The End

After persevering for almost 11 months, we have finally reached the end of breastfeeding. I really am not ready to end it, but my body thinks otherwise. In an attempt to regulate my hormones and keep my endometriosis at bay, we are calling it quits. I know that I have done a great job, struggling through a lot with this, but it is especially sad to think that I may never breastfeed again.

Several months ago I said that I would be happy to make it until we returned from our trip to California. Well, that was back in March, so I guess I should be happy! I know that many moms would have given up long ago, especially when dealing with three cases of thrush and mastitis once, so I am proud to have made it this long.

Breastfeeding was never a simple thing for us. From the beginning, it felt about as natural as swimming in stiletto heels. We battled everything from low milk supply to pain. We did, eventually, figure out what worked for us, but only after months of trial and error and several visits to a lactation specialist. The milk supply issue, unfortunately, never resolved itself. Consequently, I had to pump at least once a day and drink several cups of Mother's Milk Tea.

There are a few things about breastfeeding that I will not miss:

• Biting
• Pinching
• Pulling away while biting
• Pumping
• Washing my pump stuff (I know this doesn't seem like much, but I really hate this)

Tim definitely deserves to be thanked because he understood how important I felt it was to breastfeed Quin. He never pushed me to offer more bottles than were necessary, even when feedings took over 2 hours and we were completely exhausted. So for that, thank you sweetie.

Long Overdue

Sorry for taking so long to post this. After all, we have been home for three weeks! Also, I apologize for making it so long, but there was just so much I had to fit!

On June 2, Quin and I (along with my mom) went to Michigan for a short vacation. We figured that it was a perfect opportunity to visit family who had not had the chance to meet Quin. It was a busy, but enjoyable trip. Each day was spent visiting different friends or family.

The flight to Michigan was great. We managed to get Quin a seat of his own, which he happily slept in for a majority of the flight. Once there, my mom's cousin's daughter (confusing, I know) babysat Quin so we could go to her 40 year elementary school reunion. (Is it weird that an elementary school has a 40 year reunion?)
That evening, as well as Sunday night, we stayed with a friend, Denise. It was great to spend time with her. Amazingly, Quin slept well in his pack and play, even cooperating enough to take his daily naps. Denise's house has great wood floors, which Quin enjoyed crawling around on, as well as a very entertaining sliding glass door.

We also discovered that teething babies like to chew on corks. Who knew!

Quin also got to try his hand at drinking formula from a cup. It turns out that the only cup small enough to use for his formula was a shot glass, but I promise that it really was formula in there. (If you are curious why I didn't just use a sippy cup, it is because the amount of formula he was getting was so small that it would have been extremely difficult for him.)




The next day we drove to visit my cousin and his family. I haven't seen JT in over 15 years, so it was nice to see him, his great wife, and adorable kids, Sydney and Samantha. I think the girls would be Quin's second cousins. It is nice that Quin and Sam are only a month and a half apart. They were really cute together, although Quin seems to be a bit of a bully. Of course, Quin had to give out lots of kisses to all of the girls.

(Yes, he is giving her a kiss. After being attacked, poor Sam was knocked over and cried.)



My mom and I decided that after all of the running around, we should relax. We decided to go to a local casino for the night. This stop offered two new "firsts" for Quin. It was his first time staying in a hotel, which I suppose he enjoyed. I do know, however, that he loved all of the pillows that were provided. They made a great mountain that he was able to conquer!I also know that he LOVED his other first, swimming. The hotel had a great indoor pool that we took advantage of. Perhaps Quin thought that it was a huge bathtub, filled slightly on the cool side. Maybe he thought it was weird to play in the water, opposed to solid ground. Regardless, he had a wonderful time. He kicked and splashed the water, laughing the entire time. I am very sorry that daddy had to miss this. Our last stop on the busy trip was to visit my Aunt Beverly and Uncle Richard. I haven't seen them since Tim and I got married, so it was long overdue. It was especially nice since they had been looking forward to meeting Quin since he was born!All in all, it was a wonderful trip and Quin was great. I am really glad that we were able to visit with so many people in such a short amount of time. By the end, however, we were ready to be home and in our own beds. Thanks to everyone for having us!

