Week One at Home...Success!

We survived the first week at home with our baby girl! In all seriousness, we really can't complain too much, she is a really good baby. The very first night at home was a little rough, but she slept for 4 straight hours on just the second night and has done that on a pretty regular basis since then.
We are still learning and getting to know each other as a family, but it has been a lot of fun. See below for some pictures of the first week.

I know, I know, I was just ranting on what a good baby she is and this is the first picture :) This was her first bath at home and as you can see, she LOVED it! Unfortunately, we had to give her sponge baths for the first 2 weeks until her little stump on her belly button fell off. The problem with sponge baths is they tend to get cold after the first 30 seconds. We have now started real baths and she really does seem to like those.

Feeling much happier in Daddy's arms all wrapped up in the towel.

First trip to the pediatrician. Everything checked out perfectly. She had already gained back up to her birth weight at 5 days old, which the pediatrician was very happy about.

Hanging out with Nanny!

Will, Allison and Sam came to visit. Sam is about 4 weeks older than Charley, and far outweighs her. It was kind of funny to put the two of them together.

Soooo funny, these two are going to be buddies one day!

Mimi and Pop, Uncle Michael, Aunt Stephanie and Cousins Ella Claire and Tate came over for dinner one night. Ella Claire was so excited to get to hold her baby cousin for the first time since the hospital didn't allow visitors under the age of 12. She was too cute playing with baby Charley.

Mimi and Pop enjoying their grand baby.

Pop and Charley getting to know each other.

"Aunt Audrey" came to visit...Yay!!! She also brought us a pink rose bush that we planted outside just for Charley...so sweet!

Preacher Julie! She was so excited to get to see Baby Charley for the first time. I think Charley liked her a lot! :)

"Aunt Meredith"!

Charley having some "Tummy time" in the rainforest. Sooo funny!! Notice the giraffe that Daddy has in the picture on the left and Rocky trying to get his face in the shot at the top.

Stretch to Mr. Giraffe! The sad thing is very soon, she will be big enough to reach up and grab that Giraffe anytime she wants to.

That about wraps up our first week at home. Will post pictures from her first July 4th celebration along with week two shortly!

Photo shoot in our coming home outfit :)

Since we spend so much time and effort picking out that perfect outfit to officially bring our baby home in, we thought we should at least take a few pictures in her sweet outfit.

Coming Home!

After a wonderful experience in the hospital, somehow they trusted us to come home with this baby :) Here are some pictures of the adventure from the hospital home.

Our wonderful nurse helping us to make sure the car seat is just right.

On the ride home.

We made it finally!

Introducing Charley to Rocky and all of the visitors that were there to welcome her home.

Our Family in front of her bow. This bow has been the talk of the neighborhood for the past several weeks. Ever since our 36 week appt., all of the neighbors have been waiting to see the bow go up. Thanks Ron and Pam for taking care of that while we were in the hospital.

Daddy and Charley!

Mommy and Charley! Can you tell how tired I am??

Our new Family....we are so in love with her!

As all parents know, there is no greater love than the love you have for your children. And it is amazing just how quickly you fall in love with the precious gifts from God from the minute you hear that first cry. We are more in love with this little girl than we could have ever imagined. And we fall more and more in love with her every day.

All of our visitors

Charley has been loved from the start and it shows with all of the visitors that came to see her during her first few days of life in the hospital. We love you all and are so thankful that you could come and celebrate our precious blessing with us.

Daddy and Proud "Papa"

"Mimi" is in love with her newest grandbaby.

Great Aunt Lynn

Daddy and "Nanny" changing Charley's first diaper.

"Uncle Erik" He came all the way from South Carolina just to see Baby Charley. "God is good. All the time!"

"Aunt Kristen" getting to know Charley.

Charley with her "Nana".

The Beginning of the most Exciting Adventure of our lives!!

Ok, so I apologize for this taking so long, but somehow this 6 lb. human being takes all of the time and energy from both mommy and daddy 24 hours a day!

