5 Years Today

5 years today I did the greatest thing i've ever done. i still remember showing up just a tincey wincey late! and the way you looked, traipsing about in the snow for hours. and then the standing in line for hours. and then scrubbing the car for another hour because jon decided to use syrup. when i think back, that day must have been longer than a call shift at work! but the next five years have blown by, and i feel like we've done it right, and i'm so in love with you and our little family. you are beyond sweet. no more month long vacations, ok? welcome home and happy anniversary. trav.

Jealous?

A lot of people are born with gifts. Some are born with smarts, some are beautiful, some can sing.

This is the amazing gift Brooklyn was born with...

Business in front...

Party in back...

All natural people, all natural! We love mullets.

We are doing well. We are still in Utah, and will be till we go to my nephew's baptism in Phoenix on March 11Th. Then we fly home on March 16Th. That is a long time to be away, especially from your husband!

So far 2011 has been CRAZY! Lots of unexpected things. Thanks for every one's support and help!

Here is a picture of Brooklyn's first airplane ride.

I think I looked like a freak while I was traveling. Yes, I did fly solo with two kids and I did survive, but like I said, I looked like a freak! I had Avery strapped in the stroller, the stroller held her, that huge boppie pillow and the diaper bag. I had a huge backpack on, and then Brooklyn was in the sling on my front. I kind of felt like this

But overall, the girls were pretty good. Avery probably developed diabetes on the ride, but what can you do?

Sorry this post is all over the place. That is kind of what my life is like right now!

Here are more pictures of my little baby. I call her the Grunt, because that is what she does all night long.

Papa

My heart broke this Valentine's day. I got a dreadful call from my dad telling me that my Grandpa Gary had a heart attack and passed away. It was very unexpected. This man was in great shape, had a zest for life and had a lot of reasons to not go so early. I really thought that he had at least 10 more good years with us.

One cool thing about his death though, is that he gets to see his son, Chucky, who passed away at 3 years of age. It has been about 38 years, can you just imagine the reunion?

My Grandpa was the hardest working man alive. I have never seen anyone work like that. I feel like he has passed this trait down to my parents, and hopefully me and my kids. He would always laugh at your jokes, even if they really weren't that funny, he would think they were.

I will never forget all of his funny cat noises and his Donald Duck voices he used to scare/play with us kids.

I hope that Travis and I will have as strong of a relationship when we are old as my Grandpa and Grandma had. I could really tell they loved each other, and that is another really hard thing about him leaving, he left her.

I love you Grandpa, life won't be the same without you!

A non kid/baby post

But a good ole football post. Have I ever told you how much I adore this sport. I just do. I know a lot of people, especially girls dislike football. They think its just a bunch of knuckle heads getting together and beating each other up. In a sense, yes, that is a part of the sport. But honestly, this sport takes a lot of brain power! There is so much "strategery" in football. There are so many plays, back up plays, trick plays, last minute change plays, etc. You have to be able to read a defense, read an offense, at the same time physically, you have to play all out. I could go off, but I won't. I just love watching this sport. After the superbowl, I looked at Trav and said, dang it, we have to wait till August to watch another game! I'm sad.

I have to toot my own horn for a minute. I play fantasy football, and in part, this makes me love the sport even more! I play in a highly competitive league owned by the Charles family and some friends. I am the only girl. The guys thought I was dumb at first, but in 2007 I took second in the superbowl, in 2008 I won the superbowl, in 2009 I won the league and in 2010 I won the league again. I know my crap fellas! Don't mess with me! I was questioned when I drafted Aaron Rodgers in the first round this year. Hmmmmm, who was the superbowl MVP? Yeah, that's right! Ha ha. OK, I know I'm totally going to jinx myself for next year because I'm acting all cocky, I just wanted to say how much I love the game of football. I'm also very happy that my boy won the superbowl, Rodger's has been my QB in FF for two years straight, and I have a feeling he won't be an easy draft next year. I will miss you, and I kind of have a crush on you!

For the superbowl this year, we kind of just stayed home. We had a week old baby, and RSV is plaguing our neighborhood. No thanks! I'm real happy about the outcome though.

So we are a little strapped on cash right now and we made homemade jersy's, sue us!

PS What was everyone's favorite commercial?

