Photos with Cousin Keaton

Dalan's cousin, Rob, along with his wife Jen and baby Keaton, from Texas are in town this weekend. Hooray! Keaton and Quinn should have been born a month and half apart, but instead are five months apart. However, Keaton outweighs by about five pounds, and has a mouthful of teeth. Today, we took our 2010 babies to get their photos done together. Keaton was a pro. He posed and was well behaved. Quinn, on the other hand, was a little more, um, "unfocused." She was much more interested in climbing on things, crawling away from the camera, etc. Luckily, we still got some fabulous photos. Here are some of my favorites of the little ones.

Winnie the Pooh

We took Quinn to her first movie, Winnie the Pooh, in the theater yesterday. She was so well behaved. She sat quietly for the most part and played with a straw or a toy. She loved the previews the most, and cheered excitedly about a movie called, Arthur Christmas. She fell asleep about an hour into the movie experience, and Dalan and I finished the movie, which we quite enjoyed. It was cute and sweet. Maybe Quinn can ask Santa for it for Christmas. We are hoping her fabulous behavior was a preview of how she will act on the airplane in a couple of weeks.

In honor of Quinnie seeing Winnie on the big screen, I thought I would do another comparison of Quinn and her stuffed animal.

September 7, 2010



February 11, 2011



July 21, 2011


And here are several of outtakes. Quinn was less than cooperative with my comparison photo session. I hope this is NOT of preview of her behavior tomorrow when she gets her picture taken with her cousin.

Recipe for Disaster

Tonight, we whipped up a recipe (for disaster) that I am sure that most other parents have made, or at least made a similar version. At least I hope they have, in order to make myself feel better.

Ingredients:

2 hungry parents
1 Chili's gift card
1 strong-willed and spirited 13 month old.
A dash of embarrassment
A dash of amusement

Steps:

1. Put the 13 month old into the high chair. She should insisted on licking the table. The more the you move her away or put your hand in the way, she should get louder and more upset.

2. Move the 13 month old so far away from the table, that she can't lick it at all. She should then start to escape from the high chair. This will include leaning over, and using all 16 pounds of herself to propel up and out of the chair.

3. Take the 13 month old out of the highchair for her safety. Whisper in her ear that she needs to be calm, and have positive behavior. She will scream in rebellion every time. This will make the mom giggle. She can't help herself.

4. The dad will take the 13 month old for a walk, and to get some puffs from the car. The 13 month old will return in a calm mood. The dad should keep giving the baby puffs. She loves them. She is quiet. The parents start to eat their food.

5. The 13 month old should now gag on a puff. The 13 month old should ideally have a very sensitive gag reflex. Because of her said reflex, the 13 month old will now spit up all over herself, her dad's leg, and most importantly, Chili's floor.

6. The mom will rush over and try to clean up the dad and the 13 month old with baby wipes. The spit up will be dripping down the dad's leg.

7. Dad will take the 13 month old back to the car.

8. Mom will clean up spit up from the Chili's floor. Best to not attract too much attention to yourself.

9. Get two to go boxes, and pay the bill as quickly as possible.

10. Finish dinner at home after the 13 month old and dad have had a chance to clean up. Eat outside. Noise and other bodily fluids don't hurt anything when you are outside. The finished product will look something like this....



Important to note: The recipe really won't work without this key ingredient. No substitutions!

Foodie

Here is another comparison to Quinn at birth....a bag of pretzels. This bag is half an ounce (15 grams) lighter than Quinn, and was a little longer so I folded down the top a bit, but still very close, and hard to imagine my wee wee wee little babe.


Quinn has also decided that she prefers to drink her "solid" baby food, which is ironic since she hates to drink her bottle. She will drink it from a little bowl/cup, the jar, or these pouches I have been buying for this exact purpose. She consumes about double the amount if you let her drink it rather than spoon feed her. She is nuts, and knows what she likes. Her hair is also wild and crazy all the time now unless contained in some sort of hair tie.


Finally, off the subject, I need some advice. Quinn. hates. her. bath. SERIOUSLY. Like with a burning passion in her soul. She may be scared, or just hates it. I don't know why, but I do know bath time is miserable. She just screams! And cries! And growls and hisses like a velociraptor! She doesn't want to play, she doesn't want to sit or stand. She just wants out. We have tried adjusting the water temperature. We have tried filling the tub with her out of the room, thinking the noise scared her. I tried showering with her tonight, which was a little better. If by better, you consider her whining while clinging to me to dear life, and then refusing to be put down for like 15 minutes after because she is still scared as better. I have not tried taking a bath with her yet. That is next. I dread giving her a bath. We let her get to the point of being practically filthy before bathing her in fear of the bath. Plus then it is so hard to get her clean because of the total melt down happening. Any suggestions?

Not at all my night

1. I have allergies or a cold. I was thinking allergies, but now I am not so sure. Either way, a runny nose is not fun. Quinn's nose is also slightly runny, but she could be teething.

