3 Months of Charlie

Charlie is three months old, which means it is time for me to go back to work. 😔 This is bittersweet, but having Mom and Charles watch him for the first few weeks is making the transition a little easier. Also, knowing that I will be remote soon when we move to Athens helps! Time is flying by, but each day gets sweeter and sweeter, and I just cannot believe I get to be this sweet boy's mom!! He is the best. 

Outings

-Dallas

-Bartaco for my birthday

-Athens (The National and Creature Comforts) for my birthday celebration with family and for Charles's Dr. Suess program 

-Sip and See at Jennifer Higgins's house 

Harper's for my last family dinner living in Atlanta

Milestones:

-First flight! He did so well and slept the whole time both ways

-Giggling more and smiling all the time 

-Starting to grab onto toys

-Making new noises 

-Starting to have more neck control and holding head up for longer periods of time when doing tummy time

-Starting to show more signs of rolling over

-Officially over 12 lbs and starting to take over 6 oz bottles 

-Transitioned out of the Snoo to the crib for nighttime on 3.11 at mom's

-Dropped the nighttime swaddle cold turkey on 3.13 (did pretty well the first night and only woke up around 4:45 and went back to sleep when I put the paci back in, but had to CIO for 1.5 hours the second night and finally went back to sleep)

Notes/things to remember:

-Lots of spit bubbles 

-Naps started to click better (less wake ups) in week 11 

-Eyes are still a dark blue

-Long finger and toes 

Likes:

-Sucking on hands

-Counting (when I give him his vitamin D drops)

-Plays with toys on his bouncer 

-Making fists 

-Eskimo kisses

Dislikes:

-Still an overall very happy baby! He gets upset when I put him in his car seat and sometimes cries when he is in the car, either too awake or overtired. 

-Still not a big fan of tummy time for longer periods of time

I cannot believe that we will be moving to Athens in two weeks! I can't wait to be close to my family and raise Charlie with his cousins. 

2 Months of Charlie

Charlie is 2 months old (and some change), and each day gets sweeter and sweeter! He is such a good baby, and I am truly savoring each moment with him while I am on maternity leave. 

Outings:

-Pasta Vino with Caroline and Jim Duggan

-First long walk with Ellie and Max

-Athens for a Chinese New Year Mahjong party, when Charles was at a Bachelor party, and for Sarah's birthday/Valentine's Day

-First playdate at the Pauls with the Roods and Berrys

-Newborn photos at the house
-Augusta to meet new friends! 

-The Hewatts house

-First Family Dinner at the Harper's

-Spotlight on Art

-Lunch with Stefanie and Henley

-The Duggans to meet baby Sterling

-Whitehall Tavern to meet John Paul and Maddie

Milestones:

-Starting to get more aware of things and can entertain self on playmat or in the bouncy seat

-Started outgrowing the newborn hat and fits into 0-3/3-6 month clothes

-Making more noises... coos and kind of giggling

-Started to have first diaper blowouts

-Starting to do better with naps in the crib

-Started to smile in response to voices and first social smile 1.12. Now he smiles all the time!!

-Started 4-8 week MOC schedule on 1/12; slept into the 5’s 1.28, 1.29, 1.30

-Rolled over from stomach to back!! On 1.23 he was slightly elevated and then did it twice in Athens on 1.29 with arms under chest 

-Changed to 8-16 week MOC schedule on 2.1 to better match his natural wake windows 

-Starting to break out of the swaddle and will suck his fingers, which wakes him up 

-Moved Snoo into his room on Saturday, 2.15  

-Didn’t have to go into his room at all 2.17 and he slept from 7:30-7!

Notes/things to remember:

-Cradle cap was bad in week 5-6

-The way his eyes roll and look in the corners when he’s falling asleep 

-The way he looks like a little dinosaur with his hands sticking out the neck hole when he breaks out of the swaddle

-The way he squints his eyes, scrunches his nose, and stretches his smile sometimes when nursing 

-The way he grabs onto my necklace 

-The way his hands are always in a fist

-His eyes are still a dark blue color 

Likes:

-Staring at the ceiling 

-Bouncing in the Baby Bjorn bouncy seat 

-Starting to like the bath more! 

