First Portraits

Today we took Charlotte to have her first official pictures taken. We wanted a few prints to pass on to grandparents, great grandparents, and the usually friends and family. A friend of ours told us about a place called Portrait Innovations and they were GREAT! I recommend them highly! Charlotte did great even though we woke her up changed her clothes and fussed with her a bit. Here are a few of our favorite pictures...
We loved working with these folks and will go back again for sure. Enjoy the photos!

Charlotte's Photo Shoot

We have some new photo's of our sweet baby girl. One night Charlotte was just wide awake and calm, so John and I pulled out the camera and took a few new photos! We had a lot of fun and Charlotte didn't even seem to mind us snapping away.

So here is Charlotte's first official photo shoot!!!

Daddy's hands!

Mommy's hands!!! We had a lot of fun taking these pictures and Charlotte did wonderful! Hope you enjoyed!

A few things we love....

Here are a few more new photos of are sweet baby girl. We still have a few more that I will post over the next couple of days.

A few things we love...

Sleeping....

Did we mention sleeping.... oh yes, we LOVE sleeping!

Ten tiny fingers...

Ten itty bitty toes...yep...we sure do love those!

A little button nose...
Most of all, we just love this precious baby girl that has been in trusted to us...what an amazing adventure!

Gall Bladder

Well, as many of you already know we had a bit of an adventure this past week. I went to bed Sunday night with some pain in my back and upper stomach. John was so wonderful and took Charlotte down stairs so I could get some rest, but the pain just got worse and worse. By 2:30 in the morning I couldn't take the pain any more and so we were off to the ER. We spent several hours at the hospital before the doctors finally determined that the gall bladder needed to come out. Surgery one day shy of two weeks after giving birth, wasn't really on the to do list! Let's just say the announcement was a mixed blessing, a good thing to have the gall bladder taken out, the timing, however, not so good!!

Our sweet baby Charlotte was such a trooper. We didn't really have anywhere to drop her off at 2:30 in the morning, so she came along for the ride. She slept most of the time in the ER only waking up a few times to eat and then went right back to sleep. All the doctors and nurses said she was beautiful and a good baby (we already knew this, but nice to hear nonetheless!)

I was admitted into the hospital Monday morning and surgery was scheduled for Tuesday. The surgery itself went great... no complications. The gall bladder is out and all the problems I had during the pregnancy are gone. I was actually able to have ice cream for the first time in nearly a year! I am still quite sore, BUT I am feeling so much better already!

I was released from the hospital only two hours after surgery and spent the first day with John and Charlotte. It was so hard to be away from my sweet baby, even if it was only for one night! The next few days Charlotte and I spent hanging out with Grandma Camfferman. Having a newborn who still doesn't sleep through the night, and recovering from incisions (even small ones) takes it's tole on ones body. A great big thanks to grandma for all the help!

Here are a few pictures from our week. They were taken with my phone so they are not the best quality but here they are nonetheless!

Hanging out in the bouncy seat!

Yeah...let me sleep!Sleeping....so sweet!

Thanks again to everyone who helped out, sent kind words of encouragement, or who just sent out good thoughts and prayers! We are doing well and mamma is recovering well. We will post some better pictures hopefully sometime this weekend so check back soon!

2 weeks old

Charlotte is already two weeks old!!! She had her two week check up today and she is growing and changing so fast!!

She is now 19 1/2 inches long and weighs 6 lbs 7 oz Growing two inches in two weeks is quite impressive. The doctor called her an overachiever!

Charlotte and daddy! Such a sweet girl!

A few firsts!

This week Charlotte had a couple of firsts!! She had her first real bath this week...let me just say...she hated it!!!

Momma even tried giving her a pacifier to calm her down...it didn't work! We will see how the next couple of baths go!

Another first for miss Charlie was her first Valentines day and her first visit to church! Here she is in her new Valentines Day outfit from Auntie Kathy!! Thank you very much!

Daddy's girl!

We will post a few more fists a little later! Hope you all enjoyed!

A few new photos

Here are a few new photos of our sweet baby girl. She is changing and growing already! Daddy and I are just enjoying every moment. A little tired these days, but getting used to having a new born around!
Our sweet baby girl certainly has us wrapped around her finger!!! Can't believe she is already 9 days old!!!

