Camdyn's Baptism

This past weekend was Camdyn's Baptism. It was a beautiful ceremony surrounded by many family members and friends. We thank everyone who made it to the celebration (including Gabrielle's aunt from Portland and cousin from Seattle). Camdyn was the only girl in a group of 5 babies getting baptized at our church. She looked beautiful if we may say so ourselves. We have included some pictures from the ceremony.

We have been getting ready for the Holidays. The tree is up and we have started to put some of the presents for Camdyn under the tree. We are also starting to get things in order for our trip up to North Carolina. Hopefully the weather warms up a bit there for us...it has been quite cold in Florida lately and I can only imagine how it will be up there.

Ben gave me my Christmas present early- a wonder Digital SLR camera and I have been in full swing taking pictures of Miss Camdyn. She has been a great model for me! I have also included some pictures that I have recently taken of her. Hope you all enjoy them!

We hope that this finds you well. Stay warm and Happy Holidays if we don't talk soon.

Love always,

Ben, Gabrielle, and Camdyn

One Month Check Up

So hard to believe that Camdyn is already 1 month old! She is really growing up so fast already. Today we went to her 1 month pediatrician appointment and she did amazing. The Dr said she is thriving. She has gained over a pound since her last visit and now is weighing 9 lbs 8 oz, putting her in the 75th percentile for weight. He was very pleased with this gain (again) and it looks like she is doing really well with breastmilk and feedings. She has also grown in her body length now measuring at 23 inches (2 more since birth). Her height is in the 94th percentile. We didn't get the measurement on her head but he said she is in the 50th percentile for that. So he was really pleased and we are directed to continue as we have. Her next appointment is for her 2 month check up and she will get her first round of shots. Due to the holidays and our trip up to NC we scheduled that appointment for January 3rd.

We can't even begin to say how much of a blessing she has been to us. And to boot what an incredibly good baby she has been. We have had several nights of 7 straight hours of sleep and last night she slept a nice solid 8 hours herself straight! Now mind you there have been some nights where we have had 4-5, but we know that is still pretty good and usually try not to complain much about sleep to others :)

She is changing so much already. She has just started to smile at us and is doing an incredible job at lifting her head and even keeping it up for a good time. We could go on and on about her, as we are truly just absolutely in love with her! We find that we pinch ourselves a lot.

Well its hard to believe that Thanksgiving and the Christmas Holiday are right around the corner. We are going to be hosting Thanksgiving again this year and it is looking like there will be about 10-12 people. Camdyn will have a lot of people excited to spend more time with her. We have her baptism also coming up on December 12. We are looking forward to that for her and with some of the family that will be in town during that weekend, we know Camdyn will have a lot of attention and extra love. Then on December 26th we are planning on heading out to a trip to NC to visit Ben's Grandmother and also visit with Aunt Susan. This will be Camdyn's first real road trip so it should be an interesting event. We are giving ourselves two days each way to travel. We think she will have a great time though! So there is definitely a busy several weeks approaching in the Rivera home.

So that is the jist of what has been going on here with us. We hope that everyone has a wonderful Holiday. Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!! We will definitely work on trying to update more, we know we have been slacking a bit with that, but as we continue to get into more of a routine that will get better. Enjoy the pictures we posted above, they aren't this week current but we will work on getting more uploaded soon.

Much love to you all.

Ben, Gabrielle, and Camdyn

Camdyn's Savings Account

SmartyPig Widget: "Help Camdyn get a jump on saving for college and beyond"

A very cool online savings website called "Smarty Pig," allows friends and family to contribute to Camdyn's savings account electronically. You don't need any special log-in, etc. Just click the link, find the button that says "Contribute," then fill out the form.

This link will also be permanently available on the front page of our blog directly under our picture on the right hand side. Look for "Click here to contribute to Camdyn's savings account!"

Love,

Camdyn

Happy Halloween!!

