Crawling

It was a few days ago when Quinn finally figured out that magical limb coordination that changed her from a reliable blob on the floor, to hell-on-wheels. Well, hell-on-wheels is an exaggeration as her crawl is still on the sloppy side. Her arms move in the traditional “crawling” position and move accordingly, however her legs do a very strange shuffle that somehow propel her forward. Her legs are a mix between a traditional crawl/bear crawl/military crawl. She’ll focus on an object she wants, which is usually around 4-5 Quinn lengths away.  She’ll then lunge forward and proceed with caution. She will crawl only as far as she thinks she needs to then sits herself up. If she comes up short, she repeats. I’m calling this crawling. She has not yet set her sights on anything too far away… for instance, me in the other room. She’ll lunge in my direction, then just stare in my direction and whine while I shout bits of encouragement to her… “come on Quinn”… “keep crawling”… “come get mommy…” The encouraging words don’t seem to be creating much action yet as they seem to just remind her that I’m in the other room and NOT picking her up.  Which reminds me that I need to use this time, before she is actually hell-on-wheels, to finish baby-proofing the house.

My big dilemma/question is, what do I do with the evil cat litter box? Our house is simply not large enough to conveniently store it out of baby’s reach, yet within kitty-cat reach. I’m contemplating placing it on the back-porch, but that would require us to install a cat-door which I’m not crazy about. Any ideas?

I Stand Alone

Along with this skill is her new found desire to stand ALL THE TIME. This as well as pulling herself up and stand at whatever is close… the couch, a chair, coffee table, my legs. She carefully pulls herself up, then lets go so she’s standing alone. One of three things happen at this point, she either (1) falls on her butt, (2) she falls towards the object that she was holding, or (3) falls all the way to the floor and hits her head. Even though she is often brought to tears when she falls, she is so determined to stand alone, that once the water-works have stopped, she goes right back to this activity.

Climbing Stairs

Quinn loves to stand on the stairs and look up, as she tries to figure out, where daddy’s voice is coming from. His office is upstairs and he can be heard but not seen. I’m afraid I’ve created a bad habit because, she is officially bored with standing at the stairs and banging on the steps… She now climbs up the stairs. Unbeknownst to her, she needs my help to complete this activity, however I don’t do much except hold her back, so she doesn’t fall backwards. As we reach the summit, I can tell her little legs get tuckered out, so I’ll give her a little push on her butt. She is beyond proud of herself when she reaches to top. It’s hilarious seeing this little blob of a person make their way up our 13 steps. I think she’s going to be a bit disappointed when I put that baby gate up.

Vo-cab Comprend-o

Her current word comprehension list is:Mommy. Daddy. Kitty-Cat. Bird. Dog. She may be comprehending much more than this, however, when I say these words to her she clearly understands. For example when I say “where’s the bird?” She looks up in the sky, trying to spot one. When I say “Where’s the kitty?” She quickly scans the room, looking for Maya the cat. This whole word comprehension thing is so fascinating and I know that if you don’t have children this probably won’t blow you away as it has Jake and I. But seriously people, I don’t know what could be more fascinating than watching your child learn one new thing after another. It’s an amazing gift.

And with that I’m off to wipe a snotty-nosed-afro-bedhead baby.

As of two weeks ago, I am a full blown, 100%, stay-at-home-mom (sahm).  The commitment I had made to my company was to give between 8-10 hours per week, which, I know sounds like something any of us could do without even blinking… However, the deal was that I would do this work from home while my daughter napped. I suppose at some level I knew it’d be a temporary situation, as obviously babies do not keep up that heavenly schedule of sleeping MOST of the day, but when Quinn abruptly shifted her naps from 4 down to 2 a day so quickly - I was a bit shell-shocked. I tried to “squeeze” in my 8-10 hours but the attempt was quite pathetic. She’d go down, I’d pick-up a few things around the house, maybe wash a dish or two then I’d head upstairs settling in to do some work, and 15 minutes later she was awake. I’d give a *sigh* of frustration and leave the pile of work there for the next time.

