Had Ourselves a Quinny (& Thrushy) Little Christmas...

So, Christmas has come and gone. I'm guessing everyone has figured out at this point that Quinn has had a rough run of it with thrush. For those of you who are fortunate enough not to know what thrush is, it's basically a yeast infection of the mouth. Quinn came down with it on Monday and apparently has a reasonably severe case. It causes him to have sores in his mouth which is rotten enough, but considering that the sores make it hard for him to eat from a bottle, it has been a pretty unpleasant experience. He's getting better, but the doctor (who I called on a daily basis at least once for the first few days :-) said it could take 2 weeks to clear up. It's hard as of course he doesn't understand what is going on, but is in some pretty bad pain at times. And the medicine and just being sick has made him tired which made it really hard to keep him awake during Christmas festivities.
He did get spoiled rotten on Christmas with lots of presents from his Grandmother, Granddaddy, Grandma Connie, Great Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, Great Aunts, and countless others. Thank you to everyone. We're so lucky that he has so many people to love him so much. He slept through a lot of the present opening (I think mostly because he's a newborn, but I still blame the stupid thrush!), but we know he'll enjoy all of his gifts, especially the toys, soon!
On the upside, Quinn is on the mend though and when his Auntie Michelle came over today to visit and have a belated visit (there are no pix from that visit on this post) he actually was alert a lot of the time. He and I spent some quality time with him hanging out on my legs checking out reflections in the window, he had tummy time with Grandma Connie AND he enjoyed a Christmas concert performed by his Auntie Michelle (including one of her Christmas faves, much to my chagrin, "Hard Candy Christmas".). He's amazing and growing and changing every day and I'll be glad when he can enjoy things a little more as feeling icky has made him a little cranky.
Anyway, here are some pix from Christmas and such.. hope you enjoy!



Here's Quinn sporting his outfit that Kari, Craig and Corbin gave him... He did have some problem with his pants riding a little low, but he'll grow into them soon enough...



















Grandma Connie and Quinn enjoying a bottle in the sunshine!












Sarah and Kevin were in from Knoxville and came by to meet Quinn. It was sooo good to see them! I've missed S a lot since she's been in law school and not in Nashville. Hopefully we'll get to visit them soon!








Garcia is exhausted from having a new brother. Actually I think it is probably from following me and his brother and his grandma around the house, but either way, he's cute!












Darwin is also exhausted. At least part of that is because he follows everyone around begging for food all the time. Turkey!













We thought we'd get a picture of Quinn with all of the presents. As you can tell, he didn't feel particuarly cooperative at that point, so we quickly abandoned that plan...













My mom and I were considerably more cooperative than Quinn was :-)












As were Turner and I... It'd be scary if we were showing everyone our tonsils!










A shot of D giving the Kung Fu Puppies that he and Cia got from Aunt Regina and Uncle Chris a hair cut (D likes to pull the tips of stuffed animal furs hair off, I have no idea why). You'll note that he has BOTH Kung Fu Puppies. That's in part because Darwin was hoarding ALL of the toys and growling at Garcia and not letting him have any and in part because when Kung Fu Puppy makes his karate chop sounds it scares Garcia :-)




Sweet Christmas puppy waiting for Santa










Quinn and I opening his presents on Christmas day (yes, he's kind of in a milk coma :-) Still he was a part of it all and I have to say for myself it was my best Christmas yet. The gifts were great and more than that, I am so fortunate to have a wonderful husband and perfect baby and (mostly) good dogs and an incredible family and great framily and rockin' friends to boot. Thanks to all of you because more or less, if you read the blog I'm pretty sure you fall into one or more of the categories above!



Love,
Jessica

Merry Christmas to All... (A longer post to come soon, I promise!...)

Quinn and I opening his stocking. Apparently the burp cloths Santa brought him were the most exciting as it is the only picture in which his eyes are open :-)

And some of the excitement he displayed when opening presents. Granted, he was multi-tasking by having tummy time at the same time, so you can see how a guy would get tired out....

Hello, all!

