Miscellaneous update that lacks a creative title...

Well last week my mom came to offer a bit of relief to the sleep-deprived new parents.  We were SO glad to have the help (and an extra set of hands!)  She was dying to get her hands on her new grandson, so it worked out quite nicely.  She even "babysat" (can you still call it that when it's grandma time?) so we could go to dinner... twice!  So we did have our first post baby date night.  I kept joking with Ryan that for our  first night out, I just wanted to check into a hotel for a few hours and sleep.  But he talked me into actually going out to dinner.  In the meantime, here's what C was up to with his Lee-Lee...

I'm not sure what they were talking about, but he seemed to enjoy it.  (Coupon girls, take note of my GIANT pink binder on the table behind them... that is my final couponing system, and I LOVE it!)

I'm pretty sure she was trying to tell him that he should be an Auburn fan.  Now he was only 5 weeks old, but you can tell by his face that he already knows that is NOT the way to get on mom's good side.  (Although Georgia is not giving us a lot to cheer about this season so far.)

Once Lee-Lee left us, it was back to our old routine, which includes mommy and me push-ups.  Frankly, we both hate them, but Cameron manages to look much cuter than I do while doing them. And yes, this means I cheated- I had to stop my push-ups to take this sweet picture.   

Look how strong I am!

I also ordered a book from my bookclub (it's not a real book club, but I call it that because I don't know what else to call it.  It's http://www.paperbackswap.com/.  You should check it out!  It's a great way to trade the books you are finished with.  Best of all, it's free!  But I digress...)  My book was on baby sign language...

This was NOT exactly the first sign I was hoping he would learn.  But I guess it would make him a baby genius, considering we just got the book that very same day he "learned" this little hand gesture.

And lastly, I could not let this go without being documented.  I'm pretty sure this is the last game C will be able to wear this onesie.  He's outgrown all of his other newborn sizes, and really, I had to force this one because I love the onesie so much.  It hasn't exactly brought the Dawgs good luck, so maybe it's a good thing that we're retiring this one.  No worries though- I have 3 other Georgia onesies on deck in the 0-3 month sizes.  Hopefully they will bring about better luck than this one.



Where to begin?

I was pretty sure having a baby would put me behind in the blogging world.  I mean, my track record hasn't exactly been the best anyway.  Throw in a baby who cries often, and will only sleep when being held and I was destined to fail.  But alas, here I am with another quick update. 
Cameron does not have colic!  He has reflux!  I think I said that in the last post, but if there was any doubt let's just kick that out the door right now.  We've been on zantac for a couple of weeks now and he is MUCH better.  We are starting a probiotic though to offset other intestinal distress (sorry, but that's about as delicately as I could put that) so I'm hoping between those two things our baby will really be the happiest baby on the block soon enough.  For now though, he's doing pretty darn good. 
Long stretches of sleep during the night still evade us.  But last night we did get 5 hours in a row, so for that I am eternally thankful.  No, seriously.  So.  Very.  Thankful.  The cumulative effects of sleep deprivation are starting to get to me.  I read somewhere (though I can't remember where- you'll soon realize how very ironic that is) that "mommy brain" or massive memory loss are the biggest effects of sleep deprivation.  I'm pretty sure I can back that claim up.  I often start doing something, walk out of the room because of some distraction, and come back DAYS later to find that I never finished that little task.  My poor husband has even fallen victim to this phenomenon.  He actually put sorbet in the refrigerator instead of the freezer the other day.  I discovered the melted mess the next morning when it was too late to salvage it.  And we do NOT waste desserts in this house, so it was long-gone at that point. 

I feel like I had a point to this post when I started it, but alas, it escapes me (insert mommy brain comment here).  So I'll quit rambling and give you what you really came here for anyway...
PICTURES!!

He really really REALLY hated that hat.  But he faked it for a few pictures for my benefit.

Our first family photo!

I spent a lot of time making faces at him in an attempt to get him to smile...  so far, no luck.

