Quinn's Birth Story

My darling, Quinn Renee, was born on June 11th at 8:30 am. She weighed in at 6lbs 9 oz and was 18" long.


C-section went according to plan and I was back in recovery at about 9:15 am, and Quinn got to go with me. I was very excited that she got to stay with me and didn't have to go to a nursery. After about 30 minutes into recovery, she was finding her hands with her mouth, so we asked for a pacifier (she doesn't use it a lot, at least yet, we'll see).

Quinn didn't really eat much at first - less than half an ounce. She didn't eat great the first day, but we were up to about an ounce at a time (every 3 to 4 hours) by the time we left.

O. got to see Quinn on Friday night, and things have been going pretty well with them so far.



I was up into a chair on Friday night and O. was there so Mommy did her best to be strong even though she was in a lot of pain. Had to get up to go to the restroom on Saturday morning, and was walking the halls with Quinn by Sunday morning. I was very lucky to have such great, supportive and pushy :) nurses.

The pediatrician looked Quinn over on both Saturday and Sunday, and all looked good so we were given the seal of approval to be discharged. I was looked over by my doc as well, and we were able to head home on Sunday around 1pm.

Count down - 2 days

Can't believe that there are only two days left before our lives get turned upside down again! Really looking forward to welcoming my daughter into this world and just pray that things go well for both of us!

Been getting a little frustrated with some people feeling the need to put their two cents in about breast-feeding. No matter what a mother chooses, she will be making the right decision for her and her baby! I just wish all mothers could be supportive of each other instead of critical of each other.

It will be sort of strange to teach until 9pm tomorrow night and then go home to get up and be at the hospital at 6:30. Students will need to be understanding that I may not get to their emails right away this weekend :)

Have really enjoyed how much O. has grown up lately - wanting to do a lot more himself, cleaning up his dishes, and he wants to help Mommy with housework and I try to let him do what I think he can.

Hope my parents have a safe trip out!

Count down - 3 days!

I am admittedly nervous about the upcoming c-section. Very glad that my parents are going to be here for the arrival of our baby girl. They are taking off tomorrow (Wednesday) and staying the night about 2/3 the way through and then arriving on Thursday afternoon so they'll get to spend a little time with us before baby girl arrives.

My last OBGYN appointment was Thursday last week and all was looking find - not very dialated yet, which is a good thing for a scheduled c-section! My last weigh in there says I gained 15 lbs while pregnant - the more realistic number in my mind was the 17 lbs difference I have at home with my own scale (especially as that is what I'll be using later!) Still not too bad (especially as I gained almost 30 with O!)

Tomorrow will be O's last day at "school" (daycare) until August when him and baby sister will be going. Since I'll have my parents here to help for the first week and all, I think we'll be ok - I don't want him to think he is not part of it. It may be tougher to keep him home with me since I won't have a lot of family around to help out, but I think he would feel as though he was being replaced if I took him to daycare and stayed home with baby girl.

Guest room is (finally) ready for my parents' arrival. Only a last few things to do...mainly on Daddy's end since my lifting and general work ability has been greatly compromised.

Can't believe it is June!

Where has all the time off gone? Today I start teaching my night class (6:15 - 9pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays) that goes for 8 weeks - don't worry, I have this whole baby thing figured out - for week 3 of the course, I am giving an exam, which another professor is giving for me, and having a large assignment for them to work on outside of class. Then I'll be back (I think I will need those two nights out a week!!, and this way, I'm making some extra money too!)

It is only 10 days until the scheduled c-section. Had an appointment on Friday last week which told me I was up to 13 lbs gained - hopefully not too much more in the next week or so! Things are getting pretty difficult for me to do right now - can't seem to be on my feet for much more than an hour without needing to take a load off, so we'll see how teaching goes tonight!

Baby girl's room is pretty much ready for her arrival; now the guest room, on the other hand, is not so ready for gma and gpa's arrival. That is the goal of the week for me!

O's eating is getting horrible - he'll eat something one day and then not eat it the next day. I don't know if he is just testing his limits or what. At school, if he doesn't try everything, he is offered his lunch for snack (instead of whatever "goody" they are offering). At home, we take him to the slide or outside or he gets a special treat for snack when he has eaten well. I am refusing to force feed him, though I will admit I am tempted sometimes. If he would just be willing to try something new, we would be ok. Got him to try fresh pineapple and raspberries this weekend - like the pineapple, and at first liked the raspberries. I think he is more like me with the raspberries - love the flavor but can't stand all the seeds. He does eat quite a bit of fruit (apples, oranges, bananas, raisins, applesauce, pineapple) but can't get this boy to try veggies (he eats carrots at daycare sometimes...). The only "potato" he has eaten has been french fries. Are you sure this is my child?

