Erikobby's World: January 2013

Well life with a little one is hard, but he's so precious, it's worth it. We've had my visiting teachers come over to give us some meals, which is super nice and SO helpful, especially since neither of our families can come and help us. My friend Michelle said this about Cameron "You can tell he's a Hall", and it made us crack up. Guess that means he's super cute. :-P I can't get over how skinny his little legs are. I think Bianca was fluffier than him. He's more muscular, even for a newborn. He loves to eat and can sleep in his crib for little bits of time unlike SOMEONE *coughBIANCAcough*. Here's some new pics!!!

(I agree, Bianca)

We took him out in the cold and wind to his first doctor's appointment, which went well. He lost a little bit of weight so he has another appointment next week, but with how he's eating, he'll gain it back in NO time! Such a trooper! <3

Bianca still acts like he's been here for forever, but she likes to play with him whenever he's on his mat. He thinks it's interesting to look at the singing star and animals- very good investment for babies haha. We're thankful our Cameron is here and he is such a joy...even if he doesn't sleep that long yet (but longer than Bianca I believe at least).

It all started at my doctor's appointment on January 21st, 2 days before my due date. I decided to be checked and even though I can hardly walk because this little boy is sitting so low in me, I was saddened to find out that I was only 1 cm and 50% effaced, which is nothing. You can be that way for weeks. WEEKS! After the appointment we all went out to get some Mexican food to cheer me up (plus we had a $10 gift certificate to use there, sweet!). So I was pretty disappointed that day, I was hoping for some better news. Now we just wait...

So the next day, January 22nd, I decided to get the ball rolling on this whole labor thing. I ate pineapple like it was my job and I made some hot wings for lunch. The spicier the food the better. Then for dinner I made mac and cheese, but put a buttload of jalapenos in it (yum). I will spice him out of me if it's the last thing I do, haha!

Bobby gets home at around 6, and while we're waiting for the mac and cheese to cool, I felt a little stomach pain. I just looked at him and was like "ow. Ok that was weird." and didn't think anything else of it. We ate and then decided to run to Walmart to pick up some overnight diapers for Bianca. Every so often I'd feel a pain, but thought it was just typical pregnancy pains, so off we went to Walmart. Oh my goodness, I could hardly walk around the store, but I waddled through it anyways.

We got home and just relaxed and watched TV and I kept having pains every now and then. Bobby was like "maybe they're contractions..." but I still denied it. It couldn't be. Ha! It was funny too because everyone at Bobby's work knew it was our due date tomorrow, so they told him they'd better not see him tomorrow and there'd better be a baby here. I laughed it off. Ha!

We put Bianca to bed and then got ready ourselves (after watching Catfish of course) and then I was having the pains pretty regularly and I couldn't sleep...exactly what happened with Bianca. Uh-oh! Maybe everyone else was right and I was wrong. I told Bobby I'd let him sleep for as long as possible and I went to the computer and did what I did with Bianca, timed contractions online and played Mahjongg. But the contractions were already about 5 mins apart...uh-oh. So I waited an hour to follow that 5-1-1 rule and yup, they stayed 3-5 mins apart. Crap. So I made Bianca and Bobby sandwiches in between contractions and finally around 1am I told Bobby I wasn't sure if we should wait any longer. He only got like 2 hours of sleep this time, sorry baby, blame Cameron.

Luckily we have some awesome friends here and I called up my friend who offered to watch Bianca while I had the baby...at 1am. I felt bad calling so late, but her husband was out of town so she offered to come here since Bianca was sleeping. Yay! So we packed up our last minute stuff and got ready so that when she came we could peace out. She came a little after 1:30 and off we went, eek!

We got to the hospital and they put us in a room and I was indeed in labor, and at 5cm. Seriously, after about an hour I was up to 7cm. This little guy was coming and fast! And I was thankful for that especially after Bianca's crazy delivery. They tried to have me labor in different positions, but I did not want to move. I was thankful though that I didn't need pitocin. They offered it to me at one point, but I declined, and it was good because I delivered him quick enough.

