Another One Bites the Dust

Well, not actually, but close...when we were pregnant with Timothy, our old computer crashed and we had to buy a completely new one. Now, days away from Charlotte's first month birthday, this computer is slowly starting to die as well. Something happened to it over the weekend and it stopped working, Brandon got it to work tonight (finally) and I'm going to list it on Craigslist and see if we get any bites and then hopefully use the money we get to buy a new laptop. We've wanted a laptop for a while so I'm pretty excited about that (really, I'm just excited because it means we can move the desk into our bedroom and turn the "office" into a play room for the kids).

Not much else going on here, Charlotte is growing like crazy, every day she seems like she's getting bigger and filling out more, especially her face, she officially has three chins now. She doesn't even eat that much and it seems like she spits it all back up, but I guess she's keeping some of it in! She is such a different baby from Timothy. He was so easy going and content and hardly ever cried and she is much more high maintenance. She is also much more easily affected by things that I eat that don't agree with her. My diet right now consists of mainly turkey sandwiches, Special K cereal, cheeseburgers, chicken, animal crackers and not much else. It's a little annoying, but I'm sure she'll grow out of it once her stomach matures a little more. She's sleeping great though, I usually put her down around 8 or 9 and she wakes up around 2 or 3 and then goes back down again (some nights are better than others) and wakes up around 6 or so. She's starting to coo a little and I swear she smiled at me today, but no one was around to see it...oh well.

Timothy is growing like crazy as well...he's really starting to copy Brandon and I a lot. The other day I was sitting on the couch feeding Charlotte and he was watching Lion King (his new favorite) and he turned around and said, "you ok back there?", it was funny. His other favorites when he's upset now are "that's enough", "there we go", "look at me", "you hear me?", and I'm sure there are more that I'm forgetting...bottom line - we really have to watch what we say around him! He has also become very polite though, he'll say please and thank you and yes sir and no sir...we're still working on ma'am, but it's the thought that counts!

Anyway, here are some new pictures, we went to Tyler's soccer game this past weekend so Timothy had a blast playing on the field and it's been warm so I'm trying to dress Charlotte in all her "warm weather clothes" before she outgrows them and it gets too cold to wear them. Hopefully our computer will hang in there long enough for me to keep posting until we can sell it! If you know anyone that needs a computer, tell them to get in touch with us!

New Pictures

She's going to wake up any minute now and need to eat so here's some new pictures and I'll write more later...

Two Weeks Down...Lifetime to Go...

I can't believe it's already been over two weeks since Charlotte came into our family. Really, we've adjusted pretty well...even Timothy, he's really done well with his new little sister. He still ignores her most of the time, but when he does pay her any attention, it's always to hug her or kiss her or pat her cheek. Thankfully, she's sleeping really well at night and eating really well so we haven't had any problems to stress us out!

We had her two week check up this afternoon. I know I've mentioned it before, but our pediatrician's office does a parenting class with all the well child check ups so we were there for two hours, but it was great. The main doctor teaches the two week class and he's such a nice guy. I went to all the classes when Timothy was a baby, so it's not like it's new information, but it's been two and a half years almost since we had a two week old baby in our house, so it's a nice refresher! Anyway, she has been growing like crazy...she checked in today at 8 pounds, 15 ounces and 21 1/2 inches!!! She beat Timothy's two week growth by quite a bit! Other than growing like a weed, the doc said everything looked great and she seems to be doing really well. Thank the Lord for healthy babies!

Not much else going on here, last Friday we took Timothy to get a hair cut and then (finally) to have his two year pictures made. He was so funny during the hair cut, every time she would snip his hair he would say, "there we go"...he did not really want to cooperate for his pictures, but we got a couple cute ones. We attempted grocery shopping as a family of four and quickly decided that in the future I'll take Charlotte and we'll go by ourselves :)

So here are some of the newest pictures of our kiddos...Charlotte meeting her cousin Tyler and pictures of life around our house...enjoy!

Our Little Miracle

So I've been meaning to get on here for a while now (ummm...like a week, haha) but as you can imagine, life at our house has been a little crazy! So here it is, Charlotte's story:

I had gone to the doctor the Friday before she was born and she told me I was (finally) dilated about 1.5 cm so we went ahead and scheduled an induction for Wednesday the 20th. She warned me that that weekend was a full moon though so I might come in sooner. I blew that off and Timothy and I spent all of Saturday doing his favorite things since I knew at that point that that would be our last weekend as a family of three. We had orange rolls for breakfast and we played outside and went to the mall (he loves the kids play area there) and then we went down to the Tacoma waterfront and he threw rocks in the water and that night we took him to Chuck E Cheese for dinner. He had a blast.

That night, we had a huge thunderstorm, which is really really rare for Washington, so I was up all night waiting for Timothy to wake up and be scared and I noticed that Charlotte was being unusually active as well. Then, about 5:30 that morning, my water broke. I called Labor and Delivery at the hospital and they told us to come on in so of course, I took a shower and shaved my legs while Brandon packed up the car and we waited for my parents to come over to stay with Timothy. I'm told he was very happy to see Grammy and Grumpy and Tyler when he woke up and I don't think it bothered him one bit that mommy and daddy weren't there.