I just love this one.  I don't know if it's his super blue eyes, or how he's just cuddled up to his monkey, but I really like it.  Really Really like it.

This smile came only when we told him it was over and we wouldn't take any more pictures.  Luckily, Amber was ready to capture the ONLY smiling moment we had.

Those were from the session we did with Amber Price.  If you haven't checked out her site, well, you're crazy.  Do it.  http://www.amberpricephotography.blogspot.com/

One of my best friends in the universe came to visit us and meet Cameron, and I attempted to do the impossible:  group picture!  Her kids are the cute blonde ones.  Mine is the beet-red kid that is screaming as if he's being attacked by fiery hot pokers.  I swear we were not torturing him in the least.

Later, all that crying wore him out, so he took a nap in the Moses basket by the back door.  Fresh air works wonders on this kid.  After the morning we'd had, Bella had to come see what actually managed to quiet down the noisemaker.

You know how people always tell you to "sleep when the baby sleeps"?  Well, easier said than done my friends.  This is one of those rare moments when I actually got to do just that.

My mom is coming to stay with us for a few days, so perhaps I'll have a moment to do a more insightful post while she's here.  Or perhaps I'll just sleep.  We'll just have to see.

I know I haven't updated lately, but I will have to make this quick, as the C Monster is in the middle of an episode (dad is on duty to give mom a much needed break). 
Over the last week and a half, Cameron really ramped up his crying.  He cried every single night from 10 pm until 2 am, then he would either cry through all of his morning naps, or all of his afternoon.  That's his idea of variety, I guess.  I had an appointment with our pediatrician last week who diagnosed him with colic.  While it's nice to slap a label on it, colic comes with many downsides.  The first being, it's just a fancy way of saying "we don't know why your baby is crying."  The second, and far more terrifying, is that colic just magically disappears at 3 months.  We just hit 3 weeks.  I know for a fact I cannot do this for 3 months.  I can't. 
So I put out a call to my mom friends on Facebook to see what they have done to help calm their colicky babies.  I got a ridiculous number of responses right away.  Even today though, I am still getting emails with the same underlying message:  "I was told my baby had colic, and it turned out to be reflux."  I can't tell you how many messages I got with that same bottom line.  I lost count after about 15 or so.  So I googled infant reflux, and in particular, silent reflux.  And I watched.  All weekend long, he exhibited about 85% of the symptoms consistently throughout the weekend.  We made an appointment for Tuesday morning. 
I was prepared to lay down in the hallway and kick and scream until they agreed to try him on something.  Our Dr's office is very much in line with my philosophy on drugs- don't give them unless absolutely necessary.  So for me to say that I HAD to try it, I was pretty convinced that he had it.  But I knew I would have a harder time convincing the doctor of the same, just because so many people today toss pills at the problems they have without really analyzing why they have problems in the first place (but that's another blog in and of itself).  Amazingly, she agreed with me right off the bat, and prescribed baby zantac for my little monster.  We started it yesterday, and are about 30 hours in.  From what I've read, it takes 48 hours to really take effect, so I'm hoping that tomorrow starts a magical period of peace for us, and a painfree time for baby C. 
So that's the Cameron update.  This next comment/picture is totally unrelated, but can NOT go without commentary.  Over the weekend, our next door neighbors started a little spring cleaning.  Better late than never right?  Well let's just say it was WAY overdue.  Here are the pictures of the trash they put out for the garbage men on Tuesday morning. 

Since I am home with C, I had the luxury of watching the garbage men's reaction to this mess.  Let's just say that there was a lot of head-shaking, and obscenities flying when they pulled up and saw this.  But yes, they did actually take it all away.  And it only took about 30 minutes for them to load it all up in their truck. 

Now I can't end a post on that pathetic note, so here are some cute pictures of C to round out this miscellaneous update.

This was the 300th picture dad had taken.  I think Cameron is officially over pictures at this point.

Dad's first time feeding Cameron. 

Tummy Time!  Funny, this picture does not properly depict how very much he hated this experience.

And finally, Mom is sou proud!  Cameron can call a touchdown!  Go Dawgs!

