Two Weeks Old

February 23, 2010
Today my baby girl is two weeks old. I cannot believe that two weeks have passed since she was born.  She has changed so much already and we fall more in love with her every day.  I am loving every moment of motherhood so far....yes, even the late night feedings.  I do not want to take one moment for granted and I try to cherish that special time we have together in the middle of the night. Camille is starting to develop quite the personality and we are learning to figure her out day by day. We are really getting to know miss Camille quite well and are loving every minute of it!  Everyone still says she looks just like her daddy and I have to agree that she really does!

Here are some of the things we have done this week:

February 18th:  Bobby went back to work today leaving me all alone with Cami for the first time all day long.  It went well although it was much more fun with Bobby here.

February 19th: We took Camille to her very first basketball game in Moulton (my old gym). Uncle Brady's team (Shiner) played Flatonia…it was a very close game, but Shiner lost in overtime. I never wanted to be one of those parents that stayed home all the time with my baby and never went anywhere but I am not sure that a basketball game this early was such a good idea. I was so worried it was too loud for her, but she slept thru the whole game! I kept her hands over her ears anyway though…just in case!

*her umbilical stump fell off earlier today too--not sure why I want to document this, but I thought I might want to remember when one day.

February 23rd: Today we went to the Dr. for Cami's 2 week appointment. She had her heel pricked for a screening, she weighed 9 lbs 2 oz...almost a whole pound gained since last week..yikes! Dr. said Cami is looking healthy! We talked to Dr about Cami having gone 2 whole days without pooping…he said to dilute her formula a little and we could give you her an ounce of apple juice in her bottle to get things moving if needed.

FACTS:
-newborn diapers
-newborn size clothes

-2-3 oz every few hours when bottle fed

-still waking up 2-3 times a night to eat

-When you stretch (and you stretch a lot), you kick your head back and you make the funniest/cutest scrunched up face. You make a lot of faces but this one is consistently the same!

- when we try to burp you, you get so mad and try to fight it every time…you don’t want to stop eating for one second!
-when we are holding you with you head on our shoulder, you often fold your little hands under your chin and rest on them
-when I breast feed you, you will often pull on your ears or play with your hair in the back..its so cute
-you have this fake cough that you do before you cry when you want something
-you have been a very good baby…you only cry when you are hungry or wet most of the time

-you like to be patted on your behind…HARD

-when we lie you on your back you always roll towards your side…making it very hard to dress you or change your diaper
-when you sneeze you almost always sneeze 3 times
-you very seldom spit up

Random Pictures from this