Just thought I'd put up a quick post to say Merry Christmas to everyone. It seems like Christmas has just flown by and I haven't had a chance to post anything, so I wanted to get at least a picture or two up for you all to see. Quinn's been sick with thrush (or THE thrush as we now call it as it has turned out to be pretty problematic for us) but we've still managed to have a good Christmas. We just finished Christmas dinner a bit ago (between having a baby and caring for him and trying to open his presents when he was at least awake enough to be in the room it took us all day to prepare the food). Still, we had a great time and feel so lucky to have been able to spend Christmas with my mom and to have such great family and friends who we've seen a lot of during the holiday season. And we'll get to see Turner's whole family in a few weeks when we go to SC on Quinn's first road trip (I'm sure I'll blog that, too...).

Anyway, that said, hope everyone had a great holiday...

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night (that's in part a hope for us that Quinn sleeps at least 4 hours at a stretch tonight :-)

Love,

Jessica

2 Weeks & Four Days..

Hey, all!

Well, things in Quinn-land have been a little hectic. Not so much because we've had tons going on (though we have had quite a few visitors) but because Quinn has been having some fussy periods which have made things a little challenging at times. Most of the time he is an absolute sweetheart, but if he gets thrown off of his feeding and sleeping schedule, even if he does it himself, look out! Yesterday we had a particuarly rough day but today is going well.
My mom (Quinn's Grandma Connie) is visiting from Illinois. She'll be here through Christmas and we're really enjoying having her and she's enjoying her new grandson.
As for the adjustments, I figure they are to be expected with a newborn. Quinn isn't the sort of newborn who sleeps all the time so we are trying to capitalize on that and do a few little activities here and there to keep him engaged in the hopes of improving his sleeping patterns. He does do pretty well at night, so maybe we shouldn't complain too much :-)
Anyway, here are some more pix of Quinn's life....








This was Quinn trying out his swing. We thought we'd give it a whirl as he had such a rough day yesterday that I wanted to see if he'd like it. He did seem to enjoy it pretty well. The swing is actually something I got from my dad before he passed away. He and my stepmother used it for my step-nephew Riley. It was one of Riley's favorite things for a time so I figured it wouldn't hurt to try it with Quinn...





Meanwhile, Garcia wanted to make sure that I still knew that he was a cute baby also by showing off and doing "kangaroo".

Grandma Connie watchng Quinn try out his swing.

Grandma Connie and Quinn hanging on the couch.

She likes to sing him all kinds of silly songs which he seems to enjoy...

Craig, Kari and Corbin came over to meet Quinn before they left for their Christmas trip. Corbin was very gentle with Quinn though I think he was more interested in playing with Turner's djembe drum in the long run :-)

I just took these cause I thought it was funny... Turner was holding him up and talking to him and it looked like a mini-Turner (which I guess Quinn is!) looking back at him....

He seems to really enjoy looking at his daddy, I'm guessing he thinks his daddy is a good looking guy. Meanwhile, he does seem to take after his mom in that he also LOVES looking at himself in the mirror. At his peditricians office there is a mirror on the side of the exam table and when he is laying on he table he just can't get enough of that good looking baby!!

Hope you all are having a good holiday season!

Love to all,

J

2 Weeks & 1 Day!

So Quinn is officially 2 weeks and 1 day old! Yesterday I went to the doctor and got cleared to drive which was none too soon as Turner's work was having a baby shower for him and two other co-workers today and then Quinn had his 2 week check up.

We left the house about 10 am and didn't get back home until almost 3. The one challenge we really had was that Quinn wasn't interested in eating during the shower but really wanted to eat at the doctor's office which wasn't particuarly feasible.




All in all, though, save a little screaming in the car on the way home, he did well. I actually think that I found one of the singing animals that he received as a gift more difficult than his screaming as it was ongoing on the entire drive home whereas he chilled out!














Here's a shot of the shower and yummy spread that we had. They had Gigi's Cupcakes (a local cupcake specialty place) and they were so good! I had an Andes one which I'd never tried before and it was delicious.









When we got home and after we FINALLY got a good feeding, we decided to do a photo shoot. Quinn was wearing his "Rock" outfit from his Uncle David and Aunt Joelle and so I thought I'd snap some shots of him in it... I love this one as he looks pretty chill!