2. Quinn has decided that sleeping in her crib is for suckers times 100. She used to fall asleep and stay asleep in under seven minutes. Now, it can take up to an hour to get her to sleep in the first place. And she wakes up like a feral cat. (Or wolf....Romulus, anyone?) She is all arched over on her back, bright red, and screaming. She doesn't even look like herself. We do this at least two times a night. She used to just wake up, need her binkie, and go back to sleep. She now requires a lengthy rocking session, or a cuddle session on the couch.

I guess we need to do some sleep training. However, I am hesitant to let her cry it out for a few reasons. If she moves too much her pulse-ox. monitor goes off, and I have to at least look in on her anyway. She can pull herself up on the bars on her crib, and I am afraid her hurting herself in an attempted escape. She is hooked up to two sets of wires/tubing and I don't want her pulling her g tube out/ get all tangled up. Which leads me to my next point....

3. I pulled her g tube button, balloon inflated and all, out tonight. I went to put her in her crib, got the tubing caught on her railing (because I am barely tall enough to get her in to her crib, I really have to reach to get her in there), and heard a pop. Even though I had never heard that sound before, I knew it was bad news bears. Quinn cried, but stopped immediately when I picked her back up. Leading me to believe the cry was about cribs being for suckers, not about any sort of pain. Ran down stairs, got the necessary supplies, and put her button back in as stomach milk (grossest thing ever) spurted out of the open tubing all over the place. It was awful for me. Quinn was never too bothered. Quinn then thought it was time to party, but quickly calmed down, and actually went into a deep enough sleep, that I put her successfully in her crib!

4. Quinn's monitor just alarmed like crazy. It was telling me "sensor off", even though it is clearly on. I fixed it for now. Usually, to really fix those types of malfunctions, you need to take the sensor off her foot, and reattach it or get a new one. And you always wake up the baby in doing so. And there is no way in hell I want to risk that right now. However, I will probably end up having to do it right around one am. It really is going to be one of those nights!

A list

1. Tubie is giving us some trouble. The skin around the tube keeps trying to grow out from around the tube. We have had it "burned" off twice (like a wart), but it keeps coming back. I am going to have to call and schedule an appointment with the surgeon to have it cut off. Yuck!



2. Quinn is crawling. all. over. the. place. First, she crawled for socks. Then she crawled for other items. Then my mom bought her this musical aquarium thing at the consignment sale, and she really crawled for it. And then she was unstoppable.



3. Quinn is trying to pull herself up on all the furniture, but she is too short. Poor shorty.



4. I bought 20 items for $34.00 at the consignment sale, including a pair of $40 shoes for $1.00! Score. I had a blast with Ali, Patti, Kellie, Raegan, Scott, and Sierra.



5. Quinn also has some sort of rash. Grrrr! I hate dealing with doctors more than necessary. Or really at all. The less we see doctors the happier I am!


6. Quinn went a week without oxygen. So, I took off her dots. She needed her oxygen last night. Of course. We are getting close.


7. I am so mad about the measles outbreak in SLC. "Childhood" diseases are dangerous, and it just irks me to no end when people don't immunize their kids, and put babies and the elderly at risk.

...no picture here....

8. Our fund-raising for the March for Babies is going really well. We have raised 20% of our goal! Keep those donations coming, or come walk with us. It is for premature babies after all. My class is trying to raise 100 dimes for the walk. They are so excited about it!



9. Quinn is sleeping on my arm. I want to put her down, so I can keep typing, but she will probably wake up, and then I won't be able to finish at all.



10. Bottle feeding is going no better. Solids are going well. We are working on the sippy cup.

A Perfect 10!

Dear Quinn,


10 months old! Hip hip hooray! You are in double digits now. That is incredible, amazing, and mind boggling! But not surprising, since you are all those things.....incredible, amazing, and sometimes mind boggling.



Milestones and other happenings this month:

1. Rolling. You are rolling all over the place. You never stay in one place for long.
2. Crawling. You are so close to crawling all over the place. You just forget to move your arms....funny girl.
3. Surgery. You handled like a champ. Again not surprising. You endured much worse things when you were much, much smaller.
4. Teething. You have one, possibly two, little teeth trying to pop out on the bottom middle. I was trying to tell you to do while you were getting the "good" drugs in the hospital, but no such luck.
5. Sitting. You are sitting pretty reliably, and look so cute doing so.


6. Playing. You love toys, especially your kitchen, your walker (although you are nowhere close to being able to reach the floor), your keys, remotes, phones, your rings, and anything that sings or makes noise.
7. Books. You love to be read to and enjoy looking and listening to stories.
8. Eating. Sigh. Still not great. Hopefully tubie will help in this department.
9. Babbling. You talk all the time, and are starting to make more consonant sounds. You might be saying dada before we know it.
10. Singing. You also sing all the time. You wake up singing in the middle of the night. You love Pat-a-Cake, and can roll your hands, and are working on the clapping.

