Charlie is 8 weeks

We are doing GREAT! She is as cute and stubborn as ever. She is sleeping good almost every night....waking up twice a night. When she does not want to go to sleep though...it is the end of the world. She will scream until she gives up and falls asleep ... which usually takes at least an hour. Just today she was awake from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Can you believe she can stay awake that long. At about noon she maxed out and cried and cried until she finally fell asleep. I just tested out milk again to see how she would react and it seemed to be ok. I think she was just trying to get used to daycare. Or, it might have been the amount of milk I was drinking. That was pretty much all I was drinking. So anyway she is not lactose intolerant...I don't think!

She is a happy girl (most of the time) She is cooing but still no giggles. I just waiting and waiting for them. She has the biggest smiles. She seems to always smile when I sing her "twinkle twinkle little star". And if she is fussy all I have to do is give her a bath and it calms her down. She is kind of becoming a mommies girl. Sleepy in this pic. She is getting better at daycare with me not being able to be with her all the time but after the long weekend I have with her she usually has a rough day on Tuesdays. She really like one of the little girls at daycare! She sings to her and Charlette smiles and coos at her. If she is tired or crabby she usually won't let anyone but me or Joe to hold her without a fuss.

Tummy time. She is getting soooo strong! She is now rolling over from her belly to her back. I was not sure if she does it on purpose or if she just falls over and lands on her back. I am pretty sure she would get stuck on her side if it was just her falling over so I think she does it on purpose! If she is not in the mood to use her neck muscles and I put her on her belly she will cry and cry until I move her. She knows what she wants... that is for sure.

This is an outfit her daddy picked out for her! She was not too happy in this pic but I thought she looked too cute to not take a pic!

She is doing well. We are still looking for a Halloween costume...don't know? There will be another update after her doctor appointment on Monday. I can't wait to find out how much she has grown!

Mommy Back to Work

I have been back to work now for two weeks. The first week was really hard. I do preschool in the mornings for three hours. She would cry and cry and I would have to just let my boss deal with her. She has to get used to the sounds of the daycare. It is getting better.

She is very gassy and we are trying to sort out this situation. She gets really bad belly aches and she cries so hard. I feel so bad for her. We got her some gas drops to help. We just started them. I tried to look at my diet and I was already watching what I ate....no spicy foods, brocoli, and so on. I could not really find anything so I looked it up and one of the things was lactose intolerants. So I decided to give it a try! I stopped all dairy and got Lactaid milk. Well, it has been 4 days and she is doing better already. I don't know for sure yet but I think it may have been the problem. She is sleeping longer and she is not as fussy. She has her moments but don't they all. I am going to try to drink milk in about a week and if she gets really upset again I am going to talk to her doctor. So wish us luck on this experiment.

She has another doctor appointment on the 9th and she will have to get a shot. I had my 6 week checkup and all is well. My iron is back to normal. NO MORE IRON PILLS!!!!YAAEEEE!!!! I only need to lose 10 more lbs to get back to what I was. Not telling what the number is:) The hardest to lose but I am going to try to work at it. TRY is the key word there.

Charlette is cooing and telling stories all the time. She has not giggled yet but she is getting close. She gets the biggest smile ever and we think something will come out and nothing does. Soon I think. She is just starting to lift herself up onto her elbows and look around. She is really strong. I can't believe she is almost two months already.

We are trying to decide what she is going to be for Halloween. There are so many cute things.

Here are a couple recent pics.

9/11 She has the best smiles!

9/14 I swear she doesn't get her faces from me!

9/20 One of our first family pics at home.

9/22

Smile Video!!!!!

One Month

We went to the doctor today for Charlette's one month appointment! It went very well. She now weighs 10.8 and is 22 1/4. She is growing fast. The doctor said she is still perfect. When he came in the room she started to smile and coo. He said that that is really good and he thinks she may start talking early. So everything is going good and we have another appointment on October 13th.

She is still waking up about every two to three hours to eat at night. She usually goes right back to sleep after eating so that is good. I am getting used to this schedule but I am glad it will not last forever. She sleeps a lot during the day but when she is awake she is AWAKE. She is very alert and loves being talked to, sang to, and read to. Sometimes she is tired but won't go to sleep so we just dance to her lullaby CD. She loves it!

I go back to work tomorrow and she gets to come with me. I am only going to be working 20 hours a week at first so it won't be too bad. I am a little nervous but I am ready to get back to the real world. I just hope Charlette will do ok at the daycare. She has been a little spoiled while at home with us. Just a little but enough to worry a little. She is just so cute and we can't help but hold her and cuddle her.

We had our last baby shower. My boss had a shower with all the families at the daycare. It turned out great. Every year we have a summer social for the families. This year it was the summer social, my shower, and saying good-bye to a couple families that are going to 1st grade. We got a lot of nice things and it was nice to see everyone. Charlette got to be passed around by all the parents getting their baby fixes. They were all excited to finally see the little person that made my belly so big.


I hope that the rest of the family will be able to meet her!

9/5

Mommy and Charlie 9/1

Charlie's princess outfit! 9/5

3 weeks!

