The Mainwaring Diary: Charlie is finally here!

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Charlie is finally here! -

Well, Charlie Page Mainwaring decided to come on out on Saturday, April 12th at 12:41 a.m. She was 8 pounds 9 ounces and 20 inches long. Labor was intense! I went to the hospital after my water broke early Friday morning. The doctor had to give me pitocin to increase and regulate my contractions because I was only dilated 1 cm. After a few hours of toughing out contractions I finally reached 4 cm. and my doctor said I could have the epidural (which I accepted with open arms). However, the epidural caused the contractions to slow and become irregular therefore making me dilate slower. Around 7:00 that night I had reached 8 cm. Needless to say I was tired and HUNGRY! Finally I was fully dilated and ready to begin pushing a few hours later. The pushing lasted 2 painful hours and then she was here! The rest of the night we spent cuddling and resting. I was so happy to finally hold her in my arms!

We are adapting to being at home now. Charlie sleeps most of the day. I am having trouble getting her to sleep in her crib or cradle. She likes being held too much. It's only been a few days so I'm working on getting her used to the feel of sleeping by herself. Other than that, she is the perfect baby. She only cries when something is wrong. She eats well too, which is a big sigh of relief because I though breast feeding would be harder than this. She seemed to know just what to do from the beginning. Duke was introduced to Charlie and has yet to figure out what she is. He likes to sniff her diaper, but doesn't like her crying. Whenever she begins to cry, he races in the room and seems to be in a bit of distress (sometimes he even lets out a whimper or bark). I assume the two of them will be great friends soon, Duke just needs some time to adjust.

Unfortunately, Brian had to miss Charlie's big debut. BUT-he is very proud. He calls just about every day and asks a million questions about her and what she's doing. We even enjoyed a chat on the web cam. He is going to be a great dad!

Speaking of Brian, he moved to a new location with his platoon this week. He isn't far from where he was before, but his platoon was needed in another spot so they packed their bags. Things are going good, he seems to be enjoying it thus far. He is still using the same address for now, if that changes I will make sure to let you know.

Well, that's all for now. I have uploaded some pictures of my beautiful daughter and also some pictures Brian sent from Iraq. Miss and love you all!

This post was written at 6:44 AM