Meanwhile, at the hospital, they checked me said I was still only at 1.5 and only 30% and the baby was a -3 so I knew we were in for a long day. They unhooked me from all the monitors and told us to go walk around the hospital for an hour and come back. We did that twice and finally I was so tired from being up all night and walking for two hours that I had to lay down. They moved us into a room and we were there for the next almost 12 hours. I did everything I could to make that baby drop, I walked, rocked, bounced, prayed...you name it, I tried it! They started me on pitocin around noon and by 4:30 I was begging for an epidural...they got it in around 5:00 and it helped for all of maybe half an hour...by the time my mom got there I was in some serious pain and ready to push...I don't know how long I pushed for, but thankfully she came quickly and before I knew it she was laying on my belly and I finally got to see my baby girl.

I have to say...Brandon and my mom handled it extremely well...I had never been in so much pain and I know it was scary for them and they were so great, I couldn't ask for better coaches!! That room was so crowded (we had my doctor, two residents, two nurses and then the three of us) and everyone in there was so supportive and helpful - except one nurse that kind of freaked out for a minute when she couldn't find Charlotte's heartbeat, but I was thinking, hello...she's on her way out, you're checking for a heartbeat too high up!! My prayers were truly answered though and I am so blessed to have this little girl.

Life at our house has been pretty fun, we spent the first couple days going to see the pediatrician and the lactation nurse and we made a trip to Target. We went to church Sunday morning and everyone there was happy to see her. Timothy is adjusting surprisingly well...he pretty much ignores her, but every now and then he wants to "touch it" but he's very gentle with her. Brandon has been great about spending time with him playing baseball and walking with him while he rides his bike.

Charlotte is doing great, she's a good sleeper so far and she's eating great. She's so funny, she makes the funniest faces and she's just so darn cute I can barely stop looking at her. I still don't know who she looks like, but I'm sure once she fills out a little more we'll be able to tell more. She has the skinniest legs and ankles I can't keep any socks on her feet, but she's so long, she actually fills out a couple outfits...she is pretty fun to dress up though, I wish it would warm up a little more here though, she has so many cute little dresses and short sleeved outfits, I don't know if she'll be able to wear them all before it really gets cool.

I'm doing just fine too, still sore and all, but not too bad. Timothy is going to daycare three days a week so I'm getting plenty of time to rest. It feels weird not going to work, but trust me, I'm ok with it :) And my mom has been so great bringing us meals and taking Timothy to church last Wednesday night, it's been such a huge help. She took care of him while we stayed in the hospital and I think Timothy has grown quite attached to his Grammy now! My parents brought him to see us last Monday night after they had dinner and when it was time for them to go he just grabbed their hands and said, "my Grammy, my Grumpy...bye bye!!"

Anyway, I'm sure there's much more I'm leaving out that I'll want to remember someday, but I'll just have to blog about it later...here's some new pictures!

Brandon said she looks like "such a girl" in this picture

Heading out to see the pediatrician

Timothy and my mom hung some balloons outside our house and he kept one inside to play with...this is him hitting it in the air and watching to see where it will land

The car seat head slump...I've tried everything to fix it...nothing's working yet

First sponge bath

I love it how they sleep all curled up like a little ball...but I can't believe that something that big was inside of me just barely a week ago!

Waving hello...isn't she cute?


Sleeping in the bouncer



This is what happens when boys play too hard and skip their naps...they fall asleep right before dinner (and then Timothy decided to sleep at the dinner table as well)


She makes this face a lot, I think it's so funny!

Pretty girl all dressed up for church...this is the chair we used to take pictures of Timothy in each month to see how much he had grown his first year so now it's been changed to pink and we'll see how Charlotte grows!

Our children...such sweet blessings!

She's Here!!

I'll elaborate on the details later, we just got home from the hospital and Brandon's gone to the pharmacy to get my pain meds so I'm just going to post the stats and of course...the pictures! Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes, she is a beautiful baby girl!!

Charlotte Dyanne York, born Sunday August 17, 2008 at 6:41 p.m. weight 7 lbs. 8 oz., 20 inches long and a headful of beautiful dark hair!!

On Strike

For those of you who were wondering, no, I have not been in the hospital and the explanation for my lack of blogging lately is that I've decided I'm on strike until Charlotte is born...so that does mean that the next post you see will have baby pictures...it just might be a while. Thank you to those of you who have emailed to say you're thinking of us...I promise I'll get pictures on here as soon as possible, just be patient :) and yes, I'm talking to myself there :)

The Kids' Rooms

Here they are...the long awaited (yeah right) pictures of Timothy and Charlotte's rooms. I also threw in one of Timothy on his bike because he just recently learned how to pedal it by himself and one of Charlotte's bassinet that my mom and dad re-finished for us. And any compliments on their rooms goes straight to Brandon and my dad, they really did all the work!