Bath Video

Not the best lighting, but for fans of Max, here's a peek at him in his first tub bath. By the by, there's a link to all our videos on YouTube (mostly vacation stuff and Max) in the sidebar, or you can get there by clicking here.

Mommy's Little Piggy

Poor little Max is all congested. He's snorting up a storm. I actually brought him to the pediatrician last Wednesday (weight that day up to 6 lbs. 6 oz...so he's probably around 6 lbs. 10 or 11 oz. now). They wanted to make sure it wasn't going to his lungs (it wasn't, just seems to be in his poor little schnoz).

He's having a lot of trouble breathing today and I managed to break the nasal aspirator -- it split right in half while I was trying to suck out one of his boogies -- but I'm no expert in using the thing anyway. That's daddy's job -- he was able to suck out one monster booger with it...I swear it was bigger than Max's nose. Seriously. Adventures in parenting. But Tony's at work today so it's just me and the Max.

So I've got him under a cool mist humidifier and sleeping on an incline and putting saline drops in his nose (and oh, he's so fond of that). I even tried a battery powered nasal aspirator (that was a bust...there should probably be a warning on some products saying "For gullible new parents only"). I'm hoping this whole congestion thing clears up soon.

And needless to say, Mommy is getting pretty much zero done. I promise (I hope) to get thank you's out very soon to everyone who has sent something for little Max. It is all appreciated (and awesome!).

Anyway, on to some pictures...

Here's Daddy and Max during a burping session.


And here's Max peeking out of his hotsling that Mommy was trying out to carry him around in. It works pretty well, but I think it will work better once he's a little bigger.

Max's First Bath Tub Bath with Daddy

Obligatory Max Photos

Just a moment to post, so here are some obligatory Max photos: the first is of him in a little gator hat (we added the iron on). Gotta get him started early. The next is of little Max in an outfit his Auntie Rikki got him, showing off some skinny legs.

A snowy Easter weekend

The end of the week brought a bunch of snow, though not as much as they were predicting (it really just snowed one day, vs. the 3 or so the forecast predicted). It was quite a bit of snow, however. Mom even got in the act and did her first bit of snow shoveling (and yes, that's Tony over there packing a snowball...).
Max got a sponge bath for Easter, which he was pretty calm for (even when lifting up his little chicken legs to put on his clothes). Daddy bought him a cute little Easter outfit...
The top says "Baby's First Easter" and the feet have little bunny faces. Too cute. A little too large too, but not by too much. We think he's probably finally passed the 6 lb. mark. He's been eating really well, though sometimes it feels like he's trying to suck Mommy's spine out through her breast. He's got suction, this kid.
Mom (Grandma) also made Max a special Easter snow bunny and spelled out his name on the snow eggs (with M&Ms). It's really cute. She was out there for hours sculpting it out.
Max also got a special bear-y surprise from our neighbors, the Tomlins. Grace and Emily brought him over an Easter bear. It's very soft and I'm sure he'll love it. Right now it is a lot bigger than he is! (note the after-bath fuzz head)

Max's First Bath & other news

Max had his first bath last night and I can't say that he enjoyed it much. I'd thought the sling thingy would kind of hold him in the water, but it really more held him above it. I think we'll probably be giving him mostly sponge baths until he gets a little bit bigger. :-)



He was comforted afterwards by daddy's finger...Notice the nice fuzzy after-bath hair.
He's my little fuzz bucket.


In other news, my publisher sent over this year's catalog (with my book in it! Woot! and on the cover!), a vampire binky for Max, and a letter from a 10 year old who is reading my book (the letter is just the cutest darned thing I've ever read). That gave me a nice smile for the day too. I'd also recently gotten a nice comment in email from Alex Flinn's daughter (Alex is another YA author who writes great books like Beastly and Nothing to Lose). It's awesome to hear back from people who like the book. :-)

Max Got Milk

Max's weight check up went really well. He's back up to 5 lbs. 10 oz. (as of yesterday), showing more than an ounce of weight gain a day since last Friday. Go, boy! The combination of breastfeeding and expressed breastmilk via bottle seems to be working for him. And he's starting to get the hang of the breastfeeding part a little better. I'm glad we haven't had to give him any formula.
Here's one of his funny faces. You should really click through to the larger size picture to see it better. He loves to wrinkle up his little forehead.

