Quinn's Blog

We escaped the summer heat today with an outing to Ikea. It looks like the season has officially arrived. Poor little Quinn's face is covered in baby acne. I think it's because it's so hot and she's pressed up against my chest several times a day. She's so well behaved. We were there for quite some time. We even made it through a diaper change and feeding. They have this wonderful "baby care" room near the restrooms complete with changing table and chair to sit down in that locks. I'm still working on the breast feeding in public thing. I have to say it was probably hard to take me out than it is Quinn. I feel sore all over. It's different than the achiness from the infection I just gotten rid of. It's like my muscles worked a marathon, but all I remember is sleeping..very manchurian canidate...some one else has control. It's hard to remember everything that's happened so recently. I feel the need to push forward. Ethan goes back to work on Monday and his Mom returns to Boulder the day after. This means I have just a short time before I need to be ready to handle the day on my own. At least until reinforcements show up. I'm so lucky that my Mom will return to get me through until Quinn reaches 6 weeks. It's supposed to be a magical time near when most babies have reached some sort of out of womb equilibrium...We'll see how that goes!

Allison

PS Ethan is right we need to post more about Quinn...

She's amazing. We're the luckiest parents in the world. She loves to have her diaper changed. She likes to hang out in the breeze and kick her legs. She has a black & white cow she stares and stares at. She gives the impression of being much older than she is. She holds up her head and looks around for long periods. She's already looking and playing with toys. I'm not sure what IS normal for three weeks, but she seems to be acting older. The pictures on Ethan's post tell allot. She smiles and laughs. She makes great faces. We love to watch her strech and squirm while she sleeps. She's an angel.

Surviving Week 2 & 3

So, my mom came out to help us. And lord did we need the help.

To me, it was like a bizarre episode of “Queer Eye For the Straight Guy”. Accept instead of five queer guys I had one straight mom. About a day after she arrived we bought a bunch of groceries and she went to work on the kitchen. It was amazing in hours the kitchen was cleaner then it’s ever been, and it hand the nice smell of something cooking in the oven. It felt like home again. I can’t tell you how much help she has been. We wanted some time off between family members coming out so we had a few days between Allison’s mom and my mom. I have to say, those few days were the hardest days we’ve ever had.

Anyhoo I’ll let Allison tell you more.

I created a new photo album with some new photos of Quinn. My mom also brought Allison and I some birthday presents and made us a birthday cake. I took pictures of them and you can find them here:

http://www.packthecat.com/Baby/pictures/QuinnWeek1and2/

Also, for those of you with fast connections I have some new videos of Quinn, just look at the bottom under "New":

http://www.packthecat.com/Baby/Quinnqt.html

I’m sure you’re all sick of hearing about how tough it has been on Allison and I and would like to find out more about Quinn. I’ll try and post more about her next time.

Greetings from the Red Bull Zombie

We’ve been living like Zombies around here. Well...Zombies but without all that brain eating stuff. Quinn has been a lot of fun but she’s also been a lot of work. We’ve been bonding with her but we’ve also been trying to work out a routine. As you might guess, right now all she wants to do is eat, poop and sleep. (Kind of like a tube that cries.) Unfortunately we have run into one problem, Quinn likes to be held when she sleeps.

Currently, she eats every three to four hours which means that the cafeteria (Allison) has to open just as often. Which means at best, Allison gets about four hours of sleep max. I’ve been trying to share the load by changing Quinn’s diapers and putting her back to sleep after each feeding. But, as I said Quinn likes to be held when she sleeps, if she notices that she’s not being held she wakes up and complains (loudly).

I made the mistake thinking I could handle all of that. I rediscovered Red Bull, the energy drink that “gives you wings”. I tell you, that that drink works! I’ve been living off of 3-4 hours a sleep a day for the past week thanks to a flat of Red Bull that I picked up at Cosco. While Allison would feed Quinn I’d straighten up the house while Allison slept I’d hold Quinn. I wouldn’t get much sleep but I have to admit I’d get more sleep then Allison.

That plan worked until Thursday then I crashed. No amount of Red Bull could keep me up forever. Today I just feel like a Zombie, recovering from my week long Red Bull marathon. I was doing good job at keeping the house clean, now I just want to stair at the TV with a puddle of drool forming around my shoulder and chest. It’s a true Zombie like state because there ain’t nothing good on daytime TV.

