15 months

15 months is so awesome that it was worthy of opening up this dusty blog and recording for all of time.  If I could bottle up 15 months and sell it, I would, and I'd be rich.

15 months is.....

...dressing up like your daddy for Halloween

...being mischievous to get a laugh out of your parents
...laughing a deep belly laugh when someone scares you (your favorite thing)
...spending half of the day looking at the sky saying "ah-pane, ah-pane."  Since we live in the flight path, you get to say this alllll day long
...being a great dinner companion
...playing outside all the live-long day.  Rain doesn't slow you down

...being so cute and charming in public that we rarely go out without someone saying that you "made their day"
...talking!  I stopped counting at 30 words when you were 13 months.  I'm sure you're well over 50 now, and you get 2-3 new ones per day it feels like.
...eating like a big boy.  You're all toddler as you eat at your tiny table and eat a quesadilla for dinner.
...learning to follow directions, which you're amazingly good at.  You also LOVE to help with chores.  The dishwasher opens and you come running.

...playing with the vacuum.  You can plug it in and turn it on yourself, and then you laugh so hard when your daddy sucks up your hand or belly.

...taking lots of adventures with mommy's mom's group, like to the pumpkin patch

...spending 3 days per week with your beloved nanny Gloria and your little girlfriend Ramona.  If she's not around, your sad little "moooooona?" breaks my heart.

...loving life with excitement and exuberance.  Just this week you started saying "whoa" in context, which makes us laugh.
 
...dancing!  Oh boy how you love to dance!  The local pub has a child's musician on Wednesday nights, and even he was cracking up at your moves.
...being all boy.  You are always in constant motion unless you're sleeping.  You love to run and climb, with no fear of falling.  You're now at the stage where you are always covered in bruises.

Buddy, you're such a joy and just so much fun.  Every week we discuss having one of us quit and stay home with you.  We haven't taken the plunge yet because your nanny is so good for you and part-time work is good for us, but each week it gets harder and harder to leave you in the mornings.  I can't wait to watch you grow even more.

ONE!

Quinn turned one on Monday. 

Somehow, in the blink of an eye, my "screaming-24/7-unhappy-failure-to-thrive-oh-my-god-we-have-ruined-our-lives" has turned into this joyous and smart little boy that charms everyone he meets, giggles when you tickle his neck, loves nothing more than being chased, walks everywhere, talks (dada, mama, cat, hat, dog, yes, off, duck), gives hugs, helps dress himself, shares, and loves teasing (he'll offer you an object, then snatch it back and run away giggling).  Oh the joy that is wrapped up in that little body.





November still hurts my heart.  He was SO skinny and SO sickly :(

Pictures are better than nothing, right?

Fun times

While Quinn didn't get better immediately, things gradually became more fun.  Not only was he feeling better, but I think we were learning his cues better and settling into as much of a groove as one can have with an infant.

Quinn will never be an "easy" baby.  He's not content to sit and play on his playmat alone for more than about 10 minutes.  He'd be happy being carried around all day.  He never stops moving while he's awake.  If he's lying down, his arms and legs are moving.  If he's standing up, he's bouncing and his arms are flapping away.  He has two emotions - SUPER happy or SUPER pissed off.  There isn't much in between.  That said, the happy greatly outweighs the pissed off now, and we're having a lot of fun with him.  He has a fantastic sense of humor, and he makes us laugh every day.

We've had a million rounds of illness go through our house thanks to the petri dish of daycare (bronchitis, RSV, numerous colds, norovirus, and probably others I'm forgetting).  We're doing all that we can to try and take him out of daycare if finances will allow.  Hopefully by spring we'll have a plan.

We started swimming lessons in January.  Despite the pool being advertised as 86 degrees, it was more like 81.  That's waaay to cold for babies.  All of the babies in class had chattering teeth.  Quinn cried and was purple within 10 minutes.  I said screw it and never went back.  Instead, we found a local soaking pool that is a delightful 100 degrees.  It's FULL of babies, and Quinn loves it.  He splashes and squeals with delight.



He also loves bath time


He and I started a game a couple of months ago where I peek at him through the bars of his crib when he wakes up.  Every.single.time I get this huge smile.  It's one of my favorite parts of the day.


He has also learned to sit, and mobility is not far behind


He loves being outside in the fresh air, even if it is cold outside


He's our little superhero, and we love him :)  More updates to come, but for now the lure of bed calls.  Mr. Q is nowhere near sleeping through the night, so 9pm is bedtime around here!

The other side

I couldn't bring myself to post for a long time.  I didn't want to put in writing the way I was feeling.  It felt unfair and wrong to talk about my baby in any way that wasn't gushing and loving.  The truth was, we went through several months of pure hell.  From about 3 months, the crying grew more and more intense.  By 4.5 months, it was up to 8 hours per day.

I'm not exaggerating.

I'm also not exaggerating when I say it was SCREAMING.  Not crying, screaming.  We went to the doctor many times.  "Nothing" was wrong.  He was still gaining weight, albeit slowly.  I took him back in in late October because he didn't seem to be gaining much.  I was right, he had only gained 6oz in 3 weeks.  After doing a pre/post nursing weigh-in, he was taking in plenty and I was producing well.  The LC thought that maybe he needed more in the bottles while I was at work. Operation "fatten Quinn up" started.  The screaming got worse, but he gained 6oz on 6 days.  Nursing was a battle for both of us.  Latch, suck, scream, unlatch.  Repeat over and over.

I didn't care that he was gaining, something was wrong.  Babies don't scream that much.  This wasn't colic.  Still, I saw several peds, and all said it was just colic and reflux.  Finally, when he was 4.5 months old, he gained ZERO ounces in 10 days.  Our ped could see the exhaustion on our faces.  We probably spent almost as much time crying as Q did.  We were miserable.  We questioned if we had made a huge mistake having a baby.  Our ped kicked it into high gear.  The next day, we saw a GI specialist.  She took 5 tubes of blood, a urine sample, and 4 stool samples (those were FUN to collect!).  We could tell she was a bit stumped, but she decided we should try neocate, a fancy $50 per can amino acid hypoallergenice formula.  At that point, we were willing to bankrupt our savings to "fix" our baby.

This is a result of TEN days of formula:

TEN DAYS people!  He put on almost 2lbs in 10 days!  His personality immediately started to change.  The screaming was 50% less within 3 days, and 75% less within a week.  Clearly that was the answer.  The best as we can guess, he has a severe milk protein allergy.  I was poisoning him with breastmilk.  While I was sad to give up breastfeeding, we made it 4.5 months.  Clearly it was NOT what was best for my child.  We didn't have time to try an elimination diet for me.  We were days away from having to hospitalize Quinn.  I may be pro-breastfeeding, but I'm more pro doing what's best for my kid.  For him, formula is best.

He's stirring from a nap....more about the bonding finally coming and pictures of our awesome kid soon :)