Part of me hopes that he is just asserting indepedence and that he will eventually eat when he sees that mommy and daddy like it and that he will not be getting something else.

My concluding thought of the day - I am ready for June 11th to be here!

Mind over body

As I am now at right at 3 weeks until baby girl arrives, I have so much that I still want to get done, but my body just isn't wanting to cooperate with me! I am getting tired of standing after about an hour and my feet are just beginning to swell :(

All the big things are put together in her room (crib, dresser)- need to get it organized so that we are ready when we bring her home. In addiont, we need to get the guest room organized so my parents have a place to sleep and not get hurt (Mom!!) getting around what we have kept in there while trying to get everything else organized!

Had some of B's friends over for a cookout tonight - not quite as many showed up as I thought would so we have a lot of leftover food. At least having people over was great movivation to get some things done around here.

Still need to get some sleepers, diapers, and formula right now. I don't know what size to expect yet as I believe O. was definitely an exception to the rule when it came to his growth rate!

Now, just hoping now that baby girl is willing to wait until June 11th for her appearance!

Baby Blanket

I have finally finished the baby blanket! O. actually loves to sit on it already. He knows it is for baby sister, but he just loves to look at it and use it - might have to break his old one back out so he is willing to share this one when baby sister gets here!

Room/Crib

Very excited that we have the painting done in the baby's room as of today. Just need to work together to get the border put on straight later this week! So far, it looks just as I pictured it, so we'll have to see how it looks once we add the border.

We got a surprise earlier on Friday - the crib that we used for O. had been recalled due to the bottom rails possibly breaking. The company that made the crib was out of business, but luckily the stores are still giving refunds for the cribs. It may have been my own jinxing us since I sort of wanted a white crib for baby girl anyways!

We were able to get a full (actually more than we paid 4 years ago for it) refund and they even gave us cash. Just ordered the new crib online and it should be here in the next two weeks! Here it is:



Still have things to do baby related before she arrives:
* finish border
* put together crib and dresser
* wash baby clothes
* pick out a name we can agree on (why do I think this will be the hardest part?!)

Getting excited though: 40 days until expected arrival!

Baby Update - 32 weeks

I had another doctor's appointment yesterday - pretty uneventful. Checked the normal things - blood pressure (124/81 - this seemed high for me), heartbeat of baby (sounds good), checked fundal height (measuring about 31.5 weeks) and my weight (total weight gain of 6 lbs to date).

Started painting baby's room today. Daddy is doing the rolling and I'm doing the trim work. Got part of it done - about half, little less. Might try to finish up trim work after O. goes to bed tonight, but we'll see how productive I feel!

Baby is definitely beginning to slow me down. Can't be on my feet as much I used to and can't pick things up as easily anymore. That is one of the fortunate things about being pregnant - people seem to volunteer to help you more.

Clothes are getting interesting right now as I don't have many "spring-like" shirts - most are sleeveless and right now it seems a bit strange to be wearing sleeveless shirts. And my pants don't want to stay put - they want to ride below baby and that makes me feel like I'm showing skin, which I definitely don't want to do!

7 weeks from yesterday is the scheduled c-section; but right now I'm just looking forward to the semester being over in 2 weeks!

It happens all the time...

I believe that one of the hardest things about many circumstances is that they have become so "routine" we don't think about the individual anymore. As a professor, I have students who have been tested to receive special accomodations that I abide by. I try to be understanding if certain circumstances arise (as long as I can get some form of documentation). The individual should still get attention!

As I'm getting closer to having this baby and knowing that my c-section date is getting closer, I can't help but worry. Multiple doctors have looked at my records/medical history and don't seem too concerned. But is this because it has become so routine to them? I need to discuss my concerns and fears with them.

I still don't have a "full" understanding of what happened during O's birth, but from my understanding, I went from real concern (will I make it) to possibly needing a hysterectomy, to a slow but full recovery. The doctors here have made me feel that what happened was attributed to a couple of extra things that won't be happening this time - big baby and being induced for such a long time.

I can't help but have this slight fear of, I'll say it, dying. I don't want to leave my children without a mother and my husband without a wife. I don't know how/if they would make it. The idea of needing a hysterectomy this time does not strike fear in me as if I have two children and get to be with them, that is enough.

Boils down to that I need to discuss this with my doctors and my family. I need them to know my fears so that they can be there for me. I have such a great family, I just don't want to be a squeaky wheel!

Baby Update

Had my last appointment on the 26th. At this appointment I was to have my one-hour glucose test. Unfortunately, I drank the bottle before seeing that I wasn't supposed to have anything to eat beforehand. I had my ultrasound and everything looked really good. My doctor's appointment wasn't for another 4 hours so they gave me another bottle of the orange drink to have before my appointment. At my doctor's appointment I found out the following:

1. I have gained 4 lbs total.
2. I am becoming a bit anemic (low iron) - take supplements
3. I failed the 1-hour glucose test. Need to have 3-hour test on Monday. Boo!

