The many faces of Charlize

My little family

Yes, we are still alive and kicking. Although at times it doesn't feel like it! Sleep deprivation has hit and hit hard. My short term memory is non-existent and I can no longer do simple math. But Charlie is such a blessing.

The past week we were fortunate to have my mom come up to help us out. Wade went back to work so it would have just been me and Charlie and I seriously don't think I would have made it through Monday! I've had some serious issues with breastfeeding/pumping. I'm now on round 2 of antibiotics for mastitis and have decided to slowly wean off of pumping. All these issues were greatly interfering with my enjoyment of Charlie and I decided to hell with it. I always said I would breastfeed if possible and well, I've decided all this trouble is not worth it to me. I want to be able to hold and enjoy Charlie without worrying about another 100.4 degree fever and chills or terribly painful tatas or clogged milk ducts!

Anyway, enough about my boobs. My mom was my savior during the week. With my mastitis and c-section soreness I couldn't have done it without her. And she got in a lot of quality bonding time with Charlie. So thank you Mom from the bottom of my heart. Not only did you help me with Charlie but you also helped to make sure our house didn't look like a tornado tore through it! And Wade and I even got a date night out thanks to you! I love you!

This week we are lucky to have my MIL, Becky, joining in on the fun. So grateful for all the help we are getting. And thankful that the grandmas get to spend some quality time with Charlie.

Now, onto Charlie. She is doing great! We've found that she likes to sleep on her side and will turn herself onto her side if we place her on her back. She loves to be outside, loves the swing and her playmat and we've already gotten a few smiles out of her. Her nasty umbilical cord stump finally fell off when she was 2 weeks old. She likes bathtime. She hates the cold wet wipes on her bottom (who can blame her?) She makes weird faces when she farts and she belches like an old man (such a lady). She makes cute little goat noises and sometimes pants in her sleep. She also likes to eat. A lot. And after she is done eating she looks drunk. We call it milk drunk. The only time she fusses is if her bottle isn't ready when she wants it and then she will not be afraid to let you know how displeased she is. Other than that she is a fairly easy and content little girl. She will be perfectly happy just looking at you or around the room and cooing and making adorable little faces. Which leads me to these pictures. She has many beautiful faces and also tons of funny ones. I'm totally smitten. Oh and her hair is off the hook hilarious! Enjoy!

Holy shit that was some good milk.

Hmmm... let me ponder that.

Play mat play time!

Blue Steel (from Zoolander)

Thank you, thank you very much.

Stink face

Milk Drunk

Huh?

What a wild week it's been

I can't believe our little Charlie cracker is already over a week old now! The week has gone by very fast yet very slow at the same time. We've definitely had our challenges but this girl is totally worth it. She has stolen our hearts.

So far she has been an exceptional eater. She eats anywhere from 2 1/2 to 4 ounces each feeding and has already gotten back up to her birth weight which her pediatrician was incredibly impressed with. Eating all this delicious milk makes her sleepy so she sleeps pretty well after a nice meal which gives us about a 3 hour time frame of her passed out. I had some pretty bad issues with breastfeeding and developed mastitis in one of my now HUMONGOUS tatas. Seriously these bad girls have grown out of this league. Anyway, due to my mastitis I am now on antibiotics and have moved from breastfeeding to pumping. It is working well for the most part and we've kind of gotten a little bit of a schedule down. To be honest even though she sleeps quite a bit we still don't have a lot of free time which is why it's taken me this long to blog! All our free time is spent doing shitty/pissy/spit up laundry, trying to keep up on the shit ton of dishes/bottles/pump parts, housework and trying to slip in some food for ourselves in between. With all of this it is amazing how fast the day flies by. I have to say to my single mama friends that I am in AWE of you and how you could do this on your own. This is tough enough w/ an extremely supportive husband. I couldn't imagine trying to handle this on my own.

Wade has been my rock through all of this, as I knew he would be. Through a few hormonal melt downs he has been there by my side and being nothing but supportive and positive. He is truly more than I could ever ask for. Charlie sure is lucky to have such a wonderful Daddy.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll have more to tell but I want to post some pics of Charlie. We think she is gorgeous and I know we are biased, but I don't care. She's the most beautiful thing I've ever laid eyes on.

Wade all suited up to go into the OR

Our 1st Family Photo

Our new little family

Charlie showing off her new bow

Ready to ditch the hospital & head home

Once my schedule gets a little more settled I'll hopefully be back around to visit your blogs again! I miss you guys and just know that I'm a little preoccupied at the moment but will be back.

xoxo~

How Nugget became Charlize!

Hey everybody, Wade here blogging on behalf of my super-human wife Kellie. I thought I would tell you all the story of our new baby.


Wednesday: Wednesday night we had our last dinner out as a family of two at Friday's. Yeah, we really wanted to splurge on our last night :). After that we headed to the hospital to start the inducing process. We settled into a nice big room and Kel got a dose of medicine to begin the process. We kicked back and spent the evening watching The Big Lebowski and Its Always Sunny in Philadephia Seasons 1 and 2 on DVD. We may have made a fan out of one of the nurses.


