Camden's Birth Story

On Tuesday morning I woke up to Maddie saying, "I want pancakes."  Eric had turned on Daniel Tiger for her right before he left for work and in this episode Daniel and his family were eating pancakes.  I told Maddie I'd make her pancakes on Saturday (which I did!) and asked her to come help me get her breakfast.

While I was getting Maddie's food ready, I had a contraction.  It was 7:47 AM.  I'd been having a ton of Braxton-Hicks contractions so I wasn't too terribly concerned about this one.  Five minutes later there was another one, followed by another one.  My doctor (and everyone else) had assured me that I would certainly know the difference between a real contraction and a Braxton-Hicks contraction.  The real ones would make me stop what I was doing and take my breath away.  These contractions weren't doing that, they were simply more uncomfortable than usual.  It was their regularity that caught my attention.

I decided, at the risk of sounding overly paranoid, to call Eric and let him know about these three contractions just in case with time they proved to be more significant.  I also called my mom and asked her if she would take Maddie to school for me.  I did not mention the contractions to her since I didn't know what was really going on.

My contractions came pretty regularly as I continued to get myself and Maddie ready for the day.  Finally around 8:30 I called Eric and told him that I thought we might need to head up to labor and delivery to be monitored.  I told him I was going to feel really dumb for pulling him away from work if these weren't real contractions, but I also knew I didn't want to have this baby at home.

By 9:15 Eric and I had finished packing our suitcase and were ready to head to the hospital.  At this point I had had a few contractions that were only three minutes apart.  Before we left our house, I made sure Eric took a picture of me with my pregnant belly, just in case this was the real deal.

When Eric and I arrived at the hospital, he quickly filled out the paperwork and we were taken back to triage.  By this time it felt as though my contractions had subsided and I was kind of embarrassed to be there.  I hate to be wrong, can you tell?  :)  After hooking me up to a couple of monitors, the resident left the room and Eric and I watched as the monitor began to register my contractions.  At this point the contractions started becoming a little more intense.

Shortly after monitoring began, the resident came back in the room and said he wanted to go ahead and check to see if I was making any progress.  It turns out I was already six centimeters dilated!  Suddenly we were talking about being admitted to the hospital and getting an epidural.  Eric sent out a text message to our families to let them know what was happening.  My mom's response:  R u serious?  I don't believe u.

A little after 9:45 I walked myself from triage to the labor and delivery room where I continued walking around as we waited for the anesthesiologist to arrive.  By the time he arrived I was in quite a bit of pain.  I wanted to tell him that I really didn't care about the risks and to just stick the needle in my back.  At 10:30 the anesthesiologist began inserting the epidural and I heard the nurse ask Eric if he was feeling okay.  Turns out Eric was getting nauseous and was asked to sit down.

After I finally began getting some relief from the epidural, my nurse was able to continue asking admission questions.  Shortly after that my doctor came in to visit and to see how I was progressing.  Surprisingly I was already at a 10.  Dr. F suggested doing a practice push to see if Camden was ready.  Turns out he was!  Dr. F never had the chance to leave the room.  As he got dressed in his delivery gear, a team of nurses entered the room.  At 11:15 I started pushing.  Four pushes later, on October 30th at 11:26 AM, Camden was born.  He was 20 inches long and weighed in at a whopping 9 pounds, 6 ounces!

Welcome to our family, Camden!  

I'll do another post later about Maddie meeting Camden for the first time.  It made my heart so happy!

Okay Camden, here's the deal:

You have a little less than five hours left today to make your grand entrance.  If you choose to wait, then you better plan to stay in for three days.  We'd like to avoid Halloween and the surrounding days if possible.  Thank you.

39 Week Update 
Since Maddie was born early, this is the first time for me to experience 39 weeks!

Size of baby:  Camden measures about 20 inches long head to toe and weighs a bit over 7 pounds, about the size of a large rabbit.

Emily's bunny, Bernie  :)

Total weight gain/loss:  +37 lbs.  Eek!  I haven't yet reached the weight I did when I was pregnant with Maddie, but I'm getting terribly close.

Maternity clothes:  Yes, of course, and now I'm even resorting to wearing some of Eric's shirts just so I can have the extra length.

Gender:  Boy!

Movement:  Late last night and at church this morning he was moving quite a bit.  There have been several times in the past week when he's been pretty still.  I just have to keep reminding myself that there's not a lot of room left.

Sleep:  What's that?

What I miss:  Being comfortable, sleep, holding Maddie in my lap.

Cravings:  Well, I just ate three nine cookies.  Someone please take the cookies away from me!