Project 365 and First Day on the New Job

For those who know me well, you all know how much I love taking pictures.  I wouldn't say I'm great at it in an artistic fashion, but I definitely am good about brining my camera everywhere, and forcing people to pose for pictures so that I can capture every moment.  That was the start of my other hobby, scrapbooking.  Well with a new baby, as you can only imagine, this love/obsession/hobby of mine has taken off in a ridiculous fashion.  Seriously- we've filled multiple memory cards with pictures, and the kid isn't even 2 weeks old yet!  I know first time parents go bonkers with pictures, and we are no exception.  I just think it's been magnified by my existing love of capturing "the moment".  So, I could bore you to tears with the thousands of pictures we've already taken, or I could introduce you to my streamlined project- Project 365.  My goal here is to take a picture of Cameron every day for the entire first year of his life.  I have no doubt I can squash this goal.  Everyone keeps telling me "they grow up so fast" and "they change SO much in the first year".  So my plan is to capture it.  All of it.  And when I get a spare moment to scrapbook again, I'll have plenty of material to work with.  So here's what we have so far for the project:

August 17- Happy Birthday Baby Cameron!

August 18- Sweet sleepy baby faces

August 19- Getting ready to go home.  (Mom has seen better days, but you're as cute as can be).

August 20- Our first day at home.  Mom's snapping pictures while you and dad are wondering what to do next.

August 21- Aunt Carrie and Uncle Andrew came to meet you.

August 22- Mom's favorite picture.  I'd like to believe you're actually smiling, but in truth, it's probably just horrible gas.

August 23- This is exactly how your dad slept as a baby. 

August 24- Happy one week!

August 25- Sound asleep on Dad's chest

August 26- This is one of mom's favorite sleepy faces.  It's in the middle of a series, so it's hard to capture on film unless you shoot in papparazzi mode.

August 27-  This is the day your belly button stump fell off.  It fell off while dad was out getting dinner.  He came home to mom crying in the rocking chair because your belly button fell off and he missed it. 

August 28-  Your Grammy came to visit you today.  She met you in the hospital, but there were about 30 people in the room, so she didn't get any good one-on-one time with you. 

August 29-  Today was your due date!  Dad got a cake and we celebrated (yes there's a picture of that too, but this one seemed a better choice.)  This picture is you getting your first bath.  Now that your belly button is mostly gone, it was safe to hose you down! 

In other news, Ryan went back to work today so it's my first full day alone with Mr. Cameron.  And yes, I'm absolutely terrified.  It's not technically my first day being a mom, of course, but it's my first day doing it all alone.  So I do feel like it's a new job where I don't know what I'm doing.  Wish me luck!!

Cameron's first week

Oh what a week!  We have officially had Cameron home with us for a whole week.  We still have no established routine or even a rhythm to doing things.  The first night was rough- both mom and dad wanted to be up for everything... right up until "everything" lasted until 4:45 AM with no break.  Then we figured out how to work in shifts.  Here are a few other lessons we learned from our first week with Baby Cameron:

1. "They" tell you to put a washcloth over baby boys' diaper region for a reason.  Dad got shot in the face twice already.
2. Mom is WAY more excited about poop than dad is.  (In her defense, mom has been watching the poop stages for progress.  There were concerns about C  losing too much weight at first, and diaper counts were the only real way to check for progress.)
3. It's ok to challenge the doctors a little bit.  Especially when the best answer they can give you is "I don't know."
4. It's ok to change doctors after only one visit.  Sometimes the vibe just isn't right.
5. When you don't sleep for several nights in a row, parents can get cranky.  As long as you realize it's just a sleep thing, and still kiss goodnight (or good afternoon, if that's the first sign of sleep) it will all be OK.
6. There is nothing more frustrating than not being able to soothe your baby.  I read all the books, and I tried all the tricks.  But in the end, when you can't figure out what your baby is trying to tell you, there is no more heartbreaking and helpless feeling in the world. 
7. There is no such thing as TMI between two mothers- especially new mothers.
8. The world doesn't have enough diapers or memory cards for my camera.  I'm going through both at mock speed.
9. The "silent" option on your cell phone was invented for new moms.  My outgoing message assures people that I am alive and well- just a little busy.  And I will return calls before C graduates from high school. 
10. My aunt said it best in a card:  "The days are long, but the years are short."  So at one week, I haven't technically learned the "years are short" piece of that lesson yet.  But as I'm reading my friends' Facebook updates about how they can't believe their babies are in Kindergarten/First/Second grades, etc., I know it must be true.  My goal is to savor every single one of these sleepless moments.  Because one day, I'll be putting him on a bus and sending him off to school, all the while wishing he was this tiny and falling asleep in my arms again.

