New Friends

Eliza is growing like crazy! At her last appointment on Wednesday, she weighed 7lbs 6 oz. Up 1lb 6 oz from 2 weeks before! I knew she was growing, but didnt expect it to be that much:) She is finally fully fitting into her newborn clothes,and in fact has already outgrown my favorite yellow polka dot outfit:( It was sad packing that away. If only they could stay little forever.....

We've taken her to church the last two Sundays all dressed up in her ADORABLE cute new dresses...thanks Aunt Lindsay(I must get a picture of her in those before she outgrows them). It's funny because many people approach us with weird looks, and some even say out loud what they are thinking.."Wow, I didn't even know you were pregnant!..." I always get a good laugh and want to respond, "Neither did I!.."Haha. So it's always fun to see what everyone's response is to us walking in with a new baby. It's a pretty cool opportunity to share our adoption story with those who ask.

It's been great to have her out and be able to show her off a little bit:) Nothing quite like being a proud parent.

This weekend we went up to David's brother and his wife's house in Colon. Eliza got to hang out with her 5 cousins for the very first time. Her youngest cousin, Michaela, is older than Eliza by 19 days. They had a pretty good time together eating and sleeping.

The two oldest girls had fun loving her up and holding her. The cutest part was when my niece Catherine asked me as I was feeding Eliza her bottle, "Why don't you milk her with your milk things?" (Stephanie breast feeds so they have never seen a baby eat a bottle)...Haha. It was hillarious!

We will try and keep posting at least once a week with updates and pictures.

Love from The Quinn's

Small Head= Slight Wardrobe Malfunction

We make pink and blue look good!

Cute Michaela

Cuddlin Cousins

Time Flies......

So It's almost been two weeks since we had Miss Eliza home. We can hardly believe how quickly that time has flown by! She is doing great. She has loved her swing from the first second we put her in it:) Dave has been playing Mr. Mom since I had to start back to school only 2 days after we got her home:(....It's been hard but I know she's home with Dave being taken care of so that makes it easier.

Karissa has spent a lot of time here helping out. We even had a little mini photo shoot day. I think we enjoyed it a lot more than Eliza.

Everything is official as of Wednesday, her Birthmother signed the paperwork!!! So Eliza is stuck with us for good! It all still seems very surreal, but wonderful at the same time.

Cooper has adjusted to the major life change. The first day he was home with her, he moped around all day, but as you can see from the picture, he has happily adjusted and loves to cuddle and protect her. Even when we walk in the door, he greets her with a kiss.

So over all, everything is great in the Quinn household. Its wonderful to finally have her home with us. I'm actually okay with having our house look like a tornado of baby items ran through it. Looking at the mess reminds me of how blessed we are to be part of this beautiful chaos. Every time I look at her I am reminded that God is good!

Homeward Bound!

Lovin the swing!

Finally got the sweater on....it was a snug fit

Just Chillin.

2 scarves and 1 sweater later she was OUT...no more using her for free labor Aunt Karissa!

Karissa tried to steal her.

Cooper's new best bud.

Got Milk?

Life is good.....

Workin on Blue Steel (for those Zoolander fans)

It has been far too long since we last posted. The first and most important piece of news is that we get to bring her home tomorrow! We cannot wait to finally have her home.
She had her feeding tube removed on New Years Eve because she was eating all of her feedings. The Dr. pretty much told us on Friday that she was doing so well, he would send her home then but we had to wait until Monday when all of the case workers would be here. So we have been chomping at the bit all weekend.
Grandma and Grandpa Edmondson came up on Friday morning and spent the whole weekend there with us. It was great having them here. We FINALLY have some pictures to post. Also, Aunt Hannah and Uncle Alex drove up from Hastings and picked up our friends Jamie and Greg and brought them up here to see Eliza.
Eliza's birthmom spent most of the evening with her on New Years Eve and said she brought in the New Year with the hiccups...started right at midnight. HA. We thought that was pretty cute.
And finally our weekend of visitors was topped off with a visit from Terry...the person who played a huge part in our Christmas miracle:)....and his wife Vicki.
On Saturday night we decided to have a little photo shoot with miss Eliza. We thought the idea of sticking her in a stocking would be a good one. The pics turned out pretty cute. Definite Christmas card material....although its a little late to send those out. Maybe a birth announcement pic?????......
And FINALLY Eliza got to have her first tub bath tonight. This was the first time we got to see her cute little naked body with NO CORDS attached. It was too cute! We discovered for the first time a cute little birthmark on her back....we thought that was cute too :)
Well that is all that is new in our world. Please pray for all of us, including Eliza's birth mom as it will be an exciting day for us tomorrow, and an incredibly hard one for her.
Love to all,
David, Andrea, and Eliza

