Welcome Home Party

Hunter loves birthday parties. He gets really excited anytime we get to go to one and often wants to sing the Happy Birthday song randomly throughout the day. Just last night at the dinner table we sang it to Baby Charlotte...even though she was asleep in the other room...oh, and it wasn't her birthday, but those are just unimportant details, right?

So we had this idea to have a birthday party for Charlotte the day we came home from the hospital to get Hunter excited about his little sister. Aunt Courtney made a cake so we could eat cake and ice cream...

We had some presents for Hunter to open...

Daddy and Mommy got him some toy pots and pans...

They go great with this microwave that baby Charlotte brought to Hunter in the hospital...

Both have fast become his new favorite toys. He plays with them everyday after school and loves cooking up snacks for us to eat.

Grandee and Poppy brought Hunter and Charlotte gifts...

Although he looks really intrigued, the Princess panties are not actually for him. Grandee accidentally grabbed the wrong bag after church as they were heading out the door to rush to our party.:) His real gift is a much cooler Aquadoodle that he also loves to play with. His favorite thing to draw is an "H for Hunter", which actually doesn't resemble and H at all, but he gets an A for effort!

Hunter also opened Charlotte's gift, a Baby Einstein music toy...

He goes in her room at least every other day to play with it.

After all the cake eating and present opening, Hunter held his sister for the first time...

He was really excited about it and was really sweet with her:)

Then he just had fun hanging out with family...

And helping Charlotte with her very first tummy time...Little sister was waaaay more tolerant and relaxed for her first tummy time than her big brother was during his...It was a perfect day for Hunter! He can't wait for his next birthday party!

A GREAT Cause

For those of you who don't know, my sister is on a mission team planning to go to the Czech Republic for a long term mission (10 years). Her major in college was missions, and she really feels like this is her calling. Because of the economic state of our country, she's having a difficult time raising funds and finding a sponsoring church (to be in charge of handling all of her supporters). She needs supporters that can commit to support her on a monthly basis, but she also embraces one time donations.

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So she's come up with this great idea to raise money. She is offering her services of making cakes or taking pictures for your family, and in return all she asks is a donation to her mission team. She's taken a cake decorating class and does a GREAT job! She made Hunter's elmo cake for his 2nd birthday as well as Charlotte's welcome home cake. She also has one of those fancy professional (I guess professional...at least it looks professional compared to my Nikon) cameras and loves taking pictures. She took all of those awesome pictures in the delivery room as well as several others for us. She takes A LOT so you have a huge variety to choose from. Here are two of my favorites that she's taken...

She also has some examples of pictures and her cakes on her blog as well as details of how things would work. Please, please go look at this post to see if you're interested! Then you can email her to order your cake or set up a time to do pictures.

Thanks friends!

Meeting Charlotte

We feel so blessed to have so many people supporting us and celebrating our sweet new addition! We had many people come by to meet her while we were at the hospital.

Of course more family came by...

(Those first two were actually there for the entire process. They're really devoted:).)

(Aunt Court was there for the entire process too, but since she was the photographer, she didn't get in too many of the pictures.)

And friends from high school...

(So technically Marcy didn't make it to the hospital, but since she had so far to travel, we'll cut her some slack. Virginia is really far, ya know.)

And friends from college...

And church...

But the most anticipated visitor of all, was this sweet little guy...He had no idea what was in store for him...but was happy to see mommy and daddy (initially at least:))...And we were soooo happy to see him...He wasn't sure what to think of Charlotte at first...but eventually decided to hold her...or at least place his hands on her:)

And when he visited the next day, he even kissed her...Since then, he's been struggling with self-control a little more...everything is a huge deal. Overreaction is common around our house these days...it's actually kind of strange when a tantrum isn't occurring.

And although he has his moments where he can't wrap his brain - or heart - around what he's feeling, like when cousin Zack and Vanesa were here holding Charlotte and he loudly proclaimed, "No like baby Charlotte!" or when daddy was getting ready to take him to school and because he has had minimal one on one time with mommy, he sternly pouted, "Mommy get in car! No like Daddy!", there are moments like these...

and in them, I am overwhelmed with love.

