My 1st Christmas!

Cami had a fabulous first Christmas.  It seemed to wear her out in a serious way, but that could also just have something to do with the little (as in gaining a pound over the course of a few days...) growth spurt she's been having.  I think she enjoyed having Mommy AND Daddy home for four days too!

Her first big outing was to her Great Granny's house for Christmas Eve where she got to meet and "play" (sleep in people's arms) with everyone.  She did great and everyone kept marveling at how she wasn't making a peep.  I tried to stay ahead of her hunger and watched for the slightest bit of hand chewing to get a bottle ready for her to eat....maybe I should have let everyone hear her if that bottle doesn't come fast enough for her wishes. :)

Christmas morning we woke up (ahem, were awoken) early and Cami "opened" her presents from Mommy and Daddy and from Grandma and Grandpa.  She slept through the entire thing, but we're confident that she'll enjoy the presents at some point....

After our first Christmas morning as a family, we fed Cami (full baby = happy baby), dressed her in her Christmas best, and loaded her and her 8,000 required items for travel into the truck to head to Gigi's and Papa D's.  She once again did a great job hanging out during Christmas dinner and present opening time, and even got in about 20 minutes of tummy time on her brand new baby sized Auburn blanket.  We had a great afternoon, and she was only a little cranky when we got home past her normal bedtime.

Um, ignore my hair in that last picture...

Yesterday she was still exhausted from all her adventures and slept her way through most of the morning.  But, around 2 or so she woke up and played most of the afternoon (stared at the ceiling?).  She got to Skype with her cousins, and hear her sweet cousin Hallie say "Love you Cami!"  Ella, Hallie, and Cami get to meet in April and it is going to be some amazing craziness at our house for that week! 

On a side note, even though I'm so excited as she grows and can do more and more, I was a little sad to retire ALL her newborn onesies over the weekend.  She is fully into her 3 month clothes (her 0-3s are still okay since they were bigger than the NB ones) and I was also a little teary to put away her "My 1st Christmas" clothes.  Do they make My 1st New Year's/Valentine's Day/St. Patrick's Day clothes?  Probably not.  :)

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Education, Part 2

More things I have learned:
Cami doesn't have to be stripped down anymore to finish a bottle.  In fact, oftentimes we'll have to make her another ounce after she's finished an entire bottle.
Cami had her first bath and went back and forth between calmness and freaking out. 
Cami will put her hands on her cheek while she eats like it's very serious business.
I think she knows that my phone has a camera on it and that it's trying to take pictures of her; she'll stick her hand up in front of the lens for the majority of the photos (unless she's asleep).
I knew babies grew fast, but this is kind of ridiculous.
When she's really hungry, she'll spit her pacifier out and can get a pretty good range on that thing.
If her paci falls out when she wants it, and it falls on her chest, she can lean her head down and suck it back up into her mouth.
Tummy time is going much better.  Cami will lift her head up and fell asleep during it the other day and napped for over an hour.  Then, she flipped out when she woke up and realized she couldn't really move.
Cami tries to eat her bib when I'm trying to get it on her when she's hungry. 
Do you notice that most of these revolve around food?

 At some point we're going to have to teach her not to stick her tongue out at us..... :)

I'm Silly!!!

Some of Cami's silly times:

When I fall asleep, there isn't much that bothers me.....

 

I hate being cold, so my sponge bath is only okay at the end when I'm all wrapped up and have my paci back in my mouth....

And sometimes tummy time is just really tough.  But I can already lift my head all the way up and hold it there for a few seconds!!!

Prayers

My friend Natalie gave me a link to this family's blog, and I felt compelled to share it on ours.  

http://www.smoterfamily.blogspot.com/

The Smoters are in need of some prayers as they are in the midst of finding out if their son has a chromosome abnormality.  In reading their blog and seeing words that are so similar to what I put on ours last year for Bailey, it just took me right back to what it felt like to hear that information for the first time.  It sounds like they will be cared for at Texas Children's, which was the best place we could be with Bailey.  Please think of them and show them some love on their blog; they need it right now.

Nighttime Progress

Last night we had a glimmer of hope.  Cami went to bed around 7:45pm after eating at 7:30.  She had a pretty big day at the doctor's office (diaper on/off about four times, which she hates, PKU heel stick, which she hates [of course], poked and prodded while her onesie was off so she was cold, which she hates), so she went down pretty easily.  Poor little doodlebug was tired.  She slept ALL THE WAY until 11:30pm.  James fed her then and she chowed down like we've never fed her in her life.  When we've had a long stretch like that before (never that long though), it seems she wakes up every hour and a half to two hours to make up for it.  But, she slept ALL THE WAY until 2:45 (ok, confession....she was perhaps not asleep, but not fussing loudly until that time).  We had TWO long stretches of sleep.  She also drank 4 oz. for the first time last night.  She was ready to eat at 4:45 and 6:45 after that, but I feel like there is light at the end of the tunnel.  Maybe, just maybe, she'll start sleeping a wee bit longer on a regular basis.

