Forgive me for not posting tons of baby pictures and videos for the past few weeks. Things have been... rough.

Who would have thought that the easiest part of this whole parenting thing was the baby!?! Charlotte has proven to be the best baby ever, and thank goodness because with everything I've gone through in the past two months, I don't know if I could have handled a baby with acid reflux, colic, or any other major issues. Heavenly Father sure did bless us in that regard.

I won't go too deep into my struggles for the past two months. Poor Ander has had to deal with me talking about it all the time, not to mention giving me his tired shoulder to cry on when I had meltdowns. To make a long story short, I've had to recover from two breast infections, during which I was on a very intense pumping schedule which left me with literally no sleep. I was tired, cranky, in pain, and almost constantly attached to my pump, so add a newborn baby to that equation and I was a mess. Good thing I married an amazing man, who got up with the baby all night long so I could pump every three hours.

Anyway.

The good news is that I am officially OFF the pump! So I get to sleep through the night with Ander and Charlotte, getting at least seven hours. It's amazing what a difference a good night's sleep makes. I feel much better and things are definitely looking up!

Those are the reasons I took a little hiatus from blogging about Charlotte... I felt that if I did post anything it would just be a huge angry rant about how miserable I was and how my life sucked and I felt like I couldn't even enjoy my baby girl. So I wanted to wait until things calmed down before I posted so I could post happier things!

On to happier things! (There are quite a few!)

Charlotte's baby blessing was wonderful! The whole family came out for it, and I could not have asked for a better visit from them all! And Charlotte didn't make a peep during her blessing, which was a huge relief. I took an audio recording of the blessing and typed it all up so I can put it in her baby book. (What would we do without technology?!) But my absolute favorite thing about that day was this gem of a photo that Katie snapped:

She clearly didn't have time for peasants on her blessing day.

She looked so darling in her BEAUTIFUL blessing dress that Ander's mom Crystal made for her. The whole thing went off without a hitch!

That's Ander's mom Crystal, my sister Katie, my mom, my brother Joe, my dad, and my step-mom Colleen. What a good looking group!

It was a lovely, lovely day! Also made extra lovely by the attendance of my good friend Michelle and Ander's good friend Jeff. They came to see Charlotte be blessed and we were so appreciative.

Having all of the family here was so good for me, and it was definitely good for Charlotte. I believe she grew quite a bit in those days that they were here. And it was so nice having so much help. I could pump whenever I needed to, because there was always someone there to feed, change, or burp her. How nice to have family around!

And speaking of family, I will now fill this post with tons of wonderful family photos from a great visit!

A HUGE thank you to all of my lovely family who used their time and money to come out and visit us for such a special occasion. It meant so much to us!!!

A list of Charlotte's lullabys:

Do You Hear the People Sing

Castle On A Cloud

I'll Be Home For Christmas

White Christmas

Silent Night

The Spirit of God

How Firm A Foundation

The Ants Go Marching

...Whatever works, right?

Baby hiccups

Baby hiccups are super cute when your baby is in your belly and you can feel her jump with each hiccup.

Baby hiccups are not cute when you FINALLY get your child down to sleep and she gets hiccups, which wake her up.

As if things couldn't have gotten any worse this past week, Ander came down with a COLD! Of all the times to be sick with a cold!! Curse Wells Fargo and the stupid dirty money he handles all day. Granted, Ander has a weaker immune system than I do, he always has. He had spinal meningitis when he was a baby and it wreaked havoc on his immune system.

Anyway.

Today is Saturday, and Ander had to work from 8:45 to 2:15. Poor guy. He already has this cold, then he barely got any sleep last night between me being up with Charlotte and him being sick. Then today after work he had promised a brother from our ward that he would help him move a few pieces of furniture BEFORE he came down with this cold, so he didn't feel like he could back out.

Before I continue with this post I must step on my soapbox for a moment:
This isn't just Mormons, but most of the people I've dealt with that do this have been members. They say, "I need help moving," in Elder's Quorum or Relief Society, and people are always looking for a way to serve, right?? Then we show up at said person's home to help them move, when really what they meant was, "I need help packing, loading, unloading, and cleaning." There is a fine line between asking for help and taking advantage of other people's willingness to serve. This is what happened to Ander today. This brother said he needed help moving a few pieces of furniture, and when Ander got there it turned into a full blown move. I wish people would just be honest and say what they really need help with... or better yet, be better prepared with the packing a whatnot. I know it's hard, moving sucks. But it also sucks to show up thinking you're going to move a few pieces of furniture and having to move an entire apartment instead.

Okay. I've come down off of my soapbox for now.

Ander was gone for two and a half hours with a small amount of food in him and a cold to boot, running on about three and a half hours of sleep. I couldn't help it... I did not have very Christlike thoughts towards this person that had asked Ander for help. I'm repenting for it now.

I told Ander he needed to eat something and go to bed. So much for the Priesthood session... I think this is the first time he has missed it in all of our years of marriage. I insisted he go to bed though, I need him to get better. I'm terrified of him touching Charlotte unless he absolutely has to because I DON'T want a sick baby.

