Last Full Week Together!

It's finally here. This will be the last full week that Quinn and I have before she goes to daycare, and I go back to work. I feel like it has gone by too fast. I am determined to make the most of it! Plus, we have gotten a little too used to sleeping late in the mornings, and we are both in for a big adjustment next week. So we are going to start getting up earlier this week. If the weather permits, we are also going to go strolling every day:) I downloaded the Instagram app onto my Iphone, and I have been having so much fun playing with it. Here are some of the pictures:

I finally caught a smile! I just love those dimples! She has changed so much over the past couple of weeks. Our new favorite thing to do is talk to each other. It is so much fun! She will girgle or coo, and I will mock her.  After she hears me, she responds back, and then she laughs because it cracks her up. We will end up going back and forth with each other for a few seconds. She gets so surprised ever time she hears me mimic her.
She is trying to hold her head up so badly! I need to make a video of the face that she make as she tries to pull herself up. It's too cute.
She also likes to hold my hair when I rock her to sleep. This is so funny because her Aunt Jessica used to do the same thing to me when she was little.
She is laughing more. I was bouncing her on my knee last night while singing to her, and she starting laughing. It is the sweetest sound! I can't love her enough!
We celebrated John's birthday yesterday!

As a birthday present to him, the Giants won their game, and they are going to the Super Bowl!!

Quinn didn't get a jersey this season, but she will definitely have the proper attire for next year. Who knows, we may have to have her dressed for the Super Bowl too. We have to bring our boys all the luck we can give them.

2 Months!

I'm only a day late posting!! Whoo  Hoo!! Here are a few of the many pictures from our 2 month photo shoot today. As you can see, there was a wardrobe change;) Having some pictures without the pacifier was my goal!

We had a great 2 month check-up yesterday! She weighs 10 pounds 8oz. I was prepared for the shots, but it was still so hard to see her upset. She was such a trooper too. She was fine until that 3rd shot, and then she turned a shade of red I have never seen. Poor baby girl:( She recovered quickly. It did make her a little sleepy. She slept most of the afternoon, but I got a few smiles from her last night. I vow to get a good picture of her smiling! I have tried so hard over the past few weeks, but I keep missing them.
Highlights:

• She is smiling more and more every day! When she smiles, you can see her dimples, and you can see me in her. The rest of the time she looks a lot like her daddy:)
• She is still trying to talk a lot. When we were waiting on the doctor yesterday, John started to tickle her thighs, and she let out her first little chuckle. It was SO cute. Someone is definitely ticklish there.
• Her nicknames (so far): Princess Butterbeans, Nugget, and Munchkin. These are the main ones, but I'm sure we will come up with more.
• She doesn't always close her eyes all the way when she sleeps. I will rub my finger across her forhead, and she will close them then. It's so cute. Sometimes, I swear she is fighting going to sleep cause she doesn't want to miss anything. She gets that from me too:)
• Starting to feel much more confident as a new parent. I now feel that I understand what she needs and wants when she is grunting or crying..most of the time:)
• We start daycare on January 30th. We are going to have a couple of days for a trial run before I start work. It is going to be so hard to leave her, but I'm so glad that we found such a good daycare. It is across the street from where I work, and there will only be 4 other infants. They couldn't be any nicer, and I feel really comfortable with them.
• I'm leaving for the first time this weekend! I'm heading to Austin, TX to celebrate my friend, Meghan's, upcoming wedding with all of my college girlfriends. I am SO excited, but it is really hitting me that I'm going to be gone from her for almost 3 whole days. I'm just glad that I will be far enough that I can't come home when I start to miss her;)  I was fortunate enough to save enough milk for the whole weekend, and it will be good Daddy time. He is such an amazing father, and they will have a fun weekend together! Here are a few pictures of my ladies from some weddings over the past few years:

Shay's wedding

Lisha's wedding

Love these ladies, and I cannot wait to see them.

Belated One Month Post and Christmas Catch Up!

Considering she is officially 2 months old in 2 days, I think it is time for me to catch up on my blog posts before I get too far behind. We were in Mississippi for almost 20 days over the holidays, and I'm going to blame that on my lack of posting ;)

Her reflux got worse the weekend that she turned a month old. Since we were going home for the holidays, I thought it would be a good idea to go to the doctor instead of having an unhappy baby for almost 3 weeks. So we went to the pediatrician's on December 12th. She weighed 8 pounds and 13 ounces! We were given Zantac, and it has really been a miracle! It took a couple of days to really get in her system, but she has never slept better.
The first month was definitely a blur. Now that I understand what it is like to have a baby of my own, the phrase, "you'll understand when you have kids of your own," actually has meaning to me now. It makes you appreciate your parents so much, and almost want to apologize for everything bad that you did growing up..haha.  There are lots of fun things that you learn about babies. I learned that you can see a baby's pulse from their soft spot on their head! I've adjusted to eating my food as quickly as possible during my short window. I'm not sure it is the lack of sleep that is the most exhausting part of having a newborn. It's the planning during the 2hr windows you get between her feedings.  She is still a great sleeper with eating every 3 hours, and as long as my 2 hour increments of sleep were adding up to 6 hours, I was good for the day. There were a couple of mornings where her sweet Dad watched her, and I got to sleep in a little longer.

