beagle boppy

bailey really digs the boppy, so does martini. maybe we need more boppies for the puppies.

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(for those who are boppy-unaware - the boppy is used to help position the baby for feeding among other things. we always feed quentin on the futon in front of the tv. We leave the boppy on the futon in between feedings so the beagles like claim it.)

8 weeks old!

man it's hard to believe he's already two months old. time flies when you have a newborn and are moving into a new house! i am excited to find out how big he is when we go to our new boston-area pediatrician next week!

he's getting so close to sleeping thru the night - he has putting together some impressive 6-hour streaks, but unfortunately they start around 10 p.m. usually so we're still up at 4 a.m. if we could just shift him a few hours we could get some solid amounts of sleep. (i can't believe i now consider 6 consecutive hours to be solid sleep!) as a point of reference, jeremy as a baby didn't sleep through the night until he was 13 months old i think! go quentin!

just can't resist

out til november

i have decided to use most of my vacation time to extend my maternity leave until november 1st. i am very happy to be able to stay home with quentin for that much longer. now to find a job to return to and daycare...

apologies to sister sledge...

we are family, i got all my doggies with me

for the first time since june 11th, our WHOLE family (me, jeremy, quentin, the dogs, and the cat) is in OUR house TOGETHER. woo hoo! we drove to westfield on saturday to go to the big E with my parents and bring the last two puppies back down here to our new house. things are stabilizing and getting back to "normal". the dogs are all passed out on the futon, basking in the sun and the cat is playing wild kingdom down in the cellar.

quentin enjoyed the big E, sleeping through most of it despite the fact that there were like 90 billion people there. granted i haven't been there in 12 years, i have never seen it that crazy before. quentin did get to see all kinds of farm animals including baby pigs (his favorite) and baby chicks. he also got his first outdoor diaper change on the front lawn of the massachusetts building and his first experience dining alfresco.

7 weeks old!

not much new in quentin-ville. he still likes to eat. he's still getting bigger. he does think that 7 p.m. is the best time of day to sleep really well. after he finishes eating around that time he goes down hard. we usually have to wake him up around 12 or 1 to feed and change him because we can't stay awake any longer! if only we could shift that a few hours later he'd practically be sleeping through the night! so here's some pics to get you through a pretty boring update.

nursery progress

quentin's nursery is coming together. the lilac walls have been painted a shade of white. we have assembled his crib and changing table, and even dressed the crib with the wicked awesome vintage peanuts crib set i got on ebay. now we need to buy the shelf from IKEA that we will use in there in lieu of a dresser. (we went to buy it last week but it was too big to fit in my jetta - need a new plan for getting it home.) his room is super tiny but it seems like it is all going to fit just perfectly! we're still planning an ambitious painting project - fun bright stripes on the walls. just waiting until all the furniture is in place so we can figure out where to put the stripes.

belly envy

i went to the doctor yesterday for my 6 week check-up. everything is fine. my doctor even gave me a prescription for something that will increase my milk supply, which has been very low since i was sick several weeks ago. yeah! while sitting in the waiting room, i looked around and saw all the soon to be mommies with their big round bellies (and there were some really big ones!) it made me so sad. i miss my big belly. don't get me wrong - i adore quentin and absolutely do not want the grossly swollen feet and ankles, the heartburn, the back aches, the nausea, and the general crabbiness back. just the belly. and the stretchy elastic waisted pants!!! in other news, quentin is grandma-less for the first time in over a week following the overlapping grandma visits. he definitely misses their constant doting. mommy dotes but not as much since she has to unpack and set up a whole house. :) now he is anxiously awaiting when he gets to meet aunt leah and aunt becky in a few days! quentin also took his first train ride yesterday. since we all needed to be in the city (me to the doctor, jeremy to work, and his mom to the airport) we took the commuter rail in. got some weird looks from the commuters - don't think they see someone hauling an infant carrier on the train every day. Q enjoyed it thoroughly. then he got to ride the subway from south station to the hospital stop. jeremy did very well holding the car seat amid the typical rush hour hoard of people. no one seemed to really care that he was holding an infant. he got pushed and shoved as much as the rest of us, and even swatted at by an old man when jeremy accidentally bumped against him when the train lurched. but on both rides, nice ladies eventually gave up their seats so that jer could set Q down. good times.

quentin's first real bath!

because of our recent nomadic homelessness we haven't been able to give the Q a real bath until today. but grandma sweeney is here and we have access to all the necessary bath stuff so into the tub he went. he didn't mind it so much at first, well, at least after he peed in the tub (see the first pic for an action shot that i was lucky to capture!) but as the water got cold he grew less patient and the screaming kicked in. he was certainly happy to get out. and he is just too cute in his hoodie towel!!

edited to add: we have bathed our child before this, just not in the tub :) we used a bowl of warm water and a wash cloth previously. didn't want people thinking that we had the world's dirtiest baby!

and a few more

heeeere's quentin!

