Week 3

I can't believe we're already in week three of Charlotte's life. She's definitely starting to grow little by little. She slept for five hours straight last night! I was in heaven! But there are still some things that are tough to get used to (like my sore you know whats). We're starting to figure out her eating routine even though she's definitely starting to eat more now and is as cranky as can be until her tummy is plump full.

we're desperately trying to get her to sit/lay/sleep/chill in anything other than our arms or chest - any suggestions on how to do that?

"what choo lookin' at?!"

these are definitely the first smiles she's ever given me that weren't associated with gas

and falling back to sleep...

dr. check up

Charlotte had some weight gain issues last week so we had to go to the doctor every few days to check. Yesterday she went and had gained 10 ounces in six days! Yay! She's now past her birth weight and not yet two weeks old. The bottom picture is her typical facial expression after a full belly (if she's not asleep).

not too thrilled about lying on the cold scale

almost 8 pounds!

Week 2

I knew the first few weeks were going to be tough and quite the adjustment. I never knew HOW tough it is. Holy cow! The breast feeding alone takes the cake - ouch! Then there are the hormones.. I've never cried randomly at so many things in my life! BUT things do get better little by little every day. The past few nights she's been sleeping for 4 straight hours (cuddling with Ben) feeding and then sleeping for another 3 straight. Maybe that's not very good, but to me it seems great! She's definitely been gaining weight since our doctor's appointment last Friday, we have another one today. She FINALLY fits perfectly into her newborn sized outfits. Yay! Last week she was swimming in them. Here are a few more pictures of the little sweet pea.

She pulls this face anytime we get her attention and whip out the camera.

Our little elf (Ben's ears!). Oh, and there's our Christmas tree in the background!

She just had a bath so her hair is fluffy and sticking straight up - love it!

more pictures of the little bug

Things are definitely getting better in our house. My milk finally came in (sorry if that's too much info) so she is finally getting full and happy. She lost quite a lot of weight when she came home from the hospital so we had a second dr's appointment two days after the first to check her weight and she gained 4 oz! Yay! Gosh, I felt so horrible after the first visit, but she's starting to eat regularly and gain a little weight.

She hated her first "bath."

My mom getting in on some cuddling.

Mmmm... milk.

Ben helps so much. This was early one morning - he gave her a bit of a bottle and snuggled for a few hours with her so I could sleep.

Scrumptious.

Her second (and much better) dr's visit.

She swims in her newborn sized clothes. Here she's ready for her next outing: dr's office and Walgreens - very exciting...

first few days home

Holy cow, the first week with a newborn is ridiculously rough. Little by little we're figuring things out and our night times are getting better (although when darkness falls my anxiety level rises). We've been able to get out and about which definitely helps me not want to pull my hair out being cooped indoors all day. But Charlotte is so flippin' cute and fun to stare at. Here are some pictures from the first few days at home.

Her first trip to REI. I can already tell she'll be an outdoor girl.

Her first manicure.

My mom is in town for a week and a half - yay!

Ignore my interesting facial expression here and notice the adorable giraffe booty.

Such a cuddler!

My favorite picture.

At her first doctor's appointment.

Headed out to go pick up Grandma.

All bundled up for our evening walk.

Ben is like the baby whisperer - I could definitely not do this without him.

Her first night at home.

On her way home from the hospital.

Getting ready to go home from the hospital Monday afternoon. I thought I'd want to stay there longer but was much happier once I got home.

Welcome Charlotte Mary Curran

This little peach arrived yesterday, November 29th (two days early), at 9:06 am.

She weighed 7 lbs 12 oz and was 19 3/4 " long. She had quite the traumatic event happen as she was being welcomed into this world which I'll explain below. These picture are some random ones of her first 24 hours and are in reverse order.

Darling little girl finally sleeping for hours in the morning. This was taken exactly 24 hours after she was born.

Throughout the night she didn't quite know what she wanted and we didn't know what she wanted... it was a rough first night. But Ben was awesome and switched off all night with her because she refused to be put down.

She looks really different now than in these first few shots of her.

LOVE all of her hair. As I was pushing, Ben and everyone else announced that she had a ton of dark brown hair. We high fived - I was that excited.

My whole 15 seconds with her before they took her for monitoring for a few hours.

The NICU team was there waiting to help her out.

Right before the lovely epidural.

I know what you're thinking about the picture below... hot. This is me pacing the hallway trying to get the labor to progress a bit more.

I think this picture can speak for itself

For the past week or so I had been having contractions and by Thanksgiving they were getting pretty strong and closer together. Ben and I both thought it would happen over the weekend, rather than on the due date. So we were able to enjoy Thanksgiving, black Friday shopping, and getting our Christmas tree on Saturday. Then on Saturday the contractions were consistently 3-5 min apart for 2 hours by 6:30 pm. We went to the hospital, but they said I was only dilated to 2 cm; so they had me walk around for an hour to see if I was in labor. After that hour, I was dilated to 3 cm and they admitted me. At this point, the contractions were now 1.5-2.5 min apart and strong enough that I couldn't walk anymore. They started me on pitocen and inserted the epidural, which only worked on my right side, but was fortunately corrected after a few hours. Shortly after starting the epidural, my water broke spontaneously, which had meconium in it (Charlotte's first bowel movement), so they had to contact the NICU team to be there when she came out. At 8:15 am or so I started to push and when she arrived they immediately had Ben cut the cord and they worked on her for a good 10 - 15 min because she had inhaled the meconium. She wasn't moving much the whole time so we were both scared for awhile but she ended up being fine and there aren't any lasting effects.

I absolutely loved the nurses, residents, and attendings - everyone had a great sense of humor which totally helped me because when I get nervous I joke a lot. It was definitely an interesting experience - the whole giving birth thing. We definitely had a rough night, but are getting the hang of certain things and completely guessing on others. But we absolutely adore and love her to pieces!

an update

Today we (yes, Ben was actually able to come) went to my 39 week appointment. I'm dilated to a 1 - I was excited at first but now that doesn't sound quite as thrilling... dang it. Anyway, my contractions have been getting stronger and more frequent but still really random. My doctor offered to strip my membrane (sorry if that's too much information) to speed things up but Ben and I were a little selfish and wanted to enjoy Thanksgiving and Black Friday before we're in the hospital for awhile. He said that if she doesn't come by next Tuesday's appointment that they'll probably induce me then. Yay! Weird to think that a week from today we'll finally have her. What a looooong nine months.

Above 37 weeks and 3 days.

Below 38 weeks and 5 days - she's practically bursting out here.