Following the Fowlers

Charlotte is three weeks old today! We are starting to get into more of a routine at home. We generally have our first daytime feeding between 7:30 and 8:30. We eat every three hours. After each feeding, we have some playtime. Charlotte loves to lay on her back on my inclined legs. I sing songs to her and she has a lot of wiggle time. She also spends time on her tummy on the blanket on the floor. We have started spending some awake time in bouncer seat, but she isn't a huge fan of that. After about 30-45 minutes I wrap her back up in a swaddle blanket and spend some time rocking her. Then she sleeps for about an hour to an hour and a half, usually in her swing. For some reason, she doesn't like to sleep in her bouncer during the day. We have our bedtime feeding between 9:00 and 10:00. If I am lucky, she will fall asleep by 10:30 and I can go to bed. She is sleeping her in bouncer seat, which we have placed in her crib. She might have one or two middle of night feedings, depending on when she wakes up. We have gone to the park to walk several times and we like to walk around the neighborhood. We have been to Grammy and Poppy's house, and last night we made our first big outing to small group.

Here are some recent pictures of Miss Charlotte.

Here are some of the firsts our baby girl has experienced in her first two weeks of life.

It got out of order because I started it a few days ago, but make sure you scroll down to see some videos of Charlotte!

We have had so many people come and visit us to show us their love and support! We have been so blessed by family and friends. Thank you!

Here are some videos we have taken of our little girl in the first week of her life. Newborn videos - fascinating, I know!

First tummy time - not much happening

Let's try again . . .

First bath - she was NOT happy! Now that we can give her a regular bath her regular tub, she likes it much better!

I had another adorable video of her stretching that I couldn't get to upload. Hopefully I will get it on the blog soon!

I want to start by saying Happy 1 week Birthday to our precious Charlotte! Here is her birth story:

We decided to be induced on Thursday, April 8^th, 2 days before Charlotte’s due date. To get ready for the induction, we checked into the hospital about 10:00 on Wednesday night. They started the process with a pill around 11:30 p.m. I started feeling contractions around 2:00 a.m., but they were not that strong, and I could sleep between them. Around 4:15 a.m. the contractions started coming on much stronger and were about 5-7 minutes apart. I could no longer go back to sleep at this point! It is hard to remember the time frame of everything, but I think within an hour or so my contractions were about 1 minute apart. They were very strong and I begin to have to use the breathing methods I learned in our child-birthing class. By 7:00 a.m. on Thursday morning, I was in a lot of pain and they hadn’t even started the pitocin drip to start the actual induction yet. They would not give me my epidural because that can slow labor down, but they gave me another drug that helped to take the edge off the contractions. It also made me a little loopy! It was about this time that I started to wear an oxygen mask. Charlotte’s heartbeat was strong, but not completely what they wanted it to be, so they wanted her to get more oxygen. I wore the oxygen mask until I started pushing. Once the pitocin was started at 7:30 I began to progress very quickly. My sister was driving down from Austin on Thursday morning. I called her around 8:30 and she had just barely left the city and I was already 4 cm dilated. I was very worried that she wouldn’t make it in time. It was so important to me that she be there to share that moment in my life! When my doctor broke my water around 9:00 we found out there was meconium in the amniotic fluid. Because of this, we knew we were going to have to be more careful when she came out to make sure she didn’t breathe any in. The NICU nurses would have to be present to make sure she was okay. Finally, I was given my epidural and that was such a relief. I wouldn’t let my family into the labor room until this time because I had been in too much pain. Talk about a dramatic change. At one point I was sitting in bed, eating a popsicle, and laughing. While this was happening my mom was watching my contractions monitor go off the chart they were so strong and I couldn’t feel a thing! Woohoo! I quickly progressed to 7-8 cm and the nurses were predicting that I would have little Charlotte by noon. However, they slowed the drip on my pitocin, which slowed my contractions down. Around 2:00 p.m., I was 9 cm dilated and starting to feel the contractions again. There is a button you can push for more epidural to be administered, but I hadn’t been pushing it. By the time I realized it was wearing off, I was beginning to feel a lot of pain again. So, for the next hour Mark was my epidural button-pusher. You can only push it every 10 minutes, so he would time it on his watch and push it when they time came. It took a good 70 minutes to be in no pain again. By 3:30 I was 10 cm dilated, but Charlotte was still very high and hadn’t moved into the birth canal. They let me “labor down” for another hour, which means I continued to labor in hopes that this would help the baby to move down into position. Around 4:30 my doctor came to the room and I started pushing. Without going into detail, let me just say that pushing is one of the hardest things I have every done in my life. Much props to those who can do it without medicine, but I felt as though I could barely do it with medication! I had my eyes closed the whole time, but I could tell when she was almost here. The room went into action! The NICU was called, my doctor got into her gown, my bed was broken down for delivery, and Mark was quickly changed into a scrub top. At 5:08 p.m., our sweet Charlotte Ruth was born into this world. All 8 pounds and 19 1/2 inches of her! Everyone told me to open my eyes as she was pulled out, so I got to see her for what felt like 1 second, and then she was whisked away to the other side of the room to be checked over the NICU nurses. It was a few minutes before I heard her cry because they were clearing out her mouth, but when I did it was the sweetest sound I have every heard! One long hour later, I was finally able to hold my precious angel. I cannot give enough praise to our Father in Heaven for this amazing gift that Mark and I have been given. We commit to always try our hardest to raise her in love and devotion to the Lord.

We had these pictures taken in the hospital the day after she was born. She was less than 24 hours old. Isn't she cute? Click here to see the entire slideshow and type in the password "0408charlottefowler".

She's here! Charlotte Ruth was born at 5:08 p.m. on April 8th. She weighs 8 lbs and is 19 1/2 inches long. She has some adorable blonde hair and the cutest little chubby cheeks. I will post the "whole story" later when we make it home this weekend, but for now I wanted you to be able to see our baby girl!