Three Months of Quinn Evelyn
It is surreal to think that over half of Quinn’s life has been in lockdown. When Quinn was just 6 weeks old, the New Zealand government announced that our country was to move into Alert Level 4, complete lockdown, for at least 4 weeks. The 4 weeks went on by to then have it extended for another 5 days before moving to Alert Level 3, for an additional 2 weeks. Some would say, Alert Level 3 is the same as Level 4 but with takeaways (and boy, did we enjoy those takeaways!)
Needless to say, the third month of Quinn’s life was a quiet one, at home, in our little bubble. It has been a month lived at a slower pace, lie ins, late mornings still in dressing gowns, baking, Netflix, walks around the neighbourhood, catch ups on Zoom and FaceTime, DIY projects, minimal, if any makeup, activewear on repeat and lots of unlimited Quinn snuggles. Apart from not seeing loved ones, it has been a way of life I have really enjoyed.
Although Matt has been super busy with work, it is so nice having him home. During the weekdays, I don’t feel as if I’m solo parenting as much. He is there to watch Quinn when I have a shower or hang out the washing, fetch me a glass of water when I am feeding, or we can head out for a walk as a family of 3. Plus, I feel like I have learnt the whole other “work side” to him that I wouldn’t have known otherwise. I also think he is loving being at home, seeing more of Quinn and having me deliver him coffee’s and food… when he’s lucky! It is a very unique time and will forever be a part of our history. Some day we will look back and say, “remember that time when we had to stay at home for weeks on end…”
Before lockdown I had been doing a bit of research into bookshelves, as I wanted to create a nice space in Quinn’s nursery, to display all of her books. After talking to a friend about her bookshelf project, I was inspired to do the same. Over the Easter break I found some old pieces of wood lying around the back of our house, it was perfect, as the fence capping wood already had a groove in it for the books to sit in. All we needed to do was sand it back, cut it to the correct size and paint it! We had two beautiful days over the 4-day Easter break, so it was so nice to be productive and creative and do some DIY, without spending any money!
I brought Quinn this cute bunny outfit for Easter and when the weather was lousy, I dressed her up in it for some photos. She looked so cosy and snuggly and the photos are adorable. Of course, I am biased though. I also encouraged Matt to jump in some family photos, to remember our first Easter together. On Easter Sunday, Matt planned an Easter egg Hunt for Quinn and I. It was lots of fun and something he will have to do every year now haha. The last clue led me to the most delicious breakfast of pancakes, bacon, and banana! Yum!
Of course, Easter this year was a lot different to previous years. Matt worked a lot and family gatherings, that would usually partake around a dinner table, were now just faces on a screen. At one point over the 4-day break, I felt quite lonely and upset due to missing my family, of course FaceTime helped, but virtual hugs are not quite the same as real life hugs. However, we made the most of the situation and created some nice memories together.
Thanks to the lockdown, the lack of places to go and people to see, we were able to pay more attention to her “awake times,” and “sleep times” and get her into a pretty good sleep routine. Quinn has always been a good sleeper but between 7pm – 10pm could be tough at times. I didn’t mind that she would cluster feed in order to get a good night’s sleep, but after talking to a few Mums with babies a similar ages to Quinn, I realised we were keeping her up too long and she was actually getting over tired. A friend recommended a sleep schedule to us, which we have been following, and it has been working great. Putting her down to sleep at 7pm has been a real treat. Having the evening to ourselves has given Matt and I a chance to relax and enjoy each other’s company. We have been playing cards, Euchre is our go to, and we are both highly competitive. Currently I am down 7 – 5, I am expecting to turn that around though 😉
We found out quickly that everything is temporary and fleeting with a baby. One moment Quinn is loving her 2 – 3 hour lunch time nap and now she thinks 45 minutes is enough! As long as she’s still sleeping through the night, we are ok with it. As with anything in life you learn to adapt, problem solve and change things up!
Miss Quinn is rapidly growing and soon enough she will have outgrown her bassinet that sits next to our bed. To prepare her (and me) for the transition, we have been putting her down for her day naps in her big girl cot in her own room, which hasn’t fazed her in the slightest, however it feels like a big milestone for us! It will be hard on my Muma heart when she spends the first night in her own room. I doubt I will get any sleep, as I will be checking in on her every minute or so!
Looking back at month 2, I would say the biggest difference has been her discovery of her hands and moving her body in a more intentional way. As a newborn, she loved to clench her fists with her thumb tucked in, but now she practises opening and closing her hands. We often catch her in this moment of pure fascination. She will grab at anything that comes close to her, especially my hair, my clothes while feeding, her play gym toys, wooden rings and Sophie the Giraffe! Because of her hand obsession, we love reading her the “touch and feel” books. We encourage her to reach out and feel the different textures. Quinn was given so many awesome books and we have had great fun going through them all.
Quinn also loves to stand, with us holding her up of course. She can take some weight on her feet and she looks so stoked when she does this!
We tried feeding Quinn a bottle of breast milk for the first time this month which she wasn’t too impressed with. Second attempt was better but still very unsure about it. I plan to go back to work part-time from July, once my Maternity Leave ends, so hopefully with a few more attempts she will get used to the idea. If anyone has any tips on this, please let me know in the comments!
My Mum gave me my Plunket book to look back over and compare notes to what I was like as a baby and to how Quinn is tracking. Obviously with lockdown we haven’t been able to have our Plunket Nurse visit, so we’ve missed out on a few weeks, but we just had her 3 months immunisations and we basically weigh the same at the same age. Quinn at 3 months is 5.8kg (12.7lbs) whereas I was 5.5kg (12.2lbs). My Plunket book reads, “Good head control, takes some weight on her feet. Reaches. Very active little lady. Fully breast fed.” Like Mother like daughter!
Happy 3 months lady Quinn, we love you!