Fast Forward

I've realized that the expression "time flies when you're having fun" really is true.  It seems like just yesterday I found out I was pregnant.  The entire 41 weeks of pregnancy is a blur.  Now, I look at my 8 1/2 month old daughter and have to look at pictures to remember how little she was.  She has grown and learned so many things in these last months.  I can't believe how quickly she is changing!

Cameryn only a few minutes old.

After her first smile and laugh, she quickly mastered rolling over and sitting up.  However, she decided that rolling over wasn't much fun so refused to do it again for a few months.

First smile

Sitting up

Cameryn now has 4 teeth and has graduated to some table food as well as 3rd foods baby food in addition to her bottles.  She also is an expert at crawling and can climb all the way up the stairs but hasn't quite figured out how to get down them yet.  Cam also stands for several seconds without holding on to anything and 'cruises' around furniture and toys. 

I can't believe how quickly the first 8 months of her little life has gone by.  Soon she will be a year old!  Although it's gone very quickly, we've had a lot of fun watching her grow and learn new tricks.  I'm looking forward to watching her for the rest of her life athough I hope it isn't in fast forward.

Labor of Love

I think it's fitting that I'm writing this chapter of Cameryn's story Valentine's weekend.  Valentine's Day is all about love and as much as I love my family and my husband, I love my daughter in a whole other way.  Nothing can compare to the love a mother has for her child.  I didn't understand that until the day I first held her in my arms.

I checked into the hospital around 8pm on Sunday, June 13.  I was scheduled to get induced the next morning since I was a week over my due date.  My water broke just as the nurse was preparing to start the medication to induce labor.  Contractions immediately started - and they did not start out gentle.  After about 5 hours of contractions I received an epidural.  (I never once even considered a natural birth - I'm a wimp and don't like pain.)  However, once I received the epidural, my contractions slowed down and I quit progressing.  But when they would administer the medication the baby's heart rate would drop.  Then I developed an infection with a fever to go along with it.  Around 5pm my doctor decided that we needed some help and scheduled a delivery room for a c-section.  From that point on time seemed to fly by and stand still at the same time...

Cameryn Jean was born on Monday, June 14th at 6:17pm.  She weighed 6 pounds 4 ounces and was 20 inches long.

Cameryn Jean - June 14, 2010

My husband got to hold her as soon as she was clean and measured.  He also got to carry her to our room.  All of our family was waiting outside the door when we were brought back from the delivery room.  They were allowed to take one quick peek at the baby then had to wait outside while Aric and I spent approximately an hour getting to know our baby girl. 

The rest of the evening is a blur in my mind.  I laid back in the hospital bed and watched my husband introduce our baby to everyone.  They all took turns holding her and the camera flashes were blinding.  After a couple hours everyone left, the nurses showed us how to give Cameryn a bath and they took her to the nursery for the night.  (I couldn't get out of bed until the next morning and Aric had to get up in the morning and go to work.  My mom stayed with us the first week so Aric could take his two weeks of vacation after so I would have help for three weeks.)

All I know is after 41 weeks of anticipation, 5 hours of pain, 5 more hours of fever and feeling sick, and about 20 minutes in the delivery room, we were blessed with the most beautiful, healthy baby girl.  Aric and I are no longer a carefree couple, we are a family.  As I write this I look at my husband and hear my baby yell "Mama" and think that I'm the luckiest woman in the world and have experienced the greatest love of all.

Aric and I on our honeymoon.  July 2008

Our first family picture.  June 2010

It's A Girl!

My husband and I decided right away that we wanted to know if the baby was a boy or a girl.  For those of you that don't know me, I'm not the most patient of people.  The following two and a half months seemed like the longest wait of my life.  Finally in January 2010 I was far enough along in my pregnancy that we could find out the sex of the baby - if it cooperated and way laying the right way.  To my enjoyment it was a girl!  And so began the pink adventure.

Once we found out that the baby was a girl, we started discussing how to decorate the nursery and possible names.  The nursery was much easier to decide on than the name.  My husband immediately said that we should paint the baby's room pink and I decided that it should be decorated in Winnie the Pooh.  In March my mom came down and helped us paint the baby's room.  And when I say helped, I mean she did all of the painting.  I painted the changing table that my mother-in-law found sitting beside a trash can and my husband played with our pets while we did the work.  I also put together the two bookcases for the baby's room while he went golfing the next day.  In the span of two days the 'storage room' was ready for a baby.



Bed all ready for baby



The chair doesn't really match but it's comfy!



We had a much harder time picking out a name for the baby.  My husband decided that he liked the name Brooklynn so refused to consider any other name.  Brooklynn was not my favorite name so I kept throwing out other ones for consideration.  Finally he admitted defeat and told me I could name our daughter whatever I wanted.  This did not mean that I could - just that he was almost to the point of giving up so I knew it wouldn't take much more to decide on a name.  So I told him that I had decided on a name that I knew he wouldn't like.  I told him our daughter would be named Jessica Jean.  He answered with 'absolutely not'!  (Now keep in mind that this entire conversation was being handled through text message.  My husband was at work and I was at my mother-in-law's house visiting with her and one of my nieces.  Both of them were helping me with the name game.)  He countered with Cameryn to which I instantly agreed (Cameryn had been on my list the whole time and he'd only turned it down three times).  We had already decided that her middle name would be Jean - the same as my mom's.

Once we had the nursery decorated and the name picked out all we could do was wait almost three more months for her to decide to make an appearance.  During those three months I attended two baby showers and was the guest of honor at a third.  The baby showers only got me more excited and more impatient to meet my baby girl.