Oh Charlotte!
We were happily surprised (3 weeks early) to welcome our 2nd baby Saturday night in Dallas, Texas. A healthy 6 pound, 7 ounce baby girl we named Charlotte Marianna – named after my grandma and Jakob’s babcia (grandma in Polish). Of course, we weren’t expecting her to come early and we weren’t prepared. Note to self or any other pregnant women out there – from the car seat to the newborn Pampers, don’t procrastinate. We arrived home from the hospital Monday afternoon on a mad Amazon Prime dash between feedings to buy a bassinet, a changing table, etc etc. What would moms do these days without 1-day shipping?
While I won’t go into ‘birthing experience’ details, thankfully when it was labor time – I was at hospital very early compared to waiting way too long at home with contractions giving birth to my first daughter Wilhelmina in 2015 when we lived in Switzerland.
If I had to describe Charlotte’s birth in terms of Hollywood, my labor and delivery here in Dallas was like a sweet little episode of Swiss Family Robinson compared to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre memory etched into my brain back in 2015. The game changer? I had an epidural this round and I highly recommend it.
Although I was in labor starting Friday night at the hospital, after an uneventful Saturday morning, strong contractions started late Saturday afternoon. After about 40 minutes of intense contractions and 7 minutes of pushing, we welcomed little Charlotte at 6pm and the special feeling of holding a newborn in my arms came flooding back.
As I stared down at her and asked the nurse for my phone to text Jakob who was in the waiting room with Wilhelmina.
‘Come in. Done.’
He walked in and came over to hug us as I told him the gender.
‘Another girl!,’ I said as we both smiled.
Another girl with dark hair this time which I didn’t expect. And speaking of jet black hair, I checked into the hospital seeing tweets about Kylie’s pregnancy and checked out hearing Khloe was preggers. But the season 10 premiere of #KWTK is just around the corner. Middle of the night nursing = lots of time to catch up on celebrity gossip.
Anyway, we’re adjusting to a new baby and a toddler. The last few days have been a blur unpacking boxes of Mina’s old onsies. Special thanks to my mom helping this week and my mother-in-law on the way this weekend. We are so relieved and excited to be home with baby Charlotte watching her grow ounce by ounce. Thank you for the well wishes over the pregnancy which flew by this summer.
~xo,
Congrats Dale! She is beautiful!
Thanks Caitlin! 🙂
Warm welcome from Uncle Hu. 47 mins total, well done mama. Congrats to the family.
Thank you Uncle Hu! Charlotte can’t wait to meet you 🙂
Welcome Charlotte and congrats to you and your family Dale!
Thank you so much Aimee! I know what you were talking about with 2 now. hehe
Congrats!! Reading this made me tear up ❤️ And yay for epdiurals! Lol
Beautiful girls!
Thanks Kortney! That is so sweet and we’ll have to come by Testa when we’re back for Thanksgiving. Your little boy is so adorable.
Dale, Charlotte is absolutely PRECIOUS! Congratulations! Wilhelmina has a beautiful little sister. Glad everything went well.
http://www.averysweetblog.com/
Thank you so much Kim! Wilhelmina is slowly adjusting 🙂
Congratulations Dale… she is adorable xox… I am so happy to hear that you have some help for the first little while, especially with a toddler. xox
By the way, I had my first daughter natural and then I had Valentina with an epidural… I HIGHLY recommend epidurals… natural birth is not all it is cracked up to be… xox
Congrats to you All. I was surprised to see this…I’ve been following you for years now and enjoy seeing your family grow and adventures! So happy for you all…and seven minutes of pushing! Lucky you… Be well and enjoy!
Lola.B
Thank you so much Lola! It’s great to hear from you too. 🙂
Dale, So thrilled for you!! Congrats on your beautiful baby Charlotte. So wonderful to have two sisters. I had the epidural too and I couldn’t have done it without that. Glad all is good and you’re home and healthy.
xoxo Hugs, Kim
Thank you Kim and we’re so excited to have sisters. Yes, I totally agree with you about the epidural. What a difference! 🙂
Congratulations to you both! So thrilled to hear your great news! Yes you never know when they will be ready – mine were a whole 7 weeks early !!! Wishing you lots of happiness xx
Thank you so much Christina! I remember you saying when you’re twins were 7 weeks early. So true, you never know when they’re ready. 🙂
Congrats! Such a acute little Libra 🙂
My new blog…
https://dinamighty.com/
Thanks Dina!
https://www.southcolors.in/