He said I "barely" failed the 1-hour so he wasn't really worried.

On Monday, went in for the 3-hour. They don't just prick your finger, I found out. They draw your blood pre test, 1 hour in, 2 hours in, and 3 hours in. I have hard to find veins, so this was NOT a piece of cake. First time, right arm, second time, left hand, third time, right arm, fourth time, tried left arm, ended up with right arm. So my right arm looked really bad and sadly I still have a bit of a bruise a week later!

Good news was found out on Wednesday - my glucose levels were normal.

Finally ordered a border for the baby's room last week. Won't get here for another week or so, then B will have to get on it!

Shopping Experience

O., B. and I went to Ikea together today. The boys had never been there before and they were probably a bit suprised by how big it was. I, personally, find way too many things that I want! A lot of things I think will be nice to have once the kiddos are older and I have to worry less about them all getting broken. The main part of the trip was getting dressers.

We needed to either get a dresser for the new baby, or one for O. However, we decided to get them each one and taken O's little dresser and put it in the guest room so now our guests will have a place to put some stuff! We got baby this dresser, O's is the same in a ash color.



I also got some drawer organizers for baby since all of her stuff will be so small it may be nice to have it a bit more organized right now!

We did buy one additional thing - I have been wanting a shelf type unit for the master for our towels, but was having a hard time finding something that would work, look nice and wasn't way too expensive. While we were there we found this:



At first we were unsure if we could fit this into our cars as it wasn't needing near as much assembly as our dressers, but with some adjustment and my backseat going down, we got it!

Hopefully next week we will look into paint for the baby's room. Not sure yet if we will do two shades of purple or purple on the top half with green (maybe pink) on the bottom. But I have found one border that I like so far to put between that wasn't near as pricey as the rest:



What do you think? Both color wise and border?

Oh my! Lots of cute girlie things!

I can't believe how many cute girle things there are out there! I started registering for a few items and couldn't keep myself from adding a few of the adorable clothes to the registry. Unfortunately, can't seem to save the pictures from Target.com and post them here, argh!

We are looking at actually painting the baby's room here soon, well, B. is looking at painting it soon since I won't be able to. Thinking dark purple on the bottom and light purple on top with a butterfly like border in the middle.

Working on her blanket - probably a bit over halfway done with it. Hopefully will get it done soon so I won't have it on me once it starts getting warmer!!

Tough Day Emotionally

Let me start with saying how thankful I really am. I am very lucky to have such a great family both immediate and extended, great friends, a job I enjoy and my health. I am very excited about becoming a Mom again in a few months.

So why is today so hard for me? Why can't I stop thinking about it? Even though I have fully physically and primarily emotionally recovered, I can't help but think about what could have been. Today is the day that I could have been becoming a mother again. While I am very excited about my current pregnancy and my little girl that is coming in June, I can't help but think about the child that I lost so early on. I don't think it is wrong of me to remember that child as that child is with God, but remembering that child is also helping me to be appreciative of what I do have in my life and about how fragile life really is.

So with that said, I hope all my friends and family know how much they mean to me. Their love and support are irreplaceable.

Baby Appointment Update

On Friday morning, I had another ultrasound and doctor's appointment. The ultrasound went well and she is still a she! Everything from what I could tell and the impression I got was that she was doing well and there weren't concerns.

At my doctor's appointment, found out I had lost 3 lbs in the last 5 weeks. I wasn't feeling well (tummy bug) earlier in the week, so I'm going to contribute the weightloss to that. No one seemed concerned about it. I was seeing a different doctor this time and I even liked him better. He looked up and asked me questions about my past history without my even having to bring it up. He would (right now) schedule the c-section for June 11th - my Mom's birthday.

I have to go to my pre-admission orientation before next time and I received the fun orange drink for the gestational diabetes test when I come in next. As I left, the doctor stopped me in the hall and said he didn't have any real concerns with the ultrasounds except that she was a little on the small side (36.1) and that he wanted to do another ultrasound at my next appointment to make sure that her growth stays on track. I am less concerned about her being "small" as she measure about 6 days behind from the beginning and they never adjusted my due date. So we'll see and hope that her growth stays on track or they may have to lengthen my pregnancy time.

Oh Baby!

I have been very excited about this baby being a girl - I have managed to only buy a couple of cute onesies so far - hoping to find someone to trade some boy clothes to for some girl clothes so that we can both save some $.

Started making the baby's afghan - made of squares with a mix of solid squares and multi-colored squares in each combo. Trying to get this done in plenty of time so that I'm not making an afghan once it gets hot!