After almost 3 weeks of playing this game, I finally realized… things were not going back to the way they were. (Hey, listen, I never said I was quick on the uptake…) I returned the box of work, 2/3rd’s complete, said my goodbyes and my “yes, we’ll be coming back to visit often” remarks and off we went. A very anticlimactic ending to something that has been the constant in my life for over 8 years.

It was a couple of days later that I began feeling sad about ending the nearly perfect situation with my employer. While I only went in once a week to return/collect more work, that visit, plus watching the stream of department emails come and go, was my lifeline to the “working” world. The last morsel of my “old” self. I tried to log into my work email in the hopes that someone forgot to disable my account but…  I no longer existed. I spoke to Jake about it and he said what most guys (dudes, sorry for generalizing) would say, “I thought this is what you wanted”. I replied with, “yes it is, but, I’m still sad about it.” I know you’re probably familiar with this predictable male-to-female conversation format that occurs on a semi-regular basis in our house (man hears woman declare feelings, man gives solution, woman doesn’t WANT solution, she just wants him to LISTEN. Man can’t JUST listen, must give ACTION, SOLUTION, ANSWERS to stop woman from “declaring of feelings”.) Sorry, I digress — the fundamental differences between the way men and women communicate is for another post, on another day.

After my mourning/moping stage, the idea of this new found “freedom” began to take shape in my head.  See, even though I was only working while she was sleeping, I never ventured off too far, due to her frequent naps and the fact that I didn’t want to be caught out-and-about while she napped in the car, because “naptime” was always my “work-time”.

So during the first week and a half, I found myself with more freedom, yet I didn’t quite know what to do with it. As a result, I defaulted to our typical stopping grounds — Safeway, Fred Meyer’s and the ever so wonderful, money-sucking Target. However, when our fridge was stocked and there was not one more baby item I could justify purchasing at Target, I realized that Quinn and I need some new “activities”.

I made my way through the Urbanmamas calendar section… and payed a bit closer attention to the “puddle jumpers” mailing list I am a part of and selected a couple of things to attend.

The first was this, the World’s Biggest Playdate. It was very entertaining and I’m sure Quinn will take away a decent cold or two, thanks to the “community” toys she managed to shove in her mouth. There were lots of babies, live music, and Elmo!

Then on Friday we spent the day at OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science & Industry) with my friend Janna & Eve. Eve is 13 months old and quiet the little role-model for Quinn. We played for a couple of hours at the museum and then put the babies in their respective strollers and went on a 4 mile stroll. The girls did wonderful and only in the last 15 minutes did Quinn start to fuss, but it was short-lived because she quickly crashed in the car. Next on the agenda is Gym Class at Gymboree on Tuesday & Library time on Friday.

The challenge to these “outings” is to look for things that are free, or very inexpensive at the least.  I’m excited about the Gymboree gym class, but at 65 bucks a month, I’m gonna stick with my “free class” pass and seek out other options.

My hope is to have an “activity” at least 3 time a week for her, and while this is mainly for Quinn’s benefit, these outing do mamma some good as well.  Being cooped up in a (non-gigantic) house with a baby begins to wear on my nerves after a while. And now that I’m getting the hang of this SAHM thing, I’m sort of getting excited about the things she and I can fill our days with.

It’s not that often that Jake and I actually sit down together and agree on a television show to watch. This gathering has become even more scarce since Quinn was born. In fact there have been exactly 4 times we’ve sat down together and (tried) to watch something — the Presidental & VP debates. On the evening of the first debate we made it a point to leave my in-law’s early enough, so we’d have plenty of time to settle in.

