A few pics for ya!

Here is an old one I forgot to post in my last blog from Halloween

I'm bringing home a baby bumble bee...

And an newer one...

I'm 4 months today!

Charlie is rolling over!!!

As the title says, my baby girl has finally figured out how to roll over!! She hates being on her belly, so she took the initiative to fix it! (she gets that from me!!!) She would cry whenever we would have 'tummy time', but not anymore! She is so proud of herself :0 When she rolls over she looks up at you and you had better have an exaggerated reaction or else she gets mad!! So she has the tummy to back down pat, but we are still working on the back to front... she is so close. She just gets hung up on her arm. Just to bring everyone up to date, the holidays were tough on Cha-Cha. She is anti-social (she gets this from her dad!!) and HATES being around a lot of people... needless to say, family functions were BRUTAL! I spent most of Christmas Day and New Years Eve in the bedroom trying to soothe the poor thing... I hope she will grow out of this soon, so that people other than me and Dan can enjoy her too:) We went for Charlie's 4 month checkup and she grew yet again. My lanky baby now measures 25 inches and weighs 11 lbs!! That puts her in the 75th percentile for height and the 3rd percentile for weight!! o boy!! Dr. Chi heard a heart murmur again, so he sent us for an EKG and an echocardiogram. Sounds easy, right? Perhaps for the average, happy dispositioned baby... and we all know Charlie is not a happy baby! Well, what should have taken us 15 min took 2 hours!! I'm pretty sure the technician wanted to kill us! Hopefully she got enough pictures of her heart so we don't have a repeat performance. I call it a performance because if anyone were to walk by the room, they would have thought we were torturing her... After the EKG (which came after the echo), we had to remove the stickers that were all over her chest and arms. You would think this would make her scream louder... NOPE! She started laughing... it was pretty much all a game for her... 'hmmm how can I stress my mommy out today??' She is a piece of work I tell you! We won't find out any results for another week or 2. Please pray that everything is ok. Dan's parents bought us the Flip camera for Christmas, so as soon as I can figure out how to upload the video of her rolling over I will post it on here.

October/November

Hi all! I'm so sorry it has been so incredibly long since my last update... I could rattle off a bizillion excuses but it really comes down to, I just forget!! Imagine that.. ME? FORGET?? Charlie is almost 3 months! I can't believe it! She is growing into quite the cute little lady... well she hasn't really gotten the lady part just yet, but she TOTALLY nailed the cute part! Since my last post, she went dr. chi again for her 2 month check up on 10/9/09 and weighed a measly 9lbs 2 ounces! It just isn't fair! How come when I eat every 2 hours my butt gets huge but she eats every 2 hours and hardly gains a pound... it just isn't right! Dr Chi didn't seem too concerned though... He said all of her food goes to her head because that is growing and that she is going to be a doctor and go to Harvard... and I finished that thought with 'ON A SCHOLARSHIP!!" She also grew 3 inches!! She is incredibly long... I guess that is from her daddy:) He also heard a heart murmur, but didn't seem too concerned. I'm amazed that the man can hardly hear me when I am asking him questions yet he can hear a little blurp in her heart beat:) But I have heard this about him, so I am thankful he heard it so we can keep an eye (ear) on it! Halloween came and past and my little babe was the cutest bee I have ever seen! I'll post a few so you can see too:) She recently went through a growth spurt and was painfully reminded of how difficult it was in the beginning with NO sleep and her eating every hour!! Thank goodness it was only a few days! Of course my darling timed it perfectly with me going back to work, so unfortunately my coworkers had to deal with me working with a partially functioning brain... but if you were to ask them, I'm sure they would agree that this is a common thing! (now i have an excuse to have no brain.. B.C. ((before charlie)) I had to use the good 'ol dumb blonde

excuse!! I've officially worked 3 days now, and it isn't as bad as I thought it would be... I mean miss her incredibly, but I'm thankful for the little break I get... I'm sure I will be devastated when she starts doing her 'firsts' with someone other than me! But until then, I am A-ok:) Besides when I get home I get all the cuddle time I want crunched into a few hours! Well, Char should be waking up soon, so I gotta get going.. Will try to post soon

Update on Char

Sorry it has been so long since my last post! It has been difficult to find time to sit down and relax... I am told my mothers everywhere to get used to this! Charlie is doing well. She had her first photo shoot and yes, I know I'm as biased as they come, but she is def model material!! She is too cute for words! We have seen Dr Chi several times since my last post to monitor her weight gain. She finally reached her birth weight on Tues (YAY!) but according to the doc its 'no good enough'. She should be gaining an ounce a day at least and she is gaining slightly less. How? I have no idea because this little oinker eats every 2 hours for an hour at a time (please refer to the beginning of the post where I said it is difficult to find free time!!) On a positive note, Charlie has the cutest little giggle! Whatever she dreams about cracks her up! I'd love to know what they dream about at 3 weeks old... clean diapers? boobies?? Either way something tickles her funny bone:) My poor little monkey is very gassy... go figure!! I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree...hehe (note: I am referring to her father here!) So she isn't always the happiest, sweet, angel that she can be, to say the least. She certainly gives her mommy a run for her money! So I am on a strict diet of only 'warm foods' which as I learned has NOTHING to do with the actual temperature of the food you are eating! It is a form of eastern medicine... it seems to be working. I think you are officially up to date with Charlie's status :)

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!