LONG UPDATE AHEAD!

Only start this if you have time and a cup of coffee. Or tea. I don't drink coffee. Don't worry, I've included lots of pictures to keep it interesting!

It's been a while, no? Lots to update! In no particular order...

Memorial Day weekend: We spent the weekend in Oklahoma. My baby sister graduated high school! We went to her graduation (235ish in her class, she finished 17th she thinks) and it was short and sweet. All the grandparents were there, 2 aunts, me, Scott, Charlotte and my parents. Some of the family:

Holly, my sister, sang with her choir one last time, and she also sang the national anthem as a quartet; she is a soprano. We went up on Thursday, stopping after 7 hours of driving to visit my old office to show off the baby. A $35 parking ticket on campus that we're not going to pay later, we made the final hour to Ponca and relaxed the rest of the night. The next day was graduation. It began at 8p, which is past C's bedtime, so I wasn't sure how that was going to go, but she did great! She was asleep when we got there, but she woke up with the noise of the crowd and just chilled in her carseat for a while.

She got hungry, so we broke out a bottle to entertain her for a while. Many of the families had airhorns and every time one went off or a bunch of people cheered, she got HUGE eyes and looked very startled, but she never stopped eating! :) My sister and my mom, after graduation:

On Saturday, we met a couple of friends and their baby for lunch. They live in Arkansas but were in OK for the weekend, so we found a place between where we all were and caught up! Baby H was born in January. We hadn't met her and she hadn't met C yet, so it was so much fun! The girls smiled at each other, so cute!!

That night, my sister and 2 friends had a get together for the families, so we went to that before headed to Scott's parent's house. The two friends:

It was a late night because we sat up chatting with his parents and sister. Sunday morning, we went to our old church to show off C and hardly anyone was there!! There might have been a youth trip, as I saw not a one there (I used to volunteer with the youth). We hung out at Scott's parent's house with some friends for the afternoon. It's so great to see people you haven't seen in a long time!


Monday, it was time to head home. It used to take us 6hrs, but with baby and feeding it took about 7.5 to get home. Scott mowed when we got home, and I unpacked and started laundry. A boring end to a really great weekend. Because he's cute, here's a pic of our nephew:


Shredding: Scott and I have started Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred DVD. We have completed 5 days so far and are so sore! The goal is to do it 30 days in a row, so we are 1/6 of the way done. We may try to do it longer than 30 days, that's just the first goal. It's only 20 minutes a day, but we struggle to make it each time! The first day was a killer, but we're getting better. I didn't take measurements before, but I did use string to measure my chest, waist, and hips. I'm anxious to see how many inches I can lose. I really want to fit back into my prepregnancy pants so that I don't have to buy a whole new wardrobe. I did check my starting weight, but I know it's just a number. I mean, I hope I lose weight, but if I don't, I'd settle for fitting back into my black pants! Day 30 is the day I leave for a conference in Dallas, so I can't skip any days! Oh, Jillian Michaels is the Jillian from the Biggest Loser, fyi. And I'll let you know at the end if I lost any inches. Maybe by then I'll be brave enough to measure my string lengths. [No pictures here, it's not a pretty sight. Imagine lots of sweat and there ya go!]

Charlotte: Her routine is working! She is finally sleeping a little more at night! I am beginning to realize that one day she will not need me in the middle of the night, and that makes me a little sad. I like being the one that can take care of her needs, and it's so quiet in the middle of the night, just us. That said, I am happy that she is starting to sleep longer. Now when every. single. person. asks me if she's sleeping through the night yet, I can say yes. I mean, really, is it a competition?? No! Babies develop at different rates, and you're not the one getting up with her, so what does it matter to you?? But, technically, yes, she is sleeping through the night, 3 nights in a row now. 5 hours, then 5 hours, then 6 last night. She actually went 7 hours between her feeds last night skipping one entirely, but she fought sleep for that first hour, making it only 6. Sleeping in the cradle at the inlaw's house:

She has been smiling more lately too. Especially if you say "buh buh buh" to her over and over. She's practicing her B's and blowing bubbles! She sticks her tongue out too if she's especially smiley!


