Family Photos (late July 2011)

The morning I went to the hospital to be induced. Cameron came very early the next morning. I wanted one last picture of that baby belly.

The first pictures of my precious boy just after he was cleaned up. I have of some of him and me before this, I just have to figure out which device they are on.

Cameron and me 

Cameron and John

Skin time. I could fit him inside this dress for about 3 weeks after he was born. Doctors have learned that for a while after birth, when babies are against their mother's skin, the babies release hormones that tell the mother's body what temperature is needed to keep the baby warm. The mother's body then instantly goes to this temperature.  This proved to be an excellent way to keep him warm and comfortable. 

Burping

Some may say that smile is caused by gas bubbles, but he has not stopped smiling yet.

Sleeping wrapped up in a blankie made by mommy

Welcome home sign Nia made for us when we brought Cameron home from the hospital. You could see the art easel through the front window of our townhouse as you walked up to the door. I thought this was so sweet.

When Cameron was a new born I would leave him just in his diaper and put him inside my shirt so he could spend the whole day having skin time. This was actually planned, but would have had to happen this way even if we hadn't planned it. When the house flooded, we couldn't find many articles of Cameron's clothing for a few weeks. 

I absolutely love this picture of all three of my babies!

Motherhood is best when you see your little ones loving 

Anara is so proud to be a big sister

Cameron laying on me. I continue to try to get a decent picture of the two of us together, but it's kind of hard when I am generally the only one taking the pictures.

He looks so peaceful amongst the chaotic mess of our flooded house

He looks in deep thought

Laying on me 

At first I did not produce milk, so Cameron was bottle feed formula until the day it came in. Since, he has generally had 3 to 5 bottles a week. Well until this trip down to KY, with me running back and forth to Nashville Cameron has taken up to 3 bottles in one day. 

This is what I took with my phone at the end of July, maybe tomorrow I will have time to add August. If I get really ambitious I will hunt down the rest of the photos on our other devices and add those when I get back to Ohio.

Cameron Nicolas Richards

I have really been a slacker about posting since Cam was born. I really want this to change though. This post will be all about Cam then hopefully tomorrow I will add more pics, starting from the day he was born. We have taken a ton and we have several really great ones I want to share!

These are all of my happy little guy at around 3 1/2 months. If he is awake, I generally get to see that amazing smile.

My intentions were to post for each one of his milestones, but obviously that hasn't happened. I have been putting them into his calendar. Since I haven't been home in a while I figured I will keep up with them by posting his new ones on here.

Tuesday, Nov. 22 - 1st tooth

Friday, Nov. 25 - 2nd tooth, ate bananas (which he did not like. I have given this to him for 3 days in a row now, and each day he likes them less.)

Sunday, Nov. 27 - Cam started making monkey noises today. When we tell him he is making monkey noises he makes them louder and for a longer time. If in the future we call him monkey, that nick name started today.

Unexpected challenges

The themes of Cameron's babyhood seem to be "water, water everywhere" and "exactly how much of that 'essental' baby gear do you really need?" To say our family has had a few unexpected challenges would be putting mildly. Last week my father had a stroke. He lost the ability to speak and can not move one side of his body. As soon as we herd what had happened, we loaded up the kids and headed south.
Update: It's been almost 2 weeks since my dad's stroke and he is doing much beter than the doctor's thought he would be doing. It is going to be a long, challenging process, but I just know he is going to make even more progress.

Luckily, John's mom has a big enough house to comfortable accommodate an extra 5 people living there and is graciously happy to take us in on the spur of the moment. We arrived on Thursday for what we thought would be a 3 to 4 day stay. After seeing my dad we realized I needed to stay much longer. My dad has now been in the hospital for 10 days with no signs of being released anytime soon. John, however had to go back home Sunday to go work on Monday morning. This brings us to our next challenge...

Last Sunday we woke up to Nia telling us the house was flooded. A water filter cracked inside the fridge and left half the downstairs covered in water. Workers were here daily last week and will be for at least one more week if not longer.