We kind of realize now that we can’t do this forever. Even if Quinn wants to be held as she sleeps, we just can’t keep it up. So now we’re trying to figure out how to train Quinn to sleep in her crib or bassinet. We’ve had very little success so far but we’re going to keep trying. Hopefully by week six we’ll have something figured out.

Quinn’s other Grandmother is coming today. She’s driving out from Boulder CO. She’s going to be a big help I’m sure of it. I didn’t realize just how much help Allison’s mom was until she left. An extra set of hands is something we can really use right now.

I have a lot more pictures of Quinn on the way. If my mom helps me get out of this Zombie mode for at least an hour I’ll post them.

Wish us luck, there will be more from us soon.

Quinn has been home now for a week. This is my first chance to sit in front of the computer. Even I haven't read the blogs since we've been home. Mom left on Sunday so it's just been Ethan and I for a week. I can honestly say this has been the hardest week of my life. We're learning to deal with the constant sleep deprivation (I know I've never done well on a lack of sleep). And I can feel the hormones shifting and sloshing around in my head as everything settles to it's pre-pregnancy state. We've had a rough start with breast feeding since Quinn spent some time in the NICU with a bottle. I'm determined to hold out. I hear that it gets easier after the first few weeks.

Allison

Home...Finally!

On Friday they let us take Quinn home. We were very eager to get her home. Now that she's here we’re finding that it's a lot easer and a lot more fun take car of her.

But I have to say that first night was weird for me. Allison and her mom went to sleep. I was left up watching TV with Quinn in my arms. I wasn't sure what to do. I thought I could just go to bed. But if I did, this would be the first time that everyone around Quinn would be asleep. That just seemed weird to me.

Ever sense Quinn was born there was always someone awake watching over her. If it wasn't one of us, then one of the nurses at the hospital. Not knowing what to do I flipped around channels on the TV looking for something that would keep me awake. I found the classic film Shaft. I sat up trying to explain the whole " Blaxploitation" issue to Quinn. All the equality issues, social concerns that were connected with it. How power and strength didn’t exactly make for a equal nation. But I don't think Quinn really understood the finer details of the argument.

I resisted asking her if she was born yesterday.

Mostly I talked to keep myself awake. But in the end I realized that I was going to have to go to bed eventually. So I brought Quinn to bed with us, (we have a co-sleeper that lets Quinn sleep with us without fear of rolling over on her) and went to sleep. When I woke up I discovered that was fine.

I still feel weird about going to sleep with Quinn, but it's something I'm getting over.

We also have more quicktimes, I added them to Allison's list, just look for them on the bottom of the page.

http://www.packthecat.com/Baby/Quinnqt.html

Trying to put together a quick page of all the quicktime videos that Grandma took with her camera. The page doesn't work yet, but you can download and watch the files from your computer. I'll have Ethan look at it when he has the chance.

I am so grateful to all the love and support that has been sent our way. I have to say I can definitely feel it. I came back to our house for a full nights' rest. The house is filled with the smell of the flowers sent to us. There's a stack of cards on the table. It seems that my recovery has been put on hold until we have Quinn happy and healthy at home. I've been running on adrenaline. We're down to the last 24 hours as Quinn waits out her last few doses of antibiotics (see Ethan's post below).

There's something we did right because she's not only adorable but sweet as well. We have some MPEG movies and I can't wait to share them. All the nurses that have cared for Quinn us have told us what a beautiful and sweet baby we have. I know I have a glow every time I think of her(Or is that just me leaking?).

I've been lucky to watch Ethan. Despite all of his fears and doubt that he wrote about earlier, he is a natural at fatherhood. He took baby duty last night in order to give me a good nights sleep and take some time for himself to bond with Quinn. He makes up the songs and games. Quinn likes to suck on his little finger.

It's been very stressful trying to learn all the ins and outs of being new parents and all the little things about our new baby while she's admitted to a hospital. It's like having to parent by a rotating committee. One nurse joked that if you ask six nurses you get eight answers. And the nurses change shifts every eight to ten hours. But, she is under great care. Each nurse is assigned to no more than 3 babies at a time, and most of the time just 2.

