Summer Update

I found my camera under the ottoman about 4 minutes after my last post, but then Quinn woke up and that was the end of that. But I feel it's necessary to cram the second half of our summer into one post (minus one or two events that warrant their own), so here goes:


Troy had a birthday! Woo-hoo. My sister made him a birthday hat that was too small, so Quinn got to wear it. Unfortunately it looked a little too much like a dunce cap.


For Quinn's six-month birthday we went to Fishlake to see my aunt and uncle and my dad took pictures of our little family. I will post more eventually, but our new header can from the shoot and he made us some awesome canvas prints that I still haven't hung up. Once I hang them, they will be the first things on our walls and we've live here for 9 months. Oops.


We also spent Quinn's six-month mark giving him solids for the first time. Clearly he was very excited.


He ate the cereal very well. Such a good boy.


Day two did not go so well because that was the same weekend he discovered he could blow raspberries, so he did that all through dinner. Look closely at his arm and you can get an idea of what he and I looked like once dinner was over.


Quinn's had blocked tear ducts forever, so we spend a lot of time laughing at his pirate look. A side effect of one of his post-surgery medications was dry eyes, so he had a break for a week and a half. Once we took him off the meds, I fully expected him to gunk up again, but they stayed clear. Hooray! At least until two days ago when one got bad again. Oh well, at least we know there's hope.

Just evidence that Quinn's parents are easily entertained.

Where is my camera? I used it yesterday to take pictures of Quinn watching TV, but now I can't find it. You may never get a real post. :(

Has it only been a week?

I wonder if life will ever get back to normal. This week has messed with all of us--we've made two trips to Phoenix (with at least one, maybe two in the next week); Quinn tries to be happy, but is still a cranky boy; he won't sleep unless he falls asleep nursing; his non-existent appetite at the first of the week has left me with little milk to give him (something I'm sure you wanted to know); Troy and I stress about the bloody spots in his diaper and a seemingly lengthening catheter tube; and on and on and on. I know this is a very small problem compared with what other babies I know are dealing with, but it's a change for our family. The catheter comes out Tuesday, but I have a feeling we'll all be recovering long after that. I'm so tired. Why am I up at 11:30 when I have to be up at 6:00 to get ready for church? Ug. That may turn out to be a bad idea.

Quinn's Surgery

We are spending this weekend forcing medicine, changing double diapers and trying to keep a baby awake long enough to eat. What fun.

Quinn had surgery yesterday to correct a hypospadias. Basically his urethra was too short (look it up if you want more info--full descriptions require lots of male anatomy talk). It was sad and cute to see him after surgery. He was still coming out of anesthesia, so as I fed him I had to keep rubbing his head and neck to wake him up enough to get him to eat--like a bigger version of his newborn self. I did decide that among the other numerous reasons babies are not born at 20 pounds, it's hard to cradle a 20 pound deadweight. Fortunately, he didn't need the constant cuddles for long.

He has a catheter that drains into a second diaper OVER the first diaper so that there's less chance of infection. At first he was okay with the medicine (he's on a painkiller, anti-spasm stuff for his bladder and an antibiotic), then he would fight the dropper and would almost enjoy the few drops we'd get in each time, and now he'll barely tolerate it. The Tylenol makes him WAY drowsy, so he sleeps almost all day, which is nice because then we can catch up on the sleep we miss getting up in the night for meds and diaper duty.

He's such a good boy. When we got back from the surgical center yesterday he cried a lot because he was still coming off the anesthesia and I think his epidural-like numbing was wearing off and his legs were all tingly. But that's really been it. Yesterday evening he was actually feeling well enough that he was smiling, "talking" and squirming--you wouldn't have even know he was sick. Today's a little different, still no tears, but lots of eye rubbing followed by lots of sleeping. Hopefully some of the swelling will go down soon and we can try cutting back on the painkiller. I certainly don't want him to be in pain, but I don't like him knocked out, either.

I have some pics, but they will follow in a few days.

Random Pics

We don't do a lot in the summer, but it's amazing how quickly the days go by. Troy decided that there aren't enough pics of Mama and Baby, so he's become a bit of a shutterbug. I have mixed feelings about it.

Quinn spends his time napping and reading.

And Troy started his masters degree yesterday. What an adventure this will be!

Fifth of July

Utah does things a little differently, so we celebrated the 4th of July on Monday. Quinn saw his first parade and fireworks. He wasn't impressed with the parade, but the fireworks were fun. He was tired and would fuss until we got the next fountain lit, then watch quietly until it was over. Funny boy.

Oh, and we did a deceivingly difficult puzzle of 100 cats and a fish. Yuck.

Camping

We spent the night at the cabin last week. Nothing exciting happened, Troy got ready for our quad ride a little early (note the helmet), my dad and Bonnie played badminton and volleyed the birdie 50 times, and Quinn hung out in the camp stroller. What fun!