Things did not go as planned. She lost her “cool” about 20 minutes into the debate. I took her outside to relax and I got stung by a bee. Which, what in the world was a bee doing on a cool evening towards the end of September??? Not to mention I’ve somehow avoided being stung by a bee for the past 20+ years — and I get stung now? I fell into a slight panic because the bee stung me on my arm, the arm that was holding my child. I also panicked because the last time I got stung, the affected area swelled to the size of a bowling ball. Just slightly unpleasant.

Anyway, long story short, I think it took us 4 hours to watch the 90 minute debate.  The other debates were of course the same, well, minus the bee sting. However for the remaining 3 debates, our expectations were correctly aligned with Quinn’s. And in the end, we were just glad we had a DVR that we could pause, rewind and fast forward.

So on this eve of the election which I am so excited for, I may not be able to sleep… I would love nothing more than to be glued to our tube from 4 p.m. on, watching CNN’s detailed reports on their “Magic Map”. However, I fear that I’ll have to settle for the election coverage to be the “background” noise to my standard evening with an 8 1/2 month old. Oh, and by the way, I’ve been trying to teach Quinn how important this election is, and why it is so important that Obama wins this thing…  And why we need to watch every silly news channel all night, however I’m not sure she totally got the message.

In her defense, she’s got a lot going on right now…  Learning to stand on her own, and oh yes, figuring out how to turn the lights *on* and *off*.

Feeding Quinn can be beyond entertainment at times. This was demonstrated last night during her dinner. Now that her mouth is equipped with 6 chompers (4 on top, 2 on bottom), when I feed her, the spoon often gets trapped. Please observe the sequence of photos below to see how the feeding unfolded.

The End.

Where to start?  It’s been a while since I’ve posted a “skillz” update and honestly, it feels like this girl has been gaining a new skill every 15 minutes.

Fine Motor Skills. There’s no doubt we’ve got a good eater on our hands and she’s been refining her fine motor skills by eating as much finger food as I can give her. Currently at the top of her list are blueberries (cut up) and grapes (also cut into tiny pieces). It is the cutest thing when she carefully reaches for the berry or grape with her thumb and index finger, then slowly raises it to her mouth. Right now she manages to get the small piece of fruit in her mouth about 70% of the time.  The other 30% of the time it falls to her bib. What is so funny about these times is that she thinks it’s in her mouth and chews, chews, chews until moments later she realizes that there’s NOTHING in there. At which point she fuses asks for assistance from mom.

The motor skills are also in full effect when she’s playing. Guaranteed enjoyment is grabbing two hard toys and banging them together. While she is very satisfied by the noise that is created by doing this, her little eyes blink in slight surprise every time the objects crash together.

Sitting up on her own.

After 2 months of this move, she has finally figured out the roll-to-your-side-and-push-yourself-up technique. Up until a couple of weeks ago, any time she wanted to sit up, she would get into this pilates move and whine until you sat her up… Which got old, you know after the first 6 weeks! Anyway, it’s her new favorite move. So much her favorite, that whenever I put her on her tummy to practice crawling, she says, forget this, and just sits up. Hehe…

Military Push-Up’s.

Ok, so she isn’t doing Jillian Michaels type push up’s, but she does push herself has as high as she can go… on her toes with arms fully extended. She stays in this position for as long as she can stand it before collapsing. Then repeats over and over if the mood strikes her. I know she’s wearing black pants in this picture, but if you look carefully, you can see my dirt/dust particals underneath her. Hehe - I sweep/swifter every other day, but it’s a losing battle folks.

On The Move…sort of.

As of about a week ago, she can very effectively push herself backwards when on her tummy. The problem is that she appears to WANT to go forward.  So when she ends up further and further away from the object or person she has set her sights on, she get’s frustrated. In the photo above, she is moving away from Daddy and under the couch. Problem is that Daddy’s got the darn ball she wants. She can actually get moving very quickly when she’s on the hardwood floor. As for me, I’m trying to savor these last few weeks of limited mobility and finish baby-proofing the house.  First on the list is mounting our tv to the wall.