He has the magic touch to get her to go right back to sleep. As you can see, she is a snuggle bunny. She will scoot on your shoulder to be right under your neck before she falls asleep. She will let out a deep sigh right before going to sleep.. I love it!  When we aren't holding her, she sleeps on her lounger most of the time.

 Now that she is 8 weeks old, she has almost outgrown the lounger. She still hates to be swaddled. She loves to sleep on her stomach, and I let her during the day while I can watch her. At night, she sleeps on her side. She is the hiccup queen. I was wondering when these were going to start since she had them all the time while I was pregnant. They don't seem to bother her at all, but they bother us. It just sounds like it would hurt.




I wish that we had gotten a picture of our car when we left for Mississippi. I had just enough space in the back with her for me to sit. She has been great with a bottle since she was 2 weeks old, and she did fine on the trip. I would pump in the car, and she would take the bottle. I'm just so glad that it was night, and our windows are tinted..lol.  It only took us an extra hour with her in the car. Luckily, she is still so young that she slept most of the way. She had been focusing more and more on objects, and she followed/tracked my phone that night on the drive home. I was so excited. I had turned the screen on to watch her, and then she just followed it from left to right. It's amazing how there is something new with her almost every day. 

It was wonderful being with our family for the holidays. Since my family has almost 5 Christmases, she, naturally, had to have a different outfit for each one.

This was at our Christmas with Bigdaddy. Aly was so great with Quinn. She was a pro with giving Quinn her bottle that night. Aren't the 3 of them adorable in their Christmas outfits! This outfit was Reese's from last Christmas. As you can see, we have a long baby since Reese wore this outfit when she was almost 5 months old. I couldn't believe that it fit!

This is one of my favorite pictures! Isn't her cute smocked dress adorable. Her cousin, Mary Evans, wore it last year, and sweet Aunt Jena was so nice to let us borrow it. This was from Christmas Eve. It was wonderful to be able to take her to my hometown church and introduce her to everyone. When I was growing up, I remember how everyone would come back into town for the holidays, and the Christmas Eve service was your chance to see everyone. It was wonderful and a little surreal for it to be me with my family.

Christmas Morning



Christmas Day with the Stones!




The outfit for Christmas morning was  from her sweet Bigmama. We had a great breakfast in Macon with my family before changing and going to Meridian to celebrate Christmas with John's family. I love this cute outfit that Mrs. Pat gave her.





Somehow, John got the stomach bug/flu the day after Christmas. He stayed  in Meridian while Quinn and I headed back to Macon to celebrate Christmas with Bigmama. I didn't get a picture of her other smocked Christmas dress that she wore at Christmas with Gaga, but I got one with her cute diaper cover that Stephanie gave her.

I was so worried that she was going to get the stomach bug. Especially, after I got it the day after John did, but she missed it somehow. I have the best sister and mother in the world for helping out while we were sick.  I have no idea how we would have made it without them.

It was great seeing her first cousins with her. Love this picture of Mary Evans looking into her car seat. She kept asking, "what's that?"  Reese is sweet with giving her baby cousin lots of hugs and kisses. She hasn't mastered saying Quinn yet, but she calls her, "baby." I'm so glad that they will all grow up together so close in age. Seeing them gets me so excited for Quinn to be that age, but then I remember how nice it is for her to not be mobile yet. She stays where I put her now:) I also don't want to rush any of it. I'm trying to soak up every moment because I can already see how quickly she has changed over the past 8 weeks.

She had a few milestones while we were home. She has started smiling! I love it. I talk to her even more now just to see those cute dimples. She went through a growth spurt between her 5th and 6th week. She started eating more frequently, and she jumped to eating 4oz in her bottles. The weekend before Christmas, I went to a girl's Christmas party in Meridian while John kept Quinn at his parent's house. That night, she slept through her 1:00am feeding and went right on to 4:00am before waking up. I was so worried about her when I woke up and saw what time it was! She has pretty much done the 6hr stretch between the late night feedings ever since. She's making up for it by drinking more during the day, and I have to say that I don't mind getting that little extra bit of sleep;)



It was so wonderful to be able to spend that time with our families, but I have to say it was nice to be back at home and out of suitcases;) We have our 2 month doctor's appointment on Tuesday the 10th, and she gets her shots! I'm trying to prepare myself for that, and I'll be sure to post afterwards. I'm hoping to stay a little more on top of my posts, but we shall see..

