Becoming a mom...

Becoming a mom was something I have wanted for as long as I can remember. I became a mom for the first time in April of 2009. However, I only carried my baby for 10 weeks. In those 10 weeks I learned what it felt like to not only life for yourself but to live for someone else. Things changed for me then and there was no going back. After much heartbreak and many tears I would find out I was pregnant again in July of 2010. This pregnancy was much different than the first. During my first pregnancy I spent 10 weeks in a bubble of happiness. However, with this new pregnancy I was not able to do that for a long time. I felt like I as walking on pins and needles for the longest time. I never knew what every ache and pain would bring. It was very scary and just made my anxiety even worse. The weeks passed and eventually I felt my baby kick. This is by far the best feeling in the world. There is nothing like it and it is hard to explain. Every moment and kick meant things were ok on the inside and my baby was telling me not to worry so much.

I could never anticipate the way in which my baby would make her way into the world. I was not prepared for the unexpected. The only unexpected I thought was that my water would break in the middle of the night. I never anticipated her birth being so traumatic for me. This is the way I thought things would happen...

I would start having contractions on day in April of 2010...
I would wake Dan up and we would call my doula. She would come over and we would labor at home as long as possible. We would then make our way to the hospital.
I would yell and scream a little bit and a few hours later I would painfully push this baby out.

I WISH I could tell you that was the case. I wish I felt contractions so bad that they made me yell at Dan and tell him he did this crazy thing to me... Not the case...

I wish I could tell you that after I pushed my baby out they layed her on my chest and we started to bond from there...

I wish I could tell you that my baby was in the room with me after she was born.

Becoming a mom for me started long before this point. However, becoming Camryn's mom started on March 7, 2010 when I was admitted to the hospital because of pre-e. My blood pressure was high and I needed to be in bed, on my left side in order to keep us safe.

From here on out it was a fog. I big crappy fog that made me not remember what was happening. I was in bed for 4 days on "the mag." I could not leave my bed or eat for 4 days. That is enough to drive a person crazy!

My baby would make her way into the world after a long 48 hour failed induction. My baby would have to be cut out of me 5 weeks early because my body had failed us.

My 3 pound baby would be moved to the NICU after birth. My 3 pound baby would stay there for 16 days because my body failed us.

No one tells you that you might feel guilty for the birth of your child. No one tells you that something could go wrong.

With this being said I feel extremely blessed that my 3 pound baby was that big. Some babies are born smaller than she was. I feel blessed that she was only in the NICU for 16 days. I feel blessed that she only had an iv and feeding tube.

There are so many parents and babies with different, more critical situations.

No one tells you these things so I am going to. Pregnancy is hard, it changes you. Your body will not look the same. Giving birth is probably not going to be like it is on tv, breastfeeing sucks, it is hard, it hurts, and if you cannot do it becasue your body is not ready you might feel guilty. Having a newborn is hard. They wake up 100 times a night and most of the time right after you just (finally) fell asleep. You will worry about everything, that is normal.

and with all those crazy things you can never imagine... it is the best feeling in the world. There is nothing like it.

Camryn you make my world better. You make me want to be a better person. But most of all you make me happy which is something I once thought I would never be. You are by far the most amazing thing I have ever done in my life. Without you I would not get to celebrate this day.

So much has changed...

I have not written in this thing for so long. I did not forget about it, I was just doing other things!

During the middle of June I had to return to work for a couple of weeks. I was originally supposed to be out for the rest of the year but because Cam arrived early I had to go back after being out 60 days.

After that we all traveled to Chicago. Dan stayed a couple of weeks and then flew home. Camryn and I stayed the entire month, we traveled around to friends and family, to WI and MI while there.We enjoyed our time at home but we were ready to come back! However, after coming back we ended up flying to CA (Cam's first flight)and stayed at Disney. We also drove to Las Vegas to meet one set of grandparents, we got a date night out of it too. Well I should say a baby free night since they kept her over night in their room. Bliss!

Here are some pictures from the past few months...










We were lucky to have a couple of weeks at home before I had to return to work. I am learning how to be a working mom. Thank god I have my husband who is a HUGE help with everything. He is fortunate enough to work from home one or two days during the week. Camryn gets to stay with him. The most she is in daycare during a given week is 3.5 days. Dan cleans up the house and cooks, can it get better than that. He is a blessing since my job can make for some late nights.

So much for my 3 lb baby. At 5ish months she is around 15lbs! She is huge comepared to where she started.