Happy back-to-school for everyone who has kids going back.  This used to be one of my favorite times of year- it was a way to get a fresh start.  In a way, that's still happening.  We have a fresh start to our new family.  Instead of Trapper Keepers and pencil cases though, I'm organizing onesies, diapers, and wipes. 

But look at this sweet face... it's so worth it.

For those interested, my friend Shelby is doing a give-away on her blog for a lightscoop.  I don't know much about it, except it seems freaking cool.  Since we got our new camera and have been playing with it, I'd love to try one out.  If you are interested too, see her site for her give-away  here: http://www.bringingupmadison.blogspot.com/

Cameron's Birth Story

I will warn you now, if you are not interested in the labor and delivery process, you should just skip this post.  I have not posted any pictures, so you're not missing anything if you stop reading now.  Ryan is uploading more pics to the computer later today, so I'll post them separately to spare anyone who doesn't want to read about childbirth.  Not that this is particularly gross and gory, but some people just don't want to read about it.  So there's your disclaimer.  If you're still reading, here's what happened...

Monday I went in to my Dr for the regular 38 week check up, and some extra testing due to my BP.  I was monitored for a few hours, and it was determined that I could not safely stay pregnant.  Baby O had to come out.  So off we went to the hospital for round 2- this time though, we'd be bringing home baby.  We were oddly relaxed about the whole thing.  I guess the first fire-drill style trip to the hospital got us prepared for the real deal.  We decided not to call anyone until we had talked to the Dr on call, and had a plan.  The last thing we needed was 100 people camped out in the waiting room asking for progress reports while I was in labor.  So we sat around on monitors for several hours (again) so that the OB on duty could monitor my progress.  I was going to have a midwife do my actual delivery, but I had an OB watching me, just given my BP situation.  This sounds kind of crazy, but I felt like that offered me the best of both worlds.  (Or maybe I just liked the extra attention.) 
Finally it was determined that at 7 pm they would start Cervadil and that would go for 12 hours.  At 7 am they would start me on pitocin to kick-start my contractions.  I have heard terrible things about pitocin, and frankly, was not looking forward to that.  As luck would have it, 2 hours into the Cervadil, I started contracting on my own.  They were coming hard and fast- 1-2 minutes apart.  They had to pull the Cervadil for fear of causing fetal distress.  So by 9 pm Cervadil was out, and they were going to see what would happen.  My contractions were close enough together that they could not start the pitocin at that point.  By 11, contractions were so strong, and rolling one on top of the other, they let me get my epidural.  (Dr. King, I love you and am forever grateful for your awesome epidural!!)  I finally got to rest a bit.  The downside was that the epi slowed down my contractions a bit.  By 2, they were trying to decide what to do with me.  I was just really messing up their plans I guess.  The options were to start pitocin immediately, start the pitocin at 7 as originally planned, or break my water and see what happened.  As they were having this discussion, my water broke on it's own.  So that settled that little debate. And I settled in to see what would happen.  At that point, I was only 3 cm dialated.
By 6 am, I was 9.5 cm and they thought I could start pushing by 7.  Except that 7 is when they do the shift changes, so they then waited it out for a "fresh" set of nurses.  By 8, I was ready to rock.  The bad news is that my epidural wore off about 15 minutes into the pushing.  Baby Cameron was born at 9:49 am on Tuesday, August 17.  He weighed in at 7 pounds 5 ounces, and was 19.5 inches long. 
My midwife was awesome.  She got us everything we asked for in our birth- we wanted delayed cord clamping, immediate skin to skin, and dad to cut the cord.  Check, check, and check.  She even let me help deliver little Cameron when it was time!  It was the most amazing experience.  Everything seems like such a blur now.  I feel like that whole experience happened 50 years ago.  I believe this is what my friend Helen refers to as the "gentle blanket of amnesia that motherhood wraps around you".  There are a few moments that do stick out in my mind.  The first is when my midwife said "OK mom, here he comes.  Do you want to help?"  I know Kourtney Kardashian did this and it was all the rage when that episode aired (I don't watch it, but I couldn't help but hear about it), and in that moment, I totally just sat right up, and reached down and pulled my little boy out.  I never ever thought I would do that, but I am SO glad that I did.  It was just the most amazing feeling to know that I was the first set of bare hands that felt my little baby.  He was completely alert and just looked at me like "OK, what now?"  So we snuggled, just like I'd asked him to. 
They eventually had to take him to clean him up, do his Apgars, and all that other fun stuff.  The most terrifying moment of the night up until then was when I heard the alarm go off signaling that my epidural was wearing off.  But when I saw them grab the phone for the NICU, I swear I almost jumped off the table to see what was wrong.  As it turned out, he was fine.  He just didn't give a good hearty scream like they like to hear, so they gave him a little boost of oxygen to make sure he was OK.  OK doesn't even begin to describe it.  He's just amazing. 
We do have a million pictures, and I will post some later.  We've blown through 2 memory cards already, so I just sent Ryan to the store to get another one, along with more diapers, of course. 
He's just such a sweet, sweet baby, and every time I put him down I look forward to picking him back up again.  And yes, it has been almost a full week since I have truly slept.  But I wouldn't trade one second of time with him for an extra night of sleep.  Not in a million years.