This past Friday and Saturday, she was pretty grouchy all day. Today off and on too. I think she's tired, so tomorrow I'll probably let her sleep whatever she needs to. She's usually tired after the weekend anyway and needs extra sleep.


My job: I am officially a SAHM now (stay at home Mom!) and I'm excited about that. Me staying home was our goal, but Scott's job was in question for a while. Starting in January, they've been doing layoffs at his company every 4 weeks, never knowing in advance which area would be affected. We had said that if he still had a job on June 1, I would not go back to work. We hung onto my job a while to make sure that, come the end of maternity leave, one of us still had a job. June 1 is tomorrow, so I begin a new job. Staying home is tough! Days are long, and, even on the days we actually stay home the whole day, there are things that I want to get done that just don't happen. I can't go out and work in the yard when she is sleeping, because what if she wakes and I need to get to her and I'm covered in dirt?? No can do, so I did yard work today while she and Scott napped! Even though it was 94 degrees out, I loved being outside and getting dirty. (I may be sleeping all day with her tomorrow, I'm wiped out!!)

Church: There have been lots of changes at church. I had 3 (5) bosses when I worked there, 3 full time, 1 associate, and 1 part time. The only of those still there are the associate and the part timer! Two of the FTs quit and one was laid off. So those departments are all going through changes. Also, a new Sunday school class formed for Young Couples. Seeing as we are a young couple, it would seem logical for us to join that class. However, we are in the old YC class, now the Faith Class. We are the youngest in the class and have been since it started almost 2 years ago. I have felt some pressure to join the new class, but we tried it out today, and I don't feel like we will be going back to it. There is nothing wrong with it, but we are still the youngest! We feel like we can stay in our current, more developed class and be the youngest instead of moving to the new, developing class. I've been thinking about it since January, when we were first asked to switch, but the class didn't start til April, and we weren't going to church then. We were finally able to say we tried it out today though.

That's all I can think of for now. It's late, I'm sore, and I'm tired. I hope that you all have a good week!

PS: I had to do all the pictures twice, because I didn't do them right the first time. That's how much I love you people that read things like this when you probably have better things to do with your time. :)

Two Months Old!

Charlotte had her 2 month check up today. She is 12lbs, 2oz (84th percentile for her age) and 23.2 inches long (83%)! We knew she had grown more, we just didn't know how much! Then she had her shots, and that was not happy for her or for Mommy! Daddy came along to be with Charlotte during her shots while Mommy didn't watch from across the room. Her shots were at about 9am, and she's been asleep since then.

This past month has brought lots of fun! Charlotte began smiling around 6 weeks, and we see it daily now. She is really happy when you get her up from a nap and after she finishes eating. We've heard 3 giggles, and I hope that they become more frequent soon! We all went to church for Mother's Day and we had a good time! She slept for about 2/3 of the service and was good and quiet for the rest. Then I took her to my work to show her off! She smiled and cooed for 2 hours, never getting unhappy. The next day, I met a couple of girls at the movies, and Charlotte and I saw her first movie! Again, she slept, woke up and ate, then went back to sleep. Such a good girl!

Enjoy some pictures from Month Two:

One step forward, three steps back

My positivity from yesterday has flown out the window. We had a good night's sleep 2 nights ago, followed by a great day yesterday. Then last night, starting about 10:15, we could not get her to sleep. I tried for an hour, Scott tried another hour. Then she slept for 15 minutes at a time the rest of the night. I think her tummy was hurting. She hadn't pooped in almost 48 hours, so when she finally did around 1:15, I thought, whew, now we can all sleep.

Not so much. At 5, I asked Scott to take her to the living room so I could get an hour and a half of sleep. He battled with her during that time. I got up to feed her a little before 7, and she was a happy smiling baby, no matter not sleeping all night. (Scott and me? No smiles there.)

She started yawning, so I put her down for a nap at 8, and I could not get her to sleep until 8:45, and that was with her laying on me. We slept til 9:30. I just battled her second nap for 1.5 hours, and finally got her up, because it's only 10 minutes now until her next feeding. She is sitting in the Boppy next to me on the couch, just about asleep.

I'm exhausted. Scott is going to take her tonight and let me sleep. He laughed that if she didn't sleep last night and doesn't sleep all day, she'll pass out tonight and he'll have an easy night! Not funny, because I bet that's true.