I have some thoughts I want to share about how her birth has impacted the mom I am now...good and bad... I will leave that for another day.

NICU Mom

I never thought I would be a NICU mom. At least that is what they refer to us as when we are there. I never thought that my baby would come early or have to stay at the hospital as I came home. Camryn is now 10 days old. She has been in the NICU all of those days and I have already been home for 4 of them. Leaving my baby there was the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my entire life. You are supposed to be wheeled out of the hospital with you baby in your arms. You are supposed to have their car seat ready to go, strap them in, and drive off in the sunset. I never thought I would have to leave my baby girl that early on with people she did not know. I cried the day I left her alone in her funny looking crib. I know that she needs to get healthy because she came too early. We were not ready for her arrival here at home so that part has given me some purpose at the moment. I am recovering because I was sick too. I am getting better and stronger for her. I am getting all the things ready that I was working on before I was admitted into the hospital on March 7. I am buying her tiny clothes because she won’t fit into what we have here. However, my baby girl is doing good. She literally makes progress every day. She will be home soon and I know that, although that does not always make it easier. I think that we are really lucky. Camryn stayed in me until almost 35 weeks. She was born small but compared to some babies in the NICU she is considered big. She was never on oxygen. She had IVs at the beginning and they are out now. She was on UV lights for her jaundice but she is off them now. She is gaining weight and weighs more than her birth weight right now. I am confident that she will be at 4 pounds and even more by next week. She is a strong girl. She is my everything. I still don’t feel like her mom all the time but I know it will come in time. We are doing what we can to bond. I am trying to breastfeed her. However, that is another story for another day. We do kangaroo care and I sing to her. Singing has always made me feel better when I am down so I make up songs for her. I read to her when I visit as well. I count my blessing every minute and pray for all the babies who came just a little early. Dan and I will have the NICU in our hearts forever. So while I never thought I would be a NICU mom, I am one.




This is the outfit that Dan bought for Camryn after she was born.




Here we are doing some kangaroo care at one day old.



Here is the blanket they gave her in the NICU. Purple, my favorite!

Labor and Delivery: 34 weeks

When they tell you that your baby who is due April 18 could potentially come the beginning to middle of March you don't get a very good feeling.

To make a long story short I have been battling high blood pressure and edema in my legs and feet. They told me if I noticed any headaches or blurred vision to call the doctor. On March 6, 2010 I called the doctor because I had been fighting a nasty headache for a couple of days, nothing was helping. They had me go into labor and delivery and get checked out. They monitored my BP and did fetal monitoring for about 4 hours and sent me home. The next day my headache continued and then I saw something scary...black spots. I had a moment of panic but imediatly called the doctor and they had me come in again. Now I have been here pretty much all day and need to stay over night. I am doing a 24 hour urine catch to check for protien in my urine. They also have me a shot in the butt (ouch!) which is steriods to stregthen baby Camryn's lungs just in case they need to induce me.

I knew tht induction was a possibility but at 34 weeks those are not the words you want to hear. So here I sit by myself in the hospital waiting for Dan to return....with some food of course...

I was able to spend the day with friends Jess and Lisa who took good care of me while Dan was away at his conference. If it were not for them I would probably be going bonkers.

Now we will just wait to see what the pee has to say!

Camryn's Room

Dan and I began preparing our home office for baby Camryn's new room a few months ago! The biggest step was cleaning everything out and taking items off the walls. This part was very hard for Dan since most everything in the room was his. I think I only saw him shed one or two tears. We packed up all the items and took them back home with us. One day when we have a larger house Dan will get to have his space again!

We decided on our bedding a long time ago. Dan and I both liked some of the items from the Oragnic Mix and Match collection at The Gap. We have purchased the quilt, crib sheets, and mobile from here.

The next change was painting the walls. We took one of the crib sheets in Home Depot and had the man there do a color match with one of the colors from the sheet.I knew that I did not want to do pink so we picked the lighter brown color. Dan started the painting right away and did a fantastic job!

The other day we purchased her crib and set that up. It was hard work but Dan really did a great job. I assisted and attempted to follow the directions but he did most of the work. Right now we do not have a crib mattress but Dan did order it.

The most recent addition to the room has been the letters I painted for her name. Yesterday Dan hung each pink and green letter on the wall. They look so good, he did an awesome job with that project. I am definitly impressed because I could not have done what he did.

We still have to purchase the changing table/dresser but IKEA is out of them right now. After that we will do lots of organizing and will be ready for Cam to make her grand apprerence.

The room before we began working on it...