BOO!

Happy Halloween!

Charlotte's first Halloween sure was a success!  I am not the biggest Halloween fan and with the craziness of my work and Brian's school we hadn't really done anything festive.  So on Halloween morning, we dressed Charlotte up in her little outfit and took her to the pumpkin patch! The good thing about going on Halloween was there was NO ONE there! We basically had the whole patch to ourselves.  

We first stuck her in the Corn Pit...
(yeah... she wasn't so sure about this part...I'm just glad she didn't try eating all the corn pieces, which I was worried she would try and do!)

Then we picked out some pumpkins...

And got lost in the corn maze...

And finally, Daddy took her down her first slide ...

It was all so much fun to go to the pumpkin patch and experience it with Charlotte. These holidays are always more fun experiencing them through her eyes.  It was such an eventful time that she crashed on the ride home and even transferred to her crib once we got home and kept sleeping!  Which, by the way, typically never happens successfully so we didn't complain! 

Her arms and hands just about make my heart melt!

After her restful nap time, we got all dressed up and went to my in laws house to go trick or treating with cousins! We decided to be Rock, Paper, Scissors which of course brought all sorts of puns out on the table with Charlotte being a rock...

Even though we started Charlotte on ROCK bottom with her Halloween costume... she sure was SOLID at playing the part.

And not to mention was the cutest rock we ever did see that collected all sorts of candy for mom and dad! We did feel kind of guilty taking the candy, because obviously she wasn't going to eat it, so we only took some at a few houses. 

 Charlotte, you make things so much more fun, and we love you for that!

Happy Halloween!

First Road Trip!

We decided it was time to gear up for our first road trip! My mom had asked us if we would be willing to meet her and my step dad in Vegas for the weekend and bring Charlotte (of course we would bring Charlotte)! 

We were a little nervous about the drive, but we wanted to try it out before our long drive home to California that is coming up.  It was a good experience knowing how far we could travel in the car before Charlotte needed a break and needed some time to stretch and eat.  Luckily, Brian's sister lives in St. George so we got to stop there for about an hour and visit with her.  This was our saving grace! It was a perfect time for Charlotte and was so fun for her to get some time with Aunt Jenn! 

After our stop in St. George we continued on down to Las Vegas.  We survived.  Charlotte was good, but not great. We got stuck in some traffic right outside vegas (like always) and that is when Charlotte had had enough! When we got to the hotel my mom noticed Charlotte had been crying for some time because her face was red and she had tears coming from her eyes.  

Needless to say we were all ready to get out, stretch and get some food! 

The weekend was filled with playing top golf, 

playing with Charlotte, 

walking the strip and seeing the hotels, 

trying out the swimming pool

:)

and hanging with great company.

We are so grateful we got to spend the weekend with family and can't wait for our next trip! We are so lucky to get to spend time with Grandma Rodgers and Papa!

Bring on the road trip to California!

Blessing Day

This past weekend was a special one to celebrate our baby Charlotte joining our family.  As she was surrounded by friends and family who love and adore her, she was given a blessing from Brian.

We decided to bless Charlotte on a Saturday so my family from California could drive up, come for the weekend, and be back to work on Monday.  It was our stake conference weekend and the BYU vs. UCLA football game.  We knew my dad would enjoy going to the football game the evening of the blessing with Brian so we thought it would work perfect to have both events on the same day.  It sure did make for an eventful day.

Charlotte has been sleeping pretty well the past few nights, but last night, it seemed as if she was a little more restless, or looking back, maybe it was just me that was a little more restless.  I guess we were both gearing up for her big day.  We had pulled pork cooking in the crockpots in the kitchen over night and so our whole house smelt like pulled pork and I think that smell kept waking me up! And maybe it did the same for baby girl.  It seemed as if we were both still tired when we woke up Saturday morning. 

I had fed Charlotte right before we left for the blessing and then she fell asleep in her car seat on the way over to the church which made it a little disturbing to her to have to wake up and change into her blessing dress once we arrived at the church.  But once I got her all dressed she went right back to sleep in my arms before the program even began.  Brian and I were both so worried that she was going to be hungry or fussy when it came time for the blessing, but once she fell back asleep in my arms, she was perfect.  

My grandpa said that he peeked his eyes open during the blessing and saw Charlotte smiling so I guess she woke up just in time to listen to the blessing.  Once the blessing was done, she went right back to sleep.  Precious little one.  