Chompers. She’s got 5 teeth now. 3 on the top, 2 on the bottom… And I’ve got the bite marks to prove this. The other night she got her hands on a magazine, tore a page and was eating a small piece of paper. This all happened within about 15 seconds. I quickly laid her over my lap and stuck my finger into her mouth to retrieve that piece of The Economist, only to be bitten so hard that she drew blood. I quickly pulled out my finger, cursing under my breath while she continued to suck/chew. I went in again, and this time was smart and went in from the side, where molars will someday be. I was finally triumphant and she was pissed.

Bath Time. Part of Quinn’s nightly routine is a bath every night. Our current arrangement for the bath, is either Jake or I hop in the tub with her. Each night she seems to discover and obsess over something different…  Sometimes she want’s to stand the entire time and play with the faucet.  Sometimes she wants to repeatedly push the “plug” switch thingy, down, to release the water. Sometimes it chewing on her toys… However the newest and most unpleasant new activity that she’s discovered is, while sitting up, she puts her mouth down to the water and drinks up. Last night Jake was bathing her and no matter what distractions he placed in front of her, this activity would not cease. So the bath ended sooner than later last night. Tonight I’ll bring in her sippy cup with the hopes of teaching her, “Are you thirsty? Here, drink from your cup. Not the bath water, which I’m 99.9% sure you’ve peed in”.

Naps. For quite a long stretch of time she has taken between 3-4 naps a day.  Each nap would range from 40 - 70 minutes. This would allow mommy to get all of the 1000 things done on her list, including the work I do for LP at home. I know that all good things must come to an end, but I was at least hoping for a gradual change. For a week now, Quinn has been napping in her crib and not only are the naps shorter (30-45 minutes), but she seems to want to only nap twice in the day.  Yes, I know this is the natural progression, and that soon, she’ll be down to only 1 nap a day, however how in the world am I going to get all this stuff done??? Do I hear laughter from the veteran parents??

People, where does this time go??? With her learning so much, so fast, things seem to be whizzing by us. I want to pause and rewind so many moments of each day. Oh and by the way, can I officially mark the day as her being “Daddy’s Girl?” No one can seem to bring a smile to her face like Daddy does and it honestly melts my heart beyond recognition.

And like clock work… I can hear her rousing on the baby monitor. But this is good news folks… it’s 8 a.m. I’ve had a whole hour and a half to my wee-little self.

Last weekend we spend a couple of days at the beach. We had a great time. Quinn loves the ocean, loves the sand and loves the swimming pool. I booked a “studio” room at a hotel and were pleasantly surprised when they shoved us a key for a 2 bedroom unit. Quinn was a champ even without her normal naps.  We hung out with Grandpa & Grandma Lint, and Bubba (the dog). Quinn loves Bubba and the feeling is mutual.

The weather at the beach was insane. Mid-70’s, not a cloud in the sky… If your feet never touched the water, and you were in the sun long enough, for a split second, you might mistake the beach for Hawaii.  Hey, I said, for a split-second.

So we returned on Sunday and proceeded with the week which promptly turned to shit. Tuesday I walked across the street to my neighbors to pay forward a good deed and handed over some diapers that Quinn has outgrown. When I was leaving, I was rolling there 1000 pound gate closed when my toe decided to get acquainted with the wheel. My little, ity-bity pinky toe got crushed by the wheel. I tried to pull my toe out from under the wheel, but it was stuck. So I oh-so-carefully rolled the gate back to RELEASE my toe. OUCH!

As if my child isn’t getting difficult enough to carry at nearly 19 pounds, let’s throw a gimp foot into the mix. SWEET!  Jake and I were convinced it was broken, but I think I got lucky. For the first two days I couldn’t bend my foot, however today things are much better. Thank god.

Then all of a sudden it was Thursday.  And Thursday night was the night. The night we would begin weaning Quinn from our bed, into her crib. This has been a long time coming, and as bedtime approached, my stomach began to turn. I don’t have a stomach for the CIO (cry it out) method, so I knew I had a long night ahead of me. This is something that both Jake and I are ready for, but it still is not easy on me.

