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.

Is Will excited about having a little sister?

As much as I hate to post pictures of myself, I thought it was probably about time to show everyone what Deuce looks like at this point. We took these last weekend - this is about 36 weeks pregnant. Sorry for the red-eyes, I lost my photo editor program and can't find the new one.We thought it would be fun to get a picture of Will hugging mom's stomach but as you know, toddler's have their own opinions and he was in no mood to cooperate with the photo shoot. When I was about halfway through this pregnancy, the doctor cautioned me against lifting anything that was heavier than 10 pounds. Will's now around 32 pounds so you can see how well I took that advice.
We've been reading lots of books about babies and talking about the baby in the hopes that we are somewhat preparing him for the February events. At pre-school, the teachers ask him "is mommy having a baby?" His latest answer is "No. . . . . Dadda baby." And then he laughs. The kid definitely has a sense of humor and how I dearly wish that Dadda was carrying the baby this time around.

Update on Deuce - had a doctor's appointment yesterday and she's measuring about a week ahead which probably means that she'll be her brother's size. Will was 7 lbs 15 oz when he was born, which I know isn't super big but definitely a nice size. We're still scheduled for the c-section on Feb 10 but also still hopeful that I might go into labor on my own before that.

Stay tuned!

Raising a cave man

One of Will's favorite activities while eating is to pour out whatever is in his sippy cup and mix it with the rest of his food. If we give him a cup without a lid, he'll efficiently take his dinner and put it in the cup (along with his milk, juice, etc.), stir it up and eat it. Those among us with weak stomachs find it pretty tough to watch. BUT, Will clearly subscribes to theory that "it all ends up in the same place anyway" and usually chows down on the mixture. Lately, he's decided that it's more fun to pour everything out onto the tray and slurp it up like a cat. We're starting to wonder if we're raising a caveman.