Part 5: The Final Chapter

This post is a continuation of a previous post.  To read Part 4 click HERE.

Wow!  If you are still reading these posts thanks for hanging with me.  I didn't realize that it was going to turn into such a book.  But I know that Charlotte with love having her birth story for her memory book and me for my journal.  So here is the final chapter...at least of the birth story anyway. ;-)

While we were in the hospital we had a few family and friends who came to visit.  But the most important person was of course her big sister Abby.  Bud brought Abby to visit the day after Charlotte was born.  She was a bit tentative at first and wanted me to hold her but knew exactly who the baby was when we let her hold her.  She was so sweet and kept giving her lots of kisses.  Bud brought her back to visit on Sunday after church and as soon as she walked in the door she asked if she could hold the baby.  It was so cute!  She had had a bit of a rough day at church and just wanted to sit on the bed next to me and snuggle which I loved.  Holding my two girls was unlike anything I had ever felt before.  To this day I am still in awe at how Heavenly Father increases our love so that no one child is loved more than another, just differently.  This experience has helped me to understand how God can love all of his children equally.  We are all so different and need different things yet we all yearn for the same thing, someone who loves us and sees us for who we are.  Incredible!

Abby first meets Charlotte

Abby's second visit (I adore these pictures!)

We were in the hospital for about 3 1/2 days.  I really enjoyed being able to spend that time bonding with Charlotte and also having time to heal a bit before going home.  I don't know that I will stay quite that long next time since it did get a bit lonely and the hospital bed was less than ideal since I was stuck on my back most of the time but I wanted to make sure I was ready since I knew I'd have to climb three flights of stairs and also because I knew Abby would want to climb all over me and not understand why she couldn't.  Most of our visitors came the second day we were in the hospital but other than Bud coming to visit with Abby on Sunday we were pretty much on our own.  I was hoping to get as much rest as I could before going home but due to some nursing issues (I could write a whole post on that fiasco...and I just might.) I didn't quite get the rest I was hoping for.  This left me feeling lonely, emotional and exhausted.  I am eternally grateful to my sister-in-law Erin who dropped everything (including her own three children) to come to my rescue.  She held Charlotte and let me pour my heart out and it was just what I needed to get me through the night until I went home the next day.

Some sweet pictures from the hospital

Bud came and picked me up after he got off work on Monday and boy was I ready to go.  Unfortunately the discharge took WAY longer than both of us had hoped and we didn't get home until almost 7:00 pm.  But I was SO glad to be home.  The next day my mom flew in to spend a week with us and she was such a great help with Abby giving her all of the attention that she needed.  My recovery was very quick and compared to my experience with Abby was SO much easier and with a lot less pain.  Within a week and a half I felt pretty much like myself and other than heavy lifting and being tired I felt really good and could do almost everything I needed to do to take care of my family.  In summary I am SO grateful to my doctor who gave me the option of having a C-section and I am grateful that I was humble enough to listen to my instincts and to the spirit and decide that this was best for me.  My experience this time has been so much more positive and I feel like I have been able to actually enjoy having a newborn instead being in so much pain.  I think the best thing about Charlotte's birth is that the experience was so positive that it makes me excited to have another baby and I couldn't say that after I had Abby for a long time.  Well I guess it wasn't that long since they are only 21 months apart.  Ha ha!


Charlotte is such a sweet, laid back baby.  She hardly ever cries, she loves to smile and she is such a good sleeper.  I feel incredibly blessed to have two incredibly sweet, beautiful, healthy little girls and even though having two kids has been an adjustment and a challenge at times I wouldn't change it for the world. 

The End