I feel like all I do is feed and change poopy diapers. I really don't mind though... it's funny how you just do it. When I think about what it was like before she was here I wonder what I did with my time. I try to take naps when she naps but I just feel like I need to do the dishes or laundry. I always regret it when I am up with her at night. All well..... I guess I will learn eventually! She sleeps good about every other night. I am hoping she does a little better by next week when I go back to work. She just eats so much. That is the only reason she usually wakes up but some nights she just does not want to go back to sleep after eating. She just wants to play right! I am getting used to being up at night while Joe is at work.


Charlette had a visit from Grandma Traci a week ago. She was a big help and we can't wait for the next visit. Hopefully next time Grandpa will come with her.


We also went to the yearly camping trip with Joe's family. We did not stay we just went for a day but it was Charlette's first camping trip. Here is a pic of Joe's cousin Rachel holding her at camp.

8/22

We try to go for a walk if the weather is nice. She likes them. She usually stays awake for them so we go at night so she will stay up a little later for us. Here is a pic while getting ready for a walk.

8/31

We also had a couple birthday parties to attend . This gave everyone a chance to see Charlie. We had Drew and Parkers party. Which we were late for but we made it and everyone got to see her. We had Jacks birthday party and the rest of Joe's family got to see her. Then we had Braelyn's party. This is my friend Sarah's baby. She just turned one. I have a feeling her and Charlie will be getting into trouble together in the future. CAN'T WAIT! It is a lot of work to go to these parties but it is worth it.

Here are a couple other pics of the little one.

8/28

8/15


We are all three doing well and I will give another update after her appointment on the 8th!

One Week

Today Charlette is a week old. It has went by so fast. I can't imagine how fast a month will come and then a year. We are just enjoying every moment and every little thing she does. She is doing good at night. Last night I was up every two hours. That was GOOD! She gets hungry and Joe just can't fiil that need. He does the diapers though. We are probably going to create a monster with the amount we hold her but it is so hard to put her down when we are just sitting around. She is so snuggly and cute we just can't help ourselves.

We had her first doctor appointment yesterday. It went very good. She weighed 8lbs 13oz when born. When we left the hospital she weighed 8lbs 5oz and yesterday she weighed 8lbs 11oz. Her doctor said that they are happy if they get back to their birth weight by two weeks and by the rate she is going she will be past her birth weight this next week. It is good o know she is getting enough to eat. Her eye is doing better she is almost done with her eye drops. Doctor said she is perfectly healthy. He also yelled at Joe and I for not going on a date. In the hospital he told us to go on a date in the first week because if we can leave her while she is this young we won't have problems in the future. I guess it makes sense but even if we wanted to leave her I think we would rather just take a nap.

Yesterday was her first day out and about. We also made a trip to Meijer. She was awake almost the whole time. She slept good when we got home. I was worried she woukd be up all night but she did good. It is very different taking a baby with you everywhere. Different in a good way. She decided she was hungry in the doctors office and after we left the store. I guess that is the good thing about breast feeding, you always are ready to feed her, whenever and whereever you are.

Anyway, we are all good and Charlette's Grandma Traci will be home tomarrow. We are so excited and can't wait for them to meet eachother.

She is here!

To explain how my life has changed all I need to say is instead of sleeping at 1:00 in the morning, I just got done feeding Charlette and I am waiting 15 more min so I can put her eye drops in. Then I will change her and try to get some more sleep. TRY is the key word there. It is all worth it though. She is the most precious thing ever and I love spending this time with her. Right now is daddy's time to sleep. He let me sleep earlier in the night. We have to take turns at this point but I will soon have to do this night time thing on my own. I am a little nervous! We will get through it though.

Now I will explain what happened throughout my labor. It is kind of a long story but it is how baby Charlette came to the world.

THURSDAY night we went to the hospital to be induced at 8:00. We got there and got our room and me and the baby got hooked to monitors. Oh, I got my yucky IV put in too. Then I was suppose to get started on a med that would get things started and thin things out to make it easier for me to dilate. At this time I was dilated to 1/2 and having contractions every 5 min. This is too many contractions to have and be on the meds. So they just monitored us through the night. That night my water broke on it's own at 2:00a.m. They checked for dilation and I was the same.

FRIDAY came and I got toast for my gourmet breakfast. Then they started me on pitosin which is what makes my labor go into full gear whether you are progressing or not. This starts in the IV with the dose of 1 and is moved up 1 every hour until it maxes out at 20. I was on this all day with contractions every five min. Slowly through the day I started feeling all of the contractions and they were getting stronger and stronger. I could not eat all day either. I was having back labor because they thought Charlette was head down but facing the wrong way. The nurse had me sit in different positions throughout the day to try to flip her over. They gave me morphine as the pain got stronger.Did nothing and it does reach the baby so I decided to not get that any more. The nurse said it might make baby sleepy but it made her do back flips. She was so active during this time. I just don't like the thought of her getting morphine. It made me sleepy but I still felt all the pain. They checked about 2:00 or 3:00 and I was at 1. They then checked me at 5:00 and I was at 1 1/2. The meds had reached 12. They pretty much gave me the option to get a c-section or try again in the morning. I really did not want a c-section if we could avoid it. Most doctors will not let you go longer than 18 to 24 hours after the water breaks but luckily my doctor thinks as long as both mom and baby are doing good he will go a little longer. I was so frustrated so I just had to take a deep breath and say "we will try again in the morning."