How I'm feeling:  Ready to be done.  I know it's unlikely that my water will break early this time around, so I'm anxious to know how long I'll be laboring at home.

Highlight of the week:  Finishing up my last week at work.  It will be such a relief to not have to kneel and bend over to change diapers and reach down to pick up toys.

39 weeks

Isn't it funny how when you only have one experience with something, you expect the same results the next time around?  All throughout this pregnancy I have assumed that my water would break to signal when I should go to the hospital and that Camden would be born prior to 40 weeks.  After all, that's how things went with my first pregnancy.  So here I am with 11 days to go.  At this point in my last pregnancy my water had broken and I was being admitted to the hospital.

I thought it was funny tonight when Eric asked me to play Mario Kart on the Wii.  I can't even tell you the last time we played, but I can tell you that with 11 days left of my pregnancy with Maddie my water broke while playing Mario Kart.  So Eric and I went ahead and played tonight, not truly expecting anything to happen, but thinking that it would be pretty darn funny if it did.

Wouldn't this be a great point in the post to announce that my water broke and I am currently in labor?

Well, it didn't and I'm not.  Instead I'm thinking about what I'm going to do with my preschoolers tomorrow and remembering all of the little (and big) things that I'd still like to get done around the house before Camden makes his entrance, which technically could be any day. . . but probably not tomorrow.

I have decided to begin doing weekly updates since we have reached the final countdown.  I like how in my newest picture you can tell that I'm just about over being pregnant.  This pregnancy certainly has not been as kind to me as pregnancy #1.

38 Week Update
*Please click HERE to participate in Camden's Baby Pool.  Get your guess entered before the end of the day tomorrow!

Size of baby:  Camden weighs about 6.8 pounds and is over 19 1/2 inches long, about as long as a leek.  Sorry it's another vegetable.  Lame.

Total weight gain/loss:  +32 lbs.  Hopefully this one pound weight gain will offset the 7 pound weight gain from the previous 2 weeks.  :/

Maternity clothes:  I have nothing to wear!  No really.  I ripped an irreparable hole in one of my two pair of maternity jeans and even my maternity shirts are too short.

Gender:  Still a boy.

Movement:  Slower than before, but I don't suppose he has too much space left.

Sleep:  Horrible!  I cannot get comfortable.  Pretty much everything between my belly and my ankles aches when I lay down.  I am in desperate need of sleep.

What I miss:  Sleep.

Cravings:  Not much.

How I'm feeling:  Achy, swollen, tired, impatient, anxious, excited, not ready, so ready, etc.

Highlight of the week:  Finishing up Camden's room.  It's not completely done, but it's so much closer to being finished than it was this time last week.

38 weeks

*Please click HERE to participate in Camden's Baby Pool.  Get your guess entered before the end of the day tomorrow!

37 Week Update
*Please click HERE to participate in Camden's Baby Pool.  Get your guess entered before it's too late!

Size of baby:  Camden weighs in at 6 1/3 pounds and is a bit over 19 inches long head to heel, about the length of a stalk of Swiss chard, as if everyone knows what that is.

Total weight gain/loss:  +31 lbs

Maternity clothes:  Yes, and even the maternity shirts are getting to be a little too short.

Gender:  Boy!

Movement:  He seems to have been moving a little more this past week than he did the week before.  I only find myself doing kick counts if it seems like he's had a slow day.

Sleep:  Not terrible.  I may get up once to go to the bathroom.

What I miss:  Being able to move around easily.

Cravings:  Still the sweet stuff.

How I'm feeling:  Achy and swollen, like Fred Flintstone feet swollen.  Not pretty.

Highlight of the week:  Taking maternity photos, going to Build-A-Bear so Maddie could make a bear for Camden, and knowing that I am officially full-term!

37 weeks

*Please click HERE to participate in Camden's Baby Pool.  Get your guess entered before it's too late!

35 Week Update
*Please click HERE to participate in Camden's Baby Pool.  Get your guess entered before it's too late!

Size of baby:  Camden is over 18 inches long head to heel and weighs in at 5.25 pounds, about the weight of a honeydew melon.

Total weight gain/loss:  +23.5 pounds

Maternity clothes:  Of course.

Gender:  Boy!

Movement:  I've begun doing kick counts to make sure all is well.  I still feel the occasional squirm or jab, but nothing like the acrobatics of the past several weeks.

Sleep:  Getting worse.

What I miss:  Being able to get out of bed without using a whole lot of effort.

Cravings:  Eric says I'm craving Fanta Orange, maybe he's right.

