Charlotte's Halloween

 

Well, Charlotte is a little young for trick or treating, but she did manage to dress up for the occasion!

Halloween here is a little different than the American model. When we first arrived in Ireland, costumes were few and far between. It was more traditional to set off fireworks. But trick or treating is beginning to take off in Ireland -- the grocery stores are full of children's costumes and there are good supplies of adult costumes at the Hallmark stores throughout the city. So, between feedings and Charlotte being noisy, we had the sound of fireworks to deal with. But I like to think they were being set off to celebrate Charlotte's birth!


 

My Favorite Photo So Far

I've learned that it's hard to get photos of your baby with her eyes open -- she's asleep about 18 hours a day. But we had a little success today. Charlotte and Erin are home and doing well. 

Two Whitakers Napping

Hi everyone. Clearly it has been a busy day for Charlotte and I -- we both needed our sleep in the hospital. Charlotte's doing very well -- she's feeding every couple of hours, is energetic, likes checking out the world, and has decided that her Dad doesn't smell TOO bad.

I've started an online album of photos. The link is in the sidebar. I'll keep updating this regularly as we take more photos.

The Sprout Is Out! Charlotte has Arrived

Well, Miss Charlotte has finally arrived at 3.17pm Dublin time after about fifteen hours of labour. Sorry for the lousy picture quality, but between low light levels and avoiding flash, this was the best I could do. I'll try to do better tomorrow. Erin and Charlotte are doing well tonight and will be in the hospital for another couple of days. Erin had good pain relief and got Charlotte out after only 35 minutes of active pushing.

So far she's sucked on her hand (favouring her left), looked around very alertly, had hiccups, done a bit of kicking, responded to singing and to whistling by wiggling, and has nursed well. I think she looks mostly like her Mom, but she has a few of my traits.

Not only was Charlotte born on her mother's birthday, Erin's parents arrived in Dublin in time for the birth! Though it was a tiring day, it was the best day we've ever had. 

We are still waiting

We had a good visit at the doctor this morning and so far things are still going well. Charlotte measured out at 8.5 pounds and she has lots of fluid around her. Since she is in the normal range of where she should be, we are going to hang out and wait for her to make her arrival when she is ready. We go to the doctor again next Thursday for a check up and if she isn't here by the 6th then we will look at options then. Until then we are all hanging out and doing well.

39 Weeks

Here I am at 39 weeks. Everything went well at the doctor this morning. My blood pressure was good and I'm still not showing any signs of going into labor. Now we wait until the scan on Thursday to see how big she is getting and what the next step is.

Keep checking the blog for updates...

 

It's all baby!

Brian and I went to the doctor this morning and everything is looking good so far. However...Charlotte is getting BIG! The doctor thinks she is about 9 pounds right now (teeny tiny tank jr???) but she isn't ready to come just yet. According to the doctor, if Charlotte hasn't made her grand entrance over the next week and a half, we will have a scan to get a more accurate measurement of her size and see what we need to do. I'll go to the doctor again next Monday for a check up too.

Here I am at 38 weeks and both the doctor and I think it is all baby!

 

36 Weeks

Here I am at 36 weeks. I feel like I'm getting bigger every day. This week is my last week at work! I'm looking forward to some time off before Charlotte gets here. I know this is the last time for a long time that I'll be bored and I'm going to enjoy every minute of it!

 

Babyfro and Babytoes

At the doctor's appointment this morning Charlotte was being a bit difficult and not in a good position for pictures, but we did get these two. In the top one, the white glow around her head is her hair. In the bottom on you can see her toes. Her other foot was hanging out in my ribs so we didn't get to see that one.

All is going well and they are estimating she weighs 6lbs 10oz right now. I hope she doesn't get too much bigger before her arrival.


 

Our Nursery

I promised everyone a photo of the nursery, but without a wide-angle lens this stitched up view is the best I could do. If someone wants to buy me a copy of Photoshop Elements for Christmas, I could do a better job! 

33 Weeks and Growing

Here I am at 33 weeks. I already feel like I couldn't get much bigger, but I know in the next 7 weeks I will. I can't believe how quickly everything has gone thus far and both Brian and I are looking forward to counting up the time we have with her rather than counting down the time until she arrives.

 

Getting ready for baby

So this weekend the project was to get things put together and organized for Charlotte. Here is Brian putting together the swing for her. The best part about this is that he managed to do what should have been step one last. Brian's dad will be sad to learn that it didn't take as long as he thought it would and Brian didn't cuss at the swing once.


Pictures of the growing bump to come... 

Trip to Houston

As some of you know by now, Erin's dad had some heart problems last week and ended up with a quadruple bypass. We took an emergency flight to Houston the day of the surgery. All is well with her Dad, and we had a good visit with friends and family. While we were there I took this photo. I'm not sure why a streak of her hair turned blonde in the photo, but she is the cutest thing in the world right now, so I had to share this photo.

 

The Most Expensive Trout in the World

About 18 months ago, I took up fly fishing. It's very relaxing, and it's the one opportunity I get to get a tan, so I try to go at least once a month. Unfortunately, until today, I had never actually caught a trout. But today I brought one home to cook and eat. Unfortunately, that means this trout cost about $5o0 -- making it the most expensive trout in the world. 8-(

 

Egolf Brewery

While in Germany we stopped off at the Egolf Brewery. This was one of the best parts of the trips since Brian's grandfather is an Egolf. We got to sample the beer and had a nice visit with Gunther Egolf (even though he knew about as much English as we knew German).

Here are Ed and I about to take our first sips of Egolf beer - I only had a taste, not the whole glass. And I paid for it about 5 minutes later when Charlotte gave me two of the biggest kicks she has ever given me!