Dear Santa...

I know it's not even Halloween yet but I would LOVE a nice camera. Someday I will break down and buy one of those ridiculously oversized, amazing cameras. In the mean time this is our attempt at getting a few new born shots of Crew with our little point and shoot camera.

My Sister Comes to Visit

I was so sad to see my mom leave but my sister came out two weeks later for a visit. She is mom to five adorable kids and knows EVERYTHING there is to know about being a great mom. I joke that she is my mom encyclopedia. She just makes everything look so easy. Camden thinks she is the coolest person on earth. In fact when we took her to the airport to go back to Texas Camden informed me that he would be leaving to get on the airplane with Arianne. I can't blame the kid, she is way more fun than me.
Camden's favorite thing to do is go to the park by our house and play either football, baseball or basketball. It was so cute to watch them play together.Arianne brought the boys these bath towels with their names embroidered on the back. They crack me up. Camden loves to just wear his around the house. Every time he puts it on he becomes what we call the "generous lion". He asks if we'd like a cupcake or lollipop and what color. I love this kids imagination but I have no idea where the connection between lions and giving out treats came from.

Little guy maybe not so little...

We had Crew's one month appointment today and were shocked by his jump in percentage. When we went to the pediatrician three weeks ago he was 28th percentile for weight, today he jumped to 78th. He was 50th for height and today jumped to 75th for height. Our doctor said she thought we may have missed his one month check and this was his two month check. Ha, so much for having a lighter baby that won't throw my back out when I carry him around. Here are a few pictures of our growing baby and family over the past few weeks.
Loved having my mom here after he was born to hang out and help. Justin didn't have any time off so it was so nice to have my mom to hang out with. I just love being around her. She is always happy and smiling. We laugh at all the same stupid things. I think she deserves a gold medal for all her help in getting Crew here! I was sad to see my mom leave but just two weeks later my sister came in town. We had such a blast. This trip was some of the best times I've ever had with my sister and will need it's own post... coming shortly.We got to go out to dinner with the Neumanns. Dinner at restaurants is a little different with two! One is feeding Crew while the other was up taking Camden to the bathroom several times.
These two are already best buds. Camden is so sweet to Crew. Any time he cries Camden runs to him and says, "Are you looking for the big brother Crew?". He pats his tummy and gives him kisses all the time but luckily isn't really into holding him yet.
Our first real family outing was to Cox Farms last weekend. I love this place. We took Camden when he was just a baby but obviously he enjoyed it a little more this go around.

Baby Crew is HERE

And a month old today! Can't believe I'm just getting around to posting about his birth. I knew life with a new born and two year old would be an adjustment but didn't realize that it would be noon some days before I got to brush my teeth. A girlfriend came over the other night around 8 and when I opened the door, she said "I love it, already getting ready for bed". I looked down and laughed, "No I just never got out of my pajamas!". That's just how life seems to be these days and I'm starting to realize that's ok. I am really just enjoying snuggling this little guy every chance I get because this time I know how fast it goes. I LOVE the newborn stage- so sweet and tiny.
Crew was born 1 day shy of 38 weeks on September 18th and 8:32am. He weighed 7 lbs 1 oz and 20 inches long. I went into the hospital around 11pm the night before dilated to a 5 and having contractions every 4-5 minutes apart for the past 4 hours. I was adamant that I have an epiderhal, a GOOD one, since the one with Camden only worked on my right half. The nurses were great and so was the anesthesiologist. I got the epiderhal right away and didn't feel very much pain at all through the whole night. Around 5am I started feeling A LOT of pain as if the epiderhal had completely worn off and I wasn't numb. The doctor came in and said they would get the anithesiologist back in right away but then she checked me and said it was too late because the baby was already coming. After a minor meltdown with a whole bunch of tears I realized that there wasn't anything I could about it and I might as well suck it up and get ready to meet our little guy. It was only about twenty minutes and Crew was on my tummy and showing us his lungs were just fine! He cried for 30 seconds and then he was back in our arms wide eyed looking around. Justin and I kept asking the nurses "So he's healthy?!". Because of our experience with Camden and because of all the pre-term labor problems that started two months earlier, we had prepared ourselves this time that Crew would probably go to the NICU. We just couldn't believe that we got to keep him with us and he didn't have any problems.

I love this picture because if you look very closely you can see he's a little teary eyed holding his new son. That's something I've only seen a few times in our four years of marriage.

I was so happy that both my parents were here from Texas for the birth.

We are also so lucky to have Justin's family live close to us so they could all be here. Well almost his whole family, we were missing aunt Whitney who is in Utah going to school.
I loved having him in the room with us. He never went to the nursery.

Camden was really cute with Crew. He wanted to hold and kiss him... for a minute. Then he was happy having us hold him while he ran around and wrestled his dad. He kept putting his hand on my stomach and asking "Where did your baby go?".

After 24 hours in the hospital we were ready to get out of there and bring Crew home. I hate hospitals. Justin's dad had this cute stork sign placed in front of our house for the first week announcing his birth.The first thing Camden wanted to do when we got Crew home was play football with him.

Crew had to go back into the hospital for two days because his jaundice levels got critically high. I don't know who wouldn't love a warm tanning bed but Crew just screamed 99% of the time. He hated not being swaddled. It was torture to just watch him and not be able to hold him. But pretty soon his levels were back down and we got to leave.