Charlotte wore a darling white dress with a flower headband and a pearl bracelet that I got for her.  One of my grandma's had sent Charlotte a beautiful white blessing blanket that we used to keep Charlotte nice and cozy the whole day! My other grandma brought Charlotte a gold heart necklace that she also wore with her white dress.  We sadly had already taken it off by the time we took these pictures when we came home, but both the necklace and the blanket were the most perfect touches to the day.  

The blessing was beautiful.  It was so special and brought tears to our eyes.  

After the blessing, we had a little luncheon with everyone that came.  We had pulled pork sandwiches with a few salads, chips and dip, fruit, cookies and chocolate sheet cake.  It was quite delicious and a perfect way to chat with everyone that came, take pictures and let everyone hold Charlotte.

By this time, you would think she would be awake and/or hungry, but she was still just sleeping away! 

However, when it came time to head home, she was wide awake and ready for a feeding! 

Needless to say, we got right home and let the little one eat her lunch!

That night we let my mom and grandma babysit and put Charlotte to bed while Brian and I took my dad and debbie to the BYU game. Even though the cougars lost, it was a fun way to end they night with my family before they had to head back home.

We are so grateful and lucky to have had family and friends be with us on Charlotte's special blessing day! We love this smiley girl of ours!

       

Now a Tribe of Three

I am sitting here while Charlotte is sleeping thinking about what I can/should/want to be doing while she gets her nap in... I've been wanting to write about the day she was brought into this world and just never got the time to do it. Now is the time. 

I want to have this blog so Charlotte can read it when she is older and know how much we love her and love that she made us a tribe of three. 

Brian and I found out we were pregnant in December of 2015.  We were so excited and Brian always reminds me of the moment he won't ever forget when I looked up at him after the test was positive.  I couldn't believe that this was happening.  

The first time we went to the doctor was right before Brian left on his internship at the beginning of January.  When the doctor first came in, he could tell how excited/nervous/curious we were about the pregnancy.  He asked us how we were doing and we both looked at each other and then told the doctor that we thought we were doing good! He asked us what we were worried about, and I answered, "Well, we just went home to my family and told them we were pregnant because we tested positive three times and so we are just really hoping it is a baby in there." He immediately said, "well let me pull in the ultrasound machine and let's take a look." 

And before we knew it, we heard our little one's heart beat for the first time.  The doctor showed me the ultrasound machine and said, "Yup, there is your little jelly bean!" When he called her Jelly Bean, we knew it was all meant to be. To be honest, she looked like a little jelly bean because of how little she was.  From the time I can remember my mom has called me Melly Bean and even called our little baby in the womb a jelly bean.  

Charlotte Naomi will forever be our little jelly bean.   

Throughout the nine months we were already experiencing lots of exciting times with our little girl while she was growing and getting ready to enter this world.  With each doctors appointment I learned more and more about her and even more about my own body.  With the first real ultrasound we learned she was a girl and we got the cutest little pink flower to take home.  We were so happy we couldn't wait to tell our families.  When I called my mom, I wasn't going to tell her because I wanted to surprise her when she came out to visit. I was too excited that I accidentally slipped and said "her" and my mom secretly knew! Most of Brian's family thought it was going to be a boy because of all the nieces we already have in the family.  

Because she was so wiggly during the ultrasound we couldn't see a face profile but we could see her hands and legs wiggling about and that was enough for us to fall in love.  Her hands were mostly in fists up blocking her face which was why we couldn't see her cute cubby cheeks.  She was also breech at this time and she was facing my back so the ultrasound technician had to get creative in order to find all the parts of her body.  

As the weeks and months went on, we learned more about one another.  Baby girl was taking all that she needed from me which was leaving me with low iron.  I had to get on an iron pill to make sure I had enough.  These were by far the worst supplements I had to take. They made me feel sick if I didn't have food in me.  They were actually the first thing that made me get sick with pregnancy.  Luckily my body got used to it and I stopped getting sick while taking them.  The other thing that happened was I failed the glucose sugar test.  This meant that I had gestational diabetes.  I felt horrible that I didn't pass. It was really tough for me to fail those tests because there was nothing I could do about it.  I had to see a weekly diabetic nurse that would look at my blood sugar levels that I drew from my fingers each day.  I had to take my blood four times a day.  A morning fasting prick, an hour after breakfast prick, an hour after lunch prick and an hour after dinner prick.  It was quite the ordeal that took place throughout each day.  Honestly, it was a pain.  Not only did I have to prick my fingers, I really had to watch what I was eating.  No sugar, no candy, no sweets, and the worst one for me, no chicken fingers.  I had to stay under certain carbohydrate limits for each meal.  As I got used to this diet and taking my blood sugar levels daily, I felt it getting closer and closer to our baby girls arrival.