Today is Camdyn's first Halloween, however, she won't exactly be doing too much as you can see from the picture. We were hoping to go sit outside and pass out candy this evening but it looks like she had some other plans. No sooner did we get her dressed that she decided she was hungry, which then lead her to pass out. So we moved her to her swing and that is where she has been very comfortably since. So this is just one of the pictures that we were able to steal from her before she passed out even more in the swing. So far it has actually been a little slow this evening with the kids. Last year we had over 125 trick-or-treaters come by and so far we are looking at only maybe a dozen so far. We could be left with a LOT of candy left over...oops! I am sure it will be eaten some way or the other :)

Ben is taking off one more week of work. It has definitely been great having the three of us around this past week and we are looking forward to another week. It is really going to be weird when we each go back. Gabrielle should be off till about the 2nd week of January. Hopefully it doesn't go by too fast!

Tomorrow we are going to attempt our family pictures. Not too sure how it is going to go, but with our schedules free we figured why not give it a try. Hopefully we will have some good pictures to post on here not too long from now. We will let you know how it goes.

So far things are going really well and the three of us seem to be adjusting fairly well. Sleep hasn't been too bad, she actually gives us a decent amount so we can't complain too much there. Our biggest problem, which if that is all we have we feel very very lucky, is that sometimes she can take a while to get to sleep at night. She is a hungry little monster which can lead to a fun pattern for a bit of eating, pooping, etc. We are working through it though.

Well we hope this finds you all well. Will hopefully have more to report on Tuesday after our next pediatrician appointment. Hope you all have a wonderful and safe Halloween!

Love always,

Ben, Gabrielle, and Camdyn

Grabbed a bit of time.

It isn't that we haven't wanted to update things on here, it has just been a matter of time as most of you know. While we have been pretty fortunate in getting some time, when we do get it we usually are resting and not in the mood to do very much. So bare with us as we get used to things and we will work on trying to update this with pictures etc. Most pictures have been updated on Facebook since it is really quick and easy, but we promise to work on it.

In looking at the other posts, it looks like we never shared Camdyn's birth information with you all. She was born on October 22, 2010 at 7:06 PM. She weighed 8 lbs 1.5 oz and was 21 inches long. It was a fairly long labor with severe contractions that started at 4:00 AM. We went to the hospital close to 9:00 AM and were admitted around 10:00 AM. The epidural came around 11 and we were having pretty good progression. At 1 PM Gabrielle's water broke on its own and things really got moving. Around 5:00 PM Gabrielle's body was ready to go and by 5:30 she started pushing. It turns out that Camdyn was not positioned facing the right way which made her labor a little harder as they had to try and get Camdyn to turn on her own. However, through that, at 7:06 PM our precious angel was born! It was by far the greatest moment we have ever experienced before. One that we will definitely never forget. We just love her so much!

So we have now been home since late Sunday afternoon. We have adjusted pretty well. The first couple nights were a little rough but things have definitely calmed down. Camdyn sleeps pretty well and has definitely become a little hunger monster. The dogs have been great with her. We call Rory, Nurse Rory, as she pretty much never leaves Camdyn's side and is always looking out for her. Rigby, while slightly curious is for the most part indifferent about it all.

Yesterday we took Camdyn to her first pediatrician appointment. She did really well with her first outing and report. Her weight loss is in the normal range and everything else was looking very good. We take her back for her next appointment next Tuesday and we are hoping to see her with a little weight gain.

Today we went on a couple errands to pick up some things that we needed and Camdyn did such a great job! She was an angel and got a little bit of fresh air :)

So that is what has been going on here in a nutshell (well sort of). Here are some more pictures that we have taken since she has been home. We will work on posting more as we can as well.

Again, we thank you all for your love and support, it truly means a lot to the three of us.

Talk again soon.

Love always,

Ben, Gabrielle, and Camdyn

Introducing Camdyn Elyse

Sorry for the delay in getting some pictures up and out here but as
you can imagine things have been pretty nonstop since we were admitted
to the hospital on Friday.

Camdyn is doing great! She is bringing us both so much joy we can
barely contain ourselves. We are hoping to be sent home later today
and once things are settled down again we will reupdate and add more
pictures from our camera.

Thank you all for the love and warm wishes. We love you all!!

