Dreamland

Some peaceful pictures of my sweet girl:

Yes, that's Hermes asleep in Reina's bouncy chair

Party of 5

Saturday afternoon we celebrated Bill's sister Katie's 8th birthday at a bowling alley. Afterward Katie and brother Austin (4 years old) begged to come to our house for a sleep over as a special birthday treat. We conceded and packed the kids in the car, which thankfully held us all including Reina. She was of course the real reason that "don't call me aunt" Katie and "I don't think I wanna be an uncle but can I hold her?" Austin wanted to come over for the night. Katie's new doll is named Reina Jr.

All kids fell asleep on the hour ride home...awesome. This multiple kid parenting stuff was EASY! What was all the fuss about? We had dinner at Red Robin (more Bill's choice than the kids, but Austin got his corn dog and to play a video game) and introduced them to what is now considered an old Disney classic, Aladdin. The kids fell asleep again before we could start Cars and were put into bed where they stayed until morning. EASY. The benadryl we gave Kate for her allergy attack didn't hurt either.

I hit a small speed bump in the morning when all three, including my own, needed to eat right now, before Bill was awake. I succeeded in enlisting Kate to wake up the sleeping beauty and monitor syrup usage as I had been informed Austin was, ahem, liberal with it. He also NEEDED desperately to feed the fish, he was worried they might get sick if not fed soon. Reina, now with a full tummy, was blissfully oblivious. Katie was working on getting Reina Jr. fed and bathed.

Gina-mom arrived to collect her children shortly after breakfast and had a few minutes of cuddling with her granddaughter before leaving. Hugs goodbye and we were a family of 3 again for at least a little while longer.

All in all not a bad 16 hours, thankfully we were a 2 parent family. We did have fun, but I do not envy those parents that have to do it all alone. I also think families that have multiples at the same time should automatically be given prescriptions for xanax before leaving the hospital to help chill them out. One at a time is fine by me!

Reina, happy to be an only child for now...

First month pictures

Just some photos today from the last month:

after bath time in her bouncy seat

smiling fool...in her sleep, no social smiles yet

my little elf with Santa

don't wake a sleeping baby

Here we go!

Hi everyone! This seems to be the thing for new mommies to do, so I'm joining the ranks of internet publishers. Bear with me as I get this thing rolling...I'm not the most technically saavy, but I think even I can handle this! I hope to keep you all updated with photos and events in our lives on a regular basis. Right now Reina doesn't do much but eat, sleep and poop, but she excels at those!

She's a little over 5 weeks old and already sleeps an average 4-5 hour stretch through the night. Don't laugh. I'm thrilled with that much. Those of you who know my regular sleeping habits (non-functional with less than 8 hours) will understand.

She loves looking at her jungle gym toys, she kicks and coos at them. She has met 2 milestones just today as well. She finally didn't scream and actually fell asleep when placed in her swing (so I could eat breakfast at noon despite being awake since 7am). She also has "graduated" to big girl pants: size 1 diapers, a step up from the newborn size. After the first few weeks of her life were spent trying regain her birthweight and learn how to eat, this was quite an accomplishment.

Reina is already a sports fan thanks to Bill's influence, her favorites being the Bengals, Buckeyes and Reds. She has as many jerseys as she does silly pink outfits! Bill is already planning the numerous family outings (maybe some will have to be daddy-daughter days...) to the Red's Stadium in the spring and summer months.

The dogs, Jedi and Hermes, are very interested in Reina, not at all aggressive. They want nothing more than to lick her face and bring her their toys when she cries. Once she's mobile, I'm sure they will realize her potential as an endless food source! They do act a little jealous of attention at times, mostly wanting to play catch while she's being fed a bottle. The cats don't want anything to do with her, she's just another dog to them.

Bill in heaven with baby and puppies

Putting this together has been much easier than I thought. I was going to go walk at the gym with her today instead...Take care everybody and talk to you soon. Hopefully even see some of you on Reina's first trip to Nana and Grandpa's in a few weeks. Until then, stay tuned.

Reina's first tummy-time, she loves her monkey moblie!