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