6 Weeks Postpartum

I had my 6 week postpartum check up today and all is not well. I came home with a hand full of medications and was told to get more rest. 

It's Been a Crazy, Exciting Month!!!

So it's been exactly 1 month since my last post; where does the time go?

What have we been up to?

Grandma Niece came for a short visit during Anara's birthday and Cameron's birth.

Anara's Birthday

The night before, Anara opened all of her presents and pilled them up on dad. Everyone thought this was hilarious! Well, everyone except dad.

On her birthday, we invited Mia over and went to Kingdom of Bounce and Orange Leaf ice cream. They also went swimming and had a water ballon fight. Generally this day is reserved for King's Island, but with a quickly approaching delivery, we thought we should stay in town.

After Mia went home Grandma Niece bought Anara a new bike and we took it to the park.

We also went to Build-a-Bear Workshop and had dinner at Max and Erma's

Ann got to ring the birthday bell at Build-a-Bear.

 Here she is putting the finishing touches on the cake dad and her made.

Welcoming Cameron!!

The next morning John and I headed off to St. Ann's Hospital.

This was around 4 a.m. on the 20th.

I was given medication to induce labor at about 7 and at 9:30 I had my first contraction. 16 1/2 hours later with 2 good pushes, we had a sweet baby boy. I had a great nursing staff at the hospital. I have to say this was the most pleasant of all my births. There were 2 nurses at my service at all times. Usually in room with me or going to get me things to make me more comfortable. After the birth, I spent the next 2 hours holding him. Then he and I both got cleaned up and headed to our post pardum room.

This picture is of Cameron about 4 am the morning of his birth. 

John and I spent the rest of that day bonding with our new, wonderful baby boy.

Saturday, the 23rd, the three of us were welcomed home by two doting sisters, grandma Niece, and this sign that Nia made.

I found out that day that I would actually be able to breast feed this time around! 

The Flood

That night, well around 2 the next morning, the bottom floor of our town house flooded. John and Nia quickly got a lot of our stuff upstairs. The following morning several friends came to help get anything else salvageable from the swamp that was previously the master bedroom, nursery, laundry, and storage area. 

This was our dinning room for the next couple of weeks.

  

Living in half of our house with everything topsy turvy made for a good bonding environment though. Now if we could just find his clothes...  

Our house still isn't totally back together, flooding with a new baby is about 3 times the stress as moving with a new baby.

When we haven't been taking care of baby or recuperating from the flood we have been getting ready for Kindergarten and homeschool for the 6th grade. John and I have had school. Several friends have brought us dinner.

Catherine Trollin came over the day of the flood and made us dinner here as her husband Mike helped moving things.

The Kauffman's brought us Chili.

Jeri Heilman has made us two incredible meals, a mexican dish and pork/rice dish to die for. 

Elizabeth brought us Cap city.

Laura brought us Little Dragon.

and 

Tami gave us a gift card to Chick-fil-a.

Lunch at the park

This was a few weeks ago, before it got so hot. Memorial day weekend actually. Somehow we managed not to get any photos of Ann this weekend, but there are a couple of cute ones of Nia!

me

An apple Nia staged to look like 'the apple'. She is so adorable!

A knot whole Nia wanted a picture of.

The nature center at the park was having a special viewing of nature item that had been taken from the park for educational purpose. I just added 1 pic of this, it's mostly bones and furs. 

The last few days

Here are pictures of a few things we have been doing!

the Girls at Sun Long Duck, our favorite Chinese restaurant!

Nia reading a comic book from the iPad

Playing in the rain. We had a freakishly fast and unexpected rain storm last week. It was a serious down poor that only lasted about 15 minutes. The girls had fun though.

Last week we also had a little visitor for a few days. You can just see Carl's head as he sleeps on John.

Ann has been begging for months to go to class with John and I. So we finally decided to bring her along. We thought she would be so board she would never ask again. We were wrong, she asks daily when she gets to go back. Who knew a 4 year old would find a 3 hour class on theology so interesting?

Ann pumping Gas.