Education

What I have learned over the past few days:

While I don't function well, I can get a remarkable amount done on very little sleep.

Cami loves to snuggle and be held.

Cami hates to be cold.

Cami loves to make funny faces and is already working on her smile.

Cami hates being changed because it makes her cold.

Cami has to eat in only her diaper or she snuggles up so much that she falls asleep mid-feeding.

Cami loves her swing, but the verdict is still out on tummy time.

Cami likes to straighten her legs and do flutter kicks when she's on her back.

I already knew this, but James is AMAZING.

I already knew this too, but I love my family.

Cami's Birthday - 11.29.11

It has taken a little while to get this updated, b/c we are TIRED.  Tired in a way that I've never been tired before.  But, Cami is being so, so cute and adorable that I can't complain.  Here's her birthday story:

We were supposed to head to the hospital at 6:30am on Tuesday morning, but at 4:15am I got a call that between scheduled c-sections and inductions and all the women that randomly went into labor Monday night, there wasn't any room for me.  They asked me to call back at 8:30.  So, needless to say, I didn't go back to sleep and it was a long wait until 8:30.  I called back and they said, nope, still no room, call back around ten.  At ten, they asked me to call back at noon.  Finally, at noon they asked us how fast we could get to the hospital, and if we could get there before one, we would get things started.  We got our stuff in the car and headed off to St. Luke's.

When I arrived, they were still shifting around moms that had already delivered, so I started in L&D triage.  My (awesome) doctor came in to break my water (and checked me....there was absolutely NO progress since my doctor's appointment the week before so I was glad I was being induced), and then we sat around to wait for a bit.  We were texting with friends and family while Cami's greeting part (i.e. grandparents) gathered in the waiting room.  They moved us to a room around 4 and started my Pitocin at 4:30pm.  I made a little progress, got an epidural, and then almost passed out.  Yep.  Almost passed out.  My epidural made my blood pressure drop in a serious way so I got a little epinephrine shot and we were back in business.

I got checked around 8:30 and I was fully dilated.  My nurse told me not to push (um, ok) and paged my doctor.  My doctor showed up about fifteen minutes later and started cracking me up (she really is AWESOME) which totally relaxed me and made me less nervous.  James was right by my head and kept telling me how awesome I was doing and a few pushes through two contractions later Cameron Elizabeth Galloway was born at 8:54pm.

They handed her straight to me so I could see her and give her a little cuddle, but then took her over to the warmer b/c she had a lot of fluid in her airway.  James followed her over and kept smiling the biggest proud daddy smile ever and watched her while she got her big "I'm here" cry going.  I just couldn't stop staring.  Once they got me all taken care of and Cami warm, they brought her back to me and she nursed like a pro right away and then we brought everyone in to meet her. 

Cami immediately had everyone wrapped around her little finger and she made her little faces.  Everyone watched as she got her first bath (she LOVED getting her hair washed in the warm water, go figure) and then we got her dressed and swaddled.  She was so good the first night, but I barely slept at all because I just kept watching her and listening to all her little noises.  She had so many visitors her first full day and everyone got to show her some love.  Night two was fairly rough; Cami was so congested we were worried about her (apparently a lot of babies are super congested when they're born, but it sounded like she couldn't breathe to us) so they checked her out in the nursery (I burst into tears as they took her out of the room) to make sure she was getting enough oxygen.  She was (phew), but then our nurse told us that she would keep Cami in the nursery for a bit so we could get some sleep.  I had only gotten about two hours in the prior 36 so I was game for the suggestion (even though I teared up again when she left), and James and I got five glorious hours of sleep. 

When they brought Cami back to us in the morning, she had had all of her screening tests done, including her heel stick for jaundice.  Her "bili" levels were pretty high, so we had to put her through a pretty rough day.  She was a serious trooper though.  She had to be mostly naked under blue lights to work her bilirubin levels down.  And she had to wear goggles to cover her little eyes.  We could take her out to feed her and change her, but then immediately had to put her back under the lights.  We felt so bad every time we recovered her little eyes with the goggles!!  But, if we didn't put her right back under, that would only mean that she potentially would have to do the treatment even longer, so we tried to be really good about it.  Luckily, her bili levels dropped to low risk throughout the day and we were told we could go home and didn't have to stay another night. 

We brought Cami home and showed her her room and her crib and her changing table.  Then we set up the pack and play in our room.  After weeks of my big talk of her staying in her own room right from the start, we are having her sleep in our room.  We have the slight excuse of her jaundice and congestion and wanting to check on her, but really I'm just a wuss. 

We've had so much help from family the past few days that it's made the transition of having Cami home as easy as it could possibly be (even though we're still exhausted).  She is just a little cuddly, beautiful baby and we are so in love with her.