How I'm feeling:  Achy and swollen, but excited that we're getting closer and closer to meeting Camden.

Highlight of the week:  Camden's baseball themed baby shower was this past weekend.  We received a lot of the things we need to get life started with this little guy.  Now if we can just get his room painted and ready. . . .

35 weeks

We decided to let Maddie pick out some presents to take to baby brother's baby shower on Saturday.  I knew she'd have no interest in actually choosing something off of the registry, since when you're two years old toys are much more interesting than diapers and sheets.  I also knew we had quite a few baby toys packed away and there's no sense in buying more since he's not going to play with them very much.  So, I came up with the idea of letting her shop through her old toys and whatever she "bought" (put in her shopping cart) is what we'd let her take to the shower.  Here's what happened:

She cracks me up.  I guess I'll have to go through her "purchases" and decide what she's actually going to take.  I'm glad we did it this way as opposed to going to a store to pick out a toy.  She had so much fun shopping with her pink cart.  :)

33 Week Update

Size of baby:  Camden is approximately 17.5 inches and weighs about 4.5 pounds, about as much as a grownup duck. . . or a pineapple, but a duck's more interesting, right?

Total weight gain/loss:  +21 pounds, not bad!  :)  I don't have horribly swollen feet and legs like I did with Maddie, so I think that is helping keep my weight down.

Maternity clothes:  Yes

Gender:  Boy

Movement:  He still moves quite a bit, but I can definitely tell he's starting to run out of space.

Sleep:  Uncomfortable, but at least I don't have to get up to go to the bathroom multiple times. . . yet.

What I miss:  Being comfortable.  I think this will be my staple answer for the remainder of the pregnancy.

Cravings:  Fruit and vegetables.  Not!

How I'm feeling:  Like I have a bowling ball very low in my belly.

Highlight of the week:  Getting the remainder of my doctor's appointments scheduled.  Camden will be here before we know it!

33 weeks, 2 days

Baby Boy has had a name for a while now and I was perfectly fine keeping it a secret until I realized Maddie was saying his name more and more regularly when we asked her.  So on August 25th Eric and I were ready to reveal his name, but since several family members couldn't make it over to our house we just told my sister, Rachel, and waited for a more convenient time to tell everyone else.

That time finally came on September 7th.  My mom and Aunt Carol decided to play things up and decorated our house with balloons, a cake, and baby boy plates and napkins.  Once everyone made it over, we gave them a stack of index cards, each of which had a letter from Baby Boy's name written on it.  With a little help from Maddie, they were able to figure out the first name.  Shortly thereafter, they determined the middle name as well.

I suppose this is where I should tell YOU what Baby Boy's name is, but I'll let Maddie do the honors instead:

There you have it!  We can finally refer to Baby Boy by his name!  He does have a middle name as well, but I don't want to reveal it on here for privacy's sake.  Just ask and we'll be happy to share.  :)

P.S.  Am I the only one who can't get her child to look at the camera and smile on cue?

31 Week Update

Size of baby:  Baby Boy is over 16 inches long and weighs 3.3 pounds, about the weight of four navel oranges.

Total weight gain/loss:  +22.5 pounds.  I didn't keep a record of my weight gain with Maddie, but I know I gained over 40 pounds.  So unless I pack on a lot of pounds in these last nine weeks, I don't anticipate breaking the 40 pound mark.  Yay!

Maternity clothes:  Same as the last 8 weeks, but now I can add that I have a dress to wear for Baby Boy's shower.  :)

Gender:  Boy

Movement:  He loves to hang out on my right side.  I can feel him dragging body parts (hands, feet, elbows, knees?) along my side and that can be painful.  I really wish I could see inside my tummy so I would know exactly what he's doing in there.

Sleep:  Not good.  I still have a hard time getting comfortable and rolling over is horrible.  It also doesn't help that Maddie has been waking up around 2 or 3 AM for the last few nights.

What I miss:  Being comfortable.

Cravings:  Like I've written before, I'm eating a lot of sweets, but I don't think it's really a craving.  I think it's lack of self-control.  :/

How I'm feeling:  Shocked that we're in the single-digit countdown!  Nine more weeks!

Highlight of the week:  See above.  I still can't believe it.  If he's early like Maddie, it will be more like a 7.5 week countdown!  Eek!

31 weeks

29 Week Update

Size of baby:  Baby Boy weighs about 3 pounds and is a little over 15 inches long, about the length of a loaf of bread.

Total weight gain/loss:  +21 pounds.  I'm really hoping to keep my weight gain to 30-35 pounds.