6 weeks old!

no pics until we find and set up our card reader, but hopefully that will be soon! we have officially moved in to our new house. the PODS have been unloaded and returned and only a few things remain in other various locations (we have stuff at my parents' house, my brother's house, in our shed in richmond for my sister to bring up with her at the end of the month, and at jeremy's mom's apartment.) the house is much smaller than our last house so we have to figure out what stays and what goes. we (which means i) have too much stuff. we'll have an awesome yard sale soon enough (and we'll need the extra cash to continue paying two mortgages!) it's a long process but the house is slowly starting to come together and the unpacked boxes are dwindling. we're doing a lot of painting because the all the rooms were either painted a hideous shade of purple or white, complete with grubby hand prints everywhere. we are also adjusting to life in a small town. richmond isn't exactly a huge city but hanson is a small town. we knew we were in for a shock when we received something from the post office talking about how rural route delivery works. our town has only about 10,000 people. no interstates run through it. there is no trash collection - we have to bring our trash to the dump ourselves!! but it's fun. it's nice to hear the crickets at night instead of highway traffic and gunshots! we love our little house and will be much happier once we're settled in. quentin is doing very very well. he is growing so fast. some of the 0-3 clothes are starting to get a little snug and he'll be out of the size 1 diapers in a week or so. he's staying awake a lot more and loves to watch the world around him. he likes to look at the trees outside the window and is thoroughly fascinated by our black leather couch. so cute! he's had a lot of grandma time this week. my mom was here monday through wednesday and jeremy's mom got here on wednesday. it's very nice to have them around. q enjoys all the attention and it allows jer and i some time to get settled into the house. his crib and changing table arrived yesterday, and we painted his room today. the walls in his room are a creamy white (sea salt to be exact!) we will be adding some bright colorful stripes to the walls in two fun shades of green, red, and blue. but we're holding off on that until we figure out how to place the furniture. my mom and i went to ikea on tuesday to buy the shelf for his room since he doesn't have a closet, but the shelf i want was much too big to fit into my little jetta so we couldn't get it yet. jeremy and his mom assembled the crib tonight so we're getting there! i've got to get to bed and get some shut eye while the boy is actually asleep, but hopefully now that life is getting back to normal we'll be able to post more often!

i hate comcast slash i love internet

a comcast haiku a full week later comcast finally came here now internet works actual quentin related content coming soon. just had to express my joy to finally have internet access again and express my utter disdain for comcast.

5 weeks old!

another quick check in while i have internet (our cable should be hooked up tomorrow and assuming we can find the modem in the mounds of unpacked boxes we'll be back online then!) quentin had his one month check up today. he's doing very well. he weighed in at 10 pounds, 14 ounces and is 22 3/4 inches. he's in the 50th percentile for height and 75th for weight - much better than at his 1 week visit when he was in the 25th percentile for both. we'll get some new pictures up as soon as our computer is set up! we have ordered his crib and changing table and i bought the paint for his room today. quentin should have a fully functional nursery by the end of the month! of course most people have all that done before the kid is born, but what can i say, it's been a challenging summer!

house!!

quick update while we have internet access... closing went well on friday so we are now officially homeowners twice over. the process is very different up here than it was when we bought our house in richmond. closing happened right at the registry of deeds in a dingy conference room where another closing was also happening. the sellers were there too so it was quite a party - me, jeremy, quentin, the sellers and their 3 year old, our realtor, their realtor, and our lawyer. their lawyer couldn't attend. but we've signed our lives away and have another house! now we don't have to answer the question, "what's your address?" with, "well that's complicated." the three of us spent the night in the new house on friday, quentin in his car seat and jeremy and i on air mattresses. we bought cleaning supplies and did some work. we also figured out where furniture would go. saturday we did some painting because there was a horrible pinky purple room that needed to go away. it is now a nice light yellow. also painted below the chair rail in the dining room - a lovely shade of red called cranberry whip. right now we're back in western mass. jeremy and my dad have gone to pick up the big old moving truck and mom and i will head up to my uncle's house to meet them and start loading. there's a lot to load but it's worth it to save a couple of grand!! we're not sure when our cable will be hooked up so our internet access will be somewhat spotty until then.