If you look close, you'll see that Eliza was laughing...it was soo funny!

Terry

Lovin Bath Time!

Eliza meets her new family!

Saturtday night, the Edmondson family was able to make it up to see baby Eliza for the first time. They were very excited and all Cathy kept saying over and over again was "I LOVE being a Grandma!" It was great to be able to show Eliza off for the first time in person:) (Sorry Tony, Cathy, and Austin but we left our memory card with the pics of you guys in Lincoln...we will post those soon)

Monday was a really busy day for her as we had the entire Quinn family(excluding Clare who had a cold) the O'Hearn's, and Pat Barvick up to visit. It was wonderful seeing everyone and we are very grateful for all the love, prayers, phonecalls, texts, and emails we have received. (Sorry if we have not gotten back to you...we promise to respond soon when things settle down a little)

Because of how quickly this all happened, we had NOTHING but a carseat and some gender neutral clothes when Eliza was born. Within hours of hearing our news, 2 of my cousins had brought over to my Mom's: bags of clothes, diapers, wipes, and a bassinet all for us to use. Thanks guys! We are truly BLESSED!

On a side note, please continue to keep us all in your prayers as the adoption will not be finalized until January 11th.

(Medically speaking, Eliza is doing well. We are still working on getting her to eat her entire feeding from the bottle. Right now she's eating about half from the bottle and being tube fed the other half with each meal. That's really all that is keeping us there. Once she can consistently eat her entire feeding, we are OUT OF HERE!!!!)

Yes Uncle Josef, I concur! You are a better philosopher than Aristotle!

Thank You Aunt Karissa for my beautiful new hats and sweater!

Just one pull and I am Free!

And finally a much needed nap after a busy day!

Day 5!

Eliza had to go on a feeding tube late yesterday. This is normal for babies who are premature. She ate really good for the first couple of days, but now she is tired and not able to eat what she needs to grow.

On a really good note, her billirubin came back lower today than yesterday which means she will not need to under the billyrubin lights. We have posted some new photos below.

We got her to smile today!

She opened her deep blue eyes!

She gained 4 oz. back after loosing 5 yesterday. The feeding tube is helping a lot!

Merry Christmas!!!

Thank you Jesus for the best Christmas ever!

Eliza is still doing really good! She ate 2 oz. today at one of her feedings and moved to a real crib. No more incubator! Her labs have been good, if her Billirubin stays low enough tonight she probably will not have to go under the fake sunlight. Her IV can come out tomorrow when her antibiotics are finished. It has been a wonderful Christmas, in spite of the hospital. Our wonderful Christmas dinner was a bacon cheeseburger and a buffalo chicken wrap...woot!

Hmmm...what do I want for Christmas?

I finally worked up the courage to look around!

Don't blame me for the snow...I am innocent!

Christmas Eve

LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW!

I LOVE it when Mom makes me wear bows!

Too tired to burp!

Eliza has been doing great. She's eating like a champ with every feeding and she's a big fan of sleeping. Today we got to pick out a Christmas themed blanket for her. We thought the penguins were pretty cute. Hopefully by tomorrow she will get to move out of the closed incubator, and be in an open crib.

Thank you everyone for all the love, prayers, and support. We love you all and Eliza can't wait to meet you!