Dislikes:

-Wearing hats! 

-Being cold after the bath

-Tummy time is hit or miss

Our one year anniversary eating our wedding cake and cuddling on the couch!

Looking forward to our 2-month appointment at the pediatrician on Thursday, Charlie's first flight this weekend to Dallas, and a Sip and See for him in March! 

1 Month of Charlie

I can't believe it's already been 1 month since Charlie was born, but at the same time, it's hard to remember life before him! I could stare at him all day wanting to soak up all of his little noises and cute body movements. It's crazy how much he has already grown in just one month, and we are finally settling into our new normal. Here are some notes/highlights from his first month.

Visitors:

-Mom stayed with us the first few days we were home from the hospital and has come each week to help out, which is so nice! She also babysat one night so Charles and I could have a dinner date night out! 

-Our meal train started the first week of January, and it has been so helpful to have dinners brought to us. It is also a perk to visit with some friends at the same time! So far we've had visits from Abbie Shaw, Matt and Megan Douglas, Ellie Mowry, and Claire Paul. Caroline Tritschler also brought me lunch one day and Bonnie and Elizabeth Curtis came by to bring us dinner and a few gifts.

-Sassy and D came for 4 days this past weekend and got to soak up lots of quality time with baby Charlie as we got "snowed in."

Outings:

It has been a very cold January, so we have not gotten out much outside of a few trips to the grocery store. However, he has been to Superica twice and Bartaco once! We also took him to Athens for Christmas, and I took him another time solo when our power went out in Atlanta, which included an outing to Sakura for hibachi! He also ventured out to Ben's house to watch Georgia play in the CFB playoffs!

Milestones:

-Overall, he has gone to sleep well at night since we brought him home. 

-Starting to have longer wake windows and being lots more aware and alert

-Strong neck and legs! Likes to kick when doing tummy time and can lift head

-Became good at latching after the first week and has been gaining good weight

-Just started being able to be "entertained" during awake time with his contrast cards and play mat

-We started Moms on Call schedule at week 4, which has been nice to give us some structure

-Giving longer sleep stretches in the nighttime, including an almost 6-hour stretch!

-Charlie had his first snow on Friday, 1/10! We got around 3-4 inches and bundled up for a walk around the neighborhood

Notes/things to remember:

-The way he purses his lips, raises his eyebrows, and stretches after eating

-The way his ears were crinkled up after being born

-The way he squeals, grunts, and lots of little noises while sleeping 

-The way he rests his hand on my chest when eating 

-The way he tucks his legs in while in the swaddle

-The way he puts his arms up like a touchdown 

-The way he made pterodactyl noises/squeals during the first week or two

-The way he has dramatic cries out of nowhere and then calms down

-The way he smiles while dreaming and has big yawns

-The way his little chin quivers when he pauses during feeding time

-The way he sneezes 

-The way he starts breathing heavily and looks like he is about to cry in his sleep and then it goes away

-The way his body has developed and changed... he has dark hair which never really fell out after birth. His skin was peeling for a few weeks and his head has a little bit of cradle cap. He also has thickened up a good bit and his newborn clothes are starting to be a little tight! We are also sometimes using size 1 diapers.

-The way his eyes have little eye boogers, especially when he wakes up or has been crying

-The way his "toots" sound like a real person's now! 

Likes:

-Being sung to... especially "The Farmer in the Dell" and "Mommy Loves Her Little Charlie"

-Putting his hands in his mouth, which helps self-soothe

-Solly wrap carrier! Has been a game changer with afternoon/early evening naps

-Responds well to his pacifier most times

-Weirdly seems to like the colder weather and when we roll the window down in the car

-Starting to like walks in the stroller

-Loves to eat!!

Dislikes:

-Diaper changes and bath, but has gotten better with bathtime during week 4

-Was hard to take long naps in day the first few weeks unless they were contact naps immediately after feeding. However, he is starting to be better with naps in the crib now that we are being more consistent with them! 

-Having the sun in his eyes 

Charles Daniel Walker III

We welcomed Charles Daniel Walker III into our family on Saturday, December 14, 2024 at 12:28 am. He weighed 7 pounds and 1 ounce and was 20.38 inches long. We are so in love with him and can't believe he is finally here after 40 weeks of waiting and preparing. I wanted to capture every moment of his birth story, so I wrote everything down to remember forever.