Thanks again to everyone. I've really thrived on Ethan's reports. Especially when I was in the hospital for so long. The first time I'd been outside in almost a week was Monday. It was hard and I broke down in the car. It felt like the Tuesday before I stepped into parallel universe and somewhere above me was the universe I wanted to be in; where the birth went differently, where we were bringing her home, where Shadow had lived long enough for me to say good bye. It was a bit much. And it hit me a little like a truck. But it was a small enough truck that being tucked it for a good nights sleep seemed to help me recover from the shock. I can truly say I regret nothing about Quinn's birth. With as covered as she was with mecomium I can't say that waiting a minute longer would have been good. We will have our girl home soon. And we laid Shadow to rest in his favorite spot to sleep in the bed of nastutiums by the back wall.

Love,

Allison

An update...

I was going to wait to post this until I knew exactly what to post. But it looks like we may never know.

Allison is doing great, Quinn is doing great. Allison has been discharged but we haven't been able to bring Quinn home yet. They did some tests on Quinn, just your general routine tests to see the health of the baby. They have to do them before they can discharge Quinn. She did great on all the tests except one. I forget the name of it, but it’s a general infection test. A good rating is on this infection test is between 0.0-0.9 Quinn's test came back at 12.5. Unfortunately this test doesn't tell you anything more then there's an infection and you should look for it. It doesn't tell you what the infection is or where it is, just that it is there. So they've been doing more tests. To confuse the matter all the tests were coming back positive, if one came back negative then they’d know what it was and would be able to treat is directly. Add that to the fact that Quinn doesn't look sick at all. She's healthy and alert, good skin color and is showing a lot of personality. But they did have to check her into the nursery where we could visit her for as long as we want, but we can’t take her out due to monitoring and testing.

So what they have been doing is giving her antibiotics. And they seem to be working! At the second test, the test came back at 5.4 then the next test was 4.0. Then 1.3 was the latest number. That’s a lot better then 12.5 but still too high. I was going to wait until they figured out what the infection was before I bogged it. I didn't want to needlessly worry anyone. But it looks like we may never know, just that the infection went away. If all things work out we should be able to bring Quinn home on Friday morning.

The whole thing has been really hard on us. We’ve never liked the idea of Quinn being infected with an unknown something, and no one could tell us how serious it was. Also we’re eager to get her home so we could bond, we’re allowed in the nursery but it’s not the same as having her with you all the time. But at the same time, I'm glad they caught it what ever it is. So never fear, everything is looking good and we’ll be home soon. (It’s hard to complain because there’s other babies in the nursery that are a lot worse off then Quinn is, but all the babies in the room seem to be on the road to recovery and doing great.)

I've been taking pictures every day, and I'll be posting everything as soon as we’re home.

Happy Birhtday Quinn Parker Hurd!

On Thursday August 5th 2004 at 3:10AM Quinn Parker Hurd (pictured on the right) was born. Both mother and baby are healthy and happy.

Allison and I will describe the labor and birth in detail later on. It is safe to say that it was a long and tough labor, but with a very happy result: Quinn. She’s a very cute baby. Despite how tough the labor was we feel like it was an overall positive labor process. Not the way we had planned it, but an incredible and moving experience over all. Allison had a cesarean birth so we will be at the hospital until Monday. Allison is doing quite well and is sitting up, talking and joking around.

If you would like to wish us well, we will be at Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City until Monday. You can be patched through at the front desk, just ask for Allison Mussell or Allison Hurd in labor and delivery.

http://www.sequoiahospital.org/

Yahoo Map





Also, I have posted some pictures on our website. You can browse some of them here:
http://www.packthecat.com/Baby/pictures/QuinnBirth/
There are two pages of thumbnails, make sure you see them both, just look at the menu on the left. To see a larger image, just click on the picture.


These are scaled down pictures so that they can be seen on the web. Go ahead and download any of them by right clicking-> Save as
I will provide full size versions later.

Ready Or Not...

I can't spend much time on this entry so forgive all the spelling and stuff. I stopped by at home to pick up a few things. I don't think I can call all of you at once so I thought I should post something before heading back.

Today we went to Ikea to walk around, hopefuly to start something. Walking is supposed to help start labor. Halfway though the place Allison started to get concerned. The baby wasn't moving around as much as she was the day before. She was moving, but not as much as yestorday. So we went to the hospital to be monitored. The doctor was concerened about the baby. We talked about it and agreed that it wasn't worth risking the well being of the baby. So we have decided to slowly start the induction process and see if natrual labor can get a kickstart. We're spending the night at the hospital being monitored, everyone is doing well, but it looks like we will defenetly have a baby sometime tomarrow. I'll try to keep you as informed as possible.

