Halloween Numero Uno!

Well, today Charlotte celebrated (as much as an exactly 4 week old can) her first of many Halloween's (which with her Mom being who she, all of them will be big deals). So we had a couple of different outfits for her to celebrate the Halloween holiday, Alison (Charlotte's Aunt) dropped off a couple of really cute Halloween Costumes that Charlotte got to try out, she was super happy to put them on. No, really, she was!! She tried on four different outfits and was super happy with all of them until the last one and then she started getting a little cranky because her Dad was taking so many pictures. So here are some pictures of the family doing our little celebration this year.

Well here is our first unofficial family portrait. My Mom took it during her visit here from Oregon. It was so good to have her here with us. She was a great help and we had so much fun having her here.

I know I could have done the whole red-eye reduction/fix, but I think it works in this photo, it pulls the whole red color and Halloween theme together well.

Yipee, it looks like my little girl likes her spicy food. :)

Just Daddy and Charlotte at home, with Charlotte wondering about the costume, but liking how warm it keeps her.

Look at me, I have wings.

Daddy's Little Pumpkin, what else can I say.
(A big thanks to Lois who got us this outfit!!)

Charlotte, letting us know that she is getting tired of the changes and the posing and the pictures, but doing in a cute way and in a cute outfit, or course.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE FROM THE KENNEDY FAMILY, HOPE TO BE BACK CELEBRATING WITH YOU NEXT YEAR!!

Just Some More Cute Pictures

Okay, so not anything big, no big new marks, except that everyday is still new. She is still under a month old, so I just decided to put up some more pictures, just a Dad showing off his amazingly cute little daughter. My Mom has been here for about a week know, and Charlotte loves her so much. She thinks her Grandma Kennedy is the most comfortable person in the world, no matter how upset, hungry, messy, or anything, her Grandma can put her to sleep, she just loves her so much!

So here are the pictures, just cute things that we see and grab the camera and this is what we got

Charlotte dead asleep on Grandma Kennedy, something she loves to do.

Sometimes we take so many pictures that she gets upset with her Dad and sometimes is just annoyed and hides like I am the paparazzi.

Okay, So this is Charlotte sitting up and showing how much of a big girl she is on the couch.

And this is her realizing that she is still just a baby.....TIMBER!!!!!

This is Charlotte hanging out in her bouncer that her Aunt Denise gave her, she really likes hanging out in it.

She loves to snuggle up to skin and to people, this is her getting comfortable on her Mom and being totally relaxed and posing for the camera....AND SLEEP. (She has to have her hands near her face whenever she is sleeping.)

One last one of Charlotte chillaxin' on her Grandma, a place that she loves to be.

The New Grandma Kennedy

Well, the 20th of October 2009 was a special day for us, and particularly for Charlotte. She got to meet her Grandma Kennedy for the first time ever (at least in this plane of existence). My Mom (Vickie Kennedy) flew out from Oregon to visit with us for a while. We are so happy to have her and we are so glad that she is here staying with us. So on thier very first day together we got to take some pictures of the two of them together. So here are a few of them.

Charlotte found a new person that loves her, so she is just checking her out.

Two Kennedy Ladies hanging out with each other, getting to know each other.

Just Smiling and being happy with each other.

Doing one of Charlotte's favorite things, Cuddling and getting a little bit of skin time. Look how happy she is to be with her Grandma Kennedy. She is so lucky because she has two great and amazing Grandmas (her Grandpas are both pretty great too)


And occasionally to pass the time Charlotte will challenge anyone around to a staring contest, this is one that she won against her Mom, she is the best one in the house at this, sometimes abnormally good. :)

Mr. Duckie

Here are some Bath Time Fun pictures!! I promised myself to never purposely embarrass my child to the point that they won't ever talk to me again, so these are rated PG pictures! No black mail material here!!



In these ones her umbilical cord still hadn't fallen off yet so we're still doing the whole sponge bath baby!!


She LOVES Baths! Not like her first one where she first showcased her now famous "squeaky toy" cry.


Yes, she still has a diaper on in these because she is a Ninja Pee-er. (see future posting for explanation)


She has this killer towel that is a duck, if you can't tell. It's actually bigger than the bath towels that Bryan and I use!! It makes you wonder what the people who made it were thinking? 200lb baby?!? Way to go Mr. Duckie!

I hope you enjoyed these Derek!! :)

I'm Out!

We are so glad that she is!! I actually laid down on my stomach last night for the first time in forever. :) We are so happy she is out!



This is her agreeing with herself by giving you the okay sign, and a "rock on" fist. See Jon! She already a democrat!! :)

Two of a Kind

As I was downloading pictures off my camera, I noticed one of my mom holding Charlotte that reminded me very much of a picture that I have of my mom holding me. There are differences, but they are both so cute, and similar that I couldn't pass up sharing them!!