Giving mommy kisses after getting her hair done.

A big event at the beginning of this week included a not baby related, overnight stay at the hospital. John and I went to dinner with Elizabeth over the weekend at a place with a gluten free menue. I ordered soup off the gluten free menue, but was given soup from the regular menue. It takes 2 to 5 days for wheat to get a full reaction from a body that can't have it. Monday I didn't wake up til after noon and when Nia gave me a hug she told me my heart was barely beating. My pulse rate had dropped to 34 and I felt horrible. They kept me in the hospital to monitor the baby and me. Everything is fine, but it will take a few weeks for all the gluten to leave my system. I am still in some pain from the incident. I would not have expected such a severe reaction from such a small amount of wheat. I'm just glad I had heart burn the night we went to dinner or I would have ordered a full plate of pasta. 

Here is a picture of the space John was given to sleep on. I think Cameron's crib is actually bigger.

Still no baby!

We have had so many false alarms that I cannot even count them. I am finding all of this annoying to say the least and very discouraging.

One day... not today.

One day we will have a baby boy nestled snugly in my arms and out of the womb, however, that day does not appear to be today. Thats right folks, another false alarm. Very frustrated, even cried just a little. I am so desperately wanting him to come at this point.

I'm so ready for Cameron to Come

We had another false alarm yesterday. This makes a total of 3 trips to the hospital with expectations of leaving with Cameron in my arms instead of in my belly. This time we waited for the contractions to be 2 minutes apart for a full 6 hours before we went to the hospital. My concern is that when I actually do go into labor, I will just assume it's another false alarm and wait to long before I decide to get myself to the hospital. With Nia I was in labor for 36 hours. The first 30, I was given medications to make it stop though. Ann was different story, only 5 hours there, but I was induced. So there is really no telling how long it would have taken me to deliver either of them. 

Last weeks ultrasound estimated the baby's weight at 7 lbs 11 oz. He has been growing about 2 oz. a day so that will put hi at about 8 lbs 7oz today. Whew, he is getting big! A few months ago my doctor said we have a goal of keeping him in until the 5th. Today is the 5th, so he can come out!

We have everything ready for him now. He will be sharing a room with us for a while so and it is all set up with everything in it's place. Eventually Cameron will be sharing a room with Ann and everything is in it's place in that room also. Well almost, today Ann decided today she wants to move her doll house to the other side of the room and put her lamp next to her desk. She has a huge doll house, so I cannot move it. However, that will take john less than 3 minutes to accomplish. 

Reynoldsburg Fireworks 2011

Last night we watched another spectacular fire works display. This time we were in Renoldsburg with a group of friends from our church, Vineyard Reynoldsburg. I have seen many of the displays from communities surrounding Columbus since I moving here 3 years ago, and Reynoldsburg has, by a far margin, been superior to the rest. Ok, so none of the smaller towns can quite compete with the budget of Red, White, & Boom. However, the Reynoldsburg show was defiantly worth the full hour of traffic we sat in to leave. The best parts of the night were hanging out with friends and listening to Nate's band play before the fireworks started. 

Red, White, & Boom 2011

For the third year in a row we have celebrated Independence day with Red, White, & Boom. The first year we scouted out a spot amongst a huge crowd a few hours before the fireworks started then were stuck in trafic for a good hour after they ended. John realized last year the best view was from the one of many interstate bridges or ramps around town. So for the last 2 years that is where we have been. This has allowed us to avoid the huge crowd, the bugs, the traffic after, and the view is fantastic as Ann puts it. This year however, we noticed many cars were given tickets for being stopped on the interstate, so we may have to make different plans next year.

A local radio station hooks up with the city each year to play music that is some what choreographed to the fireworks. Not the music I would personally chose for an Independence day celebration, but we have listened to it each year. As we watched the show and listened to the music, Ann sat on my lap and patted my belly. Cameron genitally kicked her hand as she patted. It was very cool to feel and see how they are interacting. She also gave commentary as to what he would be saying if he could see the fireworks.