And he likes to suck on his little fingers and thumb.
But one of his very favorite things is to listen to his daddy talk and watch his daddy's face. I think we have a daddy's boy here.

Smile big!

Max has a great smile.

Max - Day 8 - Max's Big Day

We had a pretty busy day yesterday, with some major milestones for little Max. He got to meet his Grandma (Kim's mom) for the first time (not to mention taking a ride to the airport, which he slept through, as per usual).

He also lost his umbilical cord during a diaper change, so that's one less thing to worry about. No more having to fold his teeny preemie diapers down. He also went through a bunch of different outfits and managed to pee all over just about everything (Grandma, mom, the changing pad, himself, 3 outfits, and Mommy & Daddy's bed). I suppose you could say that he's marked his territory out.

Max - Day 7 - Sleepy Baby

Mr. Max slept most of the day yesterday giving Mommy and Daddy time to get stuff done and run a few errands.

Mommy had a little too much fun dressing Max up in his fancy hat.
And throwing him in the air.

Doesn't Mommy look happy?

Daddy stayed up a little late with Max so Mommy could get some rest as Max wasn't quite ready for bed yet at bed time. He'd been asleep too much during the day.

For those following along at home, Daddy took some video footage last night. Unfortunately Max had a bad case of the hiccups, but the video came out just fine anyway.

Max - Day 6 - I'm a Good Boy!

Max was such a good boy yesterday. I never thought I'd be happy to count poopy diapers, but hey he's my boy. Max seems to have turned the corner and is eating (and associated other body functions) every 2 hours like he is supposed to. Thank God for the breast pump. Mommy's been a champ getting up at all hours to pump. But it is all worth it, just ask Max.

We got Max all decked out today in his "going to town" clothes and one of his fancy blankets. The whole family walked over the the little shopping area in the neighborhood. There is a baby goods store there called Little Skye. Mommy went and got herself some nursing bras so she can be a little more comfortable. Of course we had to spoil Max and get him a little stuffed gator (getting him started as a good Gator).

Here's a picture of Mommy pushing little Max around in the stroller.

Max has been working all week on his "I'm working on my diabolical plan to conquer the world" pose. It doesn't come through well in pictures, but trust me it is cute.

Max tried out his bed for just a little bit. He is really a great sleeper and generally a perfect little boy. He's only fussy when Daddy is changing his diaper. Other than that he sleeps all though the night except when we wake him up to feed him.

We are definitely blessed.

Another gratuitous tired parent picture.

Max - Day 5 - Need More Food!

This is a picture of Max right after his first bath.

We also went to see Max's doctor for his first checkup. The doctor said he was beautiful and perfectly healthy but needed to eat a little more. If necessary we may need to supplement with formula for a few weeks until he gets a little bigger and stronger.

Little Max got a little smaller since we brought him home. He's probably just too small and knocked out right now to breast feed. Mommy has started pumping milk and giving him a bottle. Since that started, he seems much better.

Max also went on his first adventure - to Babies R' Us of course. We needed to get him some bottle supplies and some smaller clothes, he was just swimming in everything we had.

Daddy learned that we need to use a onesie for a while to hold up Mr. Max's diaper. But of course Daddy forgot when he was tired and Max finally had a messy...well not diaper, but more like entire outfit...That was A-OK though because we were getting worried as Max hadn't had one in a whole day. We've had another (diaper this time) since so things seem to be getting in the right rhythm.

That's it for the daily update, more gratuitous pictures of tired parents below:

Max - Day 4 - Trying to Find a Groove

Max and Mom had a tough-ish day today trying to figure everything out. Poor Max just hasn't figured out the eating thing yet. He will in time.

Good news is that he slept a little more regularly today, giving us some time to nap and catch up.

Here's a picture of him being precious.
















Last night we tried a little bit of everything to get sleep. Here's a shot of Max passed out hugging my foot. Really gives you a sense of how small he is right now.















Another fun picture of sleepy Daddy, showing Max his cool mobile his Auntie Lisa sent him. He's able to follow it around a little bit already.

Last picture of the day is of the beautiful bouquet we got from work. My boss and coworkers are great.

Things are going well, just need to work on the feeding skills and we should be good to go.