So, in the bath she went at 7:30, then PJ’s and playtime until 8 o’clock. I worked on getting her to sleep between 8 - 9. Finally at 9 o’clock she passed out. She then woke up at 10:15, 10:50, 11:50, 1:30, 2:00.It was at the 2 a.m. waking when I realized I had a fever… Aches, chills, VERY sore breast. Mastitis, which is an infection in the breast. I grabbed her and took her to bed. Partially because I was so exhausted due to my sick boob and also, just because it was 2 a.m. and I hadn’t slept yet.

We have not returned to the crib because I’ve continued to get very sick. The awesome side-effect of mastitis is that you feel like you’ve got the flu. This is along with massive breast agony. Anyway, on Saturday I spent 2 hours waiting to be seen at Urgent Care. The doctor saw me for 3 minutes, and told me what I could have told them over the phone — that I’ve mastitis and I need antibiotics.

This is day two of antibiotics and I’m starting to feel better, my toe continues to heal, and my daughter for the most part is napping in her crib.

Wish Quinn luck as she continues to learn what it’s like to sleep in her own bed.

She just might have wheels on her butt. When I sit her down on the hardwood floor, she glides backwards… until she bumps into something.

Exercise has been regular part of my life for the last 10 years or so. If you know me, you know I’m a long time Billy Blanks fan.  He and I go back — way back.  In 2001-2002 I lost roughly 25 pounds thanks to him.   Actually thanks to, Tae-bo, eating next to nothing and going through a divorce seemed to be the winning combination for me. And while being 25 pounds lighter, with my particular body (@ 5′ 3″) looks good, was not sustainable. Around 2003-2004 I found an ideal weight around 130-135. There I hovered until I got pregnant.

I recall many conversations I’ve had with friends both while I was pregnant and then postpartum and the general consensus from people, is that… the baby weight will just melt off. These were people who had children and were speaking from experience — WiTH THEIR BODIES.  By the time I had Quinn, I had gain about 36 pounds, which is 1 pound over the average 25 - 35 lb weight gain.  Days after I had her, I was amazed at how quickly my body began shrinking. I couldn’t believe this HUGE belly I had, was so small.  I assumed all those people were right. This baby weight is going to melt away — especially with me breastfeeding.  I breathed a sigh of relief and continued along my new mommy path.

True, my body shrank. But not to pre-baby size. It appears that my body has taken a liking to these last 12 pounds.  Looking back in postpartum months 3 & 4 & 5, I thought the semi-strenuous walks would do the trick, but no.

So in the last month I’ve come to the realization that this body is not one of the blessed.  Which honestly is no surprise. The words, WEIGHT and MELTING have never gone hand-in-hand with me. I more or less must pry the pounds off of me.  In fact, I wonder if that whole, nursing helps you lose weight is some sort of myth that should be debunked by Mythbusters.

I realized I needed to step-it-up with the ol’ exercise and eating thing.  Exercise is much easier for me to tackle first, as I’ve become oh-so comfy with my nightly treat.  So upon the advice of a fellow mommy blogger, I checked out the video 30 Day Shred by Jillian Michaels.  And it’s official. After one workout with Jillian, I am willing to dump my 7+ year affair with Billy Blanks.  So sorry Billy, but my time has become precious. Juggling this parenting stuff, working from home, keeping up with piles of dishes and laundry and a floor that seems to need mopping every other day - squeezing in an hour workout while my daughter is sleeping is not possible, at least right now.  I know that our 7+ years together has seen some great times and I’m not saying it’s over.  I’d like to remain friends and you know, keep the door open… Maybe one day you and I would workout in the future.  (hehe)

Anyhow. The BEST thing about this video is that the workouts are 20 minutes. Which, I know, doesn’t seem like enough time to kick anyone’s ass into shape… But seriously folks, this is an amazing workout. The video has 3 workout levels, each are 20 minutes long, with the idea that you work your way up to level 3.