(Dad put your arms in your leg holes, and your legs in your arm holes today. You thought it was hilarious.)

11. Temperment. You are happy and laid back. You have opinions, but usually will just go with the flow as long as you can have fun doing it. You are easily comforted, and love to smile and giggle. (Even the nurse commented on your easy going nature.)
12. Hair. Coming in nicely. You still have the most/longest/thickest right up front, and it is coming in a nice light brown. It looks so pretty with your bright blue eyes.
13. Clothes. You wear 3-6 months in most things. You can only wear 3-6 month leggings, not regular pants yet, but that works, because leggings are so in right now.
14. Body. You are still teeny tiny. But you are getting longer, just not wider. You switched from when you came home from the NICU, when you were short and wide. Now you are long (kind of) and lean. You are the same size as your BFF Odessa, of course, she is quite a bit younger. It is pretty adorable.
15. Sleep. You are a great sleeper, and still super easy to get to sleep at night. You still just take cat naps, but you easily sleep 12 hours at night, with waking up once or twice. We'll have to see what happens with your new eating schedule.
16. General Craziness. You have this down perfectly. You are wild and silly. You love to throw your body around, and do anything fun or crazy.



We love you so much!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

Grumpiest. Face. Ever.

Solids and other updates

Quinn has been doing fairly well with solids. She likes yams, squash, and apples the best. We just introduced pears, and she loved them. She thinks sweet potatoes (yams are orange, sweet potatoes are white) and avocados are ok. She does not like carrots. She is eating every three hours right now, so she takes less volume, and hopefully spits up less. The good news is that the new eating plan is helping with the spitting, but it makes getting to her solids difficult, and sometimes impossible. That is too bad, because she likes her solids! However, between taking a bottle/getting the rest in her tube, naps, visitors, play time, etc, sometimes solids just don't fit into the agenda.

These photos are a couple of weeks old, but I just got them off Dalan's phone, and I think she looks so cute sitting in her high chair, like a big girl....


Quinn's bottle feeding is still going poorly. She has good and bad days. She has been congested (Maybe a cold, but I think it is because she has been on room air during the day, and oxygen during the night, and the switching back and forth is drying her sinuses out.) and that has negatively impacted her eating. So, positive eating vibes are much appreciated.

Speaking of her oxygen needs, she is in the weird in between stage. If we don't have her on oxygen during the night her levels go too low. If we have her on oxygen her levels go too high. Since her eyes are mature, amongst other reasons, it is better to be too high than too low, but being too high mean her machine "alarms" all night long. I slept on the couch in her room last night for several hours, silencing her machine every couple minutes. It was miserable.

yum yum yams

This little girl hates her bottle, but she loves yams!

This week has been better with the bottles and spitting though. Hopefully, this is a sign of things to come. Keep sending Quinn those eating vibes!

Woombie

Quinn likes to be swaddled, but we lack a good swaddling blanket. All the ones we have are either too small or too large. Ali found this product, the Woombie, that is like a swaddle/straight jacket for babies. It was a little too much money from the actual Woombie site to try out for my liking, but then it was on babyhalfoff.com a few weeks later, so I got one. We tried it out this week to mixed results. Quinn seemed to like being so snug in the tight, stretchy material, but hated not having access to her hands. It was like torture. I think it would have been better if we would have started it from the beginning rather than 6 months later. I am going to give it one more try, and possibly pass it on to my friend Sierra who is due in two weeks!

Here I'll let the photos tell the true story of our Woombie attempt:

First moments in the Woombie....she is doing alright.

Then, she quickly fell asleep.
You can see her trying to have her hands against her face.

Next, she totally freaked out...no photos of that.

Then she quickly fell back to sleep, unzipped, but still in the Woombie.

So, I zipped it almost all the way up, but left her hands free.

And put her back in her crib....

And she slept for about an half an hour until her hands got stuck, and she freaked out. I got her back to sleep for about another hour until her hands got stuck, and she freaked out. So, I changed her into some normal jammies. We'll try again later this week, and let you know.

The face of addiction

We all know Quinn loves, loves, loves her binkie! However, once we started limiting her binkie time to see if she would eat better (it didn't make a difference), she started sucking/chewing on her hands. Also, it is a normal developmental step for a baby of her adjusted age. However, her hands just don't satisfy her the same as her binkie does, so she often gets totally frustrated. It is not uncommon that she will end up sucking on her nasal cannula for her oxygen, or pulling her feeding tube out (all while leaving it taped to her face.)

Here is the adorably frustrated face of a binkie addict:

Hot Mess

The other day, Quinn pulled out her feeding tube right in front of Ali and me as we returned from a Target run. Then as she was playing on her mat, she would not keep her prongs in her nose. It was ok, she was on room air anyway, so we tucked them under her chin until we could get her all re-taped after her bath. She does love to stare at her bird and Winnie, even if it means going a little cross-eyed.