Non Quin: Sublime Light is Launched

This is totally off topic. I think I can safely say to you all that photography has pretty much taken over as a passion for me personally. I love taking pictures...of anything. Yeah, Quin is my favorite subject, but I'll pretty much point a camera at anything and do my best to make an interesting picture out of it.

So to help satiate my appetite for all things photography, I've started a new blog dedicated to the topic. The purpose of the blog is to share what I know with other photographers and photo enthusiasts. While I will focus primarily on portraiture and children, I have no plans to restrict the content to those topics alone. For example, the first couple of articles are how to photograph and digitally enhance smoke. The picture at left is just such a photo, taken on our dining room table last week and enhanced digitally to make quite a striking photograph. If you want to see all 13 of the cool smoke photos we took the other night, click here.

Having a photography blog does a couple of other positive things besides help others learn. First, it really helps build a reputation and credibility as a photographer. This is useful when you're trying to jump start a photography business. Second, it drives traffic to the studio's web site. Third, it helps me be a better photographer, because if I can teach it, I know it well. Fourth, and least important in my mind, is if I can get enough traffic on the blog, I can start running ads and get some extra advertising cash to funnel into the photography business. This is totally realistic, as photographers hunt the web looking for information about how to be better photographers. One blog I frequent gets over 100,000 visitors a day!

So while I know probably no one reading this is into photography, if you're bored, head on over to www.sublime-light.com and check the new blog out. Let me know what you think of it. It's been up for about a week now and is already getting traffic from all over the web.

Happy Father's Day

Well, it wasn't exactly the first Father's Day I had imagined, but it was still wonderful because I had Elizabeth and Quin, and that's all that matters. You see, Elizabeth was sick, so sick she couldn't even talk. Quin on the other hand slept about 22 of the 24 hours in Father's Day. He had a fever of 102 and whenever he was awake he was mad as hell. We managed to get about five minutes of happiness out of him all day.

So what did I do on Father's Day? I did exactly what dads are supposed to do: I took care of my family. Any complaints from me? Nope.

Let's reflect shall we? Here's dad and his boy just a couple hours after dad became a dad. Quin was 7 pounds 11 ounces. Dad was 170 pounds. Dad was potty trained, Quin was not.


And here we are about ten months later. Quin weighs 21 pounds (triple his weight, woohoo!). Dad has put on weight and is back to 180 (I get to drink beer again, yippee!) Quin still isn't potty trained, and has peed on dad several times. He's pooped on dad a couple too, one just the other day. He's also highly trained to gouge out eyes at the first opportunity. Dogs, cats, dad, whatever. He's got a bright future in WWF wrestling.

So everyone was sick. Big deal. I still had a great Father's Day. Any day with my family is a great day. What more could I ask for?

Happy Father's Day to the other dads out there, including my own.

Who's Quintin?

According to our son, his name is not Quintin, but Quin. He has responded to Tim and I calling him Quin for many months now, but any requests we might have for Quintin go unanswered. I wouldn't expect him to answer to a name he has heard only a handful of times, however it got me thinking. When will Quin ever know his full name if we never use it? (I am by no means suggesting that we start using it. I LOVE calling him Quin, and I am not sure I could stop if I wanted to!) The funny thing is that he will more often than not respond to Monkey. I guess that means that I call him that a bit too much. As for his full name, Quintin, I guess it will simply remain an optional name for when he is older, assuming we tell him that it is an option. As for now, why confuse him when he perfectly content responding to Quin or Monkey!

The Monster Grows Another Tooth

Quin the One Tooth Monster has sprouted another serrated knife in his little mouth. Elizabeth told me today that his second tooth broke the surface just this morning. Unfortunately for me, I haven't been able to witness any of the tooth related crankiness because I've been in California at Disneyland this week for a work conference and Elizabeth and Quin have been in Michigan visiting family and friends.

Another first for Quin this week was his first dip in a pool. Elizabeth took him swimming while they're up in Michigan and said he absolutely loved it! I'm super jealous that I couldn't be there for it. I'm definitely planning on taking that boy swimming when I get back home this weekend. Perhaps we'll focus on refining his backstroke. Maybe a little water volleyball. We'll see how it goes.

Until then though, I get to look forward to three more days of misery at this conference (happiest place on Earth? Yeah right!)