Baby Charlie

Introducing young Charles Bradford. He's "Charlie" to us. (Otherwise it kind of sounds like we should say "Sir" before his name and he should start talking with a British accent.) Note the chubby cheeks already. That was one of the first things I noticed about him when they held him up to me.


He was born at 8:09 a.m. on Nov. 15 (Daddy's birthday). As you can see, tipping the scales at a whopping 9 pounds, 4 ounces. He was 20.5 inches long, head 14.75 inches around. Turns out the C-section was wise for many reasons. For comparison, Ellie was 7 pounds, 10 ounces and 18.25 inches. So he's starting at Ellie's 6-week weight.


Getting acquainted with Charlie after the surgery. Things went really well with the C-section and I am having a slow-but-steady recovery. Even though things were very different than Ellie's birth, being in a hospital instead of a birth center, having surgery instead of delivering naturally, we still had a really good experience. We went in calm, knowing what to expect, prepared for him to come, and yet still had that laughing/crying-at-the-same-time euphoric moment when we heard his first cry, as if it were a total surprise that there was a baby at the end of all this.


Still in recovery. Brady said I was a bit loopy. And, as you can see, still quite swollen all over in my hands, arms, and face. It's slowly going down and I got to comfortably wear socks over my swollen feet for the first time today.


We got lots of visits from Ellie in the hospital. Here is a video of her meeting Charlie for the first time:


I wasn't sure how she would take it. For so long "Baby Charlie" was this growing mound in Mommy's tummy. She would come up and press her mouth into my stomach and say a muffled "Hi, Baby Charlie!" We thought she might be getting the concept until one day she did the same thing into Brady's shoulder. She seems to have overcome the transition from abstract to reality pretty well.


She's pretty enamored with him. (She's also finally learning to pose for the camera and say, "Cheese!" which has led to some pretty cheesy smiles.)


Here Ellie is introducing Charlie to her beloved "Schnappie" cartoon, among others.


She loves getting to hold him. Every time she does lately, she has this sort of nervous giggle the whole time, especially when he wiggles.


All dressed up to go home. We were actually grateful for the time in the hospital to recover and adjust to this new little guy. He is pretty mellow most of the time and eats like a champ. It has been such a different experience than all the struggles we had getting Ellie to eat, and then all the difficulties she had once she did start eating. It's one of the best things in the world to watch him eat and eat and swallow like it's no big deal. And then he burps and eats some more and it's so easy. And then we can just set him down after. No big deal. And we wonder, is this what it's like for other people when they have babies, or are we just playing house here? I felt bad always comparing him to Ellie that way, but Brady pointed out that Charlie was difficult on the inside, Ellie was difficult on the outside, so I guess they both have had their easy and difficult moments.


Charlie with Father of the Year. I realize there are a lot of good dads out there, but I think this past week Brady has taken the cake. He has done more than his fair share of taking care of this kid, sending me off to sleep more so I can hopefully recover faster. And he manages to take Ellie out now and then too.


Ellie is still adjusting to her new life with Charlie. She absolutely adores him and is great with him. It's the rest of us she doesn't always have patience with. Grandma and Grandpa have been saints, putting up with some pretty good tantrums that come with the age, the adjustment, and the budding two-year molars, and putting up with her non-stop chatter the rest of the time. If she is awake, she is talking.

The first day we got home with Charlie, we got him all bundled up and settled into his little bed. Ellie came in the room and peered over the side. She kept patting him tummy while he slept, saying, "Baby Charlie sleepin'. Night-night, Charlie. Sleep tight . . . bed-bugs bite . . . love you . . ." Whenever she sees him, whether he's crying or not, she will try to pat him and say, "It's okay, Baby Charlie, it's okay." And several times a day she wants to, "Go hi to Charlie," (go say hi to Charlie). So she is becoming a good little mother hen. The question is if Charlie will be able to keep up with her, or ever get a word in edgewise.


Stretching out and yawning after a bath, which he didn't love. Ellie wanted to get him some boats to play with, but I told her I didn't think that would help yet.

Now a quick story about his name. After giving Ellie a name that had so much significance to us, we wanted to give this baby a name that would be meaningful to him and us as well. So we decided we would also give him a family name. Technically, he is named after Brady's grandpa, John, who went by Jack, whose nickname was Charlie. It was a few years after we were married before I knew that these were all the same person. The story, as I heard it, is that years ago someone left a mug (or something) with the name "Charlie" on it at Brady's grandpa's house. When his kids were young and would ask him for something, he would tease them and say, "Oh, I'm not your dad. I'm your Uncle Charlie." (Some of you might recognize the beginnings of Brady's teasing humor.) The name stuck as kind of a joke, I guess. Brady grew up knowing him as "Grandpa Charlie." So Charlie is named after his Great-Grandpa Charlie (or John, or Jack). Technically we could have had three sons named after him, but we're pretty happy with the boy we have now!