Life with Paisley

Well, to be honest, it's not too bad. We were really prepared for NO sleep, constant crying, and lots of ubiquitous poop. I must say, none of this has been the case. Sure we've had our nights where Missie just wasn't ready to sleep when we were, but we generally have to wake her up to feed her and notify her of diaper changes. We really thought it would be us at her beck and call. And other than my constant need to hold her and talk to her, we've not been too terribly disrupted. (Does that sound horribly selfish?!) Her joining us has been completely enjoyable. She's like a house guest that we heard was going to be complete mess, who actually turned out to be a delight and adds something to the place. PLUS, we really like her! Haha!! Kidding aside, we're quite happy with how "NOT rough" it's been. She's just a doll and we're both so completely smitten!

We're on an eating schedule of every 4 hours, using a combo of breast milk and formula (apparently my supply was a bit inadequate and she had actually lost a lot of weight since leaving the hospital - pediatrician's orders were to pump, measure it, and supplement the rest of the required amount with formula). Oh and we play the projectile spit-up game every time we eat. That's lots of fun. I'm not sure I understand what's up with that, but she's got some velocity on that stuff! We've tried different formula, different bottles, sitting upright, etc. Nothing seems to help. But she doesn't really seem to mind, so oh well... (i think...I'm sure I'll read somewhere that I'm scarring her for life or something)

On a completely unrelated note, is Christmas really 10 days away? What happened to my last month? I have done NOTHING for Christmas except put up a tree. Other than that, I haven't even heard Christmas music! Nor have I seen Christmas Vacation or A Christmas Story. To me, these things signal Christmas, without them, I'm still on November time! Oh, and speaking of things that fly by without my noticing - aren't I supposed to be scheduling portrait sittings of our little one? What are the rules for that? Am I going to be the mother of a 1 year old and have no portraits? What about the obligatory "Christmas" portrait? Am I a bad mom for not scheduling this? Yeesh!! I washed the spit up out of her hair and thought I was doing alright, but then I thought of this portrait issue and my air of confidence and poise vanished!

Okay here are some cute pictures. I am developing a thing for these cute pictures of her on her tummy. Something about them...










And I love these. My dad and I had a tradition of always putting the angel on our Christmas tree and so when Josh and I decorated our Christmas tree (right after Thanksgiving - B.P. -- before Paisley) we kept the angel off of it so that she and her dad could put it on together. It was like 60 something degrees out so I made Josh at least wear a Christmas hat to "winterize" his shorts and t-shirt look. But isn't this sweet?










Merry Christmas!!

Introducing...

...Miss Paisley

Catherine

King!!!

She arrived in her own sweet time on November 29th at 8:43pm. After waking up to the wash of warm water flooding our bed (yep, my water broke at 2am), we arrived at our hospital at about 4:30 or so. We labored for 18 hours and then found out my pelvis was in fact too narrow for her to get through. And looking at the ring that was on her head when she was born, there was clearly no way. Apparently the one small thing on my body...why couldn't it have been my thighs?? So, delivered via c-section, she weighed 7 lbs. 13 oz. and stretched out at 20 inches. She has big blue eyes and is surprisingly mellow. After Paisley's harrowing 18 hours of labor, she was a little stressed and in the operating room during the C-section. She aspirated some amniotic fluid and as a result wasn't breathing. They whisked her away from me immediately and sparing the emotional and horrific details (yes, some details were horrific -- to be honest, I guess it looked bleak, but I didn't know this at the time...Josh however, heard and saw everything that they weren't telling me), she spent her first 3 days after that in the Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit. Suffice it to say, it was beyond devastating to me. You take a hormonal post-partum woman's baby away with minimal explanation after 18 hours of labor and a disappointing c-section and you've got an emotional trainwreck. Luckily Josh reminded me in a very emotional moment two nights later that we are lucky to have her. So many of those babies up in the NICU won't come home for weeks. Months. Some of them not at all. He made me realize that we get to take a healthy daughter home in a few days and I realized quickly that he was right. She got to room in with us on her final night there and that helped tremendously. And alas, we got to come home with our angel last night. So of course we're drooling on ourselves with sleepiness at this point, but we're really doing okay I think. It's true what they say about your heart bursting open when you become a parent. She just takes my breath away. I know Josh feels the same way. I overheard him bragging to our real estate agent (who held our hand for so many months of this pregnancy in our search for a new house - she became like family). He was so sweet, he simply said "she's so beautiful." And my heart melted.

So, basking in an interesting haze of sleep deprived stupor and an almost explosive joy, we stumble along, trying to find our way as parents. It's really an honor and such an overwhelming blessing.

And on that note, I think I'm being summonsed....Mommy's coming Miss Paisley!!