Our Boxer Boy: A Tale of Two Ears

When Flint first arrived, he had these adorably delicate butterfly ears, that were so soft and floppy they looked like they were opening like flower petals in the morning, or unfolding like butterfly wings. And they did open, but not quite as beautifully or as fully as one might expect. Then again he's not a flower. Or a butterfly. But we didn't think much of it. I just figured they would fix themselves in a matter of time as he grew and his cartilage hardened.

At our first appointment with the pediatrician, she made a small (playful) fuss about his ears to implicate they would not actually fix themselves and we should consider "molding" them. He was actually missing the third fold that makes the ear flatter against the head. I took this topic home to discuss with the dad-man, who agreed and somehow knew something like this was going to come up. We did some research and concluded it would be best to give the molding a "go" for now and see where it gets us, rather than wait and poor Flint possibly have to undergo cosmetic surgery in the future...

Friday was Flint's follow-up appointment, and the doctor attached the molds to his sweet little ears, a process not so enjoyable for him or his Mama, though it seemed to be painless. Babies definitely don't like to be forced to hold still, however, and I'm fairly certain all the prodding was uncomfortable. She shaved the hair from around his ears and cleaned them up before sticking a plastic frame around them - literally sticking with adhesive. Once the frame was in place, several other silicon-coated components were placed in his ear to get it in the correct shape, then some kind of soft, breathable soft was fastened overtop to hold everything in place.

And now, our son looks like a wrestler (or boxer?)...

I can honestly say, I hate these molds and wish we didn't have to do them, but it's for the best. He will wear them for 6 weeks, having them changed every 2 weeks until then. The doc says 8 out of 10 cases have "excellent results." So here's hoping that Flint will be one of those eight. He doesn't seem to mind them, thank goodness.

In other news, Flint hit the one-month mark yesterday. Check out his Watch Me Grow album to see how much he's already changed. The pediatrician was pleased with his weight gain - already 12 lbs and the size of a 2-month old! Aside from his physical growth, we are seeing a lot more awake time from our boy, with lots more eye contact. He's even tried cooing a few times - the sweetest sound of all time! He's been a really easy-going guy, though he does not enjoy tummy-time so much. He's responding well to his big sister's constant kissing and smothering, making some improvements with nursing (my boobs really appreciate it!), and enjoying as much "vertical" time as he can get. He has even taken to sleeping up to 6 hours at night for me, provided Daddy swaddles him up really tight and snuggly-warm.

Lyla is adjusting slowly, but surely. She definitely loves her brother and hasn't shown any signs of jealousy, though she is struggling to behave off and on and we're seeing lots of tantrums. Who knows if that's 2-year-old related or big-sister related? Maybe a bit of both. I welcome any tips on getting wildly independent 2-year-old girls to listen and mind. :)

We can't believe it's already been a month - so much has changed!

Oh, October!

What I really wanted to do was blog individually about each of the following fun things we did in October. Well, as it turns out, newborns are about as much fans of blogging as two-year-olds are, which amounts to a slowly dying blog of no-post sadness. So, apart from springing forth a new life, here are some things we were up to in October...

Awaiting William Flint's birth, we took Lyla to Nash Farm in Grapevine and met Grandma there. It was particularly warm for a Fallish event, but that's Texas for ya! We drank a lot of Dr. Pepper, saw a ginormous cow (among other farmy animals) visited a small petting zoo (and petted said farmy animals), watched kids ride ponies (because we didn't want to wait in the longest line ever for Lyla to ride one, herself), posed on old tractors, galloped around on stick-horsies and watered an adorable veggie garden with a small tin watering can.

We had lots of fun taking all sorts of Fallish pictures in Grandpap's backyard...

A week after his birth, we went to the Pumpkin Farm by Grandma's house in Colleyville. We met up with Aunt Shannon and the girls to pick pumpkins, pose for pictures, visit some more farmy animals, get lost in a corn maze, eat kettle corn and play on some more old tractors, trucks and even a small playground. Lyla had tons of fun here with her cousins and family. And since it's across from Grandma's neighborhood, she continues to talk about the pumpkin place every time we go to Grandma's, which is almost every day!