Dear Baby O

Dear Baby O-
I regret to inform you that you are being served your eviction notice now.  Just this morning I went to the Doctor for your 38 week check up.  Because of my blood pressure, I have been getting some extra special care lately.  Today was no different.  My BP was sky high, and nothing could be done to bring it down.  That earned me a one-way ticket to the hospital.  Last time we came here, we monitored you, and checked on my BP to make sure that I was going to be OK to go home and lay around for a while.  We passed that test, and have been resting ever since.  Today, however, you are developed enough that they feel you will do just fine in the outside world.  And so, here I sit, in the hospital, waiting for your arrival.  Your dad wants me to watch boring TV and just relax.  But I want to do something a little different. 
I want to savor these moments where it's just you and me.  In a little while, you will be  your own person, and the whole world will know you for who you are.  Right now it's different- other people only know you through me.  They know what you like to eat, and what position you prefer to be in.  But they know that because I tell them.  Soon enough they will see for themselves.  Right now I can be selfish with you.  When you kick me, I just "know" it's because you think the joke I just made was really funny.  Or sometimes you're giving me a little nudge to be extra nice to your dad.  Or maybe you are trying to tell me it's time to eat S'mores Pop Tarts.  But whatever it is, I just know what you're trying to tell me.  Soon enough, I'll have to share those moments with the rest of the world.  I'm not sure I'm ready for that.  I kind of like having you all to myself (I do share these things with your dad, but to be honest, he never believes the pop tarts thing.)

I'm ready to meet you.  I'm dying to see what your sweet little face looks like.  And I'm kind of curious as to how big those feet actually are (though I'm afraid I already know).  But I'm not sure I'm ready to give up that precious "us" time.  So can I put in a special request baby?  Give your old mom a break every now and then.  Give me some special snuggles if you can spare some, so I can remember what this time was like.  I'm getting old and forgetful and I don't really want to forget this.
Looks like we'll be meeting you soon, so get ready to smile big- we brought all 3 cameras, just in case. 
See you soon baby.

Love,
Mom