Looking more animated by the day.

We love football season, and this was Quinn's first time watching a game. Go Trojans!
Summer is quickly coming to an end. We've traded fireflies for mosquitoes, much to our dismay. We're also adjusting to life now that four people need to use our one bathroom. And life goes on.

Quinn had a weight check this week. We wanted to check one more time after he had been exclusively breastfed for awhile. In the two weeks between checks, he gained nearly a full pound. He went from 8 lbs 7 oz to 9 lbs 6 oz. I was so excited! Exclusive breastfeeding is definitely a go. Now we just need to survive two specialist appointments this week. I find myself wishing away these early days, and wanting to fast forward a couple of years, or at least know the outcome. It's hard to be anxious. But we'll get through it. I do love the little baby stage, and my little baby is growing pretty fast. I'd better enjoy that while it lasts.

Just a warning, it's hard to capture the moment at such close range. Hence, the top of Quinn's head appears to be missing. But I caught his first smile, and that's what counts. He smiled and giggled at me.

And Faith decided he needed some encouragement. He didn't seem to mind. And you can see that Faith had a relatively active week. She face-planted on the dining room floor, giving her that lovely bruise on her forehead and skinning her nose.


Another first this week: we had no appointments of any kind. That's probably the last week like that for awhile, but it was nice while it lasted.

Another first, though I'm not sure if it really counts. Quinn rolled over. He was in the co-sleeper, which doesn't have a totally level mattress, and he used it to his advantage. He rolled from his belly to his back, both directions. So I think things are going okay for him. We'll check his weight this week, but he is visibly bigger, and so I'm not worried about it. Then next week is the dreaded urologist appointment, where we'll talk about his hernia. He'll need to go back to the hospital to have it repaired, and I'm just dreading giving him back, so to speak. It seems like I just got him. Well, I'll worry about that when it comes.

We have to enjoy what little summer we have here. I swear it only lasts 6 weeks, while winter lasts 5 months. You can imagine how jarring that is to someone born and raised in southern California. But it is pretty here, I'll give it that. And these two enjoy themselves.

Little brother is unimpressed.

They did switch places eventually, but as you can imagine, Faith isn't as efficient as Dorian.
A few days later, Quinn is still uninterested in his siblings' antics.
They don't seem to mind. They still manage to have a good time, especially if Faith has a "princess dress" to play with.
And drumroll please, we went to church today. And yes, I did get him further into the wrap. We were just on our way out the door and I put him in too quickly.
Dorian, and probably at least 2 cousins wore this outfit.
"Smile for the camera!" still means nothing.
Quinn had a checkup on Tuesday. He was 8 lbs 7 oz. That's a good gain from last week, but not such a good gain from the previous time we were at the doctor's office. She wants to check his weight in two weeks, but we'll have the home health nurse do that. He's now officially exclusively breastfed. I honestly wondered if it would happen, if such a thing were possible for a case like his, but he's gaining, without a doubt. I asked our pediatrician what she thought of taking Quinn to church. She said this time of year, as long as I don't put him down and avoid people in general, it should be okay. She said avoid the nursery, which isn't an issue, since our church doesn't do that for kids under 18 months. But I decided based on that to stay away from it entirely, and have Kurt continue to do the dropoffs. So we went today, and I came home after sacrament meeting, while everyone else went to their other meetings. It was nice to be there, and to sing the hymns, and wrestle my other two kids into reverence, which is a losing battle, but at least it's a familiar one. Quinn stayed in my wrap the whole time, and it seemed to go well. We might even do it again sometime. We're feeling more normal by the day.

We had a good week. Notice something missing?

I can't get over how much of his face was hidden by just one plastic tube.
Now we can see that he has a dimple in one cheek (which I've yet to catch on film) and that he really does look like Faith did as a small baby.

When the home health nurse came back last Monday, she wanted to turn down the O2 to 1/64th of a liter. I told her as long as she was here, we might as well turn it off and, if need be, turn it back up. She was very hesitant, given his reaction to it the week before, but agreed to try. Well, Quinn knocked her socks off. He never dipped below 95%, and averaged 97%. We took it off then. Hooray! After she left, I packed Quinn into a sling, and the 5 of us, Quinn and myself plus Dorian, Faith, and Monty the dog, went outside to play. It was a beautiful day, and I'm sure we soaked up plenty of vitamin D. Later on, I dressed Quinn in a onesie. I had avoided clothes that needed to be pulled over his head. But now I don't have to. Haha! Life got much easier after that day, until Faith decided to potty train. But at least I had an unencumbered baby while I was helping her figure out this new life skill. The nurse came back on Thursday just to check on Quinn one more time, and he was still fine. So on we go. We also weighed him. On Monday, he hadn't gained any weight. He was still 8 lbs 1 oz. That worried me, and I fretted about it until Thursday, when he was 8 lbs 3.5 oz, which is a very good weight gain in that amount of time. He's going in spurts, I guess.

Quinn also had an evaluation for early intervention this week. Most of it was adjusted for age, so they were judging him as though he were one month old, not four. He did fine in everything except for muscle tone, and following things with his eyes. The evaluator said his movement is a bit stiff, and that he follows an object with his head more than his eyes. So he qualifies for some physical therapy, although neither problem was severe. Mostly things to watch. I gather this is part of preemie parenting, waiting anxiously for milestones to be met. Now that Quinn is essentially okay physically, the worry is shifting to his development. Worry never ends, but neither does motherhood, and the two essentially go together. But overall it's more good than worry, so I'll keep doing it.

Bad blogger! Bad blogger!

It's easy to get out of the habit when it's not part of my daily routine. But then, routine goes out the window with major life upheavals, of which having a baby definitely qualifies.

So, last week. There's good news, and there's bad news. First, the good news. Quinn had a check up with our pediatrician on Tuesday. He weighed in at a nice 8 lbs 1 oz. That's a full pound heavier than he was at the last appointment two weeks earlier. So I was given the go ahead to breastfeed him full time except for the bottles that have his meds in them, which is twice a day, an ounce each. And we can use the meds until they run out, and then not refill the prescriptions. Yay! I haven't pumped in days, which has been very nice. I may still need to do that in the future, once I'm through the week's worth of milk in the freezer and there are still more meds, but for now, Quinn is getting it all from the tap.

Now, the bad news. Quinn is still on oxygen. We turned it off and watched the oximeter, and he dipped into the 83-85% range. We waited half and hour and it never came back up. So we turned it on to 16 cc/minute, where he had been on 25 cc/minute. I mean, you can't feel this much flow. You need to stick the end in a bowl of water to see bubbles and that's the only way to tell anything's coming out. But it evidently makes the difference. With that little bit, he went up to 90%, which is better, but still not good. So it was back up to 25. We'll try again tomorrow, and hopefully that will be it. It was going to be perfect. He would come off the oxygen just in time for my mom to go home and then I could take care of all three kids with Quinn totally unencumbered. As it was, I went into a bit of a panic that he would still be tied to his 40 lbs buddy and I had two other active kids in the house. It went much better than I expected, (the advantage of being pessimistic) but it was and is tough, I won't lie about that. Here's hoping for a better week and lots of improvement tomorrow.