We carved our pumpkins together a few days later. I was really hoping my girl would get elbow-deep into some guts with me, but she wasn't so much a fan. She decided which shapes each of the jack-o-lanterns' eyes, nose and mouth should be, though. She also found it amusing to sort pumpkin seeds from pumpkin guts so that I could cook them (yum!). Mostly, though, she wanted to "put fire in there" and "put it in the baffroom!" having recalled the pumpkin in the bathroom from the previous year, where Mommy must've placed it to show her its face in the pitch dark. What I anticipated to be an entertaining activity ended up being just that: Mommy entertaining Lyla with carving, scooping, cutting, and following all other directions regarding lighting and placement of the pumpkins.

We celebrated Halloween by trick-or-treating in Aunt Shannon's neighborhood. Lyla dressed as Jessie, the cowgirl from Toy Story, and Flint dressed appropriately as a cow. Her cow. Sort of. We were lucky to have Grandma with us to enjoy our sweet kiddos, and PapPap not far back at Shannon's house to order some much needed non-sugary food item (pizza) for dinner. Lyla took to trick-or-treating like a seasoned pro this year, and had no trouble knocking, holding out her pumpkin bucket and saying sweetly, "trick or treat." She followed each treat receipt with a pleasant, "Thank you. Happy Halloween," which made me tear up at every house. Every. Single. House. Thank you, hormones.

And that closes out October.

I'd better get on the ball. November is already halfway over! Ack!

(This post took approximately 1.5 weeks to do! Seriously.)

Oh yeah, and visit my Picasa for the rest of the insane amount of pictures...

Welcome William Flint!!!

The Quattrochi's are (VERY) proud to present, William Flint, our newest family member, and most adorable son and brother.

Flint arrived Wednesday, October 20th, 2010, at 5:21pm after his long 41-week-stay in my humble (fickle) womb. He weighed in at an impressive 9 lbs, 13.5 oz. We knew he'd be big, but we were shocked at just how big! Our midwives anticipated a big 8... and even when he came out, they guessed only 9lbs.

We scheduled a "natural induction" for Tuesday, but rescheduled it for Wednesday after I gave it some thought and wanted to see if one more day would do the trick. It was a wise move for two main reasons: 1, there were two other births that ended up taking place on Tuesday, and 2, I went into labor on my own overnight Tuesday to Wednesday. I woke up with contractions all throughout the night, which were very inconsistent until around 3am, when they started coming a consistent 8 minutes apart and continued even when I got up and walked around and ate a snack, which was what killed all my previous "false" labors.

We went ahead to the birth center at our scheduled time because I was not entirely convinced that my labor wouldn't peter off as it had done oh-so-many times in the last few weeks. I was so pleasantly surprised when Jean, one of the midwives, checked me and exclaimed, "Girl, you are a good 6. I'd call it a 7."

*blink*

So, it would appear as though all that false labor I had been having was actually getting a lot accomplished. I'd take weeks of occasional, weak labor over hours of pain any day! Go uterus!

Our birth story follows...

Luke and I spent the next several hours on an alternating 30-minute regiment of breast pumping and walking in order to stimulate more consistent, stronger contractions. About three hours into it, things started to pick up. When I was checked again, I was at an 8 and Jean suggested we leave the bag of water in tact for a while longer since I wasn't in serious pain, but was still making progress. At that point, we called the family to let them know they should start heading to the birth center. We figured I'd be in labor only a little while longer because transitioning from 8 to 10 usually goes very fast.

I spent the next hour in the tub after Emily, the midwife student who supported me through the whole labor, broke my water and things started to really pick up (ouch). I moved to the toilet for a little while, which apparently is a good place to labor due to the nature of the seat. At this point, I was surprising myself with how vocal I was quickly becoming in response to the pain of each contraction, much to Luke's amusement at a few points, when apparently I sounded like Dori (from Nemo) speaking "whale."

Needless to say, natural labor is extremely intense and painful... I didn't want to move, for fear of bringing on another contraction, or having to cope through one while moving from one place to another. But I was encouraged to get back into the bathtub for the comfort of the warm water, and though I complied, was shortly moved again to the bed to push. Jean thought due to the angle and size of the baby, it'd be easier to push lying flat on the bed, inclined slightly backward. At this point, three hours into "transition," the toughest part of labor, I just wanted him O-U-T. So I rolled with it, although not quietly.

