Lauren Gets to Hold Brother

With her illness, we have been keeping Lauren away from touching Quinn. We decided it was time for her to finally get to hold him. Here's the momentus occasion caught on video. She loves "brother" and is really interested in him. We look forward to them being good friends.

Backpack, Backpack

Lauren's favorite new accessory? Her pink backpack, which she wants to wear all day. She is finally past her fever and her cough is getting better too. She was diagnosed with a mild RSV earlier last week when we came home from the hospital. The backpack has been a great comfort item to her as she has had to be mostly quarantined from the baby.

Quinn Two Weeks

Quinn 2 Weeks Stats:

7 lbs. 4 oz. - 12%
19.5 inches - 11%

We are grateful Quinn is growing and eating well. He is a sweet baby who loves to be held. It's hard not to indulge him. His eyes are starting to look more brown, so mom might actually have a trait that passed on to one of her kids.

Schroeders and Grandpa stopped in to meet him last Sunday when they were passing through Salt Lake.

Quinn Comes Home

Quinn (and mommy) came home Monday night after a few extra days in the hospital to get him deciding he wanted to eat without a feeding tube. He also had to be under the lights for a day for jaundice. He went home having gained some weight at 6 lbs 5 oz and by yesterday morning when we went to the pediatrician and he was already 6 lbs. 10 oz, so we are getting back up to birth weight fast.

I was discharged on Saturday, but was able to stay at the hospital in a guest room so I could be with the baby. It was hard to try and recover from the c-section doing things on my own and walking back and forth to the nursery. I was happy to be home and to try and make up for overdoing it over the weekend. The recovery is a little slower this time because of that, but worth it.

Being home is already great. Jay is being an incredible helper and gets up to get the baby for me and change his diaper. Fof is here to help with Lauren who came down with a cold and fever that has persisted for the past few days. She is so excited to see baby brother, but we have had to keep her away from the baby. It is sad but we know they will be great friends in time.

Jay brought an outfit to bring him home that was huge. It was so funny.

Thanks to wonderful friends and neighbors and Fof, Jay was able to come to the hospital for a few hours every night to see us.

Sunbathing under the lights. He was the only baby in the nursery not crying under the lights. The nurses loved him.

Shaunie and Bart came to visit. Quinn will love them.

Welcome Quinn Douglas

Quinn Douglas arrived March 2 at around 8:30 a.m. He is 6 lbs. 11 oz. and is 19.5" long.

He looks a lot like Lauren did as a baby:

Quinn (above) Lauren (below)

The delivery went well, but was a little traumatic leading up to it just because I hate IVs and they had to do it twice and then the spinal was scary. I think this one was worse leading up to it than having it all done in emergency mode like Lauren. Jay, I'm sure preferred this way. He was amazing and kept me calm and focused on my breathing and his voice - he kicked into paramedic mode and was so wonderful. I couldn't have done it without him.

The surgery was only about 30 minutes. Quinn was put in the NICU as soon as they pulled him out (they showed him to us for a second) and got his echo to get a look at his heart, which appears to have no other issues besides the hole we'll fix later. I've had just about 20 minutes with him so far, but Jay was able to see him a few more times while I slept. I'm not as mobile yet. He is doing so well that they are going to move him into the well-baby nursery this afternoon and we'll be able to see him a lot more. The NICU nurses all say how cute and calm he is when we call.

Quinn's first visitors - the 17th grandchild for Fof and Painho!

I was able to get in a wheelchair this morning and go see him another time. We are glad he made it safe and sound and that he is ours. We can't wait for Lauren to meet Baby Brother too.

D-Day Distractions

It's 3 a.m. I'm giving birth in four hours. Jay will be there this time. I will be conscious. By all accounts, I should be excited, but instead I can't sleep and have had nightmares of everything that could go wrong for the past several days. Jay and friends seeing my anxiety have been trying to keep me distracted. Some of those distractions:

• Work
• Talking to the Mayor at the West-Davis Corridor Study Meeting (did you know they want to extend Legacy through Buffalo Ranch, two streets away from our house?!)
• Playing with Allison and Jack
• Lauren and Mommy's Day of Fun (see post)
• Hanging out with Fof and Painho
• Seeing "Kiss Me Kate" - one of my favorites - at Roger's with Shannon and Monet
• Having a family get-together for Joe's birthday
• Cooking (I have a ton of freezer meals) and cleaning
• Dinner and Olympics with the Wilsons
• Grocery shopping
• Watching the Olympics
• Blessing from Jay
• Ice cream bar from Costco
• Getting 2-year-old pictures taken of Lauren at JCP
• An extra long shower, including manuevering to shave my legs after a month
• Nine-thirty showing of Sherlock Holmes with Bec and Chris
• Putting new music on Jay's i-pod for the hospital
• Blogging

Unfortunately not on the list - Sleep. Next post should be photos of the little guy.

Lauren and Mommy's Day of Fun

With a scheduled c-section tomorrow, I took the day off to spend time with Lauren. One of my worries since learning we were pregnant was the thought of disrupting the special bond her and I share - especially as she has gotten older and is talking and showing so much cute personality. I'm going to be sad to not see her for the week (kids can't come to the hospital because of swine flu) and then to try and help her understand why I can't show all my attention to her anymore when I'm home. We'll work through it, but I was glad to have a day to do some fun things with her.

We started the day watching Tigger and Pooh together and then had waffles (thanks, Daddy!) and a bubble bath - all favorites of bugaboo. We met up with Shannon and Stirling to go to Thanksgiving Point and ride the horse at Farm Country and then did the Dinosaur Museum where she loves playing in the erosion table and sand pit. We came home after ice cream in the Deli and tried a nap, which didn't last long enough. We met Fof and Grandpa for Cafe Rio (and a quesadilla, which she said so cute) and then came back to the house to play catch with the balloon, which I'm told is an advanced trait for a two-year-old. She is showing great athletic hand-eye coordination apparently, so look out!

I started to put her down for bed with the usual program, but she didn't want songs tonight. It was so sad, but good at the same time, cause I've been close to tears putting her down for the past few nights as I think that I won't be able to do it for a few days and how our lives are going to change. I'm glad we had this day together. She was exhausted.

Here's some photos (remember, I'm 9-months pregnant):