Two Months

I guess it's pretty obvious I am not one of those that can hold a baby and update my blog! I am finally learning how to accomplish things in small blocks of time. Quinn is doing awesome. We are very lucky, indeed. She is sweet natured, calm, happy, healthy and cute as a button. Did I mention that she has been sleeping through the night since she was about 6 weeks old? I told you we were lucky. She had her 2-month doctor's visit and weighed in at a scale-tipping 12 pounds 15 ounces. That puts her somewhere between the 75-90 percentile. Enfamil mailed me some free formula and in the package they had a chart to show how much your baby "should be eating". It said between 2-4 ounces every 2-4 hours. Ah, I don't think so. She is drinking 7 ounces every feeding. I guess that explains the 75-90 percentile.

She smiles all the time, is trying really hard to talk and is getting the hang of holding her head up. I have to admit I am having a grand old time with all of the cute clothes, socks, shoes and hair bows. I am going to post "a few" pictures over the most 2 months since she has changed so much since these last pictures I posted.

I will try to update more regularly though I know I have said that plenty of times before. Thanks for checking in with us. Much happiness here.

2 Weeks Old:

3 Weeks Old:

4 Weeks Old:

5 Weeks Old:

6 Weeks Old:

7 Weeks Old:

8 Weeks Old:

9 Weeks:

One Week Old

Everything went really well on Tuesday at the hospital when we all met for April to sign the consents and say goodbye. I had such a huge knot in my stomach, not because I thought she would change her mind but just because of how life changing the whole moment was. I held it together while giving her a necklace (3 hearts connected) but once I hugged her and said "thank you" I had to do everything in my power not to totally choke on my sobs. We both wrote notes to each other and we both asked the other to read them later.

Quinn is one week old today. Considering I am a first time mom caring for a newborn in a hotel room by myself, I think things are going surprisingly well. It certainly helps that Quinn is such a good natured baby. I am getting the hang of only getting to sleep in 2 and 3 hour increments. I am not a pro at diapering yet (especially the poopy ones) but at least now it doesn't feel so awkward. Speaking of poopy diapers we already had a minor blow out. Ah, the joys of motherhood. I know the "professionals" say that babies only smile because they have gas but Quinn smiles consistently in response to me smiling, me singing (obviously she is tone deaf) and she really smiles when I kiss on her neck. That's one of her faves. Did I mention she is cute as all get out?

I think I am going to be here until Friday and quite possibly through next weekend. My husband is beside himself. He had to go back to work Wednesday morning and is missing us so badly. Having to work for a living is really an inconvenience sometimes.

Thank you all for your well wishes. It is so meaningful to have people who have been reading my blog since 2007 be able to share in us finally realizing our dream to adopt. It feels awesome.

Finally!

Quinn was WAY too independent to share a birthday with a stinkin' national holiday so she waited until today to be born. She was born at 8:13 a.m. weighing 8 pounds and 4.25 ounces and she is 21 inches long. We were able to be in the delivery room with April and I actually got to cut the cord. Poor Shon almost passed out twice (hence me cutting the cord). She is healthy (although they predict jaundice because of some positive test though she isn't showing signs yet) and has all the appropriate parts, including a full head of hair. She already looks different than these pictures that I took this morning.

April is amazing. She gave birth without one drop of any kind of drugs and didn't let out one single scream. She is in a little pain but didn't need an episiotomy so she doesn't have any stitches. She seems in good spirits and has referred to us as "the parents" already. The next 48 hours (until she can sign consents) will probably be some of the longest of our lives although the last few have gone by pretty darn fast.

I will write a little more coherently later. I am going to take a nap and then head back to the hospital for a few hours.

Baby Watch Update #3

April has a doctor's appointment at 8:20 tomorrow morning and has asked that I meet her there. She is going to ask the doctor to schedule a C-section. She thinks that the baby is very big and if they try to induce her that she will labor long and hard and then end up having to have a C-section anyway. I hope that he will go ahead and schedule something tomorrow (induction/c-section). I know April is reaching the end of her patience rope and is really, really anxious to get on with things. I promise I will update here as soon as I learn something.

Baby Watch Update #2

We decided to fly to Florida yesterday.

We tried to pack light.

We figured April would deliver or be induced in the next few days anyway and it was making us crazy waiting around at home. Now we are in a hotel room that overlooks the hospital. We could walk over if we needed to.

April is going to call her doctor on Monday and try to schedule an appointment to talk to him again about being induced. She asked if I would like to go with her! I am very excited and touched by the offer. I will find out some time tomorrow morning when she was able to get an appointment.

Last night we went to a cute little restaurant that overlooks a like. Shon ordered fish and chips. Turns out one of his pieces of fish was very fish-like.

Yes, this is the kinds of things we notice.

Houston was having a ridiculous heat wave when we left and it's so much cooler here. Who'd think you had to fly from Texas to Florida to find some cool weather (cool is 92 degrees).

More info soon.

Baby Watch Update

Sunday we got a call that April "lost her mucous plug" (gack on that term) and that with her last two pregnancies she delivered within a week of losing it. She had her doctor's appointment today and was told the baby needed to come down some more. He didn't say anything about being dilated or not. She asked to be induced and he told her he wasn't comfortable with it. He said that he expected her to deliver before her appointment next week (on July 1 - her due date) but if she hadn't delivered her would talk to her about inducing then. So we are patiently (yeah, right) waiting here.

I don't know if I mentioned before that my parents are living with us right now. They put their house on the market because they kindly offered to live in our house while we were in Kuwait. They received an offer on their house 10 days after they put it on the market and closed on June 5. We STILL don't know if we are going to Kuwait but now it seems more likely we won't go. I have really enjoyed having them here as has my husband. We are lucky that we have a house that seems to accommodate 2 families very well. My dad has been doing a lot of the cooking and grocery shopping, which has been great and I have really enjoyed the company. Also, having my mom here when I bring home a newborn won't be a bad thing. I am hoping we don't go to Kuwait because that would be my preference because of having a newborn and all. If we do get the offer then it will be the 3 of us off on our Arabian Adventure.

My mom told me yesterday that she felt like it was me that was expecting because we are all uptight every time the phone rings. It's like you get this build up and then a let down. It's been pretty crazy around here although yesterday I was so bored I almost slipped into a coma. Today I have some errands to run and some activities to keep me busy. Tomorrow I am getting my color done (see ya gray hair) and some highlights. Anyone want to bet that I get the call when I have a head full of tin foil? Anyone want to hazard a guess on what day they think the baby will be born? Earlier this week I was really "feeling" it was going to be Thursday or Friday but today I am not getting anything. I guess my signals must be jammed. I think it would be awesome if she was born on Friday (June 26th) because it would be the same day that our referral from Vietnam was born, just two years later. That would be pretty cool.

Edited to add: What's up with all the italics today?

No Baby Today

Crap. April went to the doctor this morning and he said "see you next week"!? WTF? I don't have many details except he decided not to induce this week. I guess he's not too worried about that being a 14 pound baby anymore. Her caseworker hasn't spoken with her directly yet so I am hoping after she does I will have a few more details of how he got from being so sure the baby was going to be huge and wanting to induce to just scheduling another appointment in a week. I am still keeping my fingers crossed that he will decide to induce next week (she will be 1 week out from her due date by then) so we can at least have a little notice to get there in time for the birth. Now I am back to having my stomach do a back flip every time my cell phone rings.

Sign me as pins and needles in H-town.