Thanksgiving!

I don't know where the time goes. I can't believe that it has already been a week since Thanksgiving, and  that Quinn is 3 weeks old now! We were so fortunate that my family was able to come up to celebrate Thanksgiving in Charleston this year. Quinn got to meet her cousin, Reese.





Reese just loved to give baby Quinn kisses! She was so sweet with her. She kept pointing to Quinn and saying "baby." 

meeting our Uncle Jay

lots of loving and spoiling from Nana

Got to spend an entire week with our Bigmama!

                                                         Uncle Taylor is so good with Quinn:)

Our little Rebel's was all ready for her first Egg Bowl. We have a house divided with Taylor, Jessica, and Reese being State fans.

                                                      Obviously, State won this year.

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving! I can't believe that we will be back home in just 2 weeks for Christmas. We had a few milestones to mention over the past couple of weeks. Our umbilical cord fell off on the 22nd, and Quinn got to enjoy a bath in her Puj tub last weekend. She also had her first bottle on the 23rd. She did great! It even allowed Mama to be able to go downtown and get her hair cut while Daddy and Bigmama watched Quinn. As of last Sunday (27th) the newborn footed onesies are too small for our girl. She can't stretch her legs in them. She has now upgraded to the 0-3 months.  We had our 2 week check up on the 29th. She has gained an entire pound, and she weighs 7 pounds 15 ounces! So thankful for our growing healthy baby girl!



First Week at Home as a Family of Three!

Dressed and ready to go home!

After a couple of nights in the hospital, it was time to go home this past Saturday! After spending 3 full days in the hospital,  this new mama was ready to get outside for a little while too:)  We dressed her up in her sweet outfit from Aunt Gigi, and she looked adorable. As you can see, I have come around to liking pink now. My family went back to Mississippi on Saturday only because they are coming right back up in 10 days for Thanksgiving, and I cannot wait for them to come back! Quinn gets to meet her cousin, Reese, next week! They were awesome and stocked our freezer with a ton of frozen meals Mom made for us. John's parents were able to stay until Monday morning, and it was great to have those extra days to really get to visit with them! Her Cat was a big help when mama wanted to take a nice hot shower.

I know she looks really content and happy in this picture, but Quinn did not like the car seat at all! She cried the whole way out of the hospital to the car. After a couple of minutes of riding, she calmed down, and she was fine. Once we got home, it was time to meet our brothers.

As you can see, our weimaraner, Ace, is obsessed with her! He just sits and stares at her. He gets so upset when she starts to cry. I literally have to fight with him to get to her because he tries to get to her first. Eddie is not really interested in her. He is just a little jealous of the attention she is getting. I'm just so glad that they are reacting so well to the new addition. I was a little worried, but everything is going great!

At the risk of jinxing it, she is doing really well with her feedings. She is eating around every 3hrs, and she definitely lets us know when she is hungry. We had our first pediatrician's appointment this past Tuesday. Her discharge weight was 6 pounds 13 ounces, and she weighed in at 6 pounds 12 ounces that day. Since it could have been the difference in scales from the hospital to the clinic, we went back on Thursday for a weight check. Our munchkin gained 3 ounces in 2 days! Definitely have a good little eater on our hands.

She isn't a big fan of swaddling unless I leave her hands out to go up by her face. She has to has to have her hands up by her face to sleep. She is really alert and awake after eating during the day. I love seeing those pretty big eyes!





We've have such great friends here in Charleston, and a few were able to come over this week to meet Quinn.

Loved meeting Erin and Chris

Snuggling with Josh

Going for our first stroll with Alisha and Celia!

I cannot believe that she is already 1 week old! I know that we are probably just running on adrenaline, but this past week has been full of wonderful new experiences. I am so glad that John has all week off of school next week so that we get a few days of just us at the house. I know it has been tough on him having to leave every morning. In case I slack again for a few days, I hope everyone has a wonderful Turkey Day next week!!

Meet Quinn O'Neil Stone!



Born: 11/10/11 @ 1:23
Weight: 7 pounds 6 ounces
Height: 19 3/4



I still am in awe of the fact that our little munchkin is finally here with us!! We were so blessed to have a smooth labor and delivery. I believe the total labor time was 5 hrs and 23 minutes. I have to definitely thank the Mt. Pleasant hospital staff for being so amazing to us the whole time we were there! We could not have asked for better care!

The night before..last pregnancy picture

Dr. Bradford and Quinn




Love our thumb!



Throughout the pregnancy, we assumed that it would most likely be just us in the hospital when she arrived, but since we ended up scheduling the induction, our families were able to be there with us! It would not have been the same if they hadn't been there to celebrate this special day!

Nana and Cat

Nana and Paw Paw

With Aunt Jessica