Where did the week go?

Charlotte has had a very active week. She was born. She came home. She made two trips to the doctor's office (all routine visits), went to the mall, had a bath and met some new friends. During all of this excitement she managed to grow nearly two inches and gain some weight. All in all, a great week for Charlotte.

A Trip to the Doctor

Charlotte made her first trip to the pediatrician this afternoon. Mom and Dad weren't keen on making the trip in bad weather, but it was important to get her in to check her weight and see if her jaundice had improved (she had borderline bilirubin levels in the hospital). She weighed in at only 2 ounces shy of her birth weight, so she has gained half a pound since coming home. As for the jaundice, her bilirubin levels are the same as they were in the hospital so we have to go back to the doctor on Friday for more follow-up. She seems very distrustful of the medical establishment, as she had her worst crying spell so far in the office. We told her that's OK, sometimes these folks can be shifty. As soon as she had Dad's pinky finger to suck on (and later some nursing time with Mom) she was her usual calm self.

Charlotte has BIG feet!

Charlotte may look like her mother, but she has her father's feet. So, yesterday afternoon we sat Charlotte down to let her know about her ginormous feet. Click the word bubble next to the little yellow dude on bottom left-hand corner of the slide show below for a transcript of how it all went down.

Charlotte's First Day

Charlotte has had an eventful first twenty-four hours; it's been filled with sleeping, eating, crying, cooing, and some drooling. She had some fluid in her lungs when she arrived. The good news is that she's been doing a great job of pushing it out. The bad news is that as a result of all the pushing she started breathing a little faster than people her size are supposed to breathe. So, as a precaution, she went into the NICU around 6 o'clock this morning.

The doctor and the nurses monitored her breathing for about four hours and didn't find anything out of the ordinary. We got the go-ahead to come down and see her in the NICU just as Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Ed arrived from Sioux Falls. Here are pictures:

Greetings and Salutations!

After months of meticulous planning, Charlotte Louise-Martins Washington was born on December 12th at 1:01 p.m. She weighed in at 8 lbs. 0.4 oz. and is 19 1/2 inches long.

Immediately after being delivered Charlotte began to cry, which the doctor assured me was completely normal. Apparently babies get all bent out of shape when they're born because the transition from the womb to the real world can be a bit jarring. I don't remember it being all that difficult, but kids these days are not as tough as they were in my day. No, sir.

Anyway, Summer and Charlotte are resting comfortably. Below are some pictures for your enjoyment. You should expect many, many more photos over the coming days, weeks, months and years because Charlotte is the most beautiful person I have ever seen in my entire life.