Meet sweet Charlotte! You’ll enjoy her newborn story and all the fun her parents had preparing for her!!!

Parent’s Name
Katie and Kevin
Baby’s Name
Charlotte Anne

How did Mom & Dad meet?
Mom and dad both worked for CVS Pharmacy, but at different stores. One day they both were helping out at another store and met there and started dating soon after.
How did you tell family and friends you were expecting?
We’re not very creative, so we told our close family and friends through a phone call or in person. Then we announced to the masses on Facebook.
What was the best, most surprising or most difficult thing being pregnant? ( Dad can answer, too)
Mom’s answers:
– best: my favorite part about being pregnant was always having Charlotte with me. Every where I went she was there. I was never alone. I always had someone to talk to and I was constantly reminded even on the worst days that I had a sweet baby girl that I couldn’t wait to meet.
– most surprising: pregnancy is not always as glamorous as you think it’s going to be. Lots of strange things can happen.
– most difficult: the last few weeks of the third trimester. You’re just so tired and everything hurts, but still having to go to work and take care of the house. By the end of every day I was reciting to myself the line from The Little Engine that Could – I think I can, I think I can.
Dad’s answers:
– best: My favorite part of the pregnancy was getting to feel Charlotte kick and talking to her. While mommy was sleeping, I played the song “Daddy’s Little Girl” by Michael Buble to Charlotte while I sang it to her. I would play it through headphones and put them on Mommy’s belly so mommy wouldn’t wake up. Mommy didn’t even know about this until few weeks after Charlotte was born!
– most surprising: Daddy says he wasn’t really surprised by anything. However, based on all the things he had no idea about, mommy doesn’t think he’s telling the truth on this question.
– most difficult: Keeping the house supplied with enough (and the right kind) of popsicles. Mommy had a huge craving for popsicles. Depending on the moment, she would be craving a certain flavor and daddy made many night time runs to Kroger to get more popsicles.

Did you find out the gender beforehand? What were both Mom and Dad’s reactions.
We found out the gender beforehand. There’s no way we could have waited until the baby was born to find out. We could hardly wait 16 weeks! We had out anatomy scan scheduled for a few weeks after our 16 week appointment and that was when we were supposed to find out the gender. We had a really hard time waiting that long, so we begged our doctor to let us get an ultrasound at the 16 week appointment so we could find out the gender a few weeks early. We had them double check at the anatomy scan to make sure it was still a girl (luckily it was because mommy had already started shopping!). Mommy REALLY wanted to be able to decorate the nursery. And she definitely wanted a girl so she could buy sweet dresses and design the sweetest nursery.

List the possible baby names, and how you narrowed it down?
We both looked up tons of names on the internet and talked about ones we liked, but none of them seemed just right. Mommy had always loved the name Charlotte for as long as she can remember. When Princess Charlotte was born in 2015, mommy was worried Charlotte might become an overly popular name. In the end she loved the name enough that it didn’t matter how popular it was. Before Daddy agreed that he liked the name Charlotte, he said he had to try it out. He would whisper to her while she was in mommy’s belly and ask her if she liked the name Charlotte. She apparently told him yes.
How did baby prep go? (Setting up the crib, decorating the nursery, buckling in the carseat,.)
Mommy had a lot of fun decorating the nursery (too much fun according to daddy). Mommy did a lot of shopping online and daddy would get scared when he would come home and there were 4 more packages on the doorstep. Every time mommy came home with something daddy would ask how much more had mommy spent. Mommy thinks what daddy doesn’t know won’t hurt him.

Was labor and delivery what you expected? If not, tell us how things were surprising or not what you expected.

The surprising part about labor and delivery was the timing. On Thursday, mommy had her 37 week doctors appointment and according to her doctor there was absolutely nothing going on (no dilation, effacement, etc) and told us that she would almost definitely see us at our appointment next week because “there was almost no way we were having a baby this week.” On Friday and Saturday mommy felt like baby wasn’t moving nearly as much as she usually did. Mommy got more and more worried, so late Saturday morning mommy went in to get checked out and then they told us we were being admitted to be induced! Mommy had procrastinated packing her bag for the hospital for many weeks. In fact, on Friday night she had dinner with a friend who even offered to help her pack her bag, but mommy just didn’t feel like it. The next day is when we were admitted for the induction and daddy had to run home with a list mommy had made for him and pack mommy’s bag for her.