Now here is the real reason for this post: (I promise I did not mean to just rant the entire time)

SHOUTOUT TO SINGLE MOTHERS WHO RAISE CHILDREN ALONE

How in the WORLD do they do this?? I have basically been taking care of Charlotte by myself all day long with no help whatsoever, plus I've had to pump every three hours to keep my milk moving so I don't get mastitis again. I am exhausted and wired at the same time. I really feel for single mothers and the fact that they have to do this all alone, all day long every day. I honestly don't know how they do it. I mean, I guess you just do it. You don't really have a choice, do you? Hopefully you have family around to help you, but if not... goodness. I remember hearing a quote in a Sacrament meeting talk that said, "How much does the world weigh? Ask a single mother." I have SO much more respect for single mothers now than I ever did before. This mom roll is hard, but at least I have a husband who helps me out (when he isn't sick) and a ward full of people who are willing to come over and help me when I need it. How do single mothers do this when they don't have either of those things?

I've been thinking about this all day long. There's a single mom who lives across from us and she has three kids already, and just barely had a baby right around the same time I did. Three kiddos plus a newborn. I will keep her in my thoughts and prayers more often these days.

My baby smiles at things I can't see

This is a video I took of some tummy time. The cutest part is at the end. She's beginning to coo a little, and it's adorable.

In other news, Charlotte smiled at me today. I mean, legitimately smiled at me! It was such a heavenly little moment! It's so interesting because sometimes she looks at random corners of the room and smiles, and I always ask her, "Who's there? Who do you see?" I truly believe that our loved ones that we've lost are all around us, and that when she smiles at a random corner of the room she's smiling at someone that I can't see. I don't know who it is. I don't know if it's my grandma Barbara, my grandpa Leonard, my Aunt Trisha, or maybe even my grandma Grace who I never met, but I know she sees someone. I mean, she was just with them all up there, wasn't she? I know in my heart they all had a hand in preparing her to come here to us. So I don't mind if she smiles at a corner of the room... but I am very honored that she smiled directly at me today.

Just two weeks after getting these little earmuffs put on, Charlotte's ear is looking pretty awesome!

This is before. It's not the greatest pic, but I'm sure you've seen her floppy ear in other pictures on here.

Halfway there! Plus she's rocking a pretty killer haircut so the adhesive doesn't get in her hair. The doctor says she's coming along nicely and she is a great candidate for this. Honestly, I think we're some of the first people to have this done on their little one here in Austin. Her ear looks a little red because the mold rubbed it a little in one area, but the doctor put bigger molds on this time, so that shouldn't be a problem anymore.

Charlotte screamed and screamed while they were reapplying her earmuffs, and it was so hard to sit and listen to because there was nothing either of us could do, but I will take the screaming now rather than when she first starts middle school and hates her ears and cries because she's embarrassed. She won't remember any of this, thankfully. A huge thank you to Dr. Cone and his staff at Wellspring Plastic Surgery!!

Ander and I are two very exhausted parents... as we knew we would be. Charlotte has really good nights and some really bad ones. Usually they're good, and the bad ones only come along every once in a while. Last night was a bad one.

Here's our problem: I apparently developed mastitis in my right breast. This is a blocked milk duct of some sort that usually comes with some infection. My doctor told me I needed to pump every two to three hours instead of every three to four, so all night long I wake every three hours to pump. This means I hardly have time to feed Charlotte myself throughout the night, so Ander is on feeding, changing, and burping duty each time Charlotte wakes up. He is a CHAMP for doing so, but I feel completely useless... even though I'm the one providing the milk he's feeding her. I know I'm technically doing something but I don't feel like I'm DOING something. And pumping every three hours isn't quite in sync with Charlotte's feedings during the night. I have to wake up far more than Ander does, and from the beginning of a pumping session to when I can finally go back to bed is about an hour, since I have to wash pump parts and store the milk in the freezer. So I'm sleeping in two hour sessions, while Ander is usually sleeping in three to four. Either way, we're both super pooped, but it looks like this infection is going away (hopefully!) So here's hoping we can get back to shifts in the night with more sleep!

In other news, we made a trip to a plastic surgeon this past week. Vain, I know. I'll get to that after these few pictures.

Okay, about her ear. Charlotte was born with a little floppy ear on her left side. We called it her little elf ear. It was actually super cute, but I kept thinking to myself that kids can be really mean, and I wanted to try and fix her ear if we could. Luckily one of the pediatricians at the hospital gave us the name of a surgeon in Austin who specializes in this kind of thing. He's the only one in Austin who does this when the baby is still very young, instead of waiting until the child is six or so to have a surgery to correct it.

 So Dr. Cone put these little plastic molds on her ears to shape the cartilage. When children are this young their cartilage is very flexible so it can be molded. Even better, our insurance covered 80% of this, even though technically it's cosmetic!

So now for four weeks little Charlotte has earmuffs. They don't bother her in the slightest. We go in every once in a while to have them reapplied since the adhesive begins to wear off after a while, but it's a pretty sweet deal. This way we completely avoid surgery!

And to top things off, one of my lovely clients/friends ordered us a huge Chinese take-out feast the other night and had it delivered directly to our door! This food lasted us for days!