Charlotte's favorite visitor really is my mom!! My mom wasn't feeling very well today (probably due to that stupid nurse!) and so I just wanted to give a little thanks for all that she does! She is the most selfless person I know, and I think that she is the best example of what Heavenly Mother must be like that I can imagine. Maybe that is why all the little babies love her so much!! She feels so familiar to them!! :) Thanks Mom for always being there for us, and loving our little ones so much!! We love you too. Feel Better!!!!!

No More Lights!!

The day we got back from the hospital we were given these bili-lights for Charlotte's case of Hyperbilirubinemia. She DID NOT like being the suitcase, and really struggled the first couple days. But we persevered!! Today we received word from the Doctor that her levels had improved so much that Charlotte is out of any danger zone. So she is off the lights!!! Hooray! We get to send those stinkin' lights back :) So this post is to commemorate Charlotte's first bed, and hopefully the last time she'll ever use it! (It probably is the most expensive first bed ever!)


The dreaded suitcase. She had to be in here any time we weren't feeding her or changing her. It made for some long nights, and sad cries!


This is her little get-up that she had to wear. She had a light strapped to her back. That is what the yellow straps are, I promise we did NOT put her in a tube top, cause you know if I had it wouldn't have been a yellow one!! jk :)


We also had to have a hat on her to keep her warm in the suitcase, and to cover her eyes so they didn't get hurt from all the bright lights. You can kind of see the light on her back glowing. It makes her look like a toy I had growing up. It was called a Glow Worm. Anyone remember those?
So we wish the suitcase a less than fond farewell and hope to never have to endure it's presence again!

YESSSS!!!!!

I GOT LOTS OF GOOD SLEEP!! (Thank you Mel and Mom!) Enough said!! Enjoy the photos :)

(I know it's blurry, but look at that smile!!!)

To Pink or not to Pink, that is the question

Having a girl has brought up a vital question, "to Pink or not to Pink" If you really know me well, you will have noticed, I never wear pink. I only own one pink sweater (that was given to me) that I will wear on Valentines Day, and that is it!! I do not like Pink, Sam I am. Not in a boat, not with a goat. Not with my hair, not with a flair. Not here, not there, not anywhere!! Having this aversion, I have been asked many times, "Can Charlotte wear pink?" and here is my public response......MOST DEFINITELY YES!! I want to actually be a good parent, and I can't start off with pushing my likes and dislikes onto her. If she wants pink, she can wear it...eat it...sleep it... live it!!!...for all I care. I also hate mushrooms...she will get to have those too. I seriously dislike most any kind of meat...she'll will NOT be a vegetarian. As you will see with these pictures, she is darn cute in pink (thanks to Sherry's cute outfit!!) and she will continue to be cute in it until she decides to follow in her impeccable mother's footsteps, or her mother caves and becomes a horrible mom. :)

Here in this clip you will see that Charlotte has an addiction, HICCUPS!! We're still working on step one, admitting that she has no power over these horrible hiccups. They hit at the most inopportune times, and last as long as they want. She had these a lot while she was still in my stomach, and they have followed her here. I think they will follow her to the ends of the earth. :)


More Drama but I'm too lazy to do more than just list them:
-Charlotte's bilirubin levels are out of the danger zone, yet we STILL have to keep her under the lights for an undetermined amount of time.
-That means that every morning early, we still have to go to UVRMC and get Charlotte's heel pricked and the blood MILKED out of her. It is very traumatizing.
-My husband, and sister, and mom were given the wrong flu shot by a totally incompetent nurse, and ended up getting a double shot of the regular flu shot instead of the swine flu shot!! Making it so that now they can't get the swine flu shot for a while. But luckily, she corrected her idiocy by the time I got my swine flu shot.
-I fell asleep sitting straight up, and burping Charlotte (yes, that means that I was actually in movement and still fell asleep!!)
-Today was my actual due date!! :)

