Smiles from Charlotte :)

Miss Charlotte smiles A LOT!  Unfortunately when I get the camera out the look on her face changes from "hi Mama" to "what the heck is that thing?!" so capturing her joy has been challenging.  I did manage to take a little video that shows it a little, normally we can "talk" to each other between coos and that is when she smiles the most.  She "talks" a lot more than Lillian did at this age but when I said that to someone in my mommy group they said it's probably because she hears so much more talking with Lillian around.  I hadn't thought about it like that before but it makes sense. 

2 months old

Charlotte really is a dream baby!  At 2 months old she is sleeping through the night and is very easy going, happy and a joy to be around.  I've been torn lately because she doesn't get as much attention as I gave to Lillian and she often has to wait to be put to sleep (which leads to a crying baby) or sometimes to be fed if Lillian is acting up.  We have been following the same routine we had with Lillian, Charlotte is woken up to be fed every 3 hrs during the day and every 2 hrs in the evening (we call this cluster feeding or also known as "tanking up" to get in extra calories to help her last throughout the night).  The girls are sharing a room and are both doing fantastic with it; for the most part they don't wake each other up and if I'm lucky I get an hour to two hours of quiet time in the afternoon when they are both napping.  Charlotte knows her routine and fortunately can even put herself to sleep if she has to (I often hold her for about 5-10 min to help her fall asleep); in the instances it is not possible to hold her I can turn on her noise machine sheep, swaddle her and lay her down in a dark room and she may fuss for a min or two or talk to herself but eventually she falls asleep on her own.

 Here are some more photos from this month:

HAPPY DADDY'S DAY!

The girls made a painting for Daddy!

For Father's Day we spent the afternoon at the new "Koalafornia" exhibit at the zoo!

1 month old

I realize I'm late posting, the site I host/create my slideshows has been making changes and now no longer does slideshows.  Unfortunately for me that means a bit more work to share the photos now ;)  Here are Charlotte's 1 mo photos (because of course I have to take some every month just like I did for Lillian)

This month I also took the girls to Northern Cali to meet the rest of the family.  Below is a video of all the photos I took to document Charlotte's first visit with everyone!

April 2013

We are all adjusting well having 2 kids now instead of 1.  Lillian LOVES her baby sister and asks to hold her everyday.  I find I'm cuddling with Charlotte more really taking in all the little moments since I now know how short they really are.  She LOVES the water and really enjoys her baths.  We now have a little lounger and the girls bathe together.  Charlotte is instantly calmed and practically fall asleep in the bath.  Below are pictures from her second bath (the first one was a sponge bath on the floor).  

 

 Most people probably don't know the extent of the hospitals roles in the birth of your newborn... they submit paperwork for a birth certificate and for your social security number for your child.  Since she was not born through the doors of the hospital they are not obligated to provide these services, rather, they give you a paper with a number to call for more information.  It was a ridiculous process!  She was categorized as an unplanned out of hospital birth.  To get her birth certificate I needed the following:

1. letter from my doctor confirming my pregnancy with my due date 

2. paramedic report stating who cut the cord 

3. hospital reports for both me and the baby confirming where/who delivered the placenta 

4. 3 different proofs of residency for me, 2 marked before the baby was born and 1 after.  

We only have 4 bills and 3 of them in my name.... mail cannot say Mr and Mrs. it has to have my full name on it. Somehow this is all supposed to be done within the first 10 days of them being born. I didn't even receive my packet of information we needed until she was 10 days old and called to get it 3 days after I was home. Once I collected everything I called to make my appointment and they don't have an opening until 2 more weeks out (now the baby is 3 weeks old). We went to our appointment and they were going to say they couldn't accept my proof of residency because one was listed as mailed out April 1st (2 days after the baby was born!).... I was informed I should have printed out statements from a couple months back (I thought the whole point was to show your residency when the baby was born, not months back). Anyway, after we got her birth certificate I tried to get her social security number so we can add her to the insurance (she is only covered under me for the first 30 days) I was told we need to have 2 proofs of her name and date of birth. (I had the packet of paperwork we needed to get her birth certificate with me and her birth certificate) Since they photocopied everything for the birth certificate and gave me the copies, not the originals from her birth certificate application I couldn't get the social security number that day and had to go back to her pediatrician asking for another letter stating her name, date of birth, when she was last seen and a signature! She has not had any shots yet otherwise an immunization record would have been sufficient as her 2nd form of id.  I was just blown away by how complicated they made things!  I realize it is to protect babies from being stolen but come on! I could not have stolen a baby and staged a roadside delivery when the paramedic report says she was still physically attached to me when they arrived and they witnessed Greg cutting the cord. 

In some other news, Charlotte has been steadily gaining weight.  We had her 1 mo weigh in and she is now 7lbs 5oz! She gained a little over two pounds in a month (at the first appointment a couple days after she was born she was only 5lbs 1oz).  Click on the video below to see photos from our first month with Charlotte and a BIG thank you to my parents for coming down to help with Lillian!