Maternity clothes:  This is becoming pretty repetitive.  Pants, yes.  Shirts, sometimes.

Gender:  Boy

Movement:  Yes.  This morning during church it felt like he was trying to stretch out across my stomach, but I don't think there are 15 inches of room for him to stretch in!

Sleep:  Not pleasant.  Nearly every time I roll over I end up getting a Braxton-Hicks contraction.  I recently started sleeping with a body pillow which is a little more comfortable, at least for my hips.

What I miss:  Being able to do things comfortably--sleep, bend over, hold Maddie, etc.

Cravings:  Still the usual sweets.

How I'm feeling:  I'm beginning to feel a little overwhelmed that Baby Boy will be here in 11 weeks or less.  I guess it's time to make a final decision on his name and to get started on his nursery.

Highlight of the week:  Entering my last trimester!  I'm also still loving how much Maddie adores her baby brother.  She pretends to hold him, sings to him, and talks to him.

29 weeks

27 Week Update

Size of baby:  Baby Boy is about 14.5 inches long and weighs almost 2 pounds, about as hefty as a head of cauliflower.

Total weight gain/loss:  +18 pounds.  Seems like a lot when you realize the baby only weighs 2 pounds.

Maternity clothes:  For sure with pants and occasionally with shirts.

Gender:  Maddie's going to have a baby brother!

Movement:  All the time.  He kicked Maddie's hand the other night and she said she felt it, but she didn't react so who knows.

Sleep:  Starting to get uncomfortable.  Every time I roll from one side to the other I can definitely feel the added weight of my belly.

What I miss:  Not worrying about what I eat.  I've never been a particularly healthy eater, but since I have this little boy that is depending on me and what I consume, I feel guiltier than ever about my eating habits.

Cravings:  I ate 11 Oreos over the course of this afternoon.  Enough said.  See above.

How I'm feeling:  Big.  I get up and down a lot while playing with Maddie and I'm finding myself having to get into a crawling position before pushing myself up from sitting to standing.

Highlight of the week:  Talking to Maddie about what she's going to do with Baby Brother.  We've been reading her a book titled I'm a Big Sister and she has started picking up on things that big sisters can do.  She tells us she's going to "hold her, rock her, and sing baby songs."  Don't worry, we're working on using the correct pronoun.  :)

27 weeks

25 Week Update

Size of baby:  Baby Boy weighs a pound and a half and is 13.5 inches long, about the length of a recorder.  Remember those?  Too bad they didn't have cool ones like these when I was in school.

Total weight gain/loss:  +17 pounds.  I'm not thrilled with it, but my doctor said he's happy.

Maternity clothes:  Definitely when it comes to pants.  Regular shirts work as long as they are long enough.  Anyone else not really a fan of maternity shirts?

Gender:  Boy!

Movement:  Yes!  I feel him rolling around a lot, which is something Maddie didn't do.

Sleep:  Not bad.

What I miss:  Two things, being able to lay on my stomach and being able to hold Maddie comfortably.

Cravings:  I've been eating a lot of ice cream lately, but maybe that's because it's summer.

How I'm feeling:  Slightly uncomfortable.  Dr. F said each pregnancy tends to be a little more uncomfortable than the one before, which is why most people only have 2 or 3 kids.  I mentioned the Duggars and his explanation for her many pregnancies is that she must be crazy.  I'm beginning to think he might be right.

Highlight of the week:  Looking obviously pregnant and not just pudgy.  The first time a stranger asked me when I was due, I was so caught off guard that I didn't answer right away.

25 weeks

23 Week Update

Size of baby: Baby Boy is 11.5 inches long and weighs over a pound, about the length and weight of a Harry Potter book.

Total weight gain/loss: +16 pounds, yikes!  I've started walking 2 miles with Lucy in the mornings.  Hopefully I can keep that up and it will help keep off some of the weight.

Maternity clothes:  For pants and shorts, yes.  Just like with my pregnancy with Maddie, I am able to get away with my regular tops, although I may be stretching them out a bit.

Gender:  Boy!

Movement:  A lot!  I don't remember Maddie moving around quite this much.

Sleep:  Pretty good.  I just need to go to bed earlier.

What I miss:  Not much.  I didn't do many of the pregnancy "no-no's" prior to being pregnant, so there's not a lot to miss.

Cravings:   Nothing other than the usual sweets.

How I'm feeling:  Not too bad, just a little tired.

Highlight of the week:  Settling on a first name for the little man.  :)

23 weeks, 2 days

21 Week Update

Size of baby: Baby Boy weighs three-quarters of a pound and is 10.5 inches long from head to toe, about the size of a Clementine Izze.

