Say Wha?!

Can you believe this?!  Isn't it amazing??  And since you have no idea what I'm talking about.... it's Charlotte's 3 month mark!  Where in the world did that time go?  So much has changed in the past 3 months and yet it's still hard to believe we have a daughter.  Someone that depends solely on us taking care of her every whim.  It is amazing, exhausting, entertaining all rolled into one.  But first things first:

~How my life has changed~

Before:

Slept in till at least 8 or 9

Stayed up till midnight

Showered daily

Went out window shopping all day

Went out on dates with the hubby at night

Played around with photoshop for hours

Sewed any projects that came to mind

No cravings

Now:

Wake up at 6 daily

Go to bed no later than 10:30

Shower every other day more often than not

Plan ahead at least by a full day before going out shopping for an hour with the baby

Spend nap-times catching up online, with laundry, with dishes, and eating

Imagine lots of projects and have a stack of incomplete ones just waiting for their nap-time turn to be finished

Major sugar cravings

Sounds down right terrible eh?  There's a lot to say about this "after" life though.  I am much more productive as I have to plan ahead for almost anything.  I have a better body now than I did before thanks to waking up early and exercising till the baby wakes up.  And I don't waste water! ;) jk

~How Charlotte has changed~

Birth size:

8 lbs 8 oz

20.5" long

Current size:

15 lbs 6 oz

24.5" long

She sleeps from around 8 pm till around 8 am with one feed at midnight.  She also has about 3 naps of 1 1/2 hours each during the day.  She eats about 35 oz a day.  She smiles 90% of the time and giggles and talks a lot.  She loves bath time, but HATES getting out/dried/changed.  She can entertain herself for a good 30 minutes straight or watch a disney movie with us for about the same amount of time before it loses her undivided attention.  Going shopping, she'll just stare at her daddy the whole time.  I'm actually not too afraid of taking passport photos as she's so good at simply staring at anything and everything.

To show her size change, here's a picture we've randomly managed to take every month.

Month 1

 Month 2

Month 3

Month 4

 Some how she still can pin her daddy for her favorite spot. ;)

Now, imagine how you wake up in the morning or after a nap.  Groggy, grumpy, etc.?  Wouldn't it be a fun world if we all woke up like this?

Or laughed at such simple and silly things just like this?

I love this girl, and the guy is not so bad either. ;)  Now back to that pile of unfinished projects...

That is SO Last Decade

Time to show you how we ended the year!  Yeah, I realize this is super late, but I don't mind and I figure you won't either. :)  

Thanksgiving!!!

 

 I decided that I really did still want to celebrate Thanksgiving this (last) year, so even though I had a wee one, I did my best.  I sent Blake out for our bird, walked to the grocery store and then cooked all day.  Challenging with a 1 month old babe I can tell you that.  However, when all was said and done, it turned out pretty decent.  Blake and I even managed to eat that whole bird all by ourselves!  Impressed?  You should be...

The...

Huge....

Bird.....

Yeah baby.  Okay, so when he said it was a small chicken, I figured a relatively normal size and not turkey size.  However, turned out to be more like a cornish game hen size.  Still yummy though!  (doesn't look it, but it was I promise!)

The rest of the spread

Talk about a gigantic meal eh?  Well, there are two of us eating.  At least we have the pomegranate and apple pie right?

And this is me. (duh) The crazy lady who won't try this at home... again... with a tiny baby... on my own.

Next:

Baby Blessing!!!

We decided to bless our beautiful baby the first week of December.  We had some great friends come and support us as well as some of the family.  The bishop keeps making comments to us about how good she must be because she fell asleep right before her blessing and didn't wake up until just after.  Didn't make a noise at all!  My mom also made a beautiful dress for her.  Talk about talent. :)

Watching the rain on the way to church.

The great guys who came to help bless Charlotte.

Being so good at church.

The beautiful dress on the beautiful baby.

My favorite picture of all.

Christmas!!!

Last year I made a fun cake-like advent calendar that you can see here.  However, it was a pain to store and made a bit of a mess as we were counting down, so I made one that was very reminiscent of my family's old one with a new twist to it.

 So, as we count down the days (and turn around the bags), Merry Christmas appears.  Very little in the way of leaving a mess.  However, making each bag, cutting out the numbers and letters, creating christmas paper, pasting on the christmassy paper to show through the cut outs, etc. turns into a pretty time consuming project.  We didn't get to start opening them until about the 6th, but that's okay.  The great thing about it though, it can store in a pretty small package for next year!  Yay! 

We didn't take any pictures of post present unwrapping, but here is one I took Christmas morning prior to the unwrapping frenzy.

Although Charlotte only has 2 presents under our tree, she sure took the lot after visiting Nana and Grandad's and Great Nana and Grandad's.

And here's one of Charlotte in the outfit Nana bought for her, at Nana's.

Blake's Nana also took a family picture, so some day I'll have to get on her computer to steal a bunch that I know she has.  