Good Neighborhood, Great Neighbors

Have we mentioned how awesome our neighbors are? The signs advertising our neighborhood advertise it as a way of life as much as a community. I thought this was a real load of marketing nonsense and mostly related to the environmental nature of the community.

Turns out though that Prairie Crossing is a relic of the past. Neighborhoods like this just don't exist much anymore. I didn't know what we were missing, but I'll tell you our country needs a revolution to get back to a time when this type of caring and generosity are commonplace.

When I was a kid if some got really ill, passed away, had a baby, etc, the women from church would pull together and help out the family in need with food, help, and what have you. This was a function of the church as a community more so than the neighborhoods in which we lived.

I don't know if it is like this in the rest of Prairie Crossing, or just in our little corner of "Station Village" (a small section of the neighborhood), but the beauty of the people here is sometimes overwhelming.

Since Kim and I have no family or real group of friends in the area, they all pitched in and threw us a wonderful baby shower. Since we got home from the hospital, we've been showered again with cooked food (they have each signed up for a day for the next couple of weeks), hand-me-down baby gear and good advice on how to make it through the first weeks. We could have gotten by without all of this, but it would have made things much more difficult.

Every time someone is in need, the families in our vicinity "circle the wagons" and help them through as if this were one big family.

Is that awesome or what? Do the world a favor, pass it on.

Max - Day 3 - Coming Home

Well, it has been a very eventful day. Last night was a little rough since Max wanted to eat pretty much the entire night. The lactation specialists said that can be pretty common (babies doing "cluster feedings"). At least he seems to be getting enough food. :-)

Then today he had his first vaccination and was circumcised (ouch, something I was perfectly happy not to watch happen) by Dr. Capezio (the one guy doctor in the practice I went to, which kind of worked out. Perfect day for him to be on call.). We got all the paperwork and last checks filled out and then...we went home.
Here's Max pretty close to before we dressed him to go home. He was looking mighty fuzzy today (very similar to my baby pictures).
Then here he is in his going home outfit (he's such a small fry that his feet are approximately where the knees should be). But, he was definitely good and warm to go.
The car seat also completely dwarfs him. Every body kept going "Oh, what a teeny baby" on our way out of the hospital.
And when we got home, Gracie checked him out (still having no clue what was in store -- the first time he cried she had the most shocked look on her face I've ever seen). We're using the stroller bassinet for now for him to sleep in and rolling him around the house.

The neighbors have been great. Our dinner tonight (and for some other nights) was covered by a group of neighbors. They've all been really helpful and it is much appreciated, especially since we're definitely still figuring all this stuff out.

Max is doing well, but still a bit fussy (when he isn't sleeping and looking completely angelic). But hey, considering all he's had happen to him in three short days, I think he's doing pretty good. He's a cutie pie. Tony has been great too and I'm doing well (especially after a few quick naps today).

Max Day 2

Isn't he cute?

Today Max learned to get into the routine: sleep, eat, poop...oh, don't forget burp or he can't sleep...
Max learned how to do all of the above very well today and he's doing everything he is supposed to do, right on schedule.

Mommy's just about got everything figured out...rule #1 only try to feed Max if you can see his eyes. If you don't see those beautiful eyes, don't even try. Give him to Daddy to wake him up.

Notice the good cop/bad cop thing starting already????

Also notice those nice alert eyes? Feed Mommy feed!

Daddy's jobs are to: wake up the Max so he can eat (be gentle 'cause he won't eat if he's fussy...), burp Max after feeding (Max actually seems to really like this) and to comfort Max after some mean nasty nurse sticks him with a needle so much that both Mommy and Daddy are crying too.

We're getting into the swing of things. Tomorrow we wrap up everything at the hospital and try it at home. I'm actually thinking this will be easier, as poor Mommy will now be able to get away from nurses who wake you up just as you finally get a break.

More to come tomorrow as the Pauley adventure continues down its new and exciting path.

Introducing Royce Maxwell Pauley

Royce Maxwell Pauley joined the Pauley Family on March 10 at 2:20 PM Central Time. Mr. Tall Dark and Handsome weighed in at 5lbs 14 oz and was 19.5" long. He has a full head of black hair and has very dark eyes.

Mommy and Daddy Pauley were very glad to see the little bugger after a nerve wracking night.

All involved are healthy and in good spirits, but exhausted.

More adventures to be posted shortly. Wish us luck.