Fuzzy

Fuzzy. We are trying out this nickname on little Quinn. Her hair is very fuzzy and cute. I called her fuzzy several times before we even thought of it as a nickname.

I've had a few requests to see more pictures of Fuzzy. Sunday was her one month birthday! She is so content and alert. I think it must be because she was 9 days overdue. At this point it really shows up- holding her head up, beady little eyes looking at everything, smiling "early", cooing, etc. We can get her to smile by clicking our tongues at her- she thinks that is really clever. Button got the biggest smile we've seen yet- and I happened to have the camera out! Woo hoo!

Our Reward

Our little sweetheart is so precious. Almost two weeks ago (at 2 1/2 wks old) Dennis was walking his fingers up Quinn's little sleeper saying "ticky, ticky" and she smiled at him. The next day she smiled at me. At first the smiles were really hard to come by, but now she's smiling a whole lot. It is so sweet and melts my heart. These pictures were taken sometime last week when I was able to catch some smiles.

More Pictures

Hi everybody- I wanted to get some more pictures up for you to enjoy. Especially for my family far away (I love you all!) We are slowly getting back to "normal" here. I'm still feeling really shaky and weak all the time. The doctor took some blood tests for glucose, iron and some other things two days ago. I haven't heard back from them yet, but I'm hoping they can offer some answers- my hands shake so badly that writing is difficult. This is my first day with the three girls by myself. The baby is still sleeping and the two older girls are playing right now. Dennis moved a comfy chair into the kitchen for me so that I can rest during the day. If I try to rest in the living room the girls just climb all over me. Anyway, on to the pictures.

Here I was on Friday morning before going into the hospital. Now that I know she was 8lbs, 7 oz, I can definitely say that was a biiiig belly.
This was before they broke my water. Notice how calm and collected I look? :) There is a big gap in the picture sequence for an obvious reason- no pictures were taken during the whole labor time (thankfully!)! Here is happy Daddy holding his little girl for the first time.

A New Little Girl!

She's here! Quinn Alaina Easton arrived at 2:00pm on April 13, 2007! She was 8 lbs, 7 oz. and 21 3/4 inches long. She has light brown hair and blue eyes.





She is a quiet little baby so far and likes to sleep with her mouth open. Squeaky and Button like her. Squeaky likes to give her lots of kisses and "helps" Mommy cover her with blankets. She excitedly exclaims, "The new baby came! I have two sisters!!!" Button is a little more reserved. She mainly just watches her with the occasional comment, "Baby! Oh!" She did have a moment of jealousy yesterday when I was nursing the baby and couldn't pick Button up.

For those who want the whole labor story, here it is. If you don't really want to know all the details, just skip it, ok?

We went in to the hospital at 7:30am. I was still 3 cm, but I could be stretched to 5. They hooked me up for a non-stress test on the baby. After awhile my doctor came to see me and said that she had to help out with a c-section and didn't want to break my water before then just in case things progressed too rapidly (she delievered Button so she knew I had her rather quickly). At 10am they finally broke my water. Dennis and I walked the boring hallways for an hour an a half before I finally started having a few contractions consistently. At 11:30am they were moderate and about 2-3 minutes apart.

Around noon I was on my bed taking a break from the walking when a nurse (not my nurse) came in and matter-of-factly told me that she was there to set up my oxytocin IV. I really didn't want that to happen- but she didn't seem to care too much what I wanted. She scurried around getting things ready while I told her that my contractions had increased to 2-3 minutes apart. She said, "Well, that's good, but it doesn't really matter to me." And she continued getting the IV ready. I silently fumed and wondered what to do. Just then someone called her out of my room for a minute. Dennis and I talked and decided we would ask her to please get our nurse to check me. I had not been examined since 10am, and I really didn't want the IV if I could avoid it. While we were wondering, my own nurse came in and I was able to tell her about my contractions. She timed them and could see that they were growing in intensity. The mean IV nurse came back in and said, "Ok, let's get your IV in." My nurse kindly replied, "Linda, why don't you go to lunch? She doesn't need an IV." :D I felt like it had been a narrow escape.

My nurse told me to go ahead and walk some more. As soon as I sat up in bed the contractions intensified 100% instantly. I could barely stand up, let alone walk around. This was around 12:30pm. I managed to walk from the bed to the window, to the rocking chair and back to the bed again. I was pale, weak, shaky, nauseous and thought I was going to die- all sure signs that transition (7-10cm) was close. But when they checked me around 1:10pm I was only at 5-6 cm.

"Only half-way!?!? I'm not going to make it," I thought. So I asked for a bit of pain medication. Around 1:15pm they gave me a small dose in my hip to "take the edge off". To be honest, I don't think it did much of anything until it was all over and then I could barely open my eyes.

Anyway, from 1:15 to 1:45 I was in a world of pain and pretty oblivious to anything going on. I kept praying through each contraction, "Help me, help me, help me, Lord..." The nurses basically had to holler at me to get me to hear anything past the roar in my ears. But in that half hour time I went from 5 to 10cm. When it was time to push I grabbed poor Dennis' collar and twisted it in my hand. I held on to that shirt for dear life. One time he tried to stand up and I wouldn't let him. He told me the next day that his back hurt from leaning over the bed. Sorry! :)

A few pushes later and sweet little Quinn entered the world- 2:00pm! My intense pain instantly turned into joy! We are truly fearfully and wonderfully made...