Day 6...Happy Birth Day Camryn Reese!!!

Well, we barely made it to day 6 before Camryn was ready to make her big appearance. When I woke up Friday morning I joked with Taylor saying "Call me crazy, but I feel like w're having a baby today"! Little did I know, just 2 hours later I would start having contractions every 10-12 minutes, and then at 10:15am my water broke. Funny thing about your water breaking, you're not always sure it was your water that broke. When you're carrying an extra 30 pounds on your bladder, and also having contractions, it's not so easy to rule out that you have just simply peed your pants. An hour later the same trickling of water was running down my leg, and I figured there was just "no way I peed my pants twice in one hour"....Taylor wasn't convinced, and honestly, I wasn't so sure of myself either! :)
So we headed to see the doctor to check if I was actually ruptured, and I was! I had tested positive for Step B (1 in 4 women have it, I honestly don't know why) but once your water ruptures they have to start IV antibiotics, so they sent us straight to the hospital. From the time my water broke I had 12 hours to "safely" deliver Camryn without any serious risks of infection, and we checked into the hospital around 1pm, so Dr. Mumphrey decided to start me on Pitocin to try to ensure that a C-Section would't be necessary. The pitocin worked!!! My contractions at that time were about 8 minutes apart, and I was dilated to a 2, 90% effaced. The pitocin was a complete game changer. In an hours time I changed to 100% effaced, and dilated to a 3. My contractions were becoming hard to cope with, so I requested my epidural knowing that it would take an hour or longer to get relief. THANK GOD I DID! In that 1 hour wait I rapidly progressed and dilated to a 10, fully effaced, and almost crowning. The contractions were unbearable. My epidural didn't begin to take affect like the doctors were hoping, so the anesthesiologist came back to make some adjustments, and within 15 minutes I was feeling like I could comfortably continue with labor. Dr. Mumphrey allowed me a few minutes to regain my energy, and let the contractions continue pushing Camryn into "pushing position", and then it all happened. Less than 20 minutes of pushing, and ta-da, we had a baby!!
Here's the first picture of her in the nursery warming up under the lights with Daddy:

There will be a million more photos of this sweet little girl coming very soon!

Taylor & I are doing really well despite the lack of sleep. I'm healing well, and am anxious to be back on my feet to chase after Camryn!

We would love to have visitors!!! Visiting hours are from 8am-12pm & 3pm-6pm (Mommy & me time is from 12pm-3pm and they ask that no visitors come during this time so that any lactation specialists, doctors, etc. can meet with us during these hours). We are in the Labor recovery wing in room 216. Our room phone # is 512-816-7216, or you can reach Taylor and I on our cell phones (T- 512-590-1875, S- 512-595-1151). Please call or text us to let us know when you plan to visit so we can be available. We are expecting to be in the hospital until 6:30 Sunday. We are feeding every 2 hours, so we will try to coordinate visiting times around our feedings. :)

Thank you everyone for all of the incredible overflowing of love & support! We are so excited to share our daughter with all of you! She is absolutely amazing, and we are head-over-heals in love!!! <3

Day 7 & still no Camryn

Thursday has come, and almost gone, and still no Camryn. Dr. Breedlove is on call tonight, so if Camryn was going to come before Sunday (when Auntie Teresa arrives) then today was the day we were hoping for.

Taylor was so sweet and had a cleaning company come this morning to do all of the heavy cleaning like the bathtub, toilets, windows, etc. What a WONDERFUL gift!! He even made sure to hire a "green" cleaning company and made sure none of the cleaners are harmful to Camryn. He really does love us!

Taylor has been very busy with work this week (12+ hour days), lots of big projects, and he's trying to tie up any loose ends before we go into labor. He took about a hundred calls today, I'm amazed that his ears aren't bleeding! The Austin Statesman did an interview with him today and wrote a great article about how quickly HostGator is growing and hiring in Austin (they are also booming in Houston, and opening offices around the world, YAY)! Here's the link to the article: HostGator Article

HostGator also has a giant banner displayed in Time Square...yes, New York's Time Square!!! This is only the beginning of what's in store for this company.

We went for our evening walk through the neighborhood as usual. We have made a few "friends" on our daily walks who always say "hi!" and funny things like "You're STILL pregnant?!" or "walk, walk, walk!"...yesterday we were told that I should be doing jumping jacks, not just walking, if I wanted to evict this baby! The little kids in our neighborhood are the cutest!! One little girl today said to her dad "That lady is having a BABY!" as we passed, and another little girl (who is deaf) was signing to her mom about my belly, and her mom was cradling her arms and saying "baby! baby!"....is that not the most precious thing? I just love their excitement and curiosity!!