Love always,
Ben, Gabrielle, and Camdyn

No More False Calls

I'll keep this short and sweet, but we're in full blown labor!!! All the false calls are behind us, the water has broken and epidural is in. Mommy is doing great and Daddy hasn't passed out yet.

We'll update with all the key measurements and some pictures later on. Should only be a few more hours.

Love,
Ben, Gabrielle, and (almost) Camdyn

39 Week Appointment

As promised here we are again! Not without our baby drama as of late :) We once again found ourselves in labor and delivery last night. We swear we really aren't crazy parents to be. Every call or trip has been directed by Dr's orders. We just have a lot of things happening at once. So anyway, last nights adventures was due to thinking that Gabrielle's water broke. She noticed this at 6 pm last night and we did everything we were supposed to to see if it was worth going in for and all the tests passed so we knew we needed to get it checked just in case. Any potential fluid that seems similar to amniotic fluid is encouraged to not sit for hours and debate what it is but to cal your Dr and go in. So we did. 3 hours later and about 3 tests later, we learned it wasn't that. Not quite sure what it was but it allowed us to get sent home.

So we had our normal appointment today and our follow up from last night. The Dr was really glad that we went in to get checked and even checked things out himself to make sure. We are all clear. However, Gabrielle's Dr did another exam on her and her body is still not progressing much. Based on that, though we are technically eligible for induction (39 weeks tomorrow) he wants to wait another week. Doing one now with her body the way it is would most likely result in a C-section which we would all like to avoid if possible, so we will remain as is for another week. The current plan then is to now set up an induction with the hospital for next Thursday (10/28) at 4 PM. Our next appointment with him is next Wednesday when he will check Gabrielle again and make any final plans or arrangements. There is still always a chance that her body could start up and get Camdyn out sooner, but it is better now to get things down for a "reservation" with the hospital. So that is our current plan. Induction was something that we were actually very much against in the beginning but if her body struggles getting ready and our Dr is advising we will do such. We trust our Dr very much and feel very fortunate that we even have him. We really feel he would only do the best for Gabrielle and Camdyn. Gabrielle is dealing with a lot of discomfort right now with the non-stop contractions and back pain. We can say though that Camdyn is still doing really well and seemingly very healthy. We can't wait to get to hold her in our hands.

So that is the plan. We promise to keep everyone updated and let everyone know if anything changes. The support and love we have been getting from family and friends already has truly been a blessing and something we feel very grateful for. So thank you all!

When we were in L&D last night, our Dr ordered an ultrasound to check fluid and make sure Camdyn was head down. The tech gave us a couple pictures and we have posted them below. They are a little freaky looking but was a nice surprise to get to see her moving around. The tech also mentioned that she looked like she was going to be a big baby, so we will see, both of us were fairly big babies so I guess there is a chance :)

Also below is a new belly picture. This was actually taken today at 38w6d.

We hope this finds you all well. We are getting close!!!

Love always,
Ben and Gabrielle

It's All About The People

We wanted to take a minute to say thank you to the great folks Ben works with at Harris. The team came together and threw us an amazing baby shower a couple weeks ago. It was complete with decorations, good food, favors, cake and a very generous gift. It was more touching than they know.

A lot of back and forth...

Camdyn has definitely been keeping us busy since our last Dr's appointment on Wednesday. Thursday night Gabrielle got really sick with some nausea which lead to her throwing up several times. We thought that had calmed down but in the morning on Friday she still found herself not doing well. We decided to call the Dr's office to see what they wanted us to do to help with this. The Dr was actually not in the office on Friday but we were able to talk to the nurse who wanted us to go to L&D at the hospital, especially since the contractions were close, now at a 3-5 minute interval. So we did. We got to the hospital and were put up to the monitor. Camdyn's strip was amazing, she was getting complimented again for having great numbers and looking extremely healthy. Gabrielle's monitor was definitely showing contractions every 3-5 minutes which is when they normally want you to go to L&D. So they do an exam and we are now 60% effaced. -2 station, but still only 1 cm dilated. The on-call Dr for our Dr happened to be in the wing and stopped by. He did an exam as well and decided that he would go ahead and discharge us. While the contractions are where we should be and normally would be admitted he suggested we try and wait through and see if the pain increases 2-3xs what was currently being felt. He also told us to not wait for our Wednesday Dr's appointment and try and get in on Monday because he really didn't feel like we would make it that long. So we went home and waited.