Ok, now she's sound asleep. Great.

Good Night's Sleep!

Well, "good" might be a stretch, but we had a decent night last night!

We put her to bed at 8, and I fed her at 10:30. She didn't wake up again until 1:30. She woke up about 3:15, fussing. I read yesterday that when a baby wakes up before 3 hours have passed, they probably don't need food, especially if they ate well the last time, but that they just need help getting back to sleep. I gave her the pacifier, and she didn't wake up again until 4:30!

This is the first time in at least 3 weeks that she slept between 2 and 4! I got up to feed her at 4:30, and she had decided that she was ready to get up. She was giggly, smiley and cooing at me. It took all I had to put her back in bed! I just wanted to talk to her and watch her smile. I felt good at that point, I think I had gotten about 5 hours of sleep total by then. But I put her back down with her pacifier. I replaced it every 10 minutes for the next two hours, but I told Scott, I'd rather replace a pacifier for 2 hours than be holding a screaming baby!

Her pacifier kept falling out, because she was keeping her head turned, staring at the light coming from the bathroom. She does this thing when she is happy where if you touch her lips with her pacifier, she "talks" so every time I went to replace it, she started chatting with me!

We got up at 6:30, I fed her, she grinned for 15 minutes or so after then played on her playmat while I ate breakfast. She is back down for a morning nap, and now it's my turn. We're going to try to get out to Walmart this morning, but it looks like rain. We may have to wait til this afternoon.

And finally, her first smile captured on camera:

Five Weeks Old

I thought I posted this when I sent the email out, but I guess I didn't! So this is a week late, as she will actually be 7 weeks tomorrow!

Charlotte will be 6 weeks old tomorrow, and week 5 was a lot of fun! The most exciting thing is that Charlotte started smiling yesterday! We've gotten her to do it probably 10 times today, but she shuts it off as soon as the camera comes out. We will catch that allusive smile soon, I hope! Charlotte found herself in the mirror this week and has enjoyed staring at herself in the mirror in her crib! We have started a bedtime routine, in hopes that it will help her figure out when to sleep. At the start of the week, she had her days and nights reversed, but by the end of the week, it's starting to turn around. Thank goodness! I had 3 friends visit this week (2 from out of town) and that was good for me. Charlotte got to be held by someone else, and I got a little break! Another friend in town kept Charlotte at her house a couple of hours on Friday while I ran errands all by myself! It was nice to have that break but I was ready to get back home with her. Here are a few pictures from this week.

A few things

1. I had a request for an update on our nephew, so here goes! Little I is 18 months as of Thursday. In his 17th month, he began walking! We got to see him here when he came to visit Charlotte, and it was so fun watching him toddle around. We took some pictures of the cousins together.





After a while, then both got tired of taking pictures!



As of a week ago Wednesday, Nephew I is officially part of the family! For Korean adoptions (don't know if this is for every country, or if it varies by country), the child cannot become officially adopted until 6 months have passed. At that point, paperwork has to be filed, and a court date is set. K and T went to the court day last week, an official oath ("you will raise this son as if he were your biological son, etc") was read, they agreed to it, I think they signed something, and it was official! Now, they have more paperwork to do, and he will be granted his SS card and a birth certificate. If it had not been for our little one at home, I would have really liked to have been there with them in the courtroom. I kick myself often for not being at the gate when they came home from Korea with him. No one was there to greet them, and I'm mad that I didn't go. Again, no one was there with them for this very exciting day. I so wish I could have gone.

Doesn't he look super cute in his bucket hat? He was checking out Charlotte's swing.



