Long time!

Wow, I really stink at this blogging thing! Charlie is now 1, and I am going to try really hard to keep updating this!

Let's see...Charlie now uses the potty most of the time! We started Infant Potty Training/Elimination Communication at 10 months. The first time I put him on the potty when he started grunting and HE POOED! I started putting him on every time I noticed the grunts, and after he woke up in the morning and after naps. Now, he gets fussy when it's time to go(most of the time). It's a long, hard road, but the results have been amazing. I never knew a BABY would be capable of using a potty! I do the sign for "potty" with him every time he goes, but he isn't doing the sign yet. We also are using cloth diapers, but mostly training pants with the waterproof covers during the day. I have only bought 1 refill bag of wipes in over 2 months--that's amazing! (Yes, I am ok with dealing with cloth diapers, but something about cloth wipes grosses me out!)

He DOES do the sign for "more" though! He started about a month ago while we were in Michigan at my mom's house. I had sort of backed off with the signs at that point, but all of a sudden he did it at a meal, without us doing it first! He remembered. :)

Not much more to say. I promise to TRY to update this more. He's growing up so fast and I know a lot of family and friends out there want to keep up on his accomplishments!





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1 year pics!


His Elmo birthday cake! Elmo was a rice krispie treat sculpture and the cake was white with strawberry filling. It was SOOO YUMMY!

Lots of news!

Wow, sorry it's been so long! We have been getting ready to move to Illinois. We just got the approval yesterday for the rental house we found in Waterloo. We find out tomorrow if we'll be able to move in next Saturday--but either way, we'll be out of Michigan. :(

Charlie is crawling now! Just an army crawl, but MAN he can get around fast! I miss the days of being able to just sit with him, now I'm constantly chasing him around!

Charlie's plagiocephaly is doing great! We saw the doctor a week and a half ago, and he did a manual measurement and found the diagonal difference(measured left back to right front and right back to left front) was about 5mm--it started out at about 14!! That's AMAZING. I didn't even think we needed the helmet, but I am SO GLAD I went through with it! "Normal" is considered 2-3 mm, so he said that at the next appointment we will do the scan, where the measurements are more accurate. He thinks we'll be done after that! I decided to stick with the same doctor instead of switching when we move for just 1 appointment. So there will be a LONG roadtrip for Charlie and I. That's scheduled for June 25.

At that appointment, I mentioned some bulging on Charlie's head. The helmet doctor told me to go to the pediatrician, so we did that day. The bones in his head are closing. She said the one in the front was normal at this age, no problem. But the back one she is slightly concerned about. It's not as big of a bulge as the front. She referred us to DeVos children's hospital to see what they say. So we're going there on the 25th as well. If they determine it's too early for it to be closing, they will have to do surgery. :(

Please keep us in your prayers, this is a scary thing to go through! Everyone always wants their child to be perfect with no health problems, and then something like this happens. I will post an update after the appointment!

Swim classes!

Today Charlie and I started a swimming class at the Aquatic Center. He LOVED it! He was kind of wary of it at first, but he didn't cry at all, and by the end he was smiling. Here are some pictures!

Like my awesome bathing suit??

I was blowing raspberries on his neck and he was giggling, but apparantly he stopped for the camera!

Helmet appointment

Today we went for Charlie's 1 week checkup with the doctor to check on his helmet. He's doing great with it! There's a couple spots where it's leaving a pretty nasty red mark, but the doctor made some adjustments and hopefully it'll be better now.

For those of you that don't know, Charlie was diagnosed with plagiocephaly. http://www.plagiocephaly.info/faqs/what_is_plagiocephaly.htm

Charlie's isn't NEARLY as bad as the picture on there, but the bones of his skull have shifted on the left side, because that's the way he always sleeps. His ear and forehead have also shifted. We did just about all we could to try to prevent it, as we knew that he liked to turn his head that way, but he grew out of his sleep positioner REALLY early and after talking to the doctor, decided that a helmet was the best way to try to fix it. The doctor expects him to only need it for 3 months. Here's a picture!

Birth Story!

This is for those of you who never heard the full story of Charlie's birth!

I got up at 7:15 am to go to the bathroom. I looked at the clock on my way to the bathroom. I walked to the sink and felt a gush. I was like "HOLY CRAP!" So I'm like ok, maybe it was my water, maybe I imagined it(I was still half asleep!) So I walked around the apartment for a few minutes, and could tell that's what it was. I called Drew, who was in Illinois for work(he lives there during the week--a 5 hour drive away). I said "guess what, you're not going to work today, GET HOME NOW!" Then I called my mom and told her the same, she lives about 10 minutes away. I talked to the doctor and he said I could stay home until the contractions got 5 minutes apart but if they didn't, to get to the hospital by noon at the latest.

My mom and I did some cleaning around my apartment, paid rent, picked up Burger King breakfast, went to the polls so she could vote, and then left for the hospital at 11:30. Drew got there 5 minutes later--he made the trip in 4 hours! They hooked me up to the monitors and my contractions were pretty random. So around 1 they hooked me up to pitocin. I made it to 4:30 before I asked for the epidural(they had said it could be up to a half hour before the anesthesiologist got there, and another 20 minutes for it to set in, so I asked for it after 2 painful contractions). Luckily, he was right down the hall, so I got it right away!

After that, the day went kinda slow. They kept checking me and saying that I had only progressed another cm or less each hour(I had been at 4 for 2 weeks!). Then all of a sudden around 8pm, they were like "Oh, you're 9, we're about to start pushing!"

I started pushing at 8:40 and the baby was born at 10:04pm! Drew said "OH it's a boy!" Here I had forgotten that we didn't know what it was haha! Charles Jaiden was 9 pounds 12 inches, 22.5 inches long! His head was SUPER coned, it was so adorable!

I was holding him and the doctor looked at the nurse and said "Do you hear what I hear?" Charlie was grunting when breathing, so they said they would have to take him to the nursery to make sure he was getting enough air. They let me hold him for about 10 minutes then they took him. Drew went with--they were only gone for about 20 minutes and they both came back, happy and healthy!

Both of our families, except Drew's dad(he was out of town for work), were there to celebrate with us!

Later that night, when I was able to go to the bathroom, I had the nurse come to help me. 2 nurses came. After I went, I stood up and got really dizzy. They got a chair on wheels to take me back to my bed. I got there and was shaking uncontrollably. The nurse went to find me a blanket and took about 5 minutes! After about 10 minutes, I was fine again and could hold my baby!

The new family!

Ready to head home

Charlie in his carseat before we left the hospital

Joining the blog world!

I finally decided to start a blog for Charlie! He's 5 months old now and we're moving to Illinois soon, so I want to keep family and friends updated with his new milestones. Enjoy!