Wednesday, May 7, 2008
One Month Later ...
This time last month, I was recovering from childbirth!! It has been a whirlwind month, but I could not be happier with the birth of our son. He is an absoulte joy and I love being home with him and watching him grow. He has changed so much already!! Next to marrying Eric, this is the best thing I have done in my life. We are so very blessed to have Charlie in our life ... I could not imagine life without him now that he is here.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Even More Pictures of Charlie!!
I am sure you are probably getting tired of the pictures, but I have even more for you!! We had a lady come in last week when Charlie got home to take some pictures of him. She has put them to a slide show .... you can see it here. Once the page comes up, scroll down until you see this picture. It will say "Charlie-Newborn." As you read her comments, click on SLIDESHOW to see the whole show ....
Sunday, May 4, 2008
New Pictures of Charlie ...
Tiny Little Toes ... Sleepy Head!
These shoes were a gift from our friends, Steve and Cindy Doty. Cindy works with my mom at Washington Community High School back in IL. How adorable are these? They are tiny, but they are no where close to being small enough for Charlie (we tried to get a picture with them on his feet, but he couldn't keep them on). They are great little keepsakes to remember his birth! Thank you Steve and Cindy!!
He has not slept in his crib as we are keeping him in our room for the time being. With him arriving so early and being so small, it just gives me peace of mind to know that he is ok. Once he gets a little bigger, we will move him upstairs to his room. His nursery is all ready though.
THE END!!
These pictures were taken by my sister, Theresa.
She came out this weekend to meet Charlie for the first time. She loves photography!!
I have two CDs full of them, these are some of my favorites though ...
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Taking Time Off!!
Today was the last day that Eric would be staying home with Charlie and I. Eric took almost a week off from work when Charlie was born as we were both still in the hospital and there was ALOT going on with us both. He has taken the last three days off as well since we were able to bring Charlie home finally. He will be heading back to work tomorrow as Charlie is doing great and we have gotten alot of stuff done the past few days. With Charlie being on a pretty solid schedule now, we are doing really good. We are going to save his remaining days off for later in the summer as we would like to take a few trips.
I, on the other hand, will be staying home with Charlie for the next long while. After talking with my head coach (and looking at the extensive vacation/maternity time that I have), I am going to be taking a good deal of time off until August. I will be working from home like I did while on bedrest and still running our summer camps in June and July, but will do the majority of work from home. Because Charlie was nearly 2 months early, we do not want to put him in daycare until he is good and ready. Therefore, we decided that we are going to hold off until August as that is when he would have started had we gone full term with the pregnancy. I can honestly say that I am looking forward to being home with him. I feel really good so I can get up and do things and work while he is sleeping (which is almost ALWAYS). It will not be like when I was on bedrest and I had to stay on may back all day/night long.
Today, we had a photographer come over and take some pictures of us all ... mainly Charlie though. While we have gotten much better with taking pictures, I just wanted to make sure that we had photos to remember this experience by when Charlie is older. So, this photographer (Rebecca) will be coming every 3 months this first year and taking pictures of Charlie and our family. She was great and I can't wait to see the pictures. I will make sure and post the link on here so that you all can see the results. I got to see a few of the shots on her camera that she took of Charlie and I am so excited as they were great. Charlie did really good. He was awake for almost the entire hour and only spit up a few times!!
I, on the other hand, will be staying home with Charlie for the next long while. After talking with my head coach (and looking at the extensive vacation/maternity time that I have), I am going to be taking a good deal of time off until August. I will be working from home like I did while on bedrest and still running our summer camps in June and July, but will do the majority of work from home. Because Charlie was nearly 2 months early, we do not want to put him in daycare until he is good and ready. Therefore, we decided that we are going to hold off until August as that is when he would have started had we gone full term with the pregnancy. I can honestly say that I am looking forward to being home with him. I feel really good so I can get up and do things and work while he is sleeping (which is almost ALWAYS). It will not be like when I was on bedrest and I had to stay on may back all day/night long.
Today, we had a photographer come over and take some pictures of us all ... mainly Charlie though. While we have gotten much better with taking pictures, I just wanted to make sure that we had photos to remember this experience by when Charlie is older. So, this photographer (Rebecca) will be coming every 3 months this first year and taking pictures of Charlie and our family. She was great and I can't wait to see the pictures. I will make sure and post the link on here so that you all can see the results. I got to see a few of the shots on her camera that she took of Charlie and I am so excited as they were great. Charlie did really good. He was awake for almost the entire hour and only spit up a few times!!
Monday, April 28, 2008
First Bath at Home ...
Charlie got his first bath at home tonight. We had to do a sponge bath with him since he is still recovering from his "boy surgery." It is harder than it looks. Trying to wash him and keep him warm at the same time (all while not dropping him in the sink!!) But, we succeeded and he is clean. After a nice, warm bottle, he is fast asleep in Eric's arms. Let's hope that he stays that way through the night!!
By the way, Charlie is 3 weeks old today!! Hard to believe as he isn't even supposed to be here for another month!! We are enjoyeing every minute of it!!
Welcome Home Charlie!!
