Camille's first week

Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing like it.

In the hospital with my mom and her very quiet and calming way she has with babies (and new tired mommies).

As I've said before, the kids coming to see their new sibling is pretty much my favorite mommy experience.  This time had it's ups and downs!  Brynn and Bryce were exactly what I expected - thrilled to meet their new sister and antsy to hold/touch/cuddle, and give her their present they picked out for her.

I really didn't know what to expect from Gabe.  Sadly, what I got was the cold shoulder!!  I missed that baby boy so much and was so excited to give him a big hug.  Marty carried him in and I reached my hands out to him and he scowled at me and hit my hands away and wouldn't come to me!  I was so sad and upset.  He also wasn't terribly interested in the baby, but he did warm up to both of us eventually.

And here's Bryce, our kid who is the most natural with babies.  He dove right in taking care of her.

AGH!  He's got him in a choke-hold!  Ha ha, just kidding, I promise it really was just a cute hug. :)

Having the kids at the hospital was really fun - and really CHAOTIC!  And kinda funny, actually.  I hope it's ok to say that it's kind of a confidence booster, knowing all I manage to do with the kids each day and all the details I have to take care of.  Marty came in carrying both of the boys because neither of them had shoes!  Brynn was wearing her ballet slippers, which apparently she had worn all day at school (she was dancing before school and just forgot to switch shoes, I guess).  They hadn't eaten yet and came in with a big box of chicken nuggets from McDonalds which Gabe was clumsy with but also protective of.  But it really was so sweet.  Everyone was just so excited and I was happy to see them again.

Ok, the boys might not look too excited, but I promise they were. :)  If Bryce doesn't want to smile for a picture, ain't nobody gonna make him!

"Uh-oh, her feet feel cold."

"There, that's better."

"Camille, I'm your big brother!  I will always take care of you."

At the hospital, there is a really beautiful courtyard just for the maternity section of the hospital.  It plays soothing wood-wind music and has a little play-area in one section.  Of course you have to leave the baby in the bassinet when you walk around outside of your room.  It was pretty warm this day, but we had a nice time out there taking pictures.  This is the day we brought our baby girl home.  We were in a bit of a rush because Brynn had her graduation pictures to get to.

I'm sure Brynn put the flower in her hair.  That has Brynn written all over it.

This is the first time I spent the full 48 hours in the hospital.  My dr. requested it because of all the illness that had been going around our infected home the last two weeks and I really think I needed it to recover from everything.  With the first two babies I just wanted to get back to my own home for some rest since there seems to be people coming in and out every half hour at the hospital.  But the more kids I get the more I realize interruptions in sleep every half hour at the hospital is an improvement over what I deal with from the little ones at home!

And...we're home!!!  Welcome home, Camille May!  I promise to you that I will be the absolute best mother I can be, I will put every ounce of energy I have into this calling, and you will never have to wonder if you are loved.  (But in the spirit of full disclosure - I'll probably make LOTS of mistakes!)

My mom has given every one of my newborns their first bath.  I am so lucky to have always had her.

She really has just fit right in with the family.  The couple months after she was born were NUTS.  But it was more just due to Marty having crazy, busy stuff coming up for him, putting our house on the market (my advice is to NOT do that the week after you have a baby), Brynn getting out of school and just all of us being at home together.  But I suppose I am used to chaos at this point, and what's one more kid, right? ;)

And here are the other four in our family headed to church.

I love having the time home from church in a quiet house with just me and my newborn.  The Sunday after this one was Mother's Day and Marty sent me a text from church saying something like, "I am never ever ever ever taking the kids by myself again!"  Then I started to panic but he called me and told me all the funny stories about our...ahem, active children during Sacrament meeting and we just got a big laugh out of it.  I am so grateful I've got a husband who is so confident and natural as a dad.  I cringe when I hear husbands talk about "baby-sitting" their own children.  Marty and I are a team, and when we have a new baby he knows we all need him to step up to the plate with the other kids, and he does so.  He is amazing and I am so grateful to have him.

Another bath. :)

Was this a sneeze or a cry?  I can't remember now...

After taking these pictures, we packed up and took my mom to the airport.  I may or may not have cried on the way home.  I always hate to send my mom off knowing that the next time she holds my baby, it will no longer be a newborn.

Interruption

I'm having a hard time wrapping up all that I want to about Camille on my blog (downloading issues), but I'm going to write about today and go back to baby stuff when I can.

Today is a good day.  Even though our van is out of commission, I have the kindest friends offering to help drive kids around since we no longer fit in the second car.  And that car only Marty can start (touchy thing).  This morning I have so much to do, the whole upstairs is kind of a wreck.  But for some reason, I am not frazzled by it like I normally would be, and have managed to just hang out on the floor with my youngest three.  I pulled the Toy Story toys out of rotation this morning and Gabe has discovered his new favorite toy.  A little Woody that sits on Bulls-eye.  He keeps putting his hat on and off and proudly showing me.  Then he moves the toy next to Camille's hand, lets her touch it, and then yanks it away and says "mine!" with a big smile on his face and laughs it up. Right now Camille is laying on a blanket on the floor and she has a brother on each side snuggling up to her.   Now Gabe is giving Camille knuckles and exploding it with a ridiculous sound effect.