Today's been a great day for the 3 of us! More excitement tomorrow...maybe a trip to the hospital?! :)

8 Days

Well, we survived day 8, but still no Camryn. Today was a pretty typical day for us, Taylor worked from home, and I spent the morning cleaning and then working on Camryn's room. We had our afternoon Starbucks date, and then took our evening walk around the neighborhood (twice for good measure, and because I ate baskin & robins for dessert)! I've been having quite a few B.H. contractions, but they don't seem to be turning into the real deal quite yet...I think she's waiting on her Auntie Teresa to get to Austin on Sunday. :) Our doctor is on call tomorrow, so if we're going to go into labor before my sister arrives, then tomorrow's the day we're hoping for!

Day 9 & Counting....

Yet another day closer!! I went in to Dr. Breedlove this morning for my weekly checkup (only 1 more, next Monday) and she was impressed with my progress. WoooHooo!

So here are the baby/mommy stats:
My weight: 151 A gain of .6 lbs. since my appointment last Tuesday
Blood Pressure: 110/62
Camryn's heart rate: 140
I'm dilated to a 1 1/2 "with room". She said she could have pushed me to a 2 but didn't want to cause any irritation.
Last week I was 30-40% effaced, today I was 80%.
Baby is sitting VERY low, and I'm having lots of B.H. contractions and lower abdomen cramping, so things are moving along just as planned.

Because Camryn is taking up my entire stomach now, I've started becoming nauseous and needing to eat much smaller meals, but that hasn't stopped my cravings. Today I "had to have" rice krispie treats, so I hauled my butt to the store and bought the ingredients and made some, and they are SO delicious!!! My taste buds are off the last few days also, like tonight I made a grilled cheese (which I usually LOVE) but I donated over half to Taylor because it just tasted gross....he thought it tasted yummy. :)

Here's today's belly pic!

A little blurry, Tay's not the best picture taker. 38.5 weeks

Final Countdown....Day 10!!!

I decided it would be really fun to document our final 10 days (or less) until Camryn arrives. She could arrive at any moment, but if not by June 9th, we'll be induced the morning of the 10th.

So how are we feeling with so little time left? Extremely anxious and impatient! Not knowing the exact time or day that she'll arrive is like winning a Mega-Million Lotto jackpot and being told your check is in the mail....the anticipation is killing us!!! Besides the waiting, I feel pretty good. I'm a little nauseous this week and moving around is impossible, but also quite comical, at least for Taylor. Hot flashes come and go throughout the day, but they only last about 30 seconds, so they're not much of a hassle at all. I was really lucky and my sweet friend Jessica treated me to a spa day on Saturday and I had a pregnancy massage that was FANTASTIC, so my aching muscles don't hurt this week, yay! I'm eating much smaller meals now that Camryn is taking up most of my stomach space, and I am still eating Tums like candy...at least they're packed full of Calcium for Camryn!
Taylor & I spent day 10 B.C. (before Camryn) being fairly lazy around the house. Taylor had to work (from home) but we were able to enjoy some yummy blueberry pancakes that I made for breakfast together. Then I cleaned the house and relaxed and watched a marathon of "Storage Wars".  We made an afternoon date out of getting Starbucks together, and then finished off our evening with our nightly 3 mile walk through our neighborhood. I took our new stroller with us on our walk for a test drive, and it's awesome! It's froggy season in our neighborhood, and we must have dodged at least 20 toads while walking. I don't want frog guts on my new set of wheels! :)

Here are today's belly pics as well as some nursery and baby gear pictures:

This is our co-sleeper bassinet, now all we need is a baby to put in it!

My belly cast, obviously going to good use as decoration in the breakfast nook.

Our new stroller

I stinkin' love this thing!!!

Camryn's car seat, ready to go to the hospital on the big day

Chance begging to come through the baby gate

Aly & Chance

Please Mommy, let me through!

Camryn's swing

My lil' snugga-bunny swing

Changing station

This is a sweet gift from Taylor - a silver plated tray for me to put my rings on when I'm bathing and changing Camryn. It sits on her changing station and says "A mothers love is never ending" <3

That photo is me right after I was born

The "art" is an adorable gift from Taylor's parents. It was Taylors as a baby and used to have his name on it, but Lisa re-stitched it to say "Camryn" and they framed it for us. The teddy was also his as a baby.

We will fill the frames with Camryn's newborn photos that are being taken within the first 7 days of her life by Johanna McShan Photography (hannamac.com)

Still need a rug

one side of her closet

the other side

more closet....she's not lacking closet space!

Tummy time mat - a gift from our dear friend Brian

Aly got a new blankey

Chance sitting on Aly's blanket...she's not happy about it!

The belly! It looks lower to me this week. Still no stretch marks, woohoo! :)

It's HUGE!

Day 9 B.C. coming soon....