Charlie is HOME!!! Eric and I were able to bring Charlie home on Saturday afternoon. We were supposed to be out of the hospital around noon on Saturday, but because the doctors were taking a little longer than necessary to make their rounds so it was later in the day before we got to escape. Eric was becoming very annoyed with the whole situation as he was ready to go. I, on the other hand, was fine as I knew that we were so close to our leaving ... I was just happy to be getting him out of the NICU.
Things have been going great. Because he is three weeks old, it has almost been easier I think because he is already on a "schedule." I guess we are lucky .... we'll see how long it lasts!! He is pretty much asleep all day/night, but wakes every three hours to eat. He is taking nearly 2 ozs of food now each time he eats so he is doing great. We have had to wake him a few times to eat, but usually wakes 10-15 minutes before he is supposed to eat. Just enough time to get him up and change him so that he can go right back to sleep after he finishes eating.
Most of the time he falls right back to sleep after he eats, but he decided to stay awake this morning after his 5 am feeding. I was up with him so of course I took advantage of him being awake to cuddle for awhile. Of course, he fell right to sleep when I laid him on my chest (guess it was the heartbeat), but as soon as I tried to move him to his bed, those eyes were WIDE open.
Things are great though!! We ventured out yesterday as the team was getting together for lunch and then we made a dash to Wal-Mart to grab a few "needs." He did great though!!
Eric is going to be staying home a few days this week to help me out with him. He is pretty easy right now to care for, but it is nice to get a little bit of sleep. After the long days in the NICU with Charlie, I could use a few naps to "catch up." We are also going to take advantage of the time and get things done around the house. Eric is going to do some yard work and I am going to finish going through Charlie's stuff and getting things organized. We will both be doing some DEEP cleaning as we have not done much with the house over the past month!!
Things have been going great. Because he is three weeks old, it has almost been easier I think because he is already on a "schedule." I guess we are lucky .... we'll see how long it lasts!! He is pretty much asleep all day/night, but wakes every three hours to eat. He is taking nearly 2 ozs of food now each time he eats so he is doing great. We have had to wake him a few times to eat, but usually wakes 10-15 minutes before he is supposed to eat. Just enough time to get him up and change him so that he can go right back to sleep after he finishes eating.
Most of the time he falls right back to sleep after he eats, but he decided to stay awake this morning after his 5 am feeding. I was up with him so of course I took advantage of him being awake to cuddle for awhile. Of course, he fell right to sleep when I laid him on my chest (guess it was the heartbeat), but as soon as I tried to move him to his bed, those eyes were WIDE open.
Things are great though!! We ventured out yesterday as the team was getting together for lunch and then we made a dash to Wal-Mart to grab a few "needs." He did great though!!
Eric is going to be staying home a few days this week to help me out with him. He is pretty easy right now to care for, but it is nice to get a little bit of sleep. After the long days in the NICU with Charlie, I could use a few naps to "catch up." We are also going to take advantage of the time and get things done around the house. Eric is going to do some yard work and I am going to finish going through Charlie's stuff and getting things organized. We will both be doing some DEEP cleaning as we have not done much with the house over the past month!!
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Charlie is coming HOME!!!!!
I am afraid to even post this with fears we might be jinxing ourselves, but Charlie is coming home!!!!! We talked with the doctors this morning and according to them he "is ahead of the curve." They don't usually let babies go home from the NICU until late in the 36th week (or later), but Charlie is doing great so the plan is for him to be discharged on Saturday morning. They have "no reason" to keep him!!
They removed the feeding tube from his nose this morning after going 36 hours with no tube feeds. He is doing great and has not had a spell in over a week. They will be watching him tonight and tomorrow to ensure that he is ok. He will also be going through some additional testing throughout the night and morning. He will be having some minor "boy" surgery in the morning as well.
Eric and I will be spending the night in the hospital tomorrow with him. They call it "rooming in." Since we never had the opportunity to have him in my room after the birth (like normal deliveries), they want to give us the chance to be with him and be alone while still having immediate help if needed. We will basically be hanging out all night with him and just getting used to be in charge of him.
Please, please, please keep us in your prayers over the next few days. As you can imagine, we are so excited to finally be getting him home, but this is also a very scary time for us as we are bringing a baby home that was not supposed to be here for another 5 weeks. We have been very blessed that he is healthy and doing as good as he has been ... we have learned over the past few weeks how very lucky we are for both of to be here and healthy!!
They removed the feeding tube from his nose this morning after going 36 hours with no tube feeds. He is doing great and has not had a spell in over a week. They will be watching him tonight and tomorrow to ensure that he is ok. He will also be going through some additional testing throughout the night and morning. He will be having some minor "boy" surgery in the morning as well.
Eric and I will be spending the night in the hospital tomorrow with him. They call it "rooming in." Since we never had the opportunity to have him in my room after the birth (like normal deliveries), they want to give us the chance to be with him and be alone while still having immediate help if needed. We will basically be hanging out all night with him and just getting used to be in charge of him.
Please, please, please keep us in your prayers over the next few days. As you can imagine, we are so excited to finally be getting him home, but this is also a very scary time for us as we are bringing a baby home that was not supposed to be here for another 5 weeks. We have been very blessed that he is healthy and doing as good as he has been ... we have learned over the past few weeks how very lucky we are for both of to be here and healthy!!
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