We went through the weekend and did start to notice that the pain was starting to increase. We decided to wait though to see if we could see our Dr on Monday and kind of hold off from going back to L&D.

When Monday came, we were finally able to get through the Dr's office, however he was in surgery all day so we spoke with the nurse again. Based on the fact that the contractions were still 3-5 minutes apart they wanted us to be at the hospital to get looked at and monitored. The hospital would be able to reach our Dr and could work with him that way based on vitals, etc. So again we did. Monitor was showing once again perfect contractions and a perfect baby. The contractions were even showing as more intense and closer together. They did another exam only to find that we were still at the same effacement and dilation. So they started to then go through the list of possible things that could be effecting this. They rand a UTI test which came back negative and then loaded Gabrielle up with some water. That started to help move the contractions out a bit but not a whole bunch. It brought us closer to about 5-6 minutes which was enough for them to decide to discharge us again. They mentioned induction but we are still not quite where we should be for the Dr to do this. His office won't even talk about it till we are at least 39 weeks (today we are 38w5d). Which isn't something we were originally wanting to do, but with the pain and uncomfort that this is causing we are willing to at least talk about it. Talk about discouraging. So we were told to come back if the contractions stay/get back to 3-5 minutes apart and double over in pain. We are to keep our next appointment with our Dr for tomorrow and see what he wants to do. The good news is last night we at least made a little progress when we saw that the Mucus Plug was lost (sorry if a little TMI for some). So we will take that.

So for now we are just waiting. Gabrielle is drinking a lot of water so that if the contractions stay close we at least know it isn't that. We will continue to monitor contractions throughout the day so we have all of our information for the Dr's appointment tomorrow morning. As of last night they were averaging about 6-7 minutes apart. So we will see. We will have another update tomorrow. The great news is that Camdyn is doing so well so far. That is definitely our main concern.

Well sorry for this long drawn out entry but we wanted to keep everyone posted. We know that there was a lot of things going on. We hope that this will find you all well. Fingers crossed we will hopefully have our little one with us very soon.

Love always,

Ben and Gabrielle

38 week appointment came a day early

Well we weren't supposed to have an update until tomorrow but due to some things that were going on we called the Dr and they asked us to come in this morning. About 3 days ago we noticed that the contractions were starting to change and seemed more "real." One the first day they were about 10-12 minutes apart. After coming home from work though and laying down, they seemed to calm down and spread out to longer time frames in between. Yesterday they picked up again in the morning and by the end of the day were anywhere from 4-7 minutes apart and getting really painful. We started to think that this was it. Again though after getting home and laying down they spread back out to 20 plus minutes in between. The added difference with yesterday was that there was what seemed to be more of a constant cramping and then lower back pain. This morning the contractions started again from 20 minutes apart and started getting around 10 minutes apart. Ben encouraged Gabrielle to call the Dr's office which they then asked us to come in as soon as we could so they could hook her up to the monitor and watch the contractions. So we left work and headed in.

They did our normal exam first and we learned that we are now 50% effaced and 1 cm dilated. So yay progress has been made in a little under a week, which is good. They then hooked her up to the monitor and sure enough the machine was showing contractions. They were coming in anywhere from 4-7 minutes apart. The Dr came in and told us while they are close they want to see them more consistent....currently they are one four minutes later, one 6 minutes later, etc. So we wait. They did decide to pull Gabrielle from work early so her last day at the office was today. This actually came at a really good time since she was getting very uncomfortable and this was something we were talking about possibly doing ourselves, the good thing is that with the doctors orders we don't have to dip into our time off early, we get additional :)

They went ahead and scheduled our appointment for next Wednesday but mentioned that is if we make it to that appointment. So if things continue to progress we may see them sooner. So here is to hoping.

So that is the current update as to where we are. We will continue to keep you all posted. More to come soon.

Hope all is well!

Love always,

Ben and Gabrielle

Nursery completed...just add Camdyn!

