One Month Old!

One month ago today, I was doing this . . . Yes, I'm actually smiling. Apparently unaware that I look like I'm carrying the baby in my face . . . glad those days are behind me.

Today Reina is officially one month old. What a wild month it has been! She continues to be the cutest, most well-behaved baby girl in all of Wyoming. She definitely prefers sleeping on top of someone (usually mom) rather than by herself and she still hates the carseat. BUT, she's becoming much more alert and everyone thinks I'm crazy to say this, but the girl is on the verge of smiling. I swear! She smiles with her eyes a lot. Judge for yourself with these two pictures.

Okay, so maybe she does look pretty darn solemn in both of those pictures - but look at this one. Clearly she knows how to read already and I do believe that is the latest issue of Field & Stream.

I tried to find a picture of Will at one month old but since I'm the Queen of Disorganization - this was the best I could do - he's about 3 weeks old I think.

There are definitely some similiarities in their little faces although she's got more hair. I think they both look like little old men. Cute little old men.

Toddler tantrums and sleeping babies

"I'm wearing my sister's hat to the grocery store and you can't stop me!" He did wear the hat and I didn't stop him. Glenn somehow managed to get him to leave it in the car. Will has fully embraced the idea of picking out his own clothes. Look - a picture of Reina sleeping someplace besides her mom's lap - what a shocker! I took that picture about 10 minutes ago and she's already awake and screaming her head off. My respite was nice while it lasted!

Multi-tasking

Here are some random thoughts for a Monday . . .

Need a quick fix for a fussy baby? Try a nice warm basket of laundry right out of the dryer. I had to get her and the laundry upstairs and this seemed to be the easiest way to do it. Plus, she fell back asleep. Multi-tasking! Things are settling down in the Pauley household. We're figuring out a routine and things seem to be running pretty smoothly. We've had some great weather lately - Glenn and Will and I took a walk last weekend and Mr. Independent had a great time walking Canyon (he calls her Neh Neh). I'm not sure she had as much fun as he did. Will's adjusting pretty well. He's interested in Reina - loves to put hats on her head. He even wants to hold her on occasion. This pose lasted about 1 1/2 minutes and then the novelty of holding the baby wore off.

Reina hates the carseat. And her tulip hat that was lovingly knitted by Grandma Hansen. Think she knows it makes her look like an 80-yr old?

baby deliciousness

As promised, here are the zillion photos of baby and family. Thanks to Aunt Vicky for her great photography - she's really good! We are all home and everyone's doing well. Will's being very helpful, as you can see from the photo below. Come see us - we're happy to have visitors!

Reina Victoria Pauley

Our baby girl is here! Reina Victoria Pauley was born on February 10, 2009 at 11:44 a.m. She's 21 inches and a whopping 8 pounds 9 oz (9.7 to be exact so almost 10 oz). Her size really suprised everyone - we weren't expecting her to be that big. She's a great nurser already - even in the recovery room she was sucking on her hand. We think that she would have ordered a side salad and a cheeseburger if given the opportunity. We're still at the hospital - plans are to go home tomorrow. We have about 1 billion pictures to upload but the hospital wireless is not being very cooperative so we'll have to wait until tomorrow. Everybody's doing well - even Mr. Will. He's come to visit both days and is showing more interest in her. Tonight he spent about 5 minutes trying to put her hat back on her head. That's all for now - I'm on heavy doses of drugs and don't want to type anything too embarassing. Back tomorrow with more pictures of our pretty girl and the whole family.

Baby Day on Tuesday

Just a quick note to let you all know that we are scheduled for the c-section tomorrow (Feb 10) at 11:00 a.m. If all goes well, we should be nestled back in our hospital room by the early afternoon. We'll try to keep you posted via text message and calls from other family members. For those in the Cheyenne area, feel free to come visit! We should be in the hospital until Thursday and the more visitors we have, the less diapers Glenn will have to change.

Seriously though, we'd appreciate any prayers and good thoughts you can send our way for the health and safe arrival of our baby girl.

Stay tuned!

The Homestretch, Final Countdown, Bottom of the Ninth, whatever you want to call it

We are now just about 6 days away from meeting Deuce Pauley. I had a dr's appt this morning and she doesn't appear to be ready to make her entrance anytime soon so it looks like we'll be headed for the scheduled c-section next Tuesday, Feb. 10. I'm working on coming to terms with the scheduled c-section and keep reminding myself that the only thing that matters is that she's healthy and here and whichever route she takes to get here, won't really matter in the end. The good news is that we are in the final stretch and in less than a week, you'll get to find out her name!

In other news, my maternity leave is starting a little bit early because Will has had a bad cold most of the week. We are headed back to the doctor this afternoon because his cough still sounds like he smokes a pack a day. Will has developed this great technique for refusing any type of medicine you give him. He'll hold it in his mouth and then shoot it back out like a volcano. He then proceeds to spit for the next 30 minutes or so. Good times. I've tried mixing the medicine in choco pudding (yum!), shooting it into his mouth and wrestling him to the ground and holding his mouth shut and finally, using reason and cause and effect (Will, if you don't take this medicine, you won't get better) - you can imagine how well that one worked. SO, if anyone has suggestions, I'll gladly take them.

Just a few pictures from the week: I love this one because he looks so exasperated - "Mom, put the camera away, PLEASE!" He's also dressed in a typical Wyoming boy outfit. UW hat? Check. Camo shirt? Check. Sweatpants? Check. Slippers with footballs on them? Check.

Will's graps of the English language is moving ahead with leaps and bounds. Each day finds him saying something new and lately he's really started mimicking us. Good thing I wasn't emotionally invested in the Super Bowl because the only phrase he picked up was "jeeeez!" He likes to get Glenn to sit with him on the stairs and the command is "Dadda Sit!" Sorry about the open mouth food shot - at least it looks like it's going in and not coming back out.

We'll keep you posted on any news from the baby camp.