I kept waiting for this magical moment when contractions are supposed to change from "dilating" contractions to "pushing" contractions and feel different. This relief never came for me, nor did the true urge to push. Mostly I just wanted someone to pull the baby out so it would all be over, but alas, it doesn't quite work that way. I think I pushed for a solid 20 minutes before Flint's head was out. I was very much surprised (read: in a shocking amount of sheer agony) by the pressure and immense burning on top of the pain of each contraction, and found it difficult to "release" and bear down. While in the middle of a push, I discovered that my body would sort of reflex into some kind of uber-mega push in response, much akin to the sensation of vomiting and very similar to the complete lack of control one has when doing so.

There was a glimpse of hope when one of the birth assistants placed my hand on the baby's head. I knew it would soon be over and I'd be able to greet the little booger. At this point, however, the tone in their voices shifted to something more urgent as I was directed to push to get the shoulders out. With that urgency in mind, I pushed with all my sanity ... two more, maybe three times... and ... at last! William Flint Quattrochi was placed on my chest, seeming almost as worn out as me, but had enough in him to holler lots of beautiful, loud screams. I found out later that his cord was pinned between his shoulders and his exit, so we couldn't waste too much time with him stuck there.

Now, I thought he seemed small, probably due to his lack of Lyla-like Michelin rolls. The birthing team all laughed at the notion of him being tiny, and made their guesses before taking him to get weighed. Seriously? Almost 10 pounds?

Wow.

He returned to me quickly for some Mommy-Baby bonding time. I spent the next two hours recovering energy, discovering my son, smiling at my husband, and shaking violently (thank you, hormones). They did my "repairs," saw that Baby Flint was nursing well, made sure I had a good meal, then sent us on our way. How nice to be able to go home to rest and start our lives as a family of four! Well, not just yet 4, since Grandma and PapPap kept Lyla for us. But I was very much looking forward to being home and not stuck in a hospital for days...

When we got home, Luke and I couldn't resist cleaning up the boy a little more. So, he got a quick sponge bath and hair-wash. All clean and eating well, he was already settling in!

Phew! What a day! One I won't forget any time soon! We were SO happy to have Flint home!

More pictures posted at Picasa, as usual! And more blog entries to come ASAP! We've got some catching up to do!

The Lake with Lyla

Last weekend, bored with waiting for Baby Brudder and realizing our time with an only-child was drawing to an end, we had a spontaneous moment and decided to take Lyla to the lake for a picnic dinner and a little wander / play-time.

She delighted in throwing rocks and sticks in the water, walking along the bank, running through the tall grass, eating a picnic dinner (aka climbing around on the stone picnic table and consuming maybe one raisin), counting boats, and playing on the playground. She really wanted to go for a swim, but alas, we were losing sunlight, had no swimsuits, and the temperature wasn't all that warm (Yay, Fall!).

While I'm looking forward to embracing our new little guy just as much as I wanted to embrace Lyla, it'll be a bittersweet moment letting go of the "just us" time that I love so much while welcoming this new, exciting chapter for our family.

See other lake photos and the rest of September here.

Our next blog entry will be as a family of four! Wow!

Big Girl Awaits Little Brother

New Status Achieved: Big Girl!

It's official. She just fell asleep all on her own and in her new twin bed. It isn't to say she won't wake up 3 hours from now and try to schmooze her way into my big-girl bed, but it's a start.

As Lyla transitions to live up to all her new titles, including "big girl," "big sister," and "Mommy's helper," the preparations for Baby Brudder's arrival are almost complete! We are still in limbo on this whole name business, but we are confident that something will click and stick when he decides to make his appearance. Hopefully. Actually, I am clueless and slightly terrified.

Here are some images of baby-prep with my favorite helper-girl.

Helping Daddy assemble a bouncy seat.

Testing out the cloth-diaper pail liner.

Offering a guided tour (aka wanting to get in the crib).

Demonstrating proper use of the bouncy seat using Baby Sally (really, she'd like to get in it, herself)...

Showing off Mommy's fantastic crocheting skills. It only took 3 months to make this "quick and easy" blanket, but not because it actually took that long...

The Big Sister Interview from Emily Quattrochi on Vimeo.

We are closer and closer to being 100% ready for "him." Some of us are a little more anxious for his arrival than others. Namely, those of us carrying the extra 30 lbs.