First Bath

Charlotte had her first bath at home 2 days after leaving the hospital. She is two weeks old, and I'm just now adding the bath entry! Life is a little crazy right now! Actually, it's been a somewhat easy adjustment (I prepared myself for worse). Nathan is in love with Charlotte and wants to help me as much as he can. Whenever she cries, he runs to me and says, "Mommy, Baby Charlotte needs milk!" He has really been so patient with Wayne and I trying to adjust to life with a new baby.

When we gave Charlotte her first bath, Nathan was right there helping us...

I love naked babies!

Charlotte wasn't too happy about getting wet :)

Nathan washed her hair, but was worried about her not being happy :)

Here she is all nice and clean and dressed in her pajamas.

Charlotte and her Daddy

Here are my 3 babies...one big baby, one medium baby, and one tiny baby! I love them all!

Videos

And here are two videos I took. The first is when we first brought Charlotte home, and Nathan wanted her to lay down on the couch with him. The 2nd is just of Charlotte stretching and looking around :)

First Doctor's Visit

I had to take Charlotte to her first doctor's visit two days after we left the hospital. Here she is in her first real outfit :)


Pretty in pink


And here she is waiting for the doctor to see her. She was such a good girl and was awake and happy the whole time!

A close up of my beautiful daughter...I love saying daughter!

She sure likes to pose!

We got a great report. Charlotte was born weighing 6.11 lbs. She lost a few ounces and weighed 6.5 lbs when we left the hospital, but is now 6.12 lbs! She gained her birth weight back plus an ounce!

When we got home from the doctor's office, this is what I found in my room...

Even though he's almost 3, he's still our baby!

Going Home

Wednesday was the day we got to bring Charlotte home with us. I know lots of people who say they can't wait to come home from the hospital, and I was excited to bring Charlotte home, but I also really enjoyed my stay! It was really nice to spend two days laying in bed with my new baby, watching tv, taking naps, and having everyone wait on me :)



Here is Charlotte taking a little nap before it was time to get her ready to go.



This is the dress that I wore home from the hospital when I was born! I was a little fatter than Miss Charlotte though :)



We can't forget the bonnet!

We sure are proud parents!!!

I couldn't believe how tiny she looked in her car seat! It was so amazing to me to think that the last time we did this was to bring Nathan home. And now he's such a big boy!

She is going to have her Daddy wrapped around her finger! I can already tell that Wayne will be a pushover when it comes to his little girl.

Big Brother Nathan

He loves to give her kisses.

My sweet family...life is perfect!

Nathan was so sweet with Charlotte. All he wanted to do was hold her, sit by her, lay down with her, kiss her...he even wanted her to sleep with him!

This was Charlotte's first time to watch cartoons with her big brother...look how interested she is!

Daddy with his two babies!

Grandmother and Charlotte

At the hospital, the nurse gave Wayne a pair of scrubs. We knew someone who might like to put this costume on and play doctor...

Nathan couldn't wait to give Charlotte a shot!

Mama and Charlotte wrapped up in the blanket Mama knitted for her.

Papa has Nathan to play cars with and Charlotte to play dolls with! Or she might like to dress him up...I remember when Carrie and I were little, we used to put bows in Daddy's hair and make him look pretty!

Wayne's mom and my parents fix us dinner each night, and we loved it! How long do we get to have this special treatment? At least a month, right?

When Charlotte Was Born

We checked into the hospital Sunday night at 10:00 pm so that my doctor could start the inducement first thing Monday morning. It was so surreal to spend all day Sunday with Nathan and Wayne knowing that in a few hours we'd be heading for the hospital! Wayne took Nathan to his mom's house late that afternoon, and we finished last minute things. Then we made the exciting drive! We checked in and actually got a good night's sleep!

The next morning, the nurses came to get us at 6:30 am. They took us down to our Labor and Delivery room where we spent the day until Charlotte was born :)


Dr. Griffith broke my water early that morning and started me on pitocin (to start my contractions), but I wasn't feeling too bad yet.


Mama, Papa, Grandmother, and Nathan kept us company for a while. Then Papa took Nathan home for lunch, a nap, and to wait until his sister was born. Both of our moms stayed at the hospital.

After Nathan left, my contractions started to get really uncomfortable but not unbearable. Our moms were still in the room talking to us, and I was still able to somewhat function. But then they started to get really bad, and I figured it was time for the epidural. Our nurse warned us that it would take 20 minutes to get it started so don't wait until the last minute. Well, I didn't think I was waiting until the last minute, but apparently I was. Within the 30 minutes it took to call a nurse and actually get my epidural, I was in excruciating pain, and said lots of horrible things :) I think I bruised both Wayne and my nurse from squeezing them so hard. It was the worst pain I've ever felt, and I honestly don't know how someone could give birth without drugs!


Here I am after the epidural, able to text updates :) I love those drugs! So I got my epidural around noon, and was ready to start pushing around 1:30 pm, and Charlotte was here at 1:57 pm!

After she was delivered, we got to stay in the labor and delivery room for a good hour. After Wayne and I had our own time together, we let our moms come in, and they couldn't get into our room fast enough!

Mama and Charlotte

Wayne's mom with Charlotte

Then we went to our new room where I would be for the next two days. After Nathan woke up from his nap, Papa brought him down to the hospital. When my dad first held Charlotte, he said she looked just like me.

The next day, Nathan went to school, and then Mom and Dad brought him back to the hospital. Mrs. Sherry printed out a picture I sent her for him to show everyone, and they said he was so proud of his little sister :)

My grandma and Charlotte. Rose was Grandma's mother's name :)

Nathan with his big brother shirt on...he never wanted to pose for me so this is the best I could get :)

Charlotte is Here!

Our baby girl is finally here! Charlotte Rose was born at 1:57 pm yesterday. She weighed 6 lbs, 11 ounces, and was 20 inches long. I can already tell she is going to be such a good baby. She's eating well, and seems very calm...I hope that lasts!

I just wanted to do a quick entry with a few pictures, but I'll do a more detailed one later on.