2. Last night was incredibly hard. I've not been sleeping well for a while now. Big shocker with a newborn, right? Well, with fibromyalgia, I don't sleep well, and I'm starting to feel that kind of not sleeping coming back. Night before last, Charlotte slept well, waking to eat about 12:30a, 3:45a and 5:45a. I was still awake when she got up that first time, despite turning my light out about 11p. Last night was way worse. I wasn't sleeping, C wasn't sleeping. She was very noisy, her paci kept falling out, that would upset her, so I had to keep replacing it. She sleeps in a tall bouncy seat right next to my side of the bed, so I didn't have to keep getting up, I just wasn't sleeping. She woke to eat about 1:45a and during that feed, it dawned on me just how tired I was. I started sobbing. I wasn't going to wake Scott up, because what good would it do to have 2 tired parents (and I'm very jealous of his sleeping abilities. Very jealous. Like I've told him this before.). Colby Jack gets very worried when I cry, and he heard me and started barking at me. This woke Scott up and he just started holding me. C was back in her seat by then, but still wide awake. He took her to the living room so I could finally get some sleep in a quiet room. I went out to the living room at 3; she was crying. I fed her again, trying to top her off and make her fall asleep. I just couldn't sleep. I was awake until 4a. The last time I saw on the clock was 4:00a and she woke up hungry and Scott brought her in our bedroom at 7:02a. So at the most, I got 3 hours of sleep. She ate, then dozed in and out until 10a. We all three dozed during that time, sleeping about 30-60 minutes at a time (me, anyway). Such a long tiring night. I really didn't think i was going to make it.

After I fed her and put her back in her chair when I was crying, I was just thinking "I can't do this anymore. I can't keep feeding her, listening to her, holding her when she cries, I just can't do any of it." Then I thought about a story I read yesterday of a 2m old dying of SIDS and I cried harder. I would do all of that, every night for the rest of my life, if I knew she was safe and alive. I have a giant fear of something terrible happening to her, mostly at my hands (not that I'm thinking of hurting her, I just see these accidental sitations play out). Things I can prevent, like me dropping her, or tripping over something and her flying across the room, or me forgetting to buckle her into her car seat and me getting in an accident (I've never been in a wreck, knock on wood). Even though she is a noisy sleeper, I am determined to keep her in our room a while. Studies show a reduced risk of SIDS when babies sleep near their mothers, especially in the same room. She will be moving to her pack and play at the foot of our bed as soon as her eating schedule settles out a little. And as soon as I empty the PNP of all the clothes, blankets, and diapers that are currently in there!

She is asleep on my chest right now. I love her, I just get so frustrated sometimes. Being a mom is hard, and I get jealous of Scott. He gets to go to work where there isn't a crying baby. I don't want to go back to work, I just wish I could get away sometimes too. He sleeps like a log. He can roll over, see that she's eating, and two breaths later, he's lightly snoring. When I wake up, it takes at least 5 minutes to fall back asleep, but usually more like 15. He has Friday afternoons off, and he took a 3 hour nap yesterday. I was exhausted too, but C was sleeping restlessly, and I kept waking up with her. I wish that he had taken her, but I know that he needs his sleep too. After he got up, I fed her then he took her for 2 hours while I napped. I wish we could do that every day!

3. I went to my rheumatologist last week. We re-ran bloodwork, and he wants me to go back on medications. They would go through the breastmilk, so we will be holding off until either a) we stop bfing or b) my body pain/sleep issues become so great that I can't stand it anymore. I don't know when either of those will happen, time will tell. I am thinking of emailing a couple of friends of mine that are pharmacists and asking if there is a sleep aid that does not transfer into the milk. Once she starts eating on a more regular basis (or sleeping through the night!!) I may take something. It's not healthy for me to not sleep, and I'm afraid that's where I'm headed.

Wow, this went a lot longer than I thought it would!! To lighten things back up, here are some more pictures!

From the Easter "photo shoot"



From the real Easter day - we never made it out of our pjs!

And finally, her one month picture! We've weighed her on our home scale and estimate her to be around 10 pounds already. She is out growing her newborn clothes as we speak. I put her in a sleeper tonight that we will have to retire after tonight! It makes me sad, it's so cute! She started a medication for reflux a week and a half ago, but I don't think it's making her tummy feel better. I'm going to make an appointment with the pedi, so we'll get more exact measurements this week.

Time for an update!

I'll do a quick update now, but it will probably be short as I'm 1-handed!

This is a family pic at 1 week old. She was very unhappy during our "photo shoot" so as soon as she would stop screaming, we would smile and hope for the best!

The runner-up for the baby announcement card. It was taken by Scott, and a large printed version of it is in the mail as we speak, so we can hang it in the house! We love this one!

Another picture that was in the running for the announcement card. I love her face in this one, so happy! My mom caught this picture, about 4-5 days old.