At some point in Level 2, Jillian says… “I want you to feel like you’re going to DIE…”  And um, I’ve thought I might.  This Jillian Micheals is one evil chick.  But it’s good — and again, the best part is that you only have to stare at her mug for 20 minutes.

So there’s my fitness rant and with that, I’m off to another session with Jillian since Quinn is sleeping.

Quinn and I just got back from a visit from Skagit Valley. We took the train up and had a wonderful time. It was great to see Quinn bond with her Grandpa and Grandma Lint.  Have I mentioned that this girl has no shortage of grandparents?  3 full sets of grandparent love and 3 times the spoilage…

While we were visiting, we stopped by my nearest and dearest friend Cassandra’s house.  She and I go back to the 6th-7th grade, but I officially wanted to be her friend in the 4th grade (she was so pretty, with perfectly white knee-high socks, going down the playground slide.)

She is forging the path of parenthood 8 weeks ahead of me. She has a baby girl (Addison) who is officially the cutest baby residing in Skagit Valley. Cassandra and I made a decision early on that Quinn and Addison would be friends — and Quinn and I got a chance to hang out with them last week.  And while this friendship has been prearranged, the two seemed to have a great time playing with each other.

At one point in the play-date they both noticed a piece of entertainment “GOLD”…  a plastic water bottle. Below is a series of photos showing the battle-of-the-bottle. While Addison had the clear advantage of mobility on her side (crawling), Quinn had the grip o’death in her little fingers.  Watch below to see this dramatic battle unfold…

Shake on it… They agreed to “FIGHT FAIR”.

Addison get’s the first grip on the bottle. Little does she know Quinn has here eyes set on the prize…

All of a sudden, Addison is left in confusion… What happened to my “waba?”

Quinn: “Back-off girly girl in your pink shirt… oh, wait… I’m in a pink shirt as well. Hehe…”

Addison attempts to Fake-out Quinn… “Hmmm, let me see… I think it’s broken…  Just hand it over for a second…”

Addison got it, but Quinn’s in with the left-arm-swipe. Gimme, gimme, gimme…

All of a sudden Addison tries the rational approach: “Quinn, I am 2 months older than you, therefore, I get the water bottle, thank you very much”…

Addison gives a sigh of relief as Quinn picks up the squeeky-cat…  BUT WAIT!

Ahhh, she may be 2 months younger, and have an attention span of a flea, but the power of the water bottle is impossible to resist!

The Underdog takes the lead…  Addison may not look angered, but don’t let that cuter-than-cute face fool you, she’s ROYALLY PISSED!

And just like that, It’s ripped from Quinn’s hands… faster than you can say “poopy-diaper”.

That’s when things turned UGLY. Quinn went for the jugular!  PLEAAAASSSSEEE SOMEONE STOP THE MADDNESS!!!!

Addison finally took the high road and gave the water bottle to Quinn.  She came to the realization that Quinn’s only a baby, and she just doesn’t quiet understand the concept of sharing yet. She further realized that it’s up to her to show Quinn how to play nice.  What a sweet, sweet girl.

It was moments later when the water bottle was out of sight, that they were onto the next thing…

It is seriously beyond entertainment to watch these two together. Watching Addison, who is just a bit older than Quinn is like peering into the not so distant future to see what the next few months have in store for us here… And officially, things are going to get MORE fun and MORE exhausting. And I can hardly wait.

We visited the doctor last week and Quinn received a clean bill of health…  Too bad the Ped couldn’t foresee her first cold right around the corner. Anyway, she continues to sit at the 75th percentile on the charts for height, weight and head size.

Height: 26″

Weight: 18 lbs.