I started to feel like I was pregnant.  I couldn't see my toes, my back was aching, and it was harder to get up and out of anything I was sitting in.  All the doctors said I was going to go until my due date because when I started getting checked for any dilation at 35 weeks, I wasn't ever dilated.  The doctors were a little worried about baby girl getting too big due to my gestational diabetes, so they were planning to induce me at exactly 40 weeks if I wasn't dilating.  I got frequent ultrasounds to check on baby girls size so she didn't get too big too quick.  Oh, also around this time, I tested positive for Group Beta Strep which was a bacterial infection the baby could pick up going through the birthing canal during delivery.  Because of this, I would have to be on penicillin at least 4 hours prior to baby girls arrival. 

  

The weeks continued and at 39 weeks and 1 day, on a Monday morning, my water broke at 5 AM - July 25th, 2016.  This day Brian was going to run a 5K with his family to celebrate pioneer day and was in charge of getting all their numbers to pin to their shirts early in the morning.  Needless to say, he wasn't going to be able to get the numbers, nor was he going to be able to run the race.

  When I woke up, I didn't know if it was my water or if it was just me wetting the bed.  I hadn't done that my whole pregnancy so I didn't think I would do that, but you never know.  So I woke Brian up and went into the bathroom.  I decided to see if I had to go to the bathroom and I did and then I kept leaking so I figured it was the water breaking.  We decided to grab our bags (yes, knowing me I was prepared early on so I wouldn't stress about it) and head to the hospital.  When we checked in, the sweet nurse was just taking her sweet ole time and I was getting a little irritated because I was worried about getting on penicillin in enough time.  Brian reassured me that she wasn't taking a long time and it was me just worrying like normal.

Once we got to our room, a different nurse took over and wanted to test the fluid to see if it was amniotic fluid that was leaking.  When she tested it, it wasn't at a strong enough level that she wanted so she decided to put some gloves on and check my dilation.  When she checked to see how far I was dilated, sure enough the flood gates opened and the amniotic fluid poured.  This is what we thought happened when the water broke, but I guess at home that morning was just the beginnings of my water breaking.  I had asked her to keep me updated with what was happening so I could call my mom and tell her to get on her way out to Utah for baby girls arrival.  The nurse said I was only dilated to .5 cm so she said it was going to be a LONG day.  We passed the message onto my mom and told her we would keep her updated with my progress.  

At this time, it was time for a new nurse to take over.  When the new nurse came in, she looked just like my best friend growing up who worked in LA as a neonatal nurse.  I was overcome with such joy feeling like she was going to be there with me the entire day I was getting ready for my sweet girl to join our family.  It was so comforting having a familiar face there taking care of me and encouraging me throughout the day.  She also said it was probably going to be a long day because I wasn't dilated to hardly anything.  With this news I was kind of bummed because sitting in the hospital for that long didn't sound so appealing.  She started me on penicillin (finally) and got me going on oxytocin to get my contractions and dilation in progress.  She also told me no more water or food until delivery. bummer.  All I could eat was ice chips until the arrival of the baby.

Our sweet nurse was in and out through out the morning checking on my progress. During this time, Brian and I were getting ahold of our families, checking facebook frequently to kill time, watching an episode of Suits, and pinching ourselves to see if this was real life.

At 8:30 AM I was fully hooked up on all the medication and started into labor and still only at .5 CM.

At 10:30 AM I was at 2 CM and already wanting the epidural.  The anesthesiologist came in and gave me the epidural which made me so very grateful for modern medicine.  I could then continue laying in the bed (because now I couldn't get up the rest of the day due to being numb) without being disrupted by the contractions.  I decided to try and get some sleep now that I could relax just a bit.  