Thursday- last time waking up in our house just the two of us! I did some chores like wash our sheets and laundry, take out the trash, and got the guest room ready for our guests. I worked today to stay busy and ran to Fete for some Christmas gifts, where I had a great conversation with an employee, Maggie, who also goes to Dr. Combs and made me feel so good about the doctors on call for my induction. She was so nice and so was her mom! Then I picked up a Dtox smoothie and worked the rest of the afternoon. In the final hours before heading to the hospital, I took a shower, read from the storybook Bible to the baby in the nursery because I started feeling a little anxious, and got all of our bags in the car. We stopped at Fellini's for dinner and drove around looking at Christmas lights on the way to the hospital.

Traffic around the hospital was surprisingly super heavy, but we checked in a little after 8. We got settled in our room (room 5) and the nurse (Mary Turner from Dalton) asked a bunch of questions, took my vitals, and hooked me up to an IV. Surprisingly, I was already having some contractions on my own! Once we were all settled, I got the Cervidil, which was like a small tampon, inserted around 9:45. That was not fun and did not feel great. Then we were told we could sleep until she would remove that at 6 am. She offered some sleep aids but I declined. She then explained that I would get 45 min to eat and walk around in the morning before we start the pitocin at 7 am on 12/13! When trying to fall asleep, my lower back was hurting and I started having bad cramps/contractions throughout the night which made it hard to sleep.

Friday- we woke up a little after 5 since it was so hard to sleep. Charles went to get us bagels from Panera for breakfast and I ate a protein bar and a plain sesame bagel. I got the Cervidil removed and checked around 6 am and was 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced. She felt like the Cervidil did what it needed to though. I was able to have about an hour to move around and take a shower before getting hooked back up for the pitocin at 7. There was a shift change and our new nurse was Claire Hadley who was so cute and great. The IV kept randomly beeping for no reason so the nurse had to keep helping us with that (blame it on Friday the 13th!). It was also so annoying because nothing good was on TV, and when we finally found a good channel for Christmas movies, it was the only channel that didn’t have working sound. Again, blame Friday the 13th!! The baby showed a slight dip with a contraction when I was on my back so we moved me to my side and it seemed to do well with that. We were up to 10 units of pitocin at 9:30 and then waited for Dr. Elgammal to come. She finally came around 11 and inserted a balloon to help get things going. That was very uncomfortable and started causing more painful contractions. Bouncing on a ball helped but I finally decided to go ahead and request an epidural. I got that around 1:30 and it was not bad at all, but of course, my lunch was delivered at the same time and I could no longer eat it (although Claire Hadley let me have a few sips of vegetable broth). I also was able to have ice and Italian ice with the epidural. The anesthesiologist Dr. Chen was so cute and nice and kept coming to check on me. My blood pressure was pretty low at this point and the baby’s heart rate was dropping when I had a contraction, so we monitored that for a while before I could take a nap. Mom arrived around 3 and Charles ran home to get a few things. While he was gone, we checked the balloon and it came out on its own meaning I was now 5 cm dilated! My BP continued to be low and the baby was not happy, so we tried a few different positions and some BP medicine. Dr. E came in and said we might have to do a c-section if we couldn’t regulate the heart rate, and I started panicking because a lot was happening and Charles wasn’t back yet (traffic was so terrible). We changed sides one more time, took me off Pitocin, and gave more blood pressure medicine to see if that would help. After they left, my water ended up breaking on its own around 4:30 which was a positive note and good progress. I was 6 cm and they inserted something into my cervix that could monitor the actual strength of the contraction and provide some fluid in there for a cushion for baby. From there, contractions were a little less frequent and intense since I was off Pitocin. I was so tired so just rested and hung out while Mom and Charles ate Gusto for dinner in the room. The Walkers also came to say hey, and then I changed positions to try and get the baby to rotate because they determined it was face up.

There was another shift change and my new nurse, Sheila, came in. I had a temperature so she monitored that. Around 9 pm I was feeling a lot of pressure down there so I had her check me and empty my bladder. She determined I was now 8-9 cm and 90-100% effaced with the baby’s head at a 0 so they brought in a delivery table!

