i have a lot to catch up on since i last blogged, so here it goes! (get ready for a photo overload!)
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| our little hawkeye fan |
charlie had a check up on september 12th (11 weeks old) and she continues to grow. she weighed 11 pounds and was 23 inches in length. she fell to the 36th percentile in weight and 55th percentile in height. still no signs of a "maine head" - 53rd percentile for head size. the doctor said she isn't concerned as long as charlie "finds her place" on the chart. in my opinion, we would know if something is wrong with charlotte. she is fed on demand (which is generally every two hours) and has a healthy number of dirty diapers each day. reglardless, i refuse to supplement with formula. it's just not for us. we go back in mid-november for another check up.
on september 17, we attended the conquer chiari walk across america in burlington in support of our nephew, kalen, who has chiari malformation. chiari malformation is a brain disorder consisting of the downward displacement of the cerebullar tonsils through the opening at the base of the skull. it causes headaches, fatigue, muscle weakness in the head and face, difficulty swallowing, dizziness, nausea, impaired coordination, and, in severe cases, paralysis. kalen had an amazing support group show up for the one-mile walk around crapo park. hopefully, with the money raised for chiari research, a cure can be found.
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| TEAM KALEN |
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| us with kalen |
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| the maines |
after the walk, i helped get my sister, cassie, and morgan's sister, christina, ready for their homecoming dance. this was cassie's first homecoming and i am just baffled at the fact that she is in high school!! both cassie and christina looked absolutely stunning.
and now for sad news...i started back to work last week. :(!!! monday was definitely one of the hardest days of my life. my sister-in-law, steph, is taking care of charlie during the week until morgan's mom is finished with her seasonal job. my grandma takes charlie on wednesdays which is AWESOME because my grandma lives near my office, so i get to nurse charlie on my lunch breaks. it is so hard leaving her behind for so many hours, but we are so grateful that she is getting such wonderful care!! the only thing that is kind of a bummer is her new dependency on bottles. charlie had been exclusively breastfed up until last week. now she gets a few bottles a day while being babysat, which has made her extremely fussy and impatient when at the breast! silly little girl is quite picky. she will learn!
this past weekend, we had planned a trip to saint louis for the cardinals/cubs game. this was my anniversary gift for morgan and we were SO excited! it was our first family trip and my first MLB game! we were a little over halfway there when the odometer, speedometer, and cruise control all stopped working. confused, we pulled over at the nearest parking lot and shut off the car in an effort to "reboot" the system. when we did this, the car decided to stop working properly and would only go in 5th gear or reverse. so morgan got on the phone with our insurance agent immediately while i got our sweet baby out of her carseat and nursed her. (she had been asleep for the entire 3 hours we had been on the road!!) morgan was calling everyone - ford dealerships, towing companies, etc. trying to get everything figured out. meanwhile, charlie took a massive poo that ended up shooting up her back and leaking through her clothes. i got charlotte cleaned up while morgan continued on his quest to get our car situation figured out. finally, we discovered there was a ford dealership in the very town we had broken down in (palmyra, missouri) and they said they'd come get us. (this was after morgan discovered we had a premium warranty on our car, covering all expenses.) we spent a few hours at the ford dealership, realizing our hopes of making it to the 12:00 cardinals game were dashed. finally, the mechanic told us that we had an intermittent sensor issue and the part wouldn't be in until tuesday. he said the car would run and work just fine, but the issue would appear again at some point - but he didn't know when. we decided that it was best to get a rental car since we had charlie with us. we didn't want to get 20 miles down the road and have the same issue. so we got driven to the nearest car rental place - which was in quincy, illinois. charlie and i sat in the van with the lady who drove us while morgan went and got our car squared away. this is when charlie started to get a little impatient. she began fussing, so i nursed her. but then, after a while, she wouldn't calm down. i was trying everything i could until suddenly, i felt it. poop. all the way up her back, around her sides, and all over her onesie. again. my kid is a poop machine, i tell you!! so i get charlie all cleaned up and morgan gets the keys to our kick ass hybrid honda insight hatchback. LOL! we feel like complete tools in that dang car. after we got the car, we decided we should just drive home. we pulled in our drive around 3:00 pm - about 10 hours after we left. what a disaster!!! all we can do is laugh because it's just one of those things. we are all safe and that is all that matters. we were very fortunate to break down in podunk, missouri versus saint louis! perhaps the most devastating detail of the entire situation (for me) was the fact that charlotte didn't even get to wear her adorable cardinals outfit i had bought her. so, i put it on her today so it didn't go to waste. :)
the rest of the fall seems like it'll be pretty busy. morgan's brothers, logan and jerome, are both in football, so we try to make it to all of their games as weather permits. morgan is also working like a crazy person. he does his normal 40 hours with missman each week and then works another 25-35 hours a week picking seed corn with local farmers. charlotte and i miss him dearly!! we are ready for winter and for things to slow down a bit. maybe then i'll be able to blog a little bit more! (who am i kidding?)
-the mays'