The recliner came in yesterday as scheduled and has been placed in the nursery. We are now able to say that Camdyn's room is 100% complete...only thing we are missing is her! We just can't wait. 18 days and counting till her due date. So as promised on Thursday's entry here are some final pictures of the nursery.

We are pretty happy with how everything turned out. We can't wait to have her complete the room.

Also as promised, Gabrielle took more belly pictures yesterday, which was at 37 weeks, 2 days along.

So that is the news here. Trying to enjoy the rest of our Sunday before heading back to work in the morning (a 5 day work week this week none-the-less). There will be another update most likely on Thursday, though if anything happens sooner we will definitely post it.

Hope all is well with everything.

Love always,
Ben and Gabrielle

37 weeks- Hello Full Term!

Well we made it! Camdyn is now officially considered a full term baby, though we are still 3 weeks from her due date. This is definitely a great milestone and brings us a lot of excitement knowing that we are only getting closer.

We had another doctor's appointment today. Nothing really too new to report. We are still ripening/effacing however there has been no dilation. Dr. A made a slight joke that he unfortunately wouldn't be surprised to see us still pregnant next week. However, he does think that there will be more progress to see by our next appointment which is next Thursday. Though the tricky part of pregnancy is that all the numbers and figures really don't always mean much, we could still end up in labor and delivery tomorrow or we could easily find ourselves at October 28th. So still nobody really knows, but we are willing to believe that he has a slight better knowledge than we do :)

We heard from the furniture company earlier this week and our recliner is in. They weren't able to deliver it to us tomorrow so they will be bringing it on Saturday. We can't wait...not only is it the final piece of the nursery but it may be something good for Gabrielle to try and use now to help her get comfortable. Once we have it set up in the room we will take some pictures of the final nursery and get them posted on here (in addition to getting a new belly picture up).

So that is about the new news we have. We are just moving along day by day. Everything else is going pretty well, definitely no complaints.

We hope that this finds you all well. We hope you have a good weekend. More updates to come soon! :)

Love always,

Ben and Gabrielle

36 week appointment- check!

Well we have done it! We made it to the final month of the pregnancy! Almost feels like yesterday when we found out we were expecting. And to think now within 4 weeks we should be able to meet our little girl. We are truly beyond words and have nothing but excitement for her arrival.

Today was our 36 week appointment. From here on we are going to be going to the doctor every week. Camdyn is measuring great and we are at a point now where the Dr told us that if she is ready to come he won't stop her, so it really is up to her at this point :) Gabrielle's blood pressure was a little elevated but the Dr isn't too concerned at this point. Her protein checked out well and her numbers weren't at the levels that would draw concern for potential preeclampsia. It is something that they will continue to monitor regardless. Her swelling seems to be normal and hasn't really reached her face much, mainly her feet and then fingers some. The really good news from the appointment though was that Gabrielle's body is progressing! We have a thinning and ripening cervix which is a great start (sorry if that was too much for some :) ). So we are in process but do have some time left, no rushing yet. The pain and pressure that Gabrielle has been feeling is still very much around, and it is something that she is going to have to try and deal with the best she can till Camdyn arrives. It is basically from the position of Camdyn which doesn't leave much room for making better. Her best bet is to try and stay as comfortable as possible when she can.

The nursery is about 98% done, just waiting on the recliner to arrive...should be just about any day now. We will take some final pictures of everything put together once it arrives. And with arrival, we have now figured out how to email from our phones to the blog and it looks like also able to text to here. So what we figure we will do is send out a mass text to those interested letting you know to keep updated with the blog and that way Ben can post things as we get more information for Camdyn's delivery. It will probably be the easiest and quickest way to keep everyone as posted as we can.

In other news, we have continued to see great improvement with Rory! We aren't quite sure what that was all about but we are definitely glad that she is making improvements and back to herself - even if that is slightly crazy on the norm ;-)

It looks like we were spared from a possible tropical storm, thankfully. We have been getting a lot of rain here though!! Fortunately it hasn't been anything like Fay was a couple of years ago...that rain was just ridiculous. Hopefully we can finish the rest of Hurricane season as fortunate.

