who didn't know he had an IV put there when he was two days old. Of course they had to shave the site, so hes had a funny little bald spot there this whole time.

I just love his expression in this next picture. Decide what you think he's thinking. I see "Hmmm, what exactly are you? You're my size, but you're really funny looking."

Why are we laughing??????????

Sorry for the late update I got locked out of my site last night. Also, I fixed the last video if you want to go back and look. So yesterday Quinn was swinging back and forth and for some reason just started laughing. I grabbed the camera and he stopped, but this is a little of what he was doing. Unfortunately I'm right by the camera, so you hear me more. If you listen close you should be able to hear him.

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Quinn fell asleep on my pillow the other night and I just thought it was too cute. So hear are pictures of that.

In other news Dans cousin had a baby boy on Tues. She went into labor at 31 weeks and had to have an emergency c-section. She and the baby are both doing very well. He weighs in at 3lb 10oz, but he is functioning all on his own so it sounds like he will go home in about 2 weeks. I don't have pictures of him yet, but I'll try to get them later. OK, I have to get to class. Have a good day everyone.

Three days in a row........

I finally got to talk to Dan. Yeah. Interestingly he doesn't really have internet access. Don't worry I will continue with the daily updates for the occasion that Dan is able to check them. If anyone wants to leave him a message feel free to post one to him.
This was taken the night before Dan left. Don't worry daddy, mommy will make sure I see you and hear you everyday.

Ohhhh auntie Karra you are fascinating!!!!!!!!!
We continue to have visitors to keep us company. Thank you everyone. My mom, sister, friend Jess, and father all stopped by today. I figured I'd throw in some pictures.

Quinn cuddling with grandpa. He was a very sleepy boy today.
I have a sinking feeling it is going to be very difficult for me to keep these posts interesting until Dan comes home. Not much happened to Quinn today. He continues to do well. The visiting nurse is coming for the last time next week. Early intervention and his physical therapist think they won't be able to keep him in there system for very long since he's doing so well. I can't believe it. I'm so grateful he's doing so well. What an amazing little boy. He's slowly but surely making up for lost time. I can't wait to see what this little boy is like when he grows up and what he does with his life. Although I am whiling to wait. I don't want him to grow to fast. I really enjoy being his mommy.