Roller Coaster

In the last post, remember how Travis said that everything went as smooth as could be? Well it did, then we got home from the hospital and the first three days were great! My mom took Avery to Utah so we could have some R and R time with little Brooklyn. On the 4Th day of being home, we noticed that Brooklyn's right eye looked puffier than normal.

We didn't think it was a big deal because when she was born her duct seemed swollen and it just ended up going away. After about 3 hours though, her eye was totally swollen shut and seeping green ooze. I was a little alarmed and was wondering if we should take her in or call the doctor. The only problem was, if you were watching the news, you would have seen that we were having the "greatest snow storm in 50 years." We decided to just be safe and call the nurse line. We chatted away with her and in the end she told us to take Brooklyn into the ER... everywhere else was closed due to the weather.

So we braved the storm and got in our car. On the way there, I had some doubts. I didn't think it was going to be anything more than a clogged tear duct and I thought they were just going to laugh at us and think we were crazy to bring our 6 day old baby for such a minimal problem in this weather. We were the only car on the freeway and our lights weren't even doing anything because there was so much ice stuck to them. We kept moving along and made it to Children's mercy ER.

When we were finally checked in and put in a room, the resident came in and checked Brooklyn out. She seemed to be under the same conclusion as me, probably just a clogged tear duct with a little cellulitis. She left to discuss matters with her attending. When she came back in the room, it was a whole different story. She told us that they wanted to admit Brooklyn into the hospital and test her for all of these crazy bacterial infections. They needed to take her blood, get a catheter in to obtain urine samples, give her an IV and worst of all do a spinal tap to see if she had meningitis. WHAT ARE YOU TELLING US?????? I was totally shocked.

So they went on, doing their business, poking and prodding our new little daughter. It was terrible! I had to leave during the spinal, I knew I wouldn't be able to take it!

After all of that, they admitted us to the hospital and it was a long night of no sleep, nurses coming in and night feedings. Our little girl was exhausted!

To make a long story short, all the tests came back negative, which was great! After 2 days, they finally decided to consult ophthalmology. The nice doctor from some cool place in Northern Europe came in and checked Brooklyn out. She was very calm and said that she thought it was a condition called Dacrocystocele. Basically, it meant that her tear duct wasn't draining because a cyst was blocking the hole. Infection was starting to grow in there because of it. She said that if it didn't clear, we would have to surgically pop the cyst.

That thing in the middle is the cyst

You can kind of see the bulge in this pic.

The next day, we had a consult with the ENT docs. They inserted a small camera in Brooklyn's nose and they said they could definitely see the cyst. Right then, they said that she would need surgery and that they could just do it the next day! Whoa! After three days of no answers, it took about 15 minutes for them to figure out what she had.

I was really excited and scared. Excited because we finally knew what the problem was, and that it was pretty minor compared to meningitis. Also excited because I really didn't think we would be in the hospital for 5 days, and I only had two pairs of underwear and I was starting to feel kind of gross. You should have seen me, note that there are no pictures of me during this stay! I was scared too because man, she was only 10 days old and having to be put under anesthesia. They said that she wouldn't be able do eat anything after midnight but pedialite. Then the next morning, she would be the first surgery of the day. I was ready for a long, tiresome night, thinking she would be starving. Our amazing girl slept through the whole night, except when the nurses came in to give her the pedialite. She drank it right up and went straight back to sleep. Besides having to wake up to pump (I felt like I was going to explode) I had the best night of sleep in 4 nights. It was amazing!

The next morning, we were woken up by the nurses and brought down to the OR. We said goodbye to our baby, and went to the waiting room. The procedure only took 15 minutes. Our ENT came in and showed us pictures of Brooklyn's inner nose and the cyst and how they popped it. I have never seen someone so excited about puss, she is definitely in the right profession! After about an hour, we waited for Brooklyn to come out of anesthesia.

She was starving! We took her back to the room, fed her and then she pretty much slept the rest of the day. Her eye looked amazing! The docs did a great job. They made us stay one more night to observe her then we were released the next morning.

She is home now and doing awesome.

She is a good baby (knock on wood). She only gets fussy every so often, usually at night, she hardly ever cries and at night, she will wake up, slurp down some milk and go right back to sleep. We love her!

Some highlights that need to be documented from our experience:

- Beating Travis in Dominion two times in a row

- The hot ham and cheese sandwiches supplied by Children's Mercy, soooooo good!