FRIDAY NIGHT I got to eat a decent dinner. I did not have much of an appetite. I was still having contractions. All night I had strong contraction every five min. for the most part. They had given me a pill called Ambien and it is suppose to help me sleep through the contractions. Well I might have slept through a couple but not many at all and one of the rare side effects is hallucinating. I did not find this out until the morning when I said I was seeing things and kinda freaking out a bit while on the pill. Of course I would get the rare side effect. I was seeing a whole other bed in the room and when I got up to go to the bathroom I did not want to get back in bed because I thought there were cords hanging everywhere around my bed. Then at about 4:00 a.m. the pain was getting so bad. The doctor said it was too early to get anything. He had no sympathy what so ever. I wanted to strangle him.


SATURDAY my day nurse who I had on Friday was back. She was great she helped me through a lot. She got there at 7:00 and asked how I would rate my pain and I said an eight or nine. She said lets check you and get you some meds. Sooooo she checked me and I was dilated to 4. Yaeeeeeeeeeeeeee! She gave the option of morphine again and I said no. So she gave me the option of a med called epathecal that only last for a couple hours. My doctor had to be there for me to get an epidural so that was not an option yet. I got the epathecal. So they were in there as soon as possible and he put it in. It goes in my back like the epidural so while they were there they got everything ready for the epidural. That way if I still wanted it when the doc got there and the other was out of my system it would not take long. I could still feel the contractions but not as intense. This got me through a couple hours and we got a little bit of needed sleep. Then it wore off. I said "ok where is that epidural?". I was still having back labor so I was sitting in different positions. They put the epidural in and it only numbed half of me. My left side was pain free but I felt everything on the right. At the time I was not happy but now I am glad because I feel like it would have been too much to have the whole bottom half be numb.

Then at about 12:00 I said I was feeling the urge to push so she checked me again. I was all the way dilated. I was so relieved and I just wanted to get her out of me. So we labored down for a long time. At the time I was at the hospital there was another girl who was getting induced as well.. We had the same doctor and we went into labor at the same time. She beat me by just a couple min. so my doc was in there with her. Anyway, it worked out in the end he got in there and I started pushing. They had taken me off the epidural earlier while laboring down because I was not pushing enough. So The actual delivery was med free!

Charlette Grace Lewis was born Saturday the 8th at 2:48 pm
8 lbs 13 oz 21 in long

Her head was 13 1/4 and her chest was 14

She is doing well. She eats like a champ and she toots and burps like a champ too. We have so many friends and family visiting and she has so many more to meet. She has a blocked tear duct so she has to have eye drops every 4 hours. We go to the doc on Friday for her first appointment. Her first night was rough but last night was much better. Hopefully they keep going that way.

She also had to have an IV in her arm the whole time she was in the hospital because she was born so long after my water broke. She had to get antibiotics while we were there just to be safe and scare the infections away. Does she look so sad:( But CUTE:) Everything is normal and healthy with baby Charlette!

Mom on the other hand was not feeling so well after words. I look a little green in all my pics. I went to get out of bed for the first time after she was born and I made it to the chair next to me. I almost passed out. Luckily my nurse was very considerate and had all our visitors stay behind the curtain. I then got my blood tested and my hemoglobin was at 8. This is low but just enough to watch it. I could not get out of that stupid bed without almost passing out. I kept bleeding a little bit more than normal and Sunday night it had dropped down to 6.5. I then had to get two bags of blood in me. At that time I was so nervous. They had to give me benedril with the blood. They put it in my IV and it hit me in two seconds. Made me feel nauseous and not be able to focus my eyes. The weirdest feeling. Then I was out like a light the next couple hours. I was worried I would not be able to feed Charlette if she got hungry at that time but she waited for me to be done. I was so happy Mon. when I woke and felt better. I was no longer green. I am doing well now.

Daddy did all the diapers while in the hospital! Lots of poops.

And of course mommy did all the feedings.

I love this pic of Joe with Charlette!

She is a princess!

The three of us.

I hope to see everyone soon and Charlette can't wait to meet everyone. If you go to the hospitals web nursery you can see her hospital pic. I will be giving updates when I have time.

Induced?

So we had our doctor appointment today and we have some news. She checked to see if I was dilated at all and ........I was not! Can you believe it. I couldn't and neither could Joe. So now I am going in tomorrow night to be induced. She explained everything to me and it was a lot to take in. I was told to get ready for what could be a long process. I think I am as ready as I can be. I am very nervous but excited to get on with it and meet our baby girl. We will be letting everyone know when she is born so that way anyone who wants to go to the hospital does not have to wait for hours.

About the guessing game. Everyone has guessed too early but we will be looking at weights still. I know she has grown more since the guessing days but all well. I think it's fun to look.

So............ wish me luck and I hope to see all of our friends and family soon (along with a baby) :)