Must....stay.....awake.......zzzzzzzz

We took Charlotte into the outpatient lab to check her bilirubin levels this morning, and nothing much had changed so we are still living in the land of lights here at my house. Charlotte is getting more used to being in the suitcase, but still fights it with every stubborn redhead recessive gene that she has!! We finally figured out that those super cool goggles are what she truly hates, and if we just stick a hat far enough over her eyes she is much more compliant when she needs to be put back in the suitcase. My mom came over tonight to help and Bryan, my mom and I were making fun of how this suitcase has written all over it, "specially designed by physicians" and how STUPID most of the designs are!! (It is also a suitcase straight out of the 60's era!! Powder Blue and ALL!!) We have a long list that is constantly growing of things we would change or improvements that could be made to this suitcase to make this a more baby-friendly situation. Physicians really aren't that smart I guess, it takes a teacher, a student, and a wonder-mom to come up with the world's really good ideas!! So we can't leave Charlotte in the suitcase unattended, so we are having to take shifts and stay up all night sitting next to her, making sure all is well. That would be why I am blogging in the middle of the night...I need some distraction to keep me awake until the next feeding!!! Speaking of feeding, and dozing off, I thought I would share my funny happening for today. Charlotte can be lethargic at times because of her high bilirubin levels, and she is always falling asleep while she is nursing. I am constantly having to keep her awake and going so she will eat. I will jiggle her, or move her around, or poker her cheek, whatever to annoy her and keep her awake. Well, really early this morning, I was feeding her and she was wide awake (as most babies are at 4:30 in the morning, which makes no sense to me AT ALL!!) and eating like a champ, while I was struggling to keep my eyes open. My eyes were opening and closing, feeling like sheets of steel that I just could not keep from slamming shut, when I completely dozed off. The next thing I know, Charlotte gave a particularly hard tug that sent a shot of pain throughout my entire body and woke me with a startle. I looked down at her and she was looking back at me as bright eyed as ever with, I swear, a smug little look of, "now were even!!" :) Gotta love bein' a mom!!

I love this picture, with the lights and such it is so ethereal. It is like she is saying, "Blessed World, I hail from above with a very important mission. I have come to be a part of the lives of Bryan and Danielle Kennedy, for they needed the most help." :) I love my little girl!!

We're Home!

After 48 hours of Labor, 48 hours in the hospital, we are finally home!! It was quite the drama filled day. It started out early, with us getting up around 6 so that we could be out of the hospital by 8:30. All went well until we went into the nursery and the doctors were still checking Charlotte. We waited for the pediatrician, and he told us that Charlotte's bilirubin levels were high. That isn't abnormal for newborns, but she was in the higher end of those levels and they wanted to keep her under bili-lights a while longer, and then they decided that they were going to send us some bili-lights to keep her under at home. So we were a little worried not really knowing much about the lights and all it would entail, and just knowing that something isn't right with your brand new child is heart wrenching!! But we took it in stride, and continued to get ready to go. It was like everyone decided to wait to come in and see us until 8:30! We had the nurse give me my vaccinations last minute, they had the social worker come in to explain the bili-lights come in last minute, then even the lactation specialist showed up last minute!! The nurse finally said, "We are going to just release you paper work wise, and you can just leave when you're all done!" It also allowed us to keep Charlotte under the lights a little longer, so it turned out okay. We finally left the Hospital at about 10:00 and headed to the pharmacy to fill my prescriptions that I was needed to take right away now that we were so late leaving the hospital. As we were leaving the parking lot, a girl rear ended us!! Yup! Charlotte has now been in her first (and hopefully only!) car accident!! She was so good that she slept right through it!! But that was only because of Bryan's fast reactions. He saw the girl backing into him, and knew she wasn't stopping so he threw it into drive and tried to get away from her!! He lessened the blow so that it wasn't bad at all for us, and saved us from probably having to go back to the hospital for whiplash. He was just amazing!! Well, after all that drama, we finally made it home and Mom showed up helped us settle in and even brought us dinner later on! We had a nice relaxing rest of the day, with a few fabulous visitors, and some well deserved naps! (Man, I love me a good nap!!) Charlotte is getting used to her bili-light spa, and hopefully we'll see some improvement on her levels.
Here she is looking "oh so styling" in her saftey goggles!!

This is her little suitcase that she has to stay in as much as possible! The lights aren't warm, they're just florescent so she didn't like them at first cause she loves to be warm!!
You can see she has a portable light as well strapped to her body that goes with her everywhere, so when she is getting fed, or changed she still has some bili-light action!

Introducing....Charlotte Raynes Kennedy

Here are the pictures. On the 3rd of October 2009 Danielle Dawn (Raynes) Kennedy gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Charlotte Raynes Kennedy. She was born in Provo, UT and weighed 7 pounds and 15 ounces and was 20 inches long. She had an interesting time coming into the world but we are so happy that she has joined our family.

We are going to be at the hospital until probably early Monday, and the hospital has changed it visiting policy to only having two visitors at a time, both over 14 and not being sick. We also want people to have had there flu shots. We love having visitors, so we can have some at the hospital and would love people to come by and see her at home. We are more relaxed on some points than the hospital, we take people of all ages and allow more than 2, but we do ask that people visiting her before she has received her immunizations (usually 1 1/2 to 2 months but call when closer and we will let you know for sure) to have had their flu shots, and also that they not come if they know they are sick. Danielle and I both appreciate the respect you show us by respecting our wishes regarding this, so thank you. But please call and let us know if you want to come and visit us at home and we would love to have you.

So what you really came to see. The pictures (and a video):