The Giesen Family: Charlotte At Home

It is so hard to believe that our sweet Charlotte is almost 11 weeks old. She has been such a joy (most of the time ha) and I've been waiting so long to do a post now that things are more normal, but wanted to finish our hospital story first. So here are more details about her first couple of months.

While we were in the hospital, we kept talking about how great the NICU would be for her schedule. They fed her strictly on a 3-hour schedule so we were looking forward to continuing that at home. What we didn't think about was all of the activity she was use to at night. They bathed her, weighed her, did any of her tests and bloodwork, etc. at night and she had her days and nights confused for a couple of weeks. So most of her pictures for the first two weeks we were home are of her sleeping:

The first weekend we were home, we went to the lake. I don't know what we were thinking, but I have to say that it is a lot easier to travel the second time around. We knew Caleb would enjoy being with his cousins, plus we would have plenty of help with Charlotte!

After the lake trip, she did so much better with her nights and days. She would sleep from about 11-2, get a bottle, and then sleep again until about 6. I can't really remember her waking up more than once during the night, but I'm sure she did. You seem to forget about those things after they are done. If you didn't, I'm sure there would be a lot of only children :) Eventually we started to notice some sweet smiles in her sleep, but didn't get any real ones for another couple weeks.

We had two doctors appointments this month. One as a follow up for her NICU stay, and the normal well visit that occurs around one month. At both of the appointments, she checked out great and it was confirmed that she was a miracle with no evidence of her "rough start". I cannot find the exact numbers, but at her one month appointment she was in the 25-50th percentile for weight and 75-90th for height. Here is her official one month picture:

A couple days after she turned one month, we got her first REAL smile.

And she quickly started showing her personality.

For July 4th, we went to the lake again and she had her first boat ride!

For the first couple of months, she was happiest in someones arms. I will take fault for that because I couldn't put her down for the first few weeks we were home. However, she has been sleeping in her swing great during the day for the past week or so (which is why you see an uptick in posts).

Before we knew it, our sweet girl was two months old! At her well visit, she was 11 pounds 13 ounces (75-90th percentile) and 24 1/4 inches long (90-95th).

Here are some of my favorite shots from her two month "photo shoot":

"Okay Mom, that is enough pictures"

"No seriously, I said that's enough"

Charlotte –

My sweet miracle. You bring so much joy into our lives. I am so glad that God chose us to be your parents. You have the sweetest spirit and are so content being in your mom or dad’s arms.

You are so beautiful and I am obsessed with your eyes and eyelashes.

And how could I forget that double chin!

I am compelled to kiss you all of the time, even if I sometimes wake you up by doing it. I absolutely adore the way you light up when your brother starts talking to you and kissing on you.