SO much to post!!!

Well, Charlotte Mae Shorter was born Thursday night at 11:47pm. She weighed 7.15 and was 20 inches long. I had a pretty good labor, complete with a great epidural (and super high blood pressure... ask me about that later if you want more details)!! From the time we got to the hospital until she was born, about 5 1/2 hours had gone by. But, of course, I had been contracting all day long! So, here is some of the documentation of the last few days.

Super blurry pic, but I took this on Thursday during the day.

Charlotte

My mom is in town for a while. We're so excited to have her here!!

Leaving the hospital this morning.

Charlotte is a great baby. Seriously, she has slept all day despite my best efforts to wake her up. Let's hope this is a trend for nighttime, too. YEAH RIGHT! But she's very sweet and mellow, kind of like Cameron was as a baby. I'm honestly a little nervous about having two kids, especially two in the same room. I knew this would be a pretty big transition for all of us (especially Cameron). Wish us luck tonight!

Time to post

Well, I hadn't posted for a while cause the only thing that's been going on is waiting for this baby to come out. Now, I don't think I would be so anxious about it this early on (she's due a week from Tuesday), but things have been happening to make me think that it'll be any day now. I've been contracting and... uh... losing things you might lose right before you deliver. Nuff said.

The contracting started last Sunday morning. And then stopped. Then, I had my membranes stripped for the second time on Wed. at my apt. And nothing. Then I contracted a little this morning and got really excited. And then it stopped. And I'm still losing that thing you lose (if you're a guy, ask your wife or mom. And sorry if it's tmi). Then I cried. Ugh.

See, if none of these things happened at all, I really think I would be more content with things right now. I would sit back and just wait for this little girl to show up. Chad and I still can't quite agree on a name. We have one we'll probably go with, but then finding a middle name has been nuts. So, maybe we need this time. Maybe she'll show up when we pick a name... which means it could be quite a while!

Anyway, I didn't want to post my waiting game woes for all of you to read cause I read the very beginning of this blog a few days ago and realized all I did was complain before Cameron was born. I took off work three weeks before he was due, but then didn't know what to do with myself during the day. I knew that I complained vocally, but forgot that I wrote it out for all to read and remember 2 years later!

So, that's where I'm at. A little cry this morning and then going back to bed (the contracting started at 4:30am) helped me feel a little bit better. I might walk around the mall or something today. My OB is on-call tomorrow, so maybe that's what this girl is waiting for! My OB didn't deliver Cameron, and I wonder if I would have torn so badly had she been there to help guide him out. We'll never know. But it would be nice to have her there. The other time she's on call is on my due date, the 21st. Who knows? Cameron came on HIS due date. We'll see.

Chairman Bob Approved

A few weeks ago, our local grocery store had this fun day where you could get a hot dag/brat/sausage, chips or pretzels, a soda or water, and ice cream for $1. Yes. That's right... $1. So, we totally took advantage of this deal and went and had lunch. It was really fun. They had their store brand taste tests-- comparing to popular brands. They had coloring for the kids and a wheel you could spin to win things. Luckily, the wheel broke right before my turn, so they gave me the prize I wanted-- a gift bag full of goods like ketchup, mayo, steak sauce, snack mix (like chex mix), napkins, etc. They kind of fixed the wheel later and Chad took his turn. The flag was on the peg between winning another bag or a tshirt. Chad convinced them to give him a bag. So we got the two reusable bags full of stuff! They also had a place for kids to get tatoos. Cameron got one on each arm. The one on his right arm is a thumbs up and says, "Chairman Bob approved." Chairman Bob is the owner of the store brand, Roundys, that they sell at our grocery store. The tatoo on his left arm says, "Approved."

He thought he was pretty cool with the tats. They're finally starting to go away... two weeks later. Yeah, he DOES bathe. I just didn't feel like scrubbing them off!

We tried to get him to flex his arm here. Didn't quite work.

SOOOO macho.

Nice.

I like that Cameron can wear shorts to church in the summer. Can I do that? This is his outfit this morning. I think it's one of my faves.

He's saying, "Cheese." I don't remember teaching him this. Guess it's a natural thing to do when you're taking a picture. Yeah right.

What a goofball.

What did YOU do this weekend?

Well, I guess if you're crazy (and like me), you sign up for a new internet service online and then try to connect it and realize the promo you fell for isn't what is really advertised. Then, you attempt (for an hour) to cancel it and the modem you just bought over the phone. After talking to 10 different people and about 3 different companies, you hang up the phone and cry. The next day, you call three more people to try to fix the situation and decide to give up.

Then you go to the cell phone store to activate a new phone you were sent since your old phone stopped charging and spend an HOUR standing (yes, I'm 36+ weeks prego, but I was hoping it would help the baby descend a little more) at the counter trying to get it activated... only to find out that someone in SC has activated YOUR phone. What the wha?!?! Then you get yet another phone from the store room and are on your way. All while having a major headache.

Oh people. I'm not complaining... I'm, uh, venting. Yeah. And things are fine now. Just glad last night and this morning are over. Good grief. After all of this, labor should be a cinch! Hee hee... I'll have to read this again while I'm IN labor.

Happy Daddy's Day

To my Dad,

My Father-in-law,



and

The father of my children,

Happy Father's Day!!

Cameron's Hoedown

More pics