- The Oreo shakes supplied by Children's Mercy

- Visitors, seriously, Trav and I love each other, but 5 days straight stuck in a tiny room gets rough! Thanks to Chris, John Taylor and Ben Nelson for coming and giving Brooklyn a blessing. And big thanks to Amy for coming and supplying me with enough chocolate to satisfy!

- Probably the greatest highlight of the trip, besides Brooklyn getting better, was the view we had. We had the best view of the tower next door getting built. You may think I'm kidding, but I'm not. We were obsessed with the crane and everything that goes into the construction. We would sit at our window for long bouts of time and just watch. We also made up a game called "what's on the crane this time." We could see that the crane was lifting something, and before we could see what it was, we had to guess. Travis won the most in this game, which is not really a highlight for me. Oh well. I have a lot of respect for those workers now that I have spied on them for the past 5 days.

Lowlights of the trip:

-All the poking and prodding to our baby

- The waiting and uncertainty

- The boredom

- The lack of clothes

- This may not be a low light for Travis, but Sport Center was on for 4 hours straight!

- The nights were horrible. I know that the nurses are required to do their jobs, but on the last night I about lost it! First of all the care assistant and the nurse were NOT on the same page, they both kept coming in within a half hour of each other and waking Brooklyn up. Seriously, they just needed to communicate. The babe just needed to sleep after having surgery! Sometimes I think the medical world just sucks. They are just too afraid of getting sued, so they don't use their common sense and just follow protocols. OK I'm done with this one.

- And then of course losing precious time at home we could have had with Brooklyn. I'm not going to lie, I made a huge list of things I wanted to accomplish while Avery was gone, and it didn't get done!

I don't know why our kids struggle the first week of their life. Avery had to stay at the hospital for 3 extra days because her oxygen levels were too low, and now this! Travis thinks it is a way to make us love our kids more, because after both experiences, we have loved our girls more than we thought was possible. We are grateful that nothing serious happened and that both of our girls are healthy now!

Here are a bunch of pictures of Brooklyn before the second stay in the hospital when everything was happy.. She is cute. Sometimes I bite her (softly).

Postpartum

After the delivery, hospital life was pretty routine. It consisted mainly of me stealing Milli's hospital food, a lot of North and South (old miniseries that Milli and I are into right now), crappy sleep, and occasional visits from family and friends. All the while, our little one slept well, for the most part. She started pooping right away, and hasn't stopped. Recently, she's started those breast milk poops, where it sounds like she is blowing her rear end off. I love it. So one nickname she already has is "dumper". The other one is "hoover", because she sucks like a vacuum. Our pediatrician got a cardio consult on her because he heard a murmur (overkill, but hey, every time we have a kid we get a free echo). Otherwise, she's been a gem, and most importantly no oxygen issues (no progressive care nursery this time, yipee!)

As far as Milli is concerned, she has been doing pretty well. She got pretty crampy occasionally in the hospital, but a little naproxen goes a long way for that. I think she would have made a great pioneer.

One of my favorite parts of this whole experience was watching the two girls meet each other. They got each other presents, and Avery wore a T-shirt that she made that says "big sister". I'm not sure if even now she understands what's going on, other than that we have another kid hanging around here, but she was so excited to meet her sister, for about 4 minutes. Then she promptly forgot about her and went about her business trying to destroy the hospital. These next pictures and footage are priceless to me.

My quarters. Any of you dudes who have had to spend 2 nights on one of these bad boys have felt my pain. I think it may be the hospital's way of evening things out a little. I know, all you ladies are now screaming at the computer that it could never be even, but have you slept on one of these? I doubt I'll ever be able to get the dent out of my back.

Lastly, but not leastly, Tam the Gram deserves one more shout out. She's got 5 rings now! Her grandkids couldn't ask for a better grandma. The whole process went so smoothly, and she was constantly behind the scenes helping. In a word, she was wonderful. And she's still working for us right now, as she is on a plane with Avery as I type, taking her back to Utah for a week with family so Milli and I can get to know our newest. We miss you Avery, you be a good girl. This is how Brooklyn spent her first afternoon at home, completely zonked out with grandma. I think she liked it.

Intrapartum

The night proceeded exactly like our first one had, with Milli starting to be uncomfortable shortly before midnight. We had the nurse check her again at about 12:30, and she was dilated to a four. At that point, the epidural was placed. After we got that in, she was checked again, and was a seven. The doc was on his way in, and she was almost complete when he showed up shortly before 2 AM. Quick, huh? That cervadil stuff really works for us!