Luckily my doctor was on call so she got to deliver Mr. Cameron, which was a relief. She broke my water so that it'd go faster, which I welcomed. I was stuck at almost 10 cm with just a sliver left to efface for a couple of hours, but it was fine as long as pitocin wasn't involved. Evil medicine haha. I felt bad because since I was so close I kept feeling like I had to push, so we kept calling the nurse, but it was never time. Oops, sorry!

Finally, maybe around 5am they set up our room for his arrival and they decided I could start pushing, hooray! I pushed for less than an hour (maybe even a half an hour, I wasn't looking at the time too much for obvious reasons) and he was here. I did do some crazy pregnant lady yelling again, but this time it was "GET HIM OUTTT!" haha! I'm so silly in labor. But I did it med free again, yay! :-D

He was born at 5:53am on his due date and he was too cute. I remember he had a perfectly round little head with cute little features on his face and I thought he was tiny even though he was 7lbs 11oz, bigger than Bianca was! I gave him a kiss, Bobby cut his cord and then they went and weighed him and cleaned him off and such while my doc took care of me. Everyone complimented me on doing it naturally, even though I didn't think I did THAT well, with my crazy yelling again. I didn't even take any pain meds after (my dislike of swallowing pills is to blame here, so don't call me brave, I was just being stubborn haha). Here is Bobby's take on the whole thing:

"I couldn't get over how different this delivery was from Bianca's. Bianca's seemed to drag on forever, but then it seemed like Cameron came so fast. As soon as I saw that boy of ours for the first time, I knew he was a pal!

And of course I couldn't believe what champ my wonderful wife is! Everyone at the hospital kept telling me how wonderfully Erika did, and boy did she!"

So after everything, I wasn't hungry this time, but very sleepy seeing as how I'd been awake for 24 hours at that point. We tried to sleep some, but it's hard when nurses are coming in and out every hour or more. Bobby went and got Bianca around noon-ish and brought her to the hospital. She had lots of fun with Christina and was excited to meet baby Cameron. They came into the room and Bianca runs up to me and waves to baby Cameron, as if he'd been here all of her life, like it was no big deal that he was here. Silly girl. We gave her her own baby Cameron doll to play with and she loved it! She had a lot of fun at the hospital. "I love visiting mommy in the hop-pistal." She got some special treats in the snack room (this hospital was cool and has a snack room for patient's families) and got lots of attention from the nurses. We were getting worried because Bobby wanted to spend at least one night with us at the hospital, but luckily we have such great people in our ward that one lady offered to watch Bianca for the night, even though we've only talked a handful of times. SO NICE!

Bobby dropped her off there at night and when he got back we had our special meal, yay steak! Boo to it being more well done, but Bobby says that's how it's done out here in OK (lammmeee!). But it was yummy. We got sparkling cider and the best cheesecake ever. Yum! It was nice having him there that night to help hold him and such. At least we got some sleep in.

The next morning he got Bianca and hung out. Cameron got circumcised that morning, and he did so well. I guess they let him suck on a nurse's finger with sugar water or something on it, and she said he didn't cry at all (which I was worried about). Bobby took Bianca home at nap time, then came back for a little bit. We didn't have a babysitter for the night, so they had to go home :( sad. They left around 9. And Cameron and I were up every hour that night, of course. But he is too cute so he made it more worth it. They came back early the next morning and we were released at around 11:30, YAY! I loved our stay there. The food wasn't as good as in Ithaca, but the nurses were awesome (except the 2nd one that took forever to give him a bath, but even she wasn't THAT bad) and it was a really nice experience! We took the little guy out and he did very well, slept the whole way home. And here we are, a family of four and we couldn't be happier. <3 Enjoy these pictures of our sweet little boy, Cameron Preston Hall!!!