The biggest reason I'm in a good mood is probably due to the weather.  It has been rainy for two days.  I never knew how happy rain would make me until I "...moved to a magical land where it never rained.  The end."  I used to get really fussy here in the fall feeling homesick over what was my favorite season when we lived in Utah.  I love the bright colors on the mountains, sweaters, hot chocolate, squash and pumpkin everything, etc, etc.  Maybe my favorite part of the weather in Utah was change.  Even though I HATE the winter there, I still like the change and the first snow is always the most beautiful thing, especially in the mountains.  Every snow after that, I hate. :)  My birthday in April was usually one of the first days I could get away with leaving early in the morning without a jacket and I was always in the BEST mood.  But as much as I loved the change of the seasons there, I don't think I could ever leave the Arizona weather.  Did I mention how much I HATE the snow (especially driving in it)?

Anyway, I feel like even though the rainy day is making me really happy today because it's reminding me of fall (a real Utah fall), I'm not going to be fussy if it's back to 110 degrees tomorrow.  I'm kind of over that.  We still have changes here in Arizona, but they just aren't really drastic ones like I grew up with.  I'm really happy to go from hot to less hot to chilly to kind of cold to chilly to warm to hot again.  And today I'm just happy to have a little change that, for some reason, is making me pause long enough to look around and remember how good I actually have it, even if my upstairs is really, really messy.

Introducing Camille May

I'm not sure if I can even remember back three months ago to include many details - it's a bit of a blur!  But I guess the best I can do is just start and see what comes.

My last post, "I spoke too soon...", was written Saturday night, the night before I went into labor.  I had it mostly finished, but I actually posted it Sunday morning while I was in labor in the hospital trying to get my mind off the pain! :)  So, let's see...

Saturday night I went to bed completely discouraged and sobbed for probably the first time in years. Seriously, I sounded like a child and it wasn't pretty.  I was so so sick and just knew I was going to go into labor that way.  Originally, what I had planned (and yes, I know that's a total joke) was for my mom to get here and to celebrate Bryce's birthday on Friday, get all the work done I needed before having a baby Saturday, and then to get a good night's sleep and roll out of bed Sunday morning and have my water break rather than waiting around and watching all the time my mom was going to be here go down the drain with no baby.  But Saturday night when I was feeling so sick (hadn't felt that sick in a LONG time) I changed my mind. Apparently, my body didn't get the memo.  ACCORDING TO MY ORIGINAL PLAN I woke up Sunday morning, rolled out of bed and my water broke!!!  I wasn't due for another week and a half - what were the odds of THAT?!  I stood up out of bed, felt a really small amount of water and very articulately told Marty I was in labor.  It went something like this:

Me:  "Um...."
Marty: (not really awake) "Hm?"
Me:  "Um!"
Marty: "What?"
Me:  "Um!  Um um um um!"
Marty: "What!?!!?"
Me: "I think this is it!"
Marty:  "Are you sure?"
Me:  "No.......UM!  YES!
Marty:  (surprisingly calm) "Ok."
Me: "Wait, no, maybe I'm not sure...Can you go get my mom?"

And it went on like that for some time.  For me, having my water break was not at ALL like you see in movies.  Anyway, that morning was actually really calm.  I wanted to do quite a bit of the laboring at home, so I leisurely took a shower, ate a sandwich and an apple, asked my mom to french braid my hair, sat on a lot of towels. :)  I was still so completely shocked that I hadn't gone into labor that Thursday night at Chuck-E-Cheese that honestly we were all just waiting around and so ready.  The kids were like, "Ok, cool, we'll see you when we get home from the hospital."  In the end I felt so horribly dehydrated (pregnant+throwing-up+the other end too+too nautious to drink anything for days at this point=scary dehydrated).  All I really wanted was to go to the hospital and have some fluids and zofran administered IV and just get this show on the road.

We got to triage at 10:15 and were told that I was 70% effaced and at a five.  At 10:30 we moved and got blood work done, LOTS of fluids at my request, and started a really small dose of pitocin at 11:30 to get things going a little.  It had been almost 5 hours since my water broke and not much was happening.  But that small amount of pit was all it took.  By 12:00 I was feeling the this-baby-is-coming-NOW-contractions and I was ready for the epidural, which I got at 12:30.  The next hour was somewhat of an embarrassment for me at the hospital.  I had been feeling so gross and awful and weak that this was the first of my four labors where I really thought (and expressed many times) "I can not do this."  But, there's not really any going back, right?  You HAVE to do this.  So I did.  The epidural did the same crazy thing it did with Brynn and basically just didn't do anything except make my legs numb.  But this was not my first rodeo and I wasn't going to be as passive about it as I was with Brynn.  We got some more nurses in there to tweak some things and JUST before the baby came, it finally started kicking in in the right spots.  :)  Of course.  But anyway, when I knew it was really time, after one push her head was out and I was hearing Marty and the doctors remark on ALL that dark hair!  I was confused and felt weird trying to process that because I had this image of her turning out just like Gabe and not at all like the other two (Gabe had just a little hair and it was light).  With one more push she was out, on my chest, and I got to see for myself that she was not at all the way I had pictured her all this time!!   So our baby girl was born at 1:40.  She laid on my chest wide-eyed, beautiful, and looking quite a lot like Sister.

Not sure what else to say after all the excitement other than everything was so completely sweet, and as always, beautiful - the bonding, the nursing, the peace after the trial, the sweet newborn smell, passing her back and forth between Marty and the nurses.

We've been fighting over baby girl names for years - Marty wanted Megan, I wanted Celeste, we couldn't agree so we went back to the drawing board and came up with some new names to take with us to the hospital.  To be honest, I still thought I'd be able to convince Marty of Celeste. :)  But when she wasn't born the way I'd been picturing Celeste all this time we both totally agreed on Camille.  She was just...a total Camille for some reason!  And May is her middle name - also my grandma's middle name who passed away just before Camille was born.

Camille May Johnson - welcome to the family!!

Camille May

April 28th, 2013

7 lbs 14 oz

20 inches