At one of our OB visits, I asked Dr. Finkleston how involved I could get in the delivery. I asked how often he let the dad deliver the kid. He said he had never done that before, but that he would be willing in our case. When he showed up for the delivery, I wasn't sure if he remembered our conversation, but apparently he did, because he told the nurse that I would be helping out. The staff was nice enough to get me a gown and gloves, and I got my game face on.



Milli only had to push for about ten minutes, maybe about 5 or 6 contractions. She's a good pusher (I wouldn't have expected anything different from her). It helps to have small babies, too. The doc had me stand at his side for a minute while he got a feel for how the baby was moving down when she pushed. After a couple of pushes, though, I moved in as it was apparent it wasn't going to take much. I sat down and had her push for me, and we had a baby within minutes. I've got some good video, again thanks to Tammy the photographer/babysitter/catering service, but Milli wouldn't let me post it because she thinks it's too personal. Well, she's probably right, but I did a great job if I may say so (the doc did), almost as good as Milli. It's funny how when you sit down to deliver a baby, even when it's your own, it's hard to focus on anything other than getting the kid out safely. It wasn't until I handed her to Milli that I realized, hey wait, this one is mine!

When she came, it was obvious she looks more like her mama's side of the family. I haven't seen too much of me in her (???). We think she looks most like her cousin Bella. Freakin' cute. Here are a couple of our first videos of the little one. She is perfect.

Prepartum

With Avery, we had Cervadil placed at 39 weeks because, hey, it was convenient. After the fact, we decided that we would attempt to go into labor naturally, because in childbirth, less is usually more, right? Well, of course, as the days dragged on and Milli continued to refuse to go into labor, we got a little ancy. Milli's mom, Tammy, showed up 2 days prior to the due date, and we realized shortly after that we were going to miss all of her help after the delivery. So on our last OB visit, we decided to schedule the delivery at 40 weeks and 4 days. So maybe next time with the natural thing (yeah, right.)


On the morning prior to D-Day, I went in to work (oh, this is Travis, by the way, sorry I'm not as funny as Milli) and the girls spent the day doing whatever they do. Milli and I happened to show up at the hospital at the same exact time, and were able to walk in together. On the way in, Milli exclaimed "Oh, we're doing this again!" (in reference to the scheduled induction). I was a little faster up on the floor, and walked up to the desk first. The women all looked at me as I plopped my stuff on the counter and said, "I'm here to have a baby." Apparently nobody got that joke, because they all just looked at me for a second. I chuckled to myself, though, and that made it all worth it.


We got put in a nice room with a view of one of the parking lots as we waited for the sun to go down and for the doc to come place the cervadil. I enjoy that evening at the hospital before the induction, when everything is chill and before Milli is uncomfortable. It feels like vacation. But Milli was bored, so we played some skipbo. I've never been owned in skipbo like that before, I was pretty upset. So shortly after we finished that dumb game (I'm never playing it again), the doc showed up and got the process started. At that point, she was dilated to about a 2, and having an occasional BH contraction.



Tammy and Avery came by soon after, and we had fun with the little one for her last time as a single child. She was cute, and as you would expect, acted like she owned the place. Imagine trying to keep the most inquisitive, adventurous child in the world from touching all of the hospital gadgets. Between watching part of the state of the union and keeping Avery from triggering a code blue, it was a bit exhausting.

It didn't take long before Avery was mostly naked. It's hard to keep clothes on her these days. I'm hoping that changes sooner than later. Tammy was indispensable in caring for Avery through this whole process. She took Avery to our friend's house after an hour or two so that we could rest.

I started to get a little video of the whole experience. Check this out to see Milli's reaction to my filmmaking.

Brooklyn Mae Charles

Welcome, little one, to the world! Born in Overland Park, Kansas at 2:27 AM on January 26th, 2011, Brooklyn weighed 7 lbs 1 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long. The next few posts will give some of the highlights of our first little journey together.

Last post?

Not ever, hopefully its the last post before our baby is due!

I really have wanted to update more often, but man, can I just say that January SUCKS!!! There is not much to talk about and my placenta brain is blocking any wittiness I can come up with.

Speaking of placenta, I don't know why I thought I was going to have this baby early, but its not happening! I was only a one plus at my last Dr's appointment last Thursday. This is the most pregnant I have ever been, well by one day. I had Avery when I was 39 weeks and 2 day, and I'm 39 weeks and 3 days!

