Little Charlotte Leigh

She's finally here!  Well, as of 2 1/2 weeks ago :)  She is such a PERFECT baby!  Can I just say that she is already on a napping schedule and she only wakes up once in the night???  Yes, it is amazing!  Thank goodness!!!  She has the most kissable little face and the softest skin--she always smells wonderful and I just want to hold her all the time :)  She squeaks when she sleeps and she always has the hiccups when she's awake.  She's learning how to smile right now, hold her head up and loves to roll over on her side when we lay her on her back.  She has definitely inherited that Horst "freakish" strength (thanks to my Polish side of the family...)


Aren't these pictures the best?  My friend Emilie took them at our house when she was only 4 days old.  My mom made that blessing dress--it's pretty much amazing.  I'll put up more detailed pictures later.


And yes, she was just a little bit jaundiced at the time--she even had to sleep on one of those horrid bili-beds for a couple of nights.  Poor girl!  She's much better now.





Charlotte was born on April 9th at 7:46 p.m.  I had the best labor with her!  I thought my water had broken the night before, but it was hard to tell...mine had never broken on its own before.  I went to bed that night with some contractions and woke up at 4 with moderate contractions about 7-8 minutes apart.  So, we made arrangements to have my sister come over and watch the kids and then went over to the hospital.  I knew my contractions weren't super close together yet, but at this point I was pretty sure my water had broken.  We went in and were discharged two hours later :)  I guess I was just a little anxious!  They said they didn't think my water had broken and suggested that I go home and wait since I was only at a three.  So, that's what we did.  (upon arriving at home, Bridger and Kennedy were extremely disappointed that we didn't have a baby with us!  "Hey! Where's the baby?"  Bridger said.)

I had a Dr. appointment scheduled for that day anyway--at 11:00, so we went to that and I hadn't made any more progress (at least according to my Dr., I was pretty sure things were progressing...)  We ran a few errands, ate lunch at Jeremy's parents and then drove back home (can I just say that speed bumps are horrible when you're having a contraction???)

Once home, I tried to take a nap, then took a very long bath (like 2 1/2 hours long!) while watching Ellen and Oprah--two shows that I never get to watch--it was kind of nice, actually.  The water was sooo helpful, since my contractions were getting stronger and stronger and closer together.  I started timing them now and for two hours they were 1.5 minutes long every 3 minutes.  With that kind of proof, I knew we better head over to the hospital! 

Jeremy's dad quickly came and picked up the kids and we got to the hospital by 6:30 that evening.  I was trying to act nonchalant throughout my contractions as we 'casually' walked through the hospital, talked to the nurses and then went to my room.  I think they were a little surprised to see that I was almost at an 8!  I was a little surprised too :)

I kindly informed then that they only had 2 minute intervals to do what they needed to do, because I would be unavailable during a contraction.  Is two minutes enough time to draw blood and insert an IV??  You would think so, but apparently I was a little dehydrated and it took about 5 minutes to get a needle into a vein.  That was torture.  I hate it when they wiggle that needle while it's in your arm!!!  Uggh!!

After that fiasco was over I let them know that they should get the dr., since I could feel the baby moving down (after two natural births, I had never felt that before!  It was awesome--I think it's because I didn't need pitocin this time.  And it was soooo much better without pitocin.  That stuff is the devil.) 

Well, they couldn't get my doctor there in time, so I had to use the on-call one--and thankfully she was awesome!  An hour and twenty minutes after arriving at the hospital, Charlotte was born  It would have been documented as the best labor in history, if she wouldn't have been born "sunny side up" that made it a little difficult....okay...very difficult!  That would explain my back labor....  But, she's gorgeous and healthy and here and that makes it all worth it!




When the kids met Charlotte for the first time, Kennedy instantly burst into baby talk and wanted to kiss her all over and rub her head and touch her eyes...we've since had talks about that...  Bridger was very quiet and he looked like he was going to cry for a few minutes!  I will always wonder what he was thinking--he is such a thinker.  After a while he wanted to hold her and he has been a great helper ever since.  I think he's even learned some baby talk from Kennedy :)

Yes, the blown up latex gloves are always a big hit....thank you Jeremy :)



Here I am with Kennedy's baby (we have all been informed--and when I say 'we', I mean everyone:  Doctors, grandma's, friends, strangers... that this is "actually her baby".  Over the past couple of weeks, I have convinced her that we can share.  Although I think she only agrees to that so I will stop bugging her about it !)










Such a sweetie!  Oh, and p.s.--my water had broken.  It's just good to know I was right :)