Wish us luck. We will call once we have time. I don't think I can answer all your phone calls so please don't be offended if you don't hear from us.

It's been such a roller coaster ride.
We got up Saturday and went to our usual farmer's market. Ethan has been really motivating to keep me up and walking around. The lady at our usual crepe place was surprised to see me. "Still no baby?!?" It was funny. It's strange how drawn to comment most people are. Mostly women. Some friendly and helpful, some just cross the line. Like the lady at the knitting store who exclaimed how huge I was and insisted I was having a boy by my shape. It's okay, Ethan said I inadvertently called her old later in the conversation. I have to say I do get a kick out of telling people who ask that I was due two weeks ago. Of course that always solicits advice, and I think we've heard it all by now (and tried most of them).
After the farmers market we returned to our friend house in Boulder Creek. It's an awesomely quiet place in the woods, Santa Cruz mountains. They turned the temp down in the tub. It was down to 91 by the time we got up there. And to ease my grandmothers mind, it's perfectly safe. Just think, women give birth in a tub all the time. The danger associated with hot tubs is temperature. 91 degrees is well below body temperature. It feels like a luke warm bath. The doctor talked about keeping it below 100. (If you remember, we stayed in a place with a jacuzzi tub for our honeymoon.) In fact I can't recommend getting into water. It takes so much of the stress off of your hips and bladder and everything else that's been squished. (And we checked with the doctor about possibly moving her out of place and she said not to worry.)
We sent the night and moseyed our way back down the mountain and home. We were both in a melancholy mood. Not sure what to do with ourselves since we expected to be spending this time with our new baby. Ethan pulled out an old video game and we played for an our or so (I kicked his butt...heh heh). Just in time to watch Six Feet Under and Dead Like Me. (Can I just comment that SFU has totally lost it this season and DLM has rocked...).
Which leads us to the circus of yesterday.
Doctor's appointment at 11. What we’ve been waiting for. Hoping that the doctor doesn’t insist that we head straight over to the hospital to be induced. We were happily relieved. We talked about wanting to wait through this week. I want to make sure I’ve had every chance to do this on my own. Dr. Bluvas explained how the risks after this week dramatically increase from 42 to 43 weeks. We talked about how being induced can lead to all kinds of other things (minor and major) that I didn’t want. We talked about the health of the baby. She asked if I would agree to having my membrane stripped again (physically stretching the cervix open) and I did. I had progressed to 2 and a half cm and 70% effaced. Quite an accomplishment for not being in labor.
Next we headed over to the hospital for the next round of monitoring and an ultrasound. She did great. Consistent heartbeat that fluctuates in speed, a good sign of getting enough oxygen. Our ultrasound was a little more intensive, checking for fluid and doing an evaluation, even size, which I objected to. Everything checked out so we were sent home until Thursday. When we have an appointment and another hospital visit.
It’s a lot to consider. We want to maintain a good balance. I think we’re prepared to immediately induce if there are any signs that the baby’s health may be anything less than perfect. At this point it’s been agreed that if things don’t work out on their own, I will go in Sunday to start the induction.
We left the hospital agreeing to try what ever we could to get this party rolling. We went to Mountain View and walked around their downtown trying to use the soreness I felt from the membrane stripping. We then headed over to Whole Food to pick up a few things including some black cohosh tincture.
Black Cohosh is a herbal remedy most often used to relive symptoms of menopause naturally. But, while it’s supposed to be avoided in early pregnancy, it has been used as an aid to start labor. Ethan and I debated about it for a long time. It is an herbal remedy, not regulated by the FDA. The doctor suggested that if we were willing to go that far that we should be come in for induction and safely be monitored. But again weighing the risks I decided to give it a try. Add it to our arsenal. I tried to lowest dosage last night.
So far, no dice. I feel like I’m at the edge and I just need a good push.
Today we’re trying to figure out what to do. I think we may go out again and continue walking around. I do have contractions, but nothing with any intensity or rhythm. As soon as we figure out that I’ve actually gone into labor we’ll be lighting fireworks and sending out the carrier pigeons. I know we’re not the only ones waiting on the edge of our seats.

Love to you all.

Allison