We went to the hospital on Wednesday evening, June 24th around 9:00 p.m. I was pretty sure my water had broken around 3:00 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, but for those of you who know me well should not be surprised that I decided that we needed to clean the entire house, take a shower, and pack our stuff before we left. Upon our arrival, they had to run some tests to be sure that my water had actually broken. By the time midnight rolled around and we still had not heard anything, Robert and I had pretty much chalked it up and figured that we would probably be sent home. To our surprise, the nurse came in just a few minutes later and said...."well, do you want to start pitocin now or at 4:00 a.m.?" Robert and I both looked at each other in total shock and surprise. Robert even said to the nurse, "so....this is it, we are having a baby!?!?!" She said "Yep, you will not be leaving this hospital without your baby!" We were sooooo excited!

We opted to wait until 4:00 a.m. to start the pitocin, with the intentions of getting some food and maybe an hour or two of sleep (yeah right!)! I sent Robert to Wendy's to get my last meal and he came back with most of it right. Due to the excitement, he didn't even know what he was ordering, but he did make sure that everyone at Wendy's knew we were having a baby! :)

We ate our food, then tried to do some walking around to get the contractions started, and they definitely started coming. The sleep part never came and we are still waiting on some time to catch up, maybe tomorrow ;)

Around 4:00, they came in and started the pitocin. And by 5:00, I was in some pretty major pain, asking for the epidural. I went through some pretty hard contractions for the next 2 hours, until the epidural came around 7:00. At 7:01, I was back to my normal, sarcastic self. As they were laying me down after the epidural, I said to the nurse (jokingly) "I mean do you think you could hook one more wire to me??" Robert said, "Wow, you are back!" From then on, things were great!

I progressed pretty quickly with the pitocin. At 5:00, I was 5 cm, at 7:00 7cm. So they said we should have a baby here by 11:00 or so. They came in at 10:30, 9.5 cm. They came back at 11:00 and we started the first push at 11:08. Baby was here at 11:43!

I must say, the entire labor and delivery process was actually fun and exciting (mind you, I did have an epidural and I can't speak for those who do it completely naturally). Even pushing was fun. It was extremely exhausting, but an experience that Robert and I will never forget.


This was about 1:00 a.m. We were soooo excited that we didn't know what to do with ourselves.

Daddy was trying to get some sleep.....ha, ha...never happened!

Here she is! Her first picture of her life....so beautiful!

She weighed in at a whopping 6 lbs, 13 oz, 18.5 inches long.

Getting her all checked out. Everything checked out wonderfully!

Daddy and Charley both crying! So sweet!

Our happy family, just a few minutes after delivery.

Mommy and her sweet girl. She has a few marks from birth, but they are fading away little by little each day.

39 weeks - almost there!

We went back to the Dr. this morning. STILL 1 cm dilated, but getting close to 100% effacement, which is still progress. Here is the run down of how the conversation went after he checked me:
Dr.: So, what are we going to do?
Courtney: I say let's have this baby this week
Dr.: Ok, well let's have her tomorrow then.
Courtney: (heart drops to the floor and develops small knot in her throat) Whoa!, hang on, can we at least wait until Friday?!?!?
Dr.: (chuckles a little) Sure, we can do whatever you want to do.
Then the Dr. procedes to call the hospital and set us up for an induction on Friday morning at 6:00.
I don't know why the thought of tomorrow made me freak out just a little, I think it was just the reality finally hit me really quick...it was all kind of funny. I think Dr. Robinson thinks I am a little out of control, and he may be right. But I decided that if we are going to plan, let's at least plan for the weekend, so that it makes it easier for everyone to come up and see her :)
So, that is the plan! I'm sure that now that I have it in my head that she is coming on Friday, she will decide to change mommy's plans and come on Wednesday or something. But either way, regardless, we will be holding our new baby girl on Friday! Yay! Praise God!
Please continue to keep our family in your prayers and we hope that you will all come and see us!!
Also, we took one last picture of mommy's ginormous belly, see below: (and no laughing allowed!)