Another picture in the running for the announcement card. Just kidding :)

I thought it was funny though! I think Scott took it, about 6 days old?

It's hard to tell by this angle (but I love her tiny feet!) but she is sucking her paci! This picture was taken about 30 minutes ago. This past week, she's been eating non-stop. Like every 1-2 hours during the day and 2-3 hours at night. There have been times where she's eaten every hour for 5 hours at a time! I think it's been a growth spurt, but the past couple of nights, I've thought that some of it might just be soothing nursing. She's rejected the paci almost every single time we've tried it, until today!!! Mama is relieved!! And it's her outfit cute? Ok, you can't really see it, but take my word for it, it's adorable! The onesie says "I can make you smile" on the front, and she sure can. I love the pink and green combo, too. Shocker, I know! :)

Scott's sister, her husband, and our nephew were here this past weekend. We decided to set up the cousins and try for a cute Easter picture. Well, she did ok for a few minutes, then there was a meltdown that was only settled by lying on Mama's chest. This is the result, a content alert baby! This one is in black and white but I'll post some of the Easter pictures in a separate post and you can see her dress!

My beautiful baby sister, snuggling with my baby girl, about 6 days old.

This was the winner for the announcement card! We turned it black and white and cropped some of the blanket out and some of the top off. I love love love the bow in her hair!!

Having a baby is tiring but so worth it! She is 3 weeks and one day old today. We had her 2 week peditrician appointment last week. They look for infants to be back to their birth weight by 2 weeks, and she was 9 oz over! Told you she's a big eater!! She's also an inch longer than when she was born.

2w stats: 7lbs, 12oz, 21.5 inches long

Top o' the mornin to ya!

Charlotte and I are wondering how all our fine readers are doing this morning at 5:16! We're chillin in the recliner in the living room to let Daddy get 1.5 hours of good sleep before he heads back to work today.

We got home Tuesday, March 17th just before lunchtime. My parents are here for the week which has been really nice so far! Mom and Dad made a great dinner last night (pot roast, green beans, mashed potatoes, gravy and rolls!), and Scott's parents are coming to meet their granddaughter this afternoon. We were all tired yesterday afternoon and napped for a while. Seeing as C is eating for the4th time since 11:00 last night, I suspect more napping will happen today!

(Typing 1-handed is slow!)

I'm going to go stare at my baby a while now, just wanted to let you know that we are home and doing well! Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers these past few months, they really paid off!

Introducing Baby Charlotte!

Born at 7:09am, weighing 7lbs, 3.3oz, and 20.5 inches long

This picture is at about 11 hours old.

Ignore me... look at the brand new, 5 minute old baby!

15 minutes old, tasting her fingers!

I woke up at 2:47 to go to the bathroom, and thought, wow, my back is really hurting. Oh wait, no it's not! Oh wait again, yes it is! ALOT!!! Um, this is a real contraction...
I had 2 (not timed), rolled over at 3:30, felt warm water, jumped out of bed, more water. Determined that my water broke and the contractions went to 2-3 minutes apart and hurt like heck!! We got to the hospital about 4, checked at 4:15 and I was told I was already 6-7cm! I got the epidural about 5:30, it kicked in after about 5 more contractions, then I relaxed a little until we started pushing! I pushed for maybe 30-40 minutes and she was born!

Scott saw the whole thing and said it was the most amazing thing he'd ever seen. He's been so good with her, I love it! :)

She has slept most of the day, we have not. I'm hoping that we'll get some really good sleep tonight (minus the bp checks, the weight check for Charlotte at midnight, and the other vital checks, feedings, and diaper changes!). We will probably be here until Tuesday morning. We are so excited that she's here!

Nope.

The contractions stopped after a while, so I'm still pregnant.

I realize that I'm not at my due date yet, but I seriously feel like she's never going to come out. Having contractions since mid-January, and real (slightly painful) contractions for a week now, it's exhausting!

I baked a cake for baby Tuesday night, wrote "Happy Birthday Charlotte" on it, told her she could have the whole thing if she came out; it didn't work. Scott and I are stuck with a whole confetti cake now! Darn... :)

I cannot cannot cannot wait for her, it's killing me and Scott!