Birth Story

After a friend...or acquaintence...okay even a stranger...has a baby, I love listening to her birth story. The more details the better. I think the entire experience is so amazing and oozes with God's love and work in us. So since I know y'all have been dying to hear it, here's mine (with no detail left out - okay so maybe I'll spare you some of those yucky details)...

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I had an appointment with my doctor on Thursday (7/30), and he stripped my membranes. (If you dont' know what this means, it's basically just another way that can help progress your labor). So I was hopeful that she'd come soon, but nothing's 100% in the baby making world, so I didn't get my hopes up too much...and James silently prayed that it wouldn't work, because that man is ALL about planning and organization and really, really wanted an induction. What can I say? I married a man who likes to have control over the situation:)

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That night after we put Hunter down we watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (which we will now never forget and probably buy just for the sentimentality of it all). After the movie ended (around 11:30 pm) I started having more severe crampiness, but Dr. Hunt warned me about this so I didn't really think it was labor. James on the other hand was convinced and began frantically running around the house preparing for us to be gone for several days. I know. There's no hope for our kids not to have a dramatic side. After much researching in books and the internet and talking on facebook to an L&D nurse friend of mine, I decided to take a shower because it looked like I was probably in labor. The contractions got worse and worse and by the time my in-laws got here to stay with Hunter I was in A LOT of pain.

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We got to the hospital around 2:30 am. There was no one around except the lone check in lady at the desk who moved as slow as humanly possible. My husband began to grow very angry at her lack of urgency and panic because HELLO! MY WIFE IS IN LABOR HERE and obviously in pain. (Y'all know me. That concept of hiding how you feel is nearly unknown to this girl.)

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After a ton of paperwork, the check in lady finally called our nurse to come for us. She took us back to the room and instantly made the correct assumption that I wanted an epidural...like 30 minutes ago. She checked me and I was at a five, then she had another nurse come in so they could move more quickly so the anesthesiologist could get that epidural in me. This was my first clue that the Lord had answered my prayers by providing an awesome nurse. She continued to prove her awesomeness throughout my labor, never disappointing me.

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You have to wait for some bag of liquid (saline?) to completely empty into your veins before they will allow your epidural. So it seemed like an eternity went by, and the contractions were getting stronger and stronger. I finally got to the point where I felt like I just couldn't take it anymore and said (or probably closer to a shout/grunt combination), "I want to die! Somebody just kill me now!" at which point my nurse got right in my face and sternly said, "Carole. You're doing great. Breathe!" I think it was then that I realized I might be acting just a tad bit over-dramatic. Pretty soon after that, but what seemed like FOR-EVER since I had started labor, I was finally able to get my epidural (at around 3:45 am). So all of my family (which at this point was my mom and 2 sisters and niece and of course my man) gladly left for the waiting room so that they could speak again with permission...

See how happy he is? I do not do pain well, so the prevoius hour had been filled with comments like, "I love you, but please don't touch me." or "I love you, but no more joking aloud."

So the epidural was put in. My doctor came in (looking very tired) to see me, and then realized he forgot his office keys at home. So he asked if I'd be okay if he left for about 6 minutes to run home, and he left.

Then my family came in and my sweet husband fed me more ice chips... and this time made me smile with his jokes...and about 5 minutes later our nurse checked me. Here's how that conversation went...

RN Melissa: Where's the cervix? I can't find it.

Carole thinking: Oh my goodness. I'm closing back up and they're going to send me home.

RN Melissa: You're fully dilated.

Carole in a state of panic: What!? Dr. Hunt's not here!

RN Melissa: Your water hasn't broken so when he gets back he'll break it, and you can start pushing.

And that's exactly what we did. 30 minutes later our sweet Charlotte was born at 4:50 am on (her due date!) 7/31/09...

(The next 2 pictures are a little sci fi, so if you're easily grossed out...you've been warned to close your eyes while scrolling:).)

and we were in awe of yet another miracle the Lord had given us...

Nana and Grandpa fought it out over who got to hold her first. Nana won...

Here we are with my wonderful doctor (who wasn't on call but came in anyway for our big day). We love him...

Grandpa finally got his turn:)...

And us and our amazing nurse, Melissa....

More posts of the next couple of days coming soon...