This is my dilemma, my Dr is open for induction, but I really don't want to get induced if I can help it. The health benefits are one reason, but the real reason is I seriously want to experience the real life thing that we all see in movies where my water breaks and I look over at my husband and say, "honey, its time." We didn't really get that experience with Avery. The problem is, my mom is coming in town on Thursday and will be here for 9 days, so I kind of want her help while she is here. I just can't decide what to do!!! Any suggestions on how to get things moving is appreciated(besides the obvious one, pervs).

Anyway, I think I'm all ready for this baby. I washed a million baby clothes, sanitized my whole house, finished up her room and pulled out the huge amounts of baby items that we use. For a little 6 pound thing, they sure require a ton, I forgot!

I think Avery is understanding that a baby is coming soon as well. We talk about baby sister all of the time. She wants to name her "goo goo ga ga." We will see. Its seriously going to be a crazy experience with two!

I'm really hoping that I don't have to take a 40 week picture and that this will be my last!

Avery is going through this fun stage right now. She is obsessed with getting married. Not for the boy, but for the pretty dress. She asks me everyday about getting married and the temple and wearing a pretty dress. Whenever she sees anyone in a pretty dress she asks if they are going to get married. Lately, she has been watching our wedding video. I snuck a picture of her wearing the dress she wore at Sadie's wedding while watching our wedding video. Check out her cool shoes!

She is going to marry her little buddy, Jude. We are cool with that!

Yeah, so hopefully the next post is a million pictures of our cute baby girl! I'm due on Saturday! Peace out!

37 weeks and New Years!

So can you believe that it is 2011. I'm going to have my 10 year high school reunion this year! Time seriously flies! Ten years ago from now, I was a freshman at BYU living the Vida Loca! And now look at me, I'm pregnant with my second girl, living in Missouri!

Our New Year's Eve was a blast! We went over to the Taylor's house and played some way fun games! So I didn't realize this, but I'm totally into pop music. I have always been more of an acoustic rock girl, but they played 'name that tune' from the 2010 pop billboards and I pretty much owned the game. I may need to reevaluate my music selection, or maybe I'm just trying to stay hip the older I get... who knows?

New Year's Eve was fun! I remember when I was younger, and I would have these high expectations for New Years Eve, and it was pretty anticlimactic and disappointing, but now days its amazing if I can stay up past midnight, so my expectations are pretty low, yet for the past couple of years I have really enjoyed the holiday. Perspective is a funny thing! I'm excited for 2011!

Here is my 37 week shot, it was taken on New Year's Day! Only 3 more weeks!!! This baby always has the hiccups. I think she is running out of room because there is always an elbow or a foot trying to come out of me! We are really struggling in the name department. Our top choices are 1) Brooklyn 2) Eleanor 3) Mae 4) Ayla or 5) Afton. Please help us out and vote for which one you like best. In the end, it's Trav's turn to name our kid, but maybe your votes will sway him?

PS One of my resolutions is to post more often, even if its a lame post, so before I start this, I had to catch up on all of the things I needed to post on. There are several posts to check out, so make sure you scroll down a ways!

Happy New Year!

Avery and Dada and then more Avery

Avery loves to help in the kitchen and Travis loves spending time with his girls and I love to eat Trav's goodies, so this seemed like the perfect idea!

We also love going home and staying in real houses. I mean, we love our little town house, but nothing compares to our parent's lovely places. Their tub is a million times bigger and they took full advantage! Also, his parents haven't installed blinds for their new house, so the neighbors may have gotten a show, but still well worth it!

After Avery's first hair cut, we decided to tackle another hurdle and take her to her first real movie in the big theaters. We went and saw Tangled. I won't lie, I kind of wanted to see it, so I came up with the realization that maybe it was time for Avery to join this new world. We actually bought popcorn because we felt we had to make it a real movie experience, but we did pilfer the candy in my purse. Lets be honest, its just that time of year where everyone has ample sweets around, I wasn't going to pay 4 bucks for a box of Mike and Ike's. The movie was a hit, for the most part. She got ancy towards the end and probably sat in old gum off the floor, but I wasn't too worried. I think we will do it again some time.

Here are just random pictures of the little turd

She loves bathing with her friends

She also really loved egg nog this season, oh and she learned how to open the fridge... bad combination!

She is one funny girl!