Doctor Visit

Charlie's 1st trip to the doctor wasn't as bad as I expected. She stayed relatively calm while Dr. Chi was examining her. She did lose some weight... she is only 7lbs and 4 oz now. The doc said this was normal, but wants us to come back next week to make sure she has put on some weight. In his HEAVY chinese accent he said, 'you owe me 1 ounce every day'. She did grow 3/4 of an inch though!! According to those growth rate averages, she will be 5'9'' when she is 20! I hope they are wrong!! Poor Char will be a mammoth! Dan said she can be a model then... but I said she will have trouble finding a boyfriend... Dan said 'Exactly!'.

Some more pics :D

She is so wide-eyed! Dan says she looks like a bug, but i LOVE this little face :)

Dan and his babies [/caption]

Sweetest picture of Charlie and her cousin Conner :)

Charlie on our way home from the hospital

Just a quick update before my sleeping beauty wakes up... I only have 2 hours before she morphs into a terror! I swear she has an internal clock that when it strikes 12:30 AM she turns into a little beast! You'd never believe it by her calm demeanor during the day, but Dan can attest to it! (as can my mom and Dan's mom which have been taking turns sleeping over to help out) I have no idea what we would do with out them. Charlie has her first visit to the doctor tomorrow, which after choosing him, I learned Dr. Chi was also Dan's pediatrician at one point... yea I know what you're thinking 'How old is this doctor?!?!?' The answer is pretty old, but with age comes experience, right??? I'm sure it will be a mission bringing this little chica out of the house...

It's a Girl!

As most of you know, we had a baby girl, Charlie Grace Russell. She was born on 9/9/09 at 3:43 PM and weighed 7lbs and 13 ozs and is 20 inches long. She arrived on her due date... clearly she did not get her punctuality from her mother! The doctors and nurses were amazed at that head of hair! I have to be honest, I'm a little jealous! She has beautiful thick black hair and I haven't wasted any time putting little ribbons and bows in it! Our pups are adjusting fairly well to our new addition. Finn could careless, in fact he leaves the room whenever she cries! Eska on the other hand is obssessed. We had a long talk the other day about how Charlie is my baby, not hers! Still, I think she may be a little confused :) She will not leave her side. And when Charlie gets upset, Eska barks at us as if to say 'What are you a bunch of morons?!?! She's hungry!!!" Even though we are slightly sleep deprived (excluding Charlie Grace, but including my Mom and Dan's Mom) we are all doing really well. I cannot believe how much I love this little munchkin already... I guess it's true what they say, you can only truely understand the magnitude of a mother's love until you become one yourself. There will be more pics to follow... I have to get Dan to upload them and I will bombard this blog with zillions of them!

You really can't make this stuff up!!!

After a long afternoon of relaxing and preparing for my new babe's arrival, I had an appointment for an exterminator to come to check out these moths that have been flying around. Turns out they are Indian meal moths. Never heard of them, but apparently as per Mr. Exterminator, they are very common and equally difficult to get rid of as they arrived via a package of pasta that had eggs in it (ew!) The bug guy tells us that we need to clear out EVERYTHING in my kitchen and cabinets so that he could come back in an hour and spray. We need to be out of the house (including the pups) for at least 4 hours... unfortuntely this is only the beginning. While my mom, dad and I are cleaning out the kitchen (Dan went to the dog park just before hearing this news, convenient?), verizon wireless finally calls me back on our houseline to figure out the issue with my phone as to why I can't send and receive picture messages (obviously a necessary feature in the upcoming days!) but oddly enough, I can't find my cell phone. The VERY patient technician waited for me to call my cell in the hopes of finding it where ever this scatterbrain left it... well, you'll never guess who had it... the bug man! We have the same phone and when he saw it on the counter he thought it was his... Finally for once it wasn't me!! Now I had to explain to the technician what happened... She prescribed I get some sleep before this baby comes, and I quote "sounds like you really need it!". I told her I was going to do just that as soon as I packaged up my kitchen. Wrong again! Apparently physical labor brings on a different kind of labor... yep, I got my wish, my contractions are currently 8 min apart and are lasting roughly 1.5 min... I'm beginning to wonder why I wanted this so bad!! I'm done rambling now... its officially 9/9/09, the day I get to meet my little baby:)

Still no baby...

Just a quick update... It seems baby Russell needs some coercing to enter into this world. I've tried to will this kid out... but this baby is STUBBORN!! (I think he/she gets that from his/her Dad!) So tomorrow morning 8 AM sharp we will be at Saint Clares in Denville where the induction will begin! Hopefully by this time tomorrow Dan and I will be parents!! Eska and Finn are going to be sooo surprised when we leave tomorrow and 3 of us come back instead of 2! (we are hiding all sharp objects from Eska!!)

Hola!

Hi All!! I know I am going to get made fun of relentlessly for starting a blog... but hey, I want to be part of the 21st century!! I thought this would be the easiest way to keep intouch with friends and family without bombarding their inboxes with updates and photos of Baby Russell (and of course his/her furry siblings, Eska and Finn!!) We are still awaiting this little babe's arrival... if I said patiently it would be a lie! We are SO ready to meet this little boy or girl!!