Head Size: ??? 75% larger than her peers

Other notable events and personality quirks:

She continues to refine her sitting-up skills and can technically sit up without the assistance of pillows surrounding her, but me being neurotic me, I still use the boppy pillow as a crutch. Along with sitting-up, she also now LUNGES forward. This move is made with no regard to her (hard) surroundings. In her mind it’s very simple, she see’s an object, she wants it, can’t reach by sitting still, so she lunges forward. While she no longer startles herself when doing this, she often lands in a very awkward position and quickly cries for some assistance.

Like many other babies, she absolutely loves TAGS. The bigger the tag the better. She’s got all of these toys and is often oblivious to the bright colors and plush fabrics. I’m thinking in investing in one of these.

She is fascinated with her dad’s head. Jake will rub his noggin on her belly and she shrieks out in laughter. She tries her hardest to grab ahold of the  1/2″ buzz cut asian ‘fro but luckily for Jake, his hair is just a wee bit too short for her grasp.

I sing ridiculous songs to her all day, but the one that is guaranteed to bring a smile to her face is this. I really stretch the song out by adding very odd lyrics:  …The babies on the bus, they nurse, nurse, nurse… the babies on the bus go waa, waa, waa… the mommies on the bus, they shhoosh, shhoosh, shhoosh…

She L.O.V.E.S. peek-a-boo. And seriously, just saying peek-a-boo brings a smile to her face.

I honestly cannot believe 6 months has passed. Jake and I have so much fun with her, especially as she’s gotten older and has been able to interact and play more.  The ever changing, ever evolving days of an infant…  is there anything more fascinating than watching a human being develop???

Ok, now I must go and kiss my sweet pea and sick huzband, who are napping together. *heart-bursting*

Our sweet sweet angel has been cursed with her first of many colds to come. It actually struck she and I both at about the same time… yesterday around 2:30 p.m. And the timing of it of course could not have been worse. As of 3 minutes ago, Quinn and I were supposed to be boarding a train bound for the Emerald City where we were going to spend the week with my family.

The mental preparation for this trip began well over a week ago and I’ve had this 50+ pound suitcase packed since Friday, so of course we would get sick.  While I was nervous about traveling alone with Quinn on a train, I was also excited about the trip. For a short trip up I-5 from Portland to Seattle, Amtrak is a great way to go.  Not as great as a 30 minute flight, but at 70 bucks round trip, it’s cheaper that filling up 2 gas tanks in the car and it’s 100x’s more relaxing than being stuck in a car. On the train, you’ve got the mobility… I could walk Quinn up and down the cars - hang out in the dining car… watch the scenery out the large windows, and enjoy that soothing back-and-forth rocking as the train rolls along.  So as much prep went into this trip, we inevitably are stopped by the one thing that stops a new mom dead in her tracks.

And so far, this first cold is not disappointing. She’s got a steady stream of snot running down her nose, sneezing and coughing constantly, has a slight fever and to top it off, she’s of course fussy. Last night she went to sleep at about 8:45 and woke up about every half hour struggling to breath. At about 11 o’clock last night, I broke out the the snot-sucker and have become very intimate with her little nostrils - which she hates by the way. But seriously — who wouldn’t? What an unpleasant thing.

At 2 a.m. she was wide awake, so she and I got up. I figured that sitting up and letting some of the gunk drain would be good for her. I lasted until about 3 a.m. which was the time I felt like I could collapse from exhaustion.  So she and I laid down and when we were both close to drifting off, she decides to poop those sweet peas from earlier in the day. Double Awesome!

Up we get, change the diaper, suck more snot, and lay back down. The sleep gods had mercy on us and let she and I sleep for 3 hours.

The only upside to this debacle is that in the midst of caring for her, I’ve nearly forgotten about my own cold.

So, cross your fingers folks that our initiation into the world of sick-baby is short-lived and that Miss. Quinn and I will hop on that train later this week.

…(*ahh* *oohs* from baby monitor) And with that, she’s waking from her too short nap, so until next time…