I think we might use this one as his Rolling Stone cover. Meanwhile, his doctor's visit went really well. All the things we were worried about (fussiness, sleep patterns, umbilical cord, etc) turned out to be totally normal things that everyone worries about and were even on our "This is Normal for 2 Weeks" Update Handout.


















In more exciting news, and as at least a partial explanation for his voracious eating, Quinn is up to 6 lbs 11 oz from his birth weight of 6 lbs 4 oz. Typically it takes two weeks to get back to your birth weight, so Quinn is ahead of the game! They were quite impressed!
:-)










As for measurements (which our doctor says aren't too important at this stage in the game as they are all relatively similar) he is tracking around the 20th percentile. So not giant, but we still think he's pretty amazing.











I think this is my fave of al the pictures as he looks kind of pensive and funny, plus you can really see our eyes. Our doctor is impressed at the amount of head control he already has so in terms of neck muscles and weight gain/food consumption, our Quinn is an over acheiver.... We're trying not to put too much pressure on him to excel at this point in the game, though so don't worry that we're going to start pushing him to start walking next week or anything :-) And we'll wait at least a few more weeks before we start him on solid food :-) Just kidding!

Hope everyone is doing well!
Love to all,
J

Update and Quinn's Big Night Out...

Hey, all!
Sorry I'm not doing as well as I thought I might at keeping up with the blog. I'm not sure where all he time goes, but this newborn thing is VERY time consuming... Turner and I JUST realized today that Christmas is next week. Yikes! Sorry, got to pause now as Quinn is ready for some food!
:-)

And somehow two hours later I'm back. Things are going pretty well. Today is my first day at home alone with Quinn and it has been reasonably uneventful. We've eaten a few times, fed the dogs, done a load of laundry, worked on address labels for Christmas cards, washed bottles, and had some tummy time and a sing along... I imagine we'll get into more of a pattern and hopefully get more done after we get the hang of it a bit more.

Turner's mom left on Sat morning to go back to Greenville. This is a picture of them on Sat. morning befoe she left. I think she had a pretty hard time leaving Quinn. I'm not 100% sure she wasn't ready for a break from us, but I don't think she was ready to say goodbye to her grandson. We all miss her a lot. She was more help than I even could have imagined and I think Turner and I both learned a lot from her. The good news is that my mom will be in for most of December and then it sounds like Quinn's grandmother will be back in early January for a conference at least so he'll get plenty of grandparent time. We're hoping that his Granddaddy can come up in January too so he can get some more quality time with him.


Here's a funny shot of Quinn. I'll admit it isn't his most flattering picture ever, but he was hanging in his Rainforest bouncy seat trying to figure out the whole rainforest situation and he was making a funny face so I thought I'd share it. For a newborn, I'm amazed out how mobile he is... He can lift his head and control his neck pretty well AND last night, he managed to wiggle all the way to the bottom of his sleep positioner while swaddled. His daddy calls him a Wiggle Worm a lot and I'm thinking that may be one of his most appropriate nicknames.


Now, on to Quinn's Big Night Out. Last night Frank, Amber and Corrie were planning to come over and hang out. After talking a bit about what we wanted to eat, we ultimately decided that Thai was the most appealing, however, we also all needed to go to Target and there isn't a Thai place near us so after some careful consideration, we decided to try meeting at Target and going out for Thai afterwards. Our trip toTarget went well as Quinn loves to ride in the cart in his carseat (and sleep) and then it was off to the restaurant where he slept through most of dinner as evidenced by his big night out picture.


We figured who better to accompany us on our first dinner run than Frank and Amber who have been there themselves and not that long ago. What a difference a few months make in baby-time, though... Corrie was a little bit (ha!) more alert and entertaining at dinner. She actually wasn't all that interested in Quinn himself but was such a sweet and funny girl! It's amazing that they are really only 8 or so months different, but it is SUCH a difference right now.



This is our family night out photo... We figured Thai was a good option as it tends to be reasonably quiet and not very crowded. The weird set into the wood booths worked well also as we were able to have Quinn right by us (granted, he slept all the way until the end and then took a portion of a bottle before we headed home). He was a little on the angry side when we left the restaurant, but he calmed down pretty quickly and then settled back into his regular (as regular as he gets right now!) routine last night at home.