Needing to look into either getting O. a new dresser or finding one for the baby's room. Hoping to keep an eye out on craigs list and garage sales.

The only bad thing our little baby has brought on is bills - I didn't realize that my obgyn would have us making payments before the baby was born, but I guess that makes sense. Just wish I'd have my tax refund done to help with it all. Beginning to wonder how we'll make it financially, and has me wondering how anyone makes it financially!!

Work is awfully stressful right now, but should die down some come the first of March or so. Just have lots of research things and "proving my worth" things on my plate right now, in addition to a student issue that I have to work through very quickly.

So for now, definitely needing to take this one day at a time!

It's a ...

Was very excited about the big ultrasound today. We wanted to find out the gender so I thought I'd eat a bit of sugar to make sure the baby would move around and hopefully cooperate. We were able to find out right away that the baby is a GIRL!!!

Here is a badly scanned pic of her sucking her thumb!



However, the sugar also worked against me - she wouldn't cooperate enough to get a couple of pics/measurements that they needed, so they will be doing another ultrasound on the 26th of February. At least I'll get another peek!

A bit of a scare

Wednesday night, I slipped when walking down my stairs at home and fell down on my butt then continued to go down about 8 more stairs on my butt! I sat there for a minute in shock wondering if that really just happened. My son, O., said "Mommy, are you ok?" as he was lying in bed (had just laid him down for the night). I said, "yes honey, mommy is ok." I didn't know if I should call the doctor - I didn't really hurt all that bad, the stairs had carpet,... I did finally call on Thursday and they asked me a few questions, consulted the doctor, and told me to come in on Friday for a quick ultrasound just to check (especially as I had not felt the baby move yet!) I was a little concerned that they wanted to see me, but decided that if it could wait until the next day in their minds, they weren't too worried.

I went to the doctor's early this afternoon and found out everything is great. The baby looks good, the placenta and umbilical cord are fine, and now I was emotionally ok as well. The tech said that my placenta is attached in front giving a "cushion" which may make it harder for me to feel that baby - and that I'd enjoy that "cushion" later!

Since my hubby wasn't there, we're waiting to do the real ultrasound next Friday still - he is able to get an hour or so off of work to come!!

Baby appointment

I had another check-up for the baby yesterday. I am about 18 weeks pregnant right now. After the holiday season packed with lots of good food I gained 4 pounds since last time which puts be at a total weight gain of 0 lbs. (I had lost 4 pounds the time before!). Neither myself, nor the doctor, are worried about this since I was bigger to begin with. I still have another 21 weeks or so to go depending on when we schedule the c-section - my goal is on a Friday if nothing else.

I look forward to every doctor's appointment just to hear the heartbeat right now. I think I felt the baby move last week, but not positive if that is what that feeling was! My blood pressure was good (115/75 - a bit high for me though!) The doctor keeps reminding me not to worry. I'll really feel the baby soon enough and then I'll wish they'd leave me alone!

We scheduled the ultrasound for 1/29. Disappointed at the time scheduling - they didn't have anything in the afternoon so B can't be there. I'm actually sort of angry about this - not everyone can work mornings into their schedule and he just can't take off from work 3 hours early or go to work 3 hours late! How frustrating. He's going to ask his boss if he can get an hour or so off to go - but only as long as it doesn't count against him!

Then my next doctor's appointment is on 2/17. After this appointment I'll be doing the glucose test...yuck!

On a funny note - I've only told 1 of my 4 classes that I'm pregnant. I wonder how long it will take before someone in the other 3 classes ask...(though I'd never want to ask someone that question!)

Baby update - not much to tell

Today I am about 17 weeks along with the pregnancy. Even though that is a ways into things, I can't help but still worry. I haven't felt the baby (that I know of) yet and that makes me nervous. They say most feel by 18 weeks if it isn't their first and I know that since I had more "padding" to begin with it makes it harder too. So I must say that I am looking forward to my appointment on Tuesday to hear the heartbeat again and to reassure me that things are going ok! (Maybe I should just buy one of those dopplers so I can listen whenever I need reassurance)

I am sort of between clothes right now. If you were to say I'm showing, it would be above the belly button, not below. So most of this week I was still able to wear my regular pants - but they are getting a bit too snug for me. So today I wore a pair of my maternity jeans and I had to constantly pull them up. I could invest if one of those belly bands, but by the time I get one, I'm sure I'll be into maternity jeans just fine :)

Hoping that at the next appointment we schedule the "big" ultrasound. Really hoping that the baby cooperates so that we can find out if it is a boy or girl. With already having a boy, and for many more complex reasons, we would like to find out so we can plan accordingly, especially since we're banking that this is our last chance for a child.


I'll try to remember to post after my appointment on Tuesday. Keep us in your prayers please!