Total weight gain/loss: +11.5 pounds

Maternity clothes:  I think I am officially into maternity pants.  Lately I've either been wearing dresses or a pair of super cheap maternity shorts I found at Ross.

Gender:  Boy!  Now to figure out a name. . . .

Movement:  Yes.  :)  The other night while I was reading, Baby Boy made such a forceful movement that I was able to see it out of my peripheral vision.

Sleep:  No complaints.

What I miss:  This doesn't really have to do with what I miss about not being pregnant, but it's come to my mind a lot lately that I miss the fact that my grandparents never had the chance to meet Maddie or Baby Boy.  Two of my cousins on my dad's side are also pregnant right now and we're all due within four months of each other.  I think my grandpa would have been tickled about all of the new great-grandchildren.

Cravings:   Although I've been eating a lot of sweets, I had my first craving for something specific a couple of weeks ago.  We were grocery shopping when a bag of powdered donuts caught my eye.  I'm generally very good about only buying what's on the grocery list, but I couldn't resist those.  I ended up eating four of them in the car on the way home!

How I'm feeling: I think what I thought was a pulled muscle might actually be sciatic pain.  When I change positions it's not uncommon for me to get a shooting pain.  I need to ask my doctor about it at my next appointment.

Highlight of the week:  Maddie kissing my belly and sharing her pacifier with baby brother by holding it up against my belly.  Most of the time I don't think she understands all of this talk about a baby brother, but she did both of those things without being prompted, so who knows!

21 weeks

Eric got to feel Baby Boy kick for the first time last night.  As soon as it happened, he jerked his hand back and told me it freaked him out.  He said he's glad I'm the pregnant one.

Baby Boy, your Daddy was the same way when I was pregnant with Maddie.  It's not just you.  ;)

19 Week Update

Size of baby: Baby T weighs 8.5 ounces and is 6 inches long from head to bottom, about the size of a turkey sub from Subway.

Total weight gain/loss: +8.5 pounds, right on track.

Maternity clothes:  Still avoiding maternity clothes.  I don't know how he positioned himself today, but if I really wanted to I could have forgone the BeBand and buttoned my regular jeans.

Gender:  Boy!  Talk about a surprise for us.

Movement:  He's moving more and more all the time and I love it!

Sleep:  Better than it was a couple of weeks ago.  I still haven't bought a body pillow, but I am using a king-size pillow and that seems to be helping.

What I miss:  Not worrying about what I eat and how it will affect the baby, and Maddie being able to sit comfortably on my lap.

Cravings:   Still way too many sweets.  I plan to cut back on them starting tomorrow, especially after seeing my most recent sudden weight gain.  Yikes!

How I'm feeling: I've begun to occasionally feel like I have some pulled muscles, but I'm pretty sure it's just from my body making room for this little one.

Highlight of the week:  Finding out that we are going to have a little boy!

19 weeks
P.S. Ignore the fact that I'm glowing.  It was really sunny today.

*Update:  Had my 19 week appointment today.  Everything from the anatomy scan looked good.  Baby Boy is measuring on target and had a heartbeat around 160 bpm.  Maddie went to this appointment and got to hear her brother's heartbeat.  :)

Just saw Baby Boy move from the outside of my belly.  I don't know if that even makes any sense, but it was pretty exciting.  :)

Yesterday was the anatomy scan for Baby T #2.  On the way to the hospital I told Eric that I was happy to get to see the baby, but I wasn't experiencing the anticipation I had with Maddie's anatomy scan since I already knew this baby was a girl.

After the tech finished taking all of the necessary pictures for the doctor, she called Eric into the room.  She took her time showing us many different images of Baby T #2:  the beating heart, a variety of organs, the umbilical cord attachment and blood flow, arms, legs, etc.  Finally it was time to confirm that I was right about the baby's gender.  The tech pulled the image up on the screen and asked me to take a look and make a guess.  I could not believe what I was seeing!  Was it really a boy?!

baby boy was facing my back, so this is the best profile the tech could get

I don't know how long it took me to get over the shock that this little baby I've been carrying around isn't a girl.  I think I am still trying to get used to the idea.  It's not so much that I would I have preferred a girl, but everything about this pregnancy has seemed so much like my last one that it never crossed my mind that this could be a boy.

Later that evening Eric and I invited our parents and Carol to a local park where we released blue balloons to reveal that Baby T #2 is a boy.

Now if only I could get Maddie to stop correcting me with "sister" everytime I tell her she's going to have a baby brother.