Charlotte Mae Camfferman

She is finally here!!!!!!!! We couldn't be more happy to finally meet our little baby girl Charlotte. She is so unbelievably precious and we couldn't feel more blessed to have her here. We have spent the last few days getting to know her little by little, and sucking up every little moment possible.

As many of you know we went to the hospital early in the morning on Tuesday, February 2nd to have the amniocentesis done. The doctors wanted to be completely sure that Charlotte's lungs were developed. The process of having that test done was not fun. She was moving around so much during the test that the doctors couldn't get a big enough pocket to stick the long needle in. This meant they had to insert the needle four different times. After the test was finally finished the doctor turned to us and asked if we wanted to start the induction early. Of course, we said yes! However, it was soon decided the test needed to be sent off for better testing, which meant we had to wait until 4 or 5 in the evening to get the results.

It was a very long day of waiting. I had been so sick during the last few weeks of the pregnancy, I had begun to loose weight again due to the fact I couldn't keep much food down. The pain from the gall bladder had begun to make life very difficult. I was more then ready not be pregnant anymore. Those hours of waiting were excruciating. Finally, at around 4 PM we got the call we had been waiting for...her lungs were mature!

So, off to the hospital we went! We arrived around 6:30 and the induction was started around 8. They decided to start with a medication that was supposed to ripen the cervix and get everything ready. The actual induction or medication that was supposed to start contractions, was going to be given Wednesday morning.

When we arrived, it was discovered that I was already 2 1/2 centimeters dilated. Once the first dose of medication was administered I went to 4 cm in about four hours. The doctors thought this was great and gave me a second dose. Within a couple of hours I was very uncomfortable. So, bring on the epidural! Once I could feel the medication and the contractions were less intense, I asked the anaesthesiologist if he got many marriage proposals....he blushed! I laughed!

They check me again and I was already at 6cm. About 45 minutes later the nurse came into the room and was watching the monitors with great interest. I could see that Charlotte's heart rate was dropping with every contraction. The contractions were coming really fast, sometimes as close together as every 30 seconds and she wasn't tolerating it well. My water broke a few minutes later and so I was checked again. 9 1/2 cm. Yep, I went from 6 to 9 1/2 in only 45 minutes. That explained the drop in the heart rate. For the remainder of the labor her heart rate was cause for concern. However, she was finally born at 7:41 AM weighing in at 6 lbs 1 oz and 17 1/2 in long.

They placed this very blue/ purple baby on my belly and my heart leaped. She was here, our sweet baby girl was finally here. My joy was soon turned to concern when she didn't cry. The nurses quickly scooped her up and took her to a small table to check her out. It was probably only about 90 seconds, but it was some of the longest 90 seconds of my life. Finally she cried, what a glorious sound it was. The brought this little bundle over to John and I and we both just looked her over in near disbelief that this was the baby we had been waiting to meet. The whole thing felt so surreal, but so unbelievably special all at the same time.

About an hour later, when we were settled into our room the pediatrician came to check out Charlotte. She was making a grunting noise that the doctor didn't like. She explained that it sounded like Charlotte was having trouble breathing so they took our sweet baby off to the nursery to check her out. I was heart broken. Here we finally had our baby and they were taking her away! After a few hours they finally came back and told us she was doing well. Charlotte had a little fluid on her lungs, but was doing much better. They finally brought her back in the late afternoon and neither John nor myself could take our eyes off her.

We ended up staying in the hospital for what was to be one more night, we were expecting to be discharged early Friday. Instead, we were told that Charlotte had jaundice and needed to be placed under special lights. Seeing our baby girl under the lights and not able to hold her was heart breaking. She was under the lights for over 30 hours. We couldn't take her out but 30 minutes at a time to feed. However, after 30 hours she was well enough to come off the lights and we got to bring our little bundle home!

When we left the hospital both John and I commented that it was still surprising they were actually going to let us take this baby home. It has been such a blessing. We have had to take her to the doctor every day to have her levels check, but they are finally going down!!!

She is so incredibly special. Our little miracle that wasn't supposed to be possible is here. We can't stop cuddling her, watching her, and ewing and awing over her. I would have to say we are totally biased of this little one...she is just so darn cute!

Here are a few pictures of our precious baby girl.

Just minutes old. Charlotte just 1 day old. So sweet!!!

Under the lights....so sad.

Resting at home! finally!!!

It has been our pleasure to introduce Charlotte to you all. We hope and pray you are all doing well. We will post more pictures soon!