Thursday: Thursday morning the doctor came in and broke her water which was a bit of challenge but put us on the official path to meeting our daughter! They started pitocin shortly after in a drip and we played the waiting game. After 5.5 hours of labor Kel recieved an epidural. I attempted to keep her mind off of the pains with a series of bad jokes, schtick and slapstick humor. I don't think it was very effective. The epidural made her body twitch and shake. I kept flicking water on her and yelling, "The power of Christ compels you". Throughout the day nurses were constantly checking on Kel to track her progress. Finally after 15 hours of labor the doctor decided the progress was not fast enough and Kel would need a C-section.


Friday (12am): Things started to move real fast then. The anethtisiologist showed up shortly after and added some additional pain medication. I gathered our things to be transfered to the recovery room, grabbed a camera and put on my scrubs. Its a shame I didn't have them earlier. They could have really added to my comedy routine during the day. I waited for about 10 minutes in my scrubs while Kel was prepped for surgery. That was the longest 10 minutes of my life. I walked into the operating room and Kel was laid down and ready for the C-section. I stood by her head and stroked her hair while I watched the operation. Within 5 minutes they pulled our daughter out. I was able to go to her right away while the nurses cleaned her and did the apgar. I noticed right away our little girl had a ton of black hair. The funny part was it was all around the sides and back. She looked like Danny Devito, ha! The nurses were cracking up. The second thing we noticed is she has a huge pouty lip. I showed our baby to Kel then went with her to the recovery room for measurements while they closed Kellie up. Kel joined us moments later and got to properly introduce herself to baby. Charlize (Charlie) Ann Wessels was born on Friday, August 6th, 2010 at 1:38am. She was 7lbs. 13oz. and 21 inches long. She was very alert and starred at Kellie and I with a combination of docile and grumpy eyes. They could cut glass I swear. World meet Charlie!

Nugget will be here tomorrow (hopefully)

Quick update from the doctor appointment yesterday. Men, this may go into the TMI category so you may want to stop reading here...

Basically after the doc did way too much digging around for my comfort he informed us that there is not too much happening and was not hopeful in regards to me going into labor on my own so we are scheduled to go in tonight to have cervidil applied to "ripen" my cervix. This drug is supposed to thin out my cervix so that when we begin the induction process it is easier and makes things faster. That is what is on the books for tonight, then bright and early tomorrow assuming the cervidil does it's work the doctor will break my water and start me on pitocin. This will bring on contractions and get labor on it's way. So if all goes as planned we could have Nugget here tomorrow or early Friday sometime.

Keep your fingers crossed for me. I am terrified of a LONG labor. I'm not necessarily terrified of the pain though b/c I completely plan on having an epidural the second I can. I am not afraid to ask for pain meds. I'm a wuss.

We'll hopefully be able to update as things progress. I think the hospital has Wi-Fi so you may even be hearing directly from Wade for the very first time ever! We'll see how things go!

xoxo~

Somebody wake me up when I have this baby

Still no baby. We see the doc today at 2:45 and there is a possibility of them admitting me and inducing me however that is only if things are “favorable”. (Who the hell knows what that means) If not then I will be induced Thursday (at the latest) if she doesn’t come on her own which at this point I’m pretty certain she is the most stubborn baby ever and does not want to leave the comfy confines of my ute. So she’s late and stubborn like me and hyperactive like Wade. Great. :)

Also, I was a bad wife and totally spaced on posting a note here to my wonderful hubs for him to have a Happy Golden Birthday on Saturday! He turned 31 on July 31st. Don’t worry, I didn’t forget to tell him in person but I usually like to shout it out to the interwebs too. Since I couldn’t give him what he really wanted on his birthday (a baby!) we went to go see ‘Inception’ with Bob and Amy and then went to Coopers for some drinks afterwards. A pretty tame birthday but Wade said he had fun. And the movie was spectacular! It seriously was a great big mind fuck of a movie, but boy what a good fuck it was! I highly suggest seeing it.

Just for me to be able to look back on I thought I’d post some stats on my pregnancy.

Waist size – 40.5 inches (It looks like I swallowed a beach ball. For reals.)

Weight gained – 38 pounds (3 more than the max suggested. Oops. Ben & Jerry’s be damned.)

Weeks along – So far 40 weeks and 5 days. Ugh.

Things I miss the most – beer, wine, liquor, sleeping on my stomach, normal sex (wait, just sex in general b/c it’s non-existent at this point), my wedding ring, my high heels, non-maternity clothing, my small boobs, my ankles, my social life, sleep, my chin… Those are just off the top of my head. I’m sure I could think up tons more.

Still no stretch marks, knock on wood. But I was recently told that these little suckers can sometimes show up AFTER birth. What the hell? Mother Nature would never be so cruel to me to make me go overdue with none just to have them show up after I have Nugget. Right? Please? Pretty please?

So Nugget turned from a July baby to an August baby. Her birthstone is now the peridot but she’ll still be a Leo. I’m happy about that.

Hugs~