7 months

Quinn at seven months...

-no more swaddling!!! i thought you would have to be swaddled to sleep for foreeeverr! but one day you WOULD NOT let me do it! you just kept pulling your arms up and out... you are one strong baby.  i tried fighting you holding them down cause i knew you wouldn't sleep without it but you insisted and were upset when i did try.  so i stopped trying and just let you be.  and you fell asleep and stayed asleep like magic!  and that was it. no gradual transition... you just wanted to be free.

-you know what you want and there is no stopping you.

-you are becoming so silly and more and more fun!  i love getting you when you wake up from naps cause you will be rolling around and playing in your crib and when i come in you start smiling and getting so excited and bury your face giggling. 

-you love to be smothered with kisses and tickles.

-loving books (there are some on the floor next to the chair in your room and when i'm trying to fed you  you'll push me away and bend all the way over to look at the books until i get you one), your mermaid rubber duck, and teething rings.

-still three naps a day, in bed about eight or earlier if your last nap was earlier or you just didn't take a last nap, and up for the day between five and six (way too early for me!).

-trying to feed you pureed foods with oatmeal 1-2 times a day but most of the time you are more interested in everything else but opening your mouth.  you like the food it's just a matter of getting you to not be so busy. 

-you are still very sensitive.  you startle easy.  we have this little truck that when you push it the wheels make a really loud noise and it starts to go on it's own. you do NOT like the sound of it! 

-separation anxiety has officially set in!  it makes me feel good that you want me :) if you're tired you cry going to anyone else but mom or dad.

-you love your daddy so much! sometimes when you want me i'll be holding you but then you will see him and start kicking and whining for him too so he'll take you but then you realize you want me too! haha it's pretty funny.  so sometimes we'll both just sit right with you so you can have us both! 

-you don't play on your own as long as you used to... i think once you can crawl that will change.

-you are one crazy talking baby.  even when you are tired and i've laid you down you will go on and on until you're out! it's too funny!

-you're usually too busy to cuddle or want to do your own thing but you have started to do it more often now and i savor up every second!! 

3 years...

this is a little late but our wedding day was one of the best/most fun days of my life!

i can't believe it's already been three years but at the same time i can't believe it's only been three years.

i am more in love with brian than i ever thought possible and couldn't have asked for a better husband and daddy to our Quinn!

8.15.09

lets relive a little bit of this crazy/long/fun day!!!

both big families!

yes we got slurpees!!

my grandma made me five garters to choose from... i couldn't decide so we tricked brian and used them all!

little sis getting the party ready!

sooo excited to start the party!

Don Pedro!

every year at the of june for the past sixteen (or some crazy number like that) years husband's family has been camping at don pedro lake.  the first two years i went i was pregnant and was kinda tired/hot/cranky, so talking pictures was not on my mind.  buuut now we have a pretty good reason to take pictures!  ...what kind of mom would i be if i didn't document these things for quinn?  

i can always do a better job in the photo taking department but here are a few favorites...

first boat ride to our campsite! she loved it! and loved licking her life jacket :)

getting ready for her first dip in the lake...

a little cold for the sensitive babe

aww getting all warm with daddy!

daddy thinks he is so funny

in heaven being outside allll dayyy long!

napping away

cousin baby love!

we love camping at the lake! can't wait until next year!

6 months

Quinn at six months...
-12 pounds 11 ounces and 24 1/2 inches

-you can sit up now! well, you still need the boppy pillow around you so you don't topple over and i stay right by you because when your toy goes flying you launch yourself at it, which usually results in a face dive into the carpet.

-you take three naps and except for your late evening nap they are usually longer than 45 minutes now! hurray!  you still wake at the 45 min intruder but i just give you back your pacifier and you go back to sleep.  sometimes it takes a little while but you do eventually fall back asleep.

-you're awake span is still two hours.  i'm really looking forward to you not needing that last nap in the evening so we can go places without worry about you getting overtired or trying to find a place for you to sleep.  you won't eat if you're too tired and you can get over tired to the point where you fight going to sleep pretty bad.  so i really try and make sure that doesn't happen!

-you love to grab our faces (with a death grip that is sometimes very painful) and eat/kiss our face.  i love it!
-definitely know what your pacifier is! if you want it you get excited when i show it to you and if you see it where you can't get it you get upset.
-you've started to favor your stuffed pink hippo that plays music when you pull the tail. i keep it in your crib and turn it on when you're fussing as i swaddle you.  sometimes you get really excited when you see it and just grab it and cuddle it.  i'll give you other stuffed animals and you definitely don't have the same reaction for them.
-moved up to size 2 diapers
-rolling from back to tummy is very consistent now but once you're on your tummy you won't roll back and when you decide you're done you just get sad and cry until we help you.  

-just the last couple of nights you have finally started sleeping through the night again! either the teething tablets are working or you just decided to stop waking multiple times a night.  thank goodness!

-you started baby food and you loved it! well, you mostly just loved it the first time.  i think you were just really hungry.  we've only tried whole wheat rice cereal mixed with breast milk so far just cause you still haven't really learned how to eat well from a spoon.
-you are the most smiley baby ever! you smile at anyone and almost never stop :)
-i think this might be my favorite baby month with you.  you are so fun and we love to just be silly together.
-one thing that has made things a little better with you and me is that you don't nurse anymore.  you started refusing to nurse just before you turned six months. you would just scream and scream.  i would still offer at every feeding but i would still end up pumping and giving you a bottle.  but after a few days of still offering and you still screaming i decided it definitely wasn't worth the stress for the both of us! at first i was kind of freaking out wondering what we were going to do because i did not want to give you formula and i did not like the idea of pumping all day every day.  it's not that i don't have breast milk to give you it's just that you don't want to nurse. you never ever really did. since day one it has always been a struggle.  i'm surprised we made it six months.
so i've decided to stick with exclusively pumping.  it is time consuming and it is so not my favorite thing to do but i honestly would feel so selfish if i just put you on formula when i still have the best thing for you.  it might take a little more time out of my day and give me more bottles to clean but it makes me much happier when you're happier.  no more wrestling matches to try and get you to nurse.  i love feeding you and if you are a happier baby with the bottle than i guess it makes for a happier home.  nursing was almost always so emotionally draining for me since you made it such a chore.  so i guess this is all for the better.  i have noticed such a difference between the both of us.
(i keep wanting to do a post about our struggle with breast feeding because a lot of the time i felt that i was so alone and that everyone else had perfectly nursing babies that they could nurse any where and every where and i was so sad and mad that i couldn't do that. hopefully i can get to writing about it.)