It's August 24th and in addition to the fact that today little Charlie is turning 13 weeks (yes she's over 3 months old now!) today marks one week until I'm back to work.  Yes, my long, luxurious maternity leave is coming to an end.  I am excited to get back to work, but I find myself tearing up when I look at my little one and think of leaving her, even if fo just a few hours a day.  I couldn't ask for better hands to leave her in...my husband Shawn will be caring for our baby while I'm at work.

After Sarah was born, I stayed at home with her for 3 years, so this is new territory for me.  I'm a little nervous about the whole thing.  With that said, I AM excited to get back on the air and back in touch with you.  Between diaper changes and feedings, I've been coming up with some things I'd really like to share with you.  Things that I hope will make your life easier...and more fun.  So, I guess we'll catch up soon.  Oh, and keep checking back for some new Charlie photos. 

After a rough day, she's finally here...Emily Charles Keller AKA Charlie!  She weighed in at 6 pds, 12 oz and arrived at 2:36 on April 24th.  We're both doing fine and enjoying the hospitality of the folks at Roper.  We hope to be home soon. 

So it's April 22nd, and still no baby.  I predicted that today would be the day...but so far, nothing!  At my last appointment my doctor seemed to feel that she would be arriving anytime, but just in case, she put me down to be induced this Thursday, so one way or another, the little one will be here by the weekend.  Even with that though, my husband, Shawn, (and my daughter Sarah) are impatiently waiting for the baby to come. 

I am in no way encouraging anyone expecting a baby to do this, I'm clearly not a doctor and have no scientific evidence to support this, but when I was expecting Sarah, the day before my due date, Shawn and I were talking to my grandmother and she told us the story of how her doctor told her to take castor oil and oj and that by the morning, she would have her baby...and it worked.  That's all that Shawn had to hear, he was off to the store and had promptly mixed up a cocktail of oj and mmmmm... castor oil.  It was. of course, disguisting, but I gotta say, it worked!  Drank the stuff around 8pm and woke up around 4am with contractions and Sarah arrived later that day. 

So, as I said, we have been impatiently waiting for baby to come.  Over the weekend there were signs that made me think that I would be at the hospital soon, but, no such luck.  By yesterday (Monday) I guess Shawn had had enough waiting, he was ready for action, so after going out to do some errands, he came back and asked if I would like him to mix me a drink.  Normally this would mean a dirty martini, but in this case, I knew it was a castor oil cocktail.  He reminded me that "hey, if it was good enough for your grandmother, it should be good enough for you!"  How dare he bring Grandma into this...he knows how I am when it comes to Grandma!  Yes, I drank it!  Clearly you know how it turned out this time...no baby.  I guess she's just not ready to join us.  

So here I sit, messing on the computer, watching a lot of cooking shows and devouring a new book that Shawn bought for me.  Tomorrow I will go to see the Dr and she'll go over the whole induction thing for Thursday morning.  That is if the little one doesn't decide to show up before then.  I'm not really feeling it...but you never know.  Shawn did offer me another beverage this morning, but I declined and promptly hid the bottle of castor oil from him!  :)

So on April 1st, I went to see my doctor for a routine OB check-up and found that my blood pressure was up...so much so that my doctor put me on bed rest.  Bed rest...sounds better than it really is!  I  must say that the best part of all of this is that because I was put on bed rest, my husband, Shawn, was able to get home from Iraq a few weeks early.  He flew in last Sunday!  He looked great and it was so wonderful to have him back home with us, safe.  It seems almost surreal to have him here now.  It will take some getting used to.  Can I just say that "compromise" is a word that must be put into practice when getting life back to normal after a long deployment.  We've done this once before, so we can do it again.  Of course, last time, I wasn't nine months pregnant when Shawn arrived home.  I have so much to be thankful for, I can't let my surge of hormones get the best of me.

So I've been trying to rest as much as possible, and apparently it's paying off.  I went to the doctor yesterday and my blood pressure is down...it's not normal yet, but it's much better.  I took a non stress test and also had an ultrasound, and the baby seems to be doing fine, so I'll keep my feet up and keep watching movies, and reading.  Ooh...here come one of those Braxton Hicks contractions....eeh!  Ok, I'm fine.  Anyway...the baby is doing well and is an estimated 6 pounds, and I'm apparently starting to progress.  I won't go into detail in respect for those with a delicate sensibility, but let's just say, she'll be here soon.  My doctor seems to think I won't make it to my due date which is April 29th.  I'm gonna say April 22nd...

I'll let you know how it all goes!  

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