As for New Year's....  Well, we took a nap till 11:55, woke up, drank some fizzy grape juice, watched the Sydney firework show, and went back to bed.  We.. are... awesome. :)

Hope you all had a great 2010!

One Month Ago

My baby is a month old today.  Whoa....  Now that time FLEW by.  Thankfully in some ways (especially the sleep department).  It's so fun to watch her grow every day and become more alert, understanding, etc.  Unfortunately it is so sad to see her outgrow some of the cute outfits that she wore right at first.  Then again, she never was a teeny tiny baby anyway.  Which, in a way, leads up to the topic of today.  Don't worry, it's long winded and full of details. ;)

Charlotte's Birth Story

If you aren't interested, scroll down to the bottom for the pictures.

Saturday morning, at 2 in the morning I might add, Charlotte decided to let me know that she was on her way to join in the craziness that is our family.  With contractions every 15 minutes, sleeping wasn't one of the easiest tasks, but luckily the pain wasn't too bad.  Blake had a phone interview at about 8 and a doctor's appointment at 8:30, so I figured I wanted him to be able to focus on them without being distracted, so although Mom was in on the secret, we didn't tell him till after he got back home.  However, I knew I wasn't going anywhere for a while, so not too much panic ensued. 

After a long day of trying to distract ourselves and make sure everything was ready, contractions got down to about every 4-6 minutes and we head to the hospital at about 9 pm.  They hooked me up to a monitor to see how Charlotte was dealing with the contractions.  I guess she thought it was a party as she kept on dancin and playin around inside.  They gave me a clicker for me to mark every time I felt her move, but shortly came back and told me that I shouldn't be pushing it so much.  Well, can I help it that she was moving that much?!  After what seemed like a good hour of this, they checked me and as I was only at 2-3cm, they had to send me home.  Awesome.  By this point there was a decent amount of pain, so they gave me a sleeping pill and a pain killer.  Talk about a trip!  I was definitely not able to walk on my own.  Weee.  

A couple hours later, again at about 2 am, we headed back to the hospital.  The midwife didn't want to check me in case she'd have to send me home again, so she just hooked up the laughing gas machine and left me to it.  Yup, you read right.  Laughing gas.  Not that it makes you laugh, but it does help make the time seem to go faster; which during a contraction is definitely a positive.  After another couple hours, she decided to check me and surprise, I was to 7-8.  She wouldn't have believed it from how I was acting, but I guess that's what comes from crappy periods....  

At 7 am, the midwives changed and the new one decided it was time to break my water as it hadn't yet.  After that the story changed.  I didn't want any pain relief other than the gas prior to that, but I jumped to a 10 almost immediately and it HURT!  Both Blake and I asked if there was anything I could have at that point, but she pushed back and said it wouldn't be long.  Definition of long when in labor must be different for the midwife than the woman with a baby!  However, it was true.  I started pushing at about 8:30 during which point you don't get any pain relief.  Shoot.  I even mentally stopped a few contractions because I didn't want to push *if you do this, the next one is just double the pain and length... dang it*.

Charlotte finally arrived at 9:18 am on Sunday morning.  A beautiful 8 lbs 8 oz, 20.5 in long, 14.5 in head, dark brown hair'd baby.  

After having her here in Australia with this healthcare system/type of care, I'm pretty interested to see how having a baby in the US will be different.  A few things that I found interesting that they do here are:

• The nurse was in scrubs, I was in a sexy hospital gown (not backless), but Blake was just in normal street clothes.
• It was just us, no doctors, and only a second midwife for about 1 minute to give me a shot to help with the afterbirth.
• Going natural is pushed pretty hard and you have to practically beg to be given an epidural.
• The baby is put straight onto mommy's stomach to try and breastfeed, then only wiped off when getting weighed.  No baths for at least 24 hours.
• You deliver in the birthing suite, then, after you shower and get dressed, you get moved to the maternity ward in a room with 4 beds.  (I was lucky as the others were all discharged from my room for the early evening till about midnight when another girl was brought in.)

After delivering such a ... healthy sized... baby all natural, I felt pretty good about myself.  Especially when I kept getting comments from the midwives about how I didn't look like I was dilated to a 10, or that I had just given birth, etc.  I'm one tough chick!  Now next time, GIVE ME AN EPIDURAL!!! :)  It was a good experience, but I don't think that I need to go through it again to help me bond more with my baby.

So there you have it folks.  And now we'll move on to the aforementioned pictures.  Hope you enjoy. :)

Really ready to have this baby!

The classic screaming while being weighed picture.

Such a loving new daddy.

Finally!  She can stretch out at home.

Posing before she's even 1 week!

1 week and first Halloween costume.

About 2 1/2 weeks old.

3 weeks

Today, staring out the window.  She loves doing that.  All 10.5 lbs of her. :)

Until next time.

It Is Time

Okay, so I admit to being a slacker on this; however, sleep generally outweighs posting...  But, I have finally taken pictures (thanks to some prodding) and can show you the finished product of our nursery!  Yay!  Made with love and care (and some blood, sweat, and tears), I present to you:

The Nursery Nook 

Any guesses to how much this would cost to buy everything?  Honestly...  I'm a little curious. :)  As for how much it cost me, let us guesstimate. 