Sheila was amazing at coaching me through what pushing would be like and it was just me, Charles, and her pretty much the whole time. I started pushing a little before 10 pm and we tried a few different positions because baby’s heart rate kept dropping during contractions and we wanted to see what was the most effective. It was also difficult since the baby was “sunny side up.” I almost gave up because I was so tired and hungry and Shelia had mentioned possibly having to do a c-section again if we couldn’t get the head going. However, she kept reassuring me that I could do it and that I was making progress, especially when she would say she could see some dark hair. I seriously couldn’t have done it without Shelia, and it was such an intimate thing just the 3 of us in the room. She was so encouraging and I started pushing more effectively. At the point when I saw that it was almost midnight, I was actually ok with the fact I had been pushing for so long so that the baby wouldn’t be born on Friday the 13th! One of my pushes she didn’t expect to be the one, and it was finally time to get the doctor and delivery team in the room. This was the worst part because it literally felt like it was hanging halfway out and it felt like forever waiting for the doctor and team. I could barely hold from pushing and just wanted Shelia to deliver it because I felt like I couldn’t wait anymore haha. The doctor finally came in and it felt like forever watching her put on her gloves. Our baby boy was finally born at 12:28 am on 12.14.24. He was face up but rotated at the last second which was very impressive to them and also had the umbilical cord wrapped around him twice loosely. They immediately put him on my chest and I had ask what it was haha. The doctor spread the legs and Charles said it was a boy! I then delivered the placenta and got sewn up and it felt so good finally not having all the pressure. I was shocked that I only tore 1.5 degrees since I pushed for 2.5 hours and since it was so hard getting him down the birth canal face up. Once we were settled we had our parents come in to meet him since they had waited up in the waiting room. From there, we finally made our way to the postpartum rooms around 2 am. We got settled and baby got all his newborn medications and care in the nursery around 3. The first night was a whirlwind and so exhausting after almost 24 hours of barely any sleep and having to do all the things in the middle of the night, but I surprisingly felt good physically. He stayed in the nursery so we could try and get some rest.

During our stay, all of the nurses were so wonderful, the lactation consultant helped get him to latch, I learned how to use my pump Saturday night, and having him in the nursery each night was so helpful. Sunday was a big day as we took newborn photos with the hospital photographer, and Charlie had his hearing test, another jaundice assessment, and his circumcision (by Dr. Elgammal which we loved)! I loved Dr. Roe, the pediatrician on call who checked him out each morning. Our parents were the best coming in to bring us meals and hold baby boy!! Sarah and my dad came to visit Saturday during the day and then the walkers came Saturday and brought Cafe Agora and sparkling rose to celebrate. On Sunday, my mom and dad brought us Blue Moon for dinner and hung out for a bit. On Monday, we had lots of excitement with the lactation consultant stopping by to help one more time and Sarah Balk came to say hi because she was working. We then got lucky because the pediatrician and OBGYN were able to check us out pretty back to back, so we were able to get discharged around 11 am! Mom was at the house to greet us and stayed for a few days to help us transition back home. She was so helpful as she cooked us meals, did our laundry, ran errands, and helped take care of Charlie. 

Coming home was so nice but also brought out some emotions/baby blues. Being home for the first time since we left just the two of us for the last time and reflecting on the last 4 days was emotional for me. I also felt like I was mourning the pregnancy stage in some way. I am so grateful to have him here, but talking to lots of friends made me realize these were normal feelings and something a lot of people experience as our hormones adjust. Having Mom here and Christmas right around the corner helped. We watched lots of Christmas movies, went on some walks to the mailbox, and had a few visitors... Claire, Shelby, and Nikita. I am still trying to feel comfortable enough with feedings to go outside of the house with him, so I know that will be so liberating once I do. He is just growing and wanting to eat so much in the afternoons!

I love him so much already and am grateful we are both healthy and feeling good. It was such a surreal experience and I had the best hospital stay. Piedmont was amazing and I’m so thankful for their team and the safe delivery of baby Charlie. Now we are looking forward to heading to Athens tomorrow for the week as we celebrate our first Christmas as a family of 3!