Here's a Gallina family photo. I am SO glad that Frank suggested trying going out as I figure the first time is the hardest, so now I know it can be done. We were by far the most popular table at the restaurant, though I don't think anyone much card about me, Turner, Frank or Amber. The kids were a big hit, though!


Here's a final funny Corrie shot... See her two big girl teeth she's showing off. She and Frank were cracking me up at the end of dinner. Right now she seems convinced that her dad is kind of an amazing beat box artist... I'm wondering at what age she'll figure out that he isn't a pro... Either way, their song and dance routine could definitely win some awards but I think that Corrie gets most of the credit for that!

Hope all of you are well.
Miss and love everyone,
J

Quinn's Update and Christmas Preparation

Hey, all.
Just thought I'd post an update on Quinn's blog... All is going pretty well. I'm a little short on sleep today and plan to take a nap in a bit, but we're starting to settle into a good routine. We've had some issues with gas and fussiness, but we've changed his formula to a gentler one, so with any luck, that will help. He's struggling with a portion of his night sleeping, but we tend to get one good patch or so a night which is better than nothing :-)
We went to the doctor on Monday and it turns out he just has a pretty normal problem with his tear ducts not working well yet. So we have an ointment to use to help with that and it is improving a lot. He got weighed at the doctor also and it turns out he is already back at 6 lbs 2 oz which is good as most babies take 2 weeks to regain to their birth weight (granted, he wants to eat so much, I think it is possible that we could get him up to 15 lbs by the end of the week if we fed him on his preferred schedule :-)
Turner's mother came in on Monday and that's been a lot of help. She has LOTS of experience with babies and that's been great for us and I know she really enjoys spending time with her grandson, too. Yesterday we put up the Christmas tree. Quinn got to hang his stocking and his special ornaments. The dogs are still doing really well. Garcia's toenail is doing better which I'm glad of... He and Darwin have surprised me a bit as Cia is kind of clinging to us and D is sticking close to "his" baby. All things said, I think we could use a little more sleep, but we couldn't be happier.
Oh, and the pictures may be a bit out of order-sorry bout that....


Quinn shows off his amazing baby neck muscles (trust me, it's a big deal when you are a little guy) for his Grandmother.











Brandon and Michelle came to visit last night and they both took a turn feeding Quinn...


















Quinn and his Auntie Michelle right before they hung his special ornament from Michelle on the Christmas tree....












Quinn hanging out in his stocking... It wasn't my idea, but I do have to agree with Turner and his Grandmother that there will never be another Christmas that he fits in his stocking so we took advantage of it... He didn't seem to mind too much, just kept on doing the Macarena or Hokey Pokey or whatever dance he was doing :-)


















Quinn and his grandmother hanging up his special ornament that she brought for him....










The official hanging of Quinn's stocking (which is different than the wearing of Quinn's stocking above and below)....









Enjoying some Chrismtas lights...in a stocking...




















Garcia "helping" Quinn explore his play mat for the first time. I tried to keep the boys off of it, and eventually they both sat down by it, but they both kept sliding their paws onto the edge... I guess everyone likes to cross the line sometimes :-)













Not one to be outdone, Darwin also enjoyed the playmat. He almost walked off with it on his back though as his head got caught under the arches...















The Turner Family....













And just the human part of the Turner Family... (though I distinctly recall that Garcia was jamming himself between my legs when the photo was taken).....








Tracey (after delivering a delicious lasagna) and Grandmother










Uncle Pete (trying to ooze some of his Giants fanaticism into Quinn's tiny baby pores)

:-)
















Auntie Nichole and Uncle Pete came to visit and brought her dad over to meet Quinn....











One of Quinn's FIRST outfits that fit (we finally broke down and got him a few preemie and a few newborn outfits as he was swimming in the ones he had....). So much for all the books that said newborn clothes were a waste of money as they would just outgrow them. I know he will outgrown them, but it'll be nice for him to have a few outfits that fit well until then....













Another shot of his sassy new outfit!


Hope everyone is doing well! Quinn is currently getting his diaper changed (AKA torture according to Quinn) by his daddy, but I'm sure he'd send well wishes, too, if only his life wasn't so hard!!

Love to all,
J