Visitors from Holland

My cousins Martijn en Wouter visited us on their way home from a trip to Vancouver and Las Vegas/Grand Canyon. We are very happy they made this extra stop in Green Bay to visit us and meet our little girl. They hit it off right away and had defenitely a relaxing influence on her. Since the first night they were here, she slept for 6 hours straight during the night!

Thanks guys for coming. We miss you.

Quinn listened to Wouter very carefully.....

Martijn imitated airplane sounds (or that's what it sounded like to me at least) which made her fall asleep..

and it worked....I think also on himself.....

Of course there's no baby visit complete without having "beschuit met muisjes", a Dutch tradition whenever a baby is born. Opa and oma brought a few boxes of the "muisjes", which are suger coated sprinkles in pink/white for girls and blue/white for boys. You put them on a "beschuit" which is some kind of round crisp cracker. Delicious and really Dutch. Yammie.

Going for a ride

A little bit on the large side (her hands are about in the middle of her sleeves), but nice and warm. Ready to go outside and face the cold Wisconsin weather. Although this week we can go without the winter jacket already. Spring is in the air. Hopefully to stay.

Like most other babies, she loves to sleep in the car. She still looks tiny in her carseat. But what a difference already with a month and a half ago!

Bath time

After her umbilical cord was completely off, it was finally time for a real bath. And she LOVES it. I still manage to stay dry while giving her her bath, but that won't last long I think. She likes to kick with her feet and splash around already.

O oh, water in my face!

Nice, warmly dressed and relaxed after her bath. A good time for some baby talk with oma.

One month old

There was no February 29 this year, so we celebrated Quinn's one month birthday on the 28th. At her one month milestone, she is still very lief (sweet) of course, especially when she's hanging out in her swing, taking a little nap with her hands up in the air.

She is defenitely getting more and more alert too. Her eyes start to follow moving objects and she loves looking at the camera. It's so fun to listen to her making little baby noises and blowing bubbles.

A new favorite is sleeping on her belly on my chest. Sometimes that's the only way she wants to sleep.... I probably spoil her too much by doing it, but it gives me the opportunity at least to take a little nap as well. So now and then you can both find us on the coach with our eyes closed.

3 weeks old

It's amazing how fast time goes. Today Quinn is 3 weeks already. And it is going great. At her 3 weeks checkup with the pediatrician she weighed well above her birth weight 7 lbs 10 oz (3459 grams) and she grew 1 inch. He was very satisfied with how she is doing, which made us very happy of course.

We do notice that she is getting more active and has more awake times during the day (and sometimes also during the night).

Her umbilical cord is not completely gone yet, so we're still giving her sponge baths instead of bathing her in her baby tub. She loves it most of the time, as long as it's not taking too long.

Showing off her hair. I'm wondering how it's going to be when she gets older. The black does seem to get a bit lighter already.....

Washed and dressed and ready to go eat...

She likes sleeping with her arms up above her head.

We put her in the bassinet of her stroller at night, nice and cosy....

but during the day she sleeps in her crib.

Dad took mom out for dinner on Valentine's day, so oma had the honor to feed her her first bottle. She had no problem taking it and had it down to the bottom in almost 5 minutes! Opa was almost too late taking the picture.

After eating she likes to lay in her playpen for a little while listening to her music mobile....

or looking at her toys....

We want to raise her bi-lingual, so I speaks Dutch to her and dad English. And you cannot start too soon with that. It does seem she's paying attention already to her Dutch lessons.

January 29, 2010

We were waiting patiently the last few weeks for our little girl to come into world. She didn't seem in a very big rush as January 23rd came and went, and also the days after.....So it was time to take some action. On January 27 we went back to the Dr Kincheloe, where we decided that he was going to induce me (or as grandpa Everson put it....the doctor was going to seduce me) on Friday morning. So Thursday night we went into the hospital, getting ready for the next day. Being put on the monitors, there already were contractions visible, but in my opinion nothing more intense than what I had been feeling in the previous days or even weeks. So we were still pretty relaxed. Ryan was with me of course and we had brought a movie to pass the time. Well, I don't know if it was the movie (which was very boring) or the side attack they gave me, but around 11 pm the contractions were starting to get closer and closer and actually also quite painful. I was supposed to get another side attack to prepare for the inducement, but the doctor decided that wasn't necessary anymore. This baby was ready to come out. With the wonderful support of Ryan (he did a great job), the nurse and doctor Kincheloe, Quinn was born at 9.40 am. She weighed 6 pounds and 13 ounces (3080 gr) and was 19 1/4 inch (49 cm) long.

Proud daddy holding her for the first time. He was also in charge of cutting the umbilical cord. He did admit he was a little bit nervous about where to cut it when he was handed the scissors, but luckily Dr Kincheloe didn't give him too much cord between his fingers to cut it at the right spot.

Daddy was also on diaper duty a lot the first days. After a little bit of practice, he got the hang of it soon.
Opa (grandpa) and oma (grandma) Oostvogels arrived in Green Bay a few days earlier already, so of course they came to the hospital right away to see their 3rd grandchild. They were so excited to meet her and are happy they can stay for some more weeks to enjoy every moment with Quinn as much as possible.

Also grandpa and grandma Everson couldn't wait to come to the hospital to meet their granddaughter.

The first picture of the three of us together. One happy family. We're so blessed.

We had to undress our little sleepyhead to try to keep her awake during feeding time. As you can see, it's not working at this moment.....

Dr Kincheloe came back the next day (on his free Saturday) to see how we were doing. Being my doctor since I moved to the US and throughout the entire pregnancy, I was very happy he was there for the delivery as well.

On Sunday we were ready to go home. So it was time to dress her in her own clothes for the very first time.

Opa and oma Oostvogels gave us a really welcome home feeling by hanging up pink and white decorations in the kitchen and living room. What a nice surprise that was.

Stay tuned for more news about Quinn. I'll update the blog with her arrival and first week as soon as possible.