At noon, when my nurse came back in, I was at a 5! She said I was progressing very quickly and that baby girl was coming today! We called my mom and told her of my progress and she was on a plane by 2ish her time.  My nurse was so excited because she was off a 6PM that night and she was in high hopes that baby was coming before she had to leave.

At 2:30 I was at a 9.5!! My nurse said that unfortunately, baby girl wasn't going to wait for grandma to make it to Utah. And baby was coming! Tears are filling my eyes as I am writing this because of the excitement that I felt at this time in the hospital and the excitement I still feel today about the anticipation of baby girl.  

At 3 PM I was fully to dilated to 10 CM. 

My nurse went to get the doctor, but he was in an emergency C-section with another patient, so my nurse decided to have me wait an hour and just let baby girl keep pushing down.  She said it would hopefully make the amount of time pushing less.  She warned me it could take an hour to 3 hours to push. Another moment of being bummed.  That is a long time to push and didn't get me very excited to start that process.

At 4 PM the doctor was out of his surgery and gave my nurse the ok to start pushing.  Brian had one leg and my nurse at the other (they were numb so I couldn't hold them up) and we began pushing.  She had me push during the contractions and do three pushes for 10 seconds with a big breath in between.  Because of the epidural I couldn't feel pain, but I could feel pressure.  I could tell when the strong contractions were coming and I could warn the nurse that I was ready to push.  She said this was the best amount of epidural so I could push in the correct spot to help the baby come.

Pushing was quite the experience.  I stayed so focused and hardly noticed what was actually happening.  I remember not wanting to talk or look at anyone but just wanting to close my eyes and push.  Prior to the start of pushing, my nurse asked if I wanted a mirror to watch.  I wasn't sure so I didn't really answer.  The resident doctor that was helping with the delivery encouraged me to put the mirror there so I could watch if I wanted to open my eyes.  He said that it could offer some added encouragement to see the baby's head when I was pushing. 

At 4:19 PM, our lives were forever changed.  Baby girl Charlotte was welcomed into this world with loving arms.  











She was covered in what the nurses called "cheese" but they put her on my chest and tears just filled my eyes. I just witnessed a complete miracle and was overcome with an immense amount of love for my little girl.  I thought about where she just came from and the encouraging words our Father in Heaven gave her prior to making her arrival to this world. I know our Heavenly Father told her that she is loved, that she is a daughter of God, that she is going to experience a wild ride, but that she can do anything as long as she stays true to who she is.  I thought about the love our Heavenly Father has for each one of his children, for each one of us, and I knew at that moment, that I would love our baby girl as much as my Heavenly Father loves me.

They then took her and got her cleaned off and wrapped up in a blanket.  Brian took some of her first pictures while I was getting cleaned up by the doctor. I had to have a second degree episiotomy and get some stitches, but to this day, I still haven't felt any stitches or pain from the stitches.  The most pain I have felt in the aftermath is from a couple hemorrhoids that I got from pushing so hard.   



They gave her back to me and had me be skin to skin with her.  That was the most precious thing.  My nurse then wanted me to try breastfeeding and have Charlotte latch on.  I was surprised at how quickly that put me to work on feeding Charlotte :) 

Charlotte did awesome. She latched on and has been an eater ever since! 

This was also the time that my mom made it to the hospital from her flight into Salt Lake City.  The airlines that she flew with posted her arrival flight time at exactly 4:19 PM, the same minute that Charlotte came.



The next couple days in the hospital were kind of a blur.  We had to stay for at least 48 hours because I tested positive for the Group Beta Strep.  They wanted to make sure that Charlotte didn't get anything when she was being born.  They also wanted to make sure that her blood sugar levels were all normal due to my gestational diabetes. 

Again, Charlotte did awesome.  She passed all her blood sugar levels and the doctors said that it was as if the diabetes didn't bother her at all. I was beyond relieved.  I was also relieved to be feeling good.  I felt like I was recovering well and not in a ton of pain.  I kept taking Tylenol and kept ice on my bum to help it heal.  When my dad arrived and held Charlotte for the first time, he said, "she is just perfect."



He said it just right, in our eyes, she is just perfect!   

Brian and I did our best at being brand new parents, but our families, the nurses and doctors were sure a blessing to have with us.  We couldn't have done it without them.  

Charlotte was visited by her family and friends and welcomed with a great amount of love.  We just adore her and are so blessed to be given the opportunity to raise her. 

We are...now a tribe of three.