Items with a Price Tag

Wood (board & letters) - $10

Frames - $8

Lamp - $20

Buttons - $7

Fabric (boxes, bassinette, pictures) - $60

Paint - $10

Cubby Shelves - $80

Bassinette mattress - $40

Items for Free

Cutting of letters and plastic for boxes - Love you Dad!

Bassinette frame - Thank you Jodi!

Sheets and quilt - Love you Mom!

Plastic to create boxes - Regional Supply, thank you for not wanting to run a cc for such a little amount!

Stuff - Thank you family and friends for filling up those cubbies!

Creative Ingenuity - Thank you for not running me dry while creating my masterpieces! ;)

Total Estimated Nursery Cost - $235 (give or take a little)  I love being cheap!

Sorry the pictures are fuzzy.  I took them with the lesser of our cameras and we get terrible lighting in the room.  And yes, I am making excuses for my lack of ability in that area!

And for a final couple pictures to get you by till next time.....

He said I couldn't put this on Facebook....  Never said a word about the blog. ;)

Thomas and Rachael - I used the money to get her this little dress.  She looks adorable in it!  Thanks!

P.S. I'm sorry if this comes across as a bit of a Thankimony....  Oops.

Finished!!!!

The biggest project that I took on for this little one is creating my very own diaper bag.  Crazy you say?  Well, so does my husband, mom, sisters, brain, etc.  However, I'm done and I'm rather proud of my achievement.  Wanna see a picture?  Well?  Do ya?

This is what I saw and decided to create:

Now I know this is a little extreme, so I did leave out things like the insulated side pockets...

But, from a pattern created by my imagination and Mom's skill set I put together this:

And since I don't want to carry around my purse at the same time, I made this:

Just big enough for all the necessities. :)

Talk about one BIG sigh of relief.  For around $15 (the hardware cost the most) I made a bag that retails at just over $100.  Awesome.

It's Official

I waddle.

And this time I'm okay with it!  Granted I'd still prefer people not pointing out that fact to me, but it is painfully obvious.  I figured once I hit the 30 week mark I would be okay with waddling.  At least you're far enough along by that point to be counting down and not up!  However, it is not from size that I waddle.  I still get pretty frequent comments from doctors/other pregnant women/people that have a clue about how women grow during pregnancy that I'm pretty tiny for how far along I am.  The rest...... yeah I get that in the past 2 weeks I must have grown maybe...... 2 inches or so.  Definitely huge. (slightly sarcastic tone)  The waddling instead comes from the fact that my back and hip muscles have decided to go on strike.  Gee thanks guys, leave it to me to figure out how to swing one leg in front of the other without your help.  :P  I hate to admit it, but besides being super excited to meet my absolutely gorgeous little one, I can't wait to have my body back!!!  But anyway, enough of the moanings and groanings (other than when I try moving off this couch) and on to a picture!  I know it's been a while, but here goes.

33 weeks

 and no, I can't see my feet anymore

By the way, the nursery is coming along quite nicely!  However I failed to take before pictures, so you'll just get hit with the After's once it's all done.

Busy Busy Busy

I have been extremely slack with this blog lately, so to catch everyone up and share a few pictures (some day I'll share more), here is 'Jess & Blake in a minute':

July 7-23rd, Jess was in the US!!!
Had a great time with family and friends, but missed Blake a lot.  While I was gone, he kept busy with work, but had time for a few house chores as well.  Since he was such a good husband, I had to bring him presents.

Charli and me at Grandma's

Blake replacing front screen door!

Blake's presents (he was VERY happy)

While at home I had a great time with almost my whole family (sorry we missed you Jen & fam!!!) up in Idaho, then an all too short time in Logan with friends (pictures will come eventually), a fun lunch with some ol' work buddies, a baby shower with the high school girls, and lots of fabric shopping with Mom.  Not enough time or pictures to do the trip justice, but it was Great!

August's Fun and Games:

New dishwasher and a Babymoon!  You don't need pictures of our dishwasher, but anyone have any ideas for the box?  The little kid (not Charli) inside of me is going nuts with trying to come up with a fun way to use it...  As for the Babymoon, it was a much needed break!  Blake hasn't had a good break since we got married, so it was fun to have that as a good getaway before this baby comes.  Plus having him work for a hotel promotions company makes the monetary issue much less painful (and we got VIP treatment...)!

The room and view

Definitely buying a tub like this some day!

It was a bit on the rainy side, but we still had fun out playin.

The beach.....

Yup, all to ourselves!

It was an almost perfect trip!  Other than the rain and chilly weather, we had some great meals, fun shopping, lots of relaxing, and even got lost on our way back home.  A trip just isn't a trip unless you get lost at least once!  Now back to work and nesting till the little one comes...

More pictures are on the picture tab or on Facebook if'n you're interested. :)