Well we hope that this finds everyone well and safe. We love you all!!

Love always,

Ben and Gabrielle

Daddy test

Just testing the mobile blog posting capability.

Sent from my iPhone

Test #2

Well it looks like the first testing post worked!  YAY!!  So now to test if pictures will post as well :)  We have tried to post another picture of Camdyn from the last ultrasound we went to back on August 28th.  

If this works we are in business and should be good to go.  You will be able to keep posted on things very easily straight from the blog, since we know that not a lot of family uses texting, etc.  

We have had an interesting past couple of days to say the least.  For a bit there we were getting to worry about Rory and some of her behavior.  She was almost starting to act like she had something wrong mentally.  We immediately took her to the vet and all of her vitals were perfect.  We decided with our vet to wait a few more days to see if things would change before we progressed with blood work and then x-rays, etc.  She slowly started coming back to normal and is about 92% back to what we would consider her normal (I think we all know she is a little crazy as is :) ).  So we will continue to monitor her and hope that it was just some random thing that happened and doesn't come back.  I think Rigby can safely attest that Rory is back to normal as he takes the general brunt of her active and playful self.  

Gabrielle is still definitely feeling a lot of discomfort in these last weeks.  We are now under 5 weeks left (4 weeks, 6 days to go, not that we are counting :) ).  She is definitely having contractions though they seem to be still "irregular" with their timing.  We thought we were getting close yesterday as there was definitely a period of about 3-4 hours where they were coming every 30 minutes but that has since seemed to have changed some back to irregular and the discomfort and pain she was feeling yesterday has also definitely calmed down a ton so far today.  We think the ability to try and rest and stay hydrated is helping and most of what she will be doing this weekend.  Our next appointment is on Wednesday and that is the start of us going every week until Camdyn is here, we will look at updating sometime soon after our appointment.

So that is about where we are for today.  We hope that everyone has a great weekend.  

Love always, 

Ben and Gabrielle

Test

In attempt to try and keep everyone updated for Camdyn's arrival on the blog, we are testing out a way where we will be able to email/text straight to the blog the status and updates from the hospital (well for Ben to :-) ).  

So here is our first test trial on this!  Let's hope it works!!

Love, 

Ben and Gabrielle

Time kind of got in the way

Oops! So we let things kind of slide under the radar the past several weeks and started to slack on updating on here. To be honest though, there really hasn't been too much that anybody has been missing. Things in the Rivera household are pretty calm and pretty much the same.

The nursery is now pretty much 99.9% complete. The only thing left to do is put the bumpers on the crib. Everything else is ready for Camdyn. Feels kind of nice to have that done so we can start to just wait for her. Speaking of Camdyn though, we had another ultrasound on August 28th and wanted to share some of the pictures from that session.

This was Camdyn almost the whole session. Where on Earth did she get hands so big???

The pregnancy has been progressing along. We have finally hit a point where the easy-going-ness of it has stopped. Gabrielle has been having pains for about an entire week now...and while "contractions" have been pretty random and far apart they have been hurting her. Most of the pain is attributed to Camdyn's head being down and in Gabrielle's pelvic area so she feels constant pressure there, something she has been told she is going to just have to deal with till Camdyn comes. This afternoon definitely hasn't been one of the better days(even after an amazing day at the spa for a pregnancy massage and pedicure thanks to her amazing husband!!) but we are doing what we can and just anticipating our daughter's arrival. We know it is only going to progressively get worse, so here we go! The great news is though that we are only a little over 5 weeks until the due date (we are 34 weeks, 2 days today). It is really hard to even believe.

Ben is working on trying to figure out a way to keep friends and family updated through the blog or even other means easily for the big day. We will figure something out (thanks Matt for your help so far!). But you can definitely guarantee we will have updates with lots of pictures :)

Well that is really all we have here. We will try and get some more blog posts in without as much time passing this next round.

We hope that this finds everyone well. We love you all!

Love always,

Ben and Gabrielle

PS We forgot to add a couple pictures of the bellly-my how things have changed :) This is from 34 weeks, 3 days.