We've been loving every second... well maybe not the middle of the night seconds.

HOME SWEET HOME!!!!

Jail Break Tomorrow

LONG POST. Please don't feel the need to read this. Many have asked me for the details and this is an easy way to do it. As most of you know that read this blog, this pregnancy threw us a curve ball almost two weeks ago. As my last post mentioned, I have been on moderate bed rest. I went in about three weeks ago and my doctor told me, "Good news, taking it easy has worked" and that I was measuring great now. In fact, they even gave us the go ahead to travel to Sun Valley ID. We were still very nervous to travel but finally decided that with several doctors giving us the green light and being early enough in the pregnancy that we hadn't reached the cut off for traveling, we would go. Our flight left early Thursday but on Wednesday night, bags packed and ready to go, we made a trip into the hospital because I was having a few contractions. When they checked me we were shocked to find out that I was now dilated to 2cm and my cervix length had drastically shortened from our last appointment not even a week earlier. We weren't going anywhere and became scared to death that this little boy was going to come WAY too early.

We were admitted to the hospital and after an IV of fluid and 3 shots of a drug called terbutaline (makes the uterus relax and your heart pound out of your chest) the contractions slowed down. Not for long though. The next night they picked back up to three minutes apart, then one minute, and by the time they rushed me from the high risk perinatal unit to labor and delivery they were 30 seconds apart. This is where I lost it. I didn't think they would be able to stop him from coming and I knew it was WAY too early. I was scared to death. Camden was born at 37 weeks and his lungs were not ready. He was in the NICU and without going into details, I'll just say that seeing your baby through plastic with a million tubes in him was the hardest thing I've ever had to go through and I wasn't prepared to go through it again.

They started me right away on a drug called magnesium. This is a last resort drug they use to stop labor. Everyone warned me what a horrible drug this was and the awful side effects that came along with it for the mom. They were right! It made my body shake and feet numb because I was so cold but then my face was on fire and I couldn't stop sweating. My eye sockets ached and I couldn't focus or see anything. Last of all I had a splitting head ache and felt like the room was spinning. Fun right?!

It was a miserable 30 hours. The magnesium is so strong and potent that it actually infiltrated through my veins three times, making them start a new IV each time. After 24 hours they lowered my dose but my contractions started back up right away. They decided to keep me on the higher dose for another 6 hours. By 6am on Sunday they finally took me off it. As happy as I was to be off it, Justin and I were preparing ourselves that he would most likely be born that day. Then a miracle happened. The contractions spread way out. I slept for the next 10 hours and woke up feeling pretty much back to myself. They took me back up to the high risk area and this is where I've been ever since. In a cute little green and blue room with a window and a chair/bed for Justin by my side. I'm still having contractions but for the most part they are spread out. Tomorrow I will be 34 weeks! My doctor said she will check me and if I haven't dilated any more, they will send me home on bedrest. HOME! There isn't a whole lot they can do for me at this point to stop the labor anyway. The risk of the drugs now outweigh the benefits of delaying labor.

They've told me not to get my hopes up just in case they need to keep me longer but all I can think about is having Camden with me all day instead of just visiting between his naps. Although they would never admit it I know that it's been so hard on my mom and husband. My mom has been amazing taking care of Camden, making us meals, and driving to and from the hospital twice a day. Justin sat next to me holding my hand for two days in a dark room while I was on the magnesium not even leaving to get food. He has spent every night on a horrible bed and tries to divide his time between taking care of me, Camden and getting things ready for our baby. I've just been amazed at how many people have gone out of their way to visit and bring things to keep me busy. That's the only reason I still have a little of my sanity left! It's hard not to feel so humbled and thankful for incredible family and friends.

Every day that he stays in here cooking is a huge blessing. I hope he can hold out even a few more weeks. Although I'll admit I'm still so scared of him being in the NICU I feel more prepared and know that the situation could be much worse for him. Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers. I know that's what has gotten us to this point. Now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that I can bust out of here tomorrow and keep this little guy from coming a little longer!

Belly Shots

I wish I was one of those girls that remembered to take a weekly picture of my bump but I really didn't take very many pictures throughout this whole pregnancy. Luckily one of my best friends happens to be an amazing photographer and she snapped a few of me along the way. Then last weekend Camden, Justin and I went to Old Town Alexandria and Justin snapped a few pictures. Turns out my husband is a pretty good photographer too! The top three pictures are ones that he took and the others are from Alia Cardwell.


This pregnancy has been much smoother then Camden's. Not a single trip to the ER! (I'm knocking on wood as I'm writing this) I did however find out at my last appointment several weeks ago that I'm already 50% effaced. They sent me over to the hospital to get a more accurate measurement. My doctor warned me that if my cervix was 3cm or less that I would be on bed rest. If I measured below 2cm I wouldn't be allowed to leave the hospital. Ehhh! Well I was at 3.1!!! I was put on moderate bed rest since I was borderline. Since I'm not much of a home body, to say the least, I've been going a little stir crazy. Thank you to all the friends that have been playing at our house helping Camden and me stay sane. I have my next appointment this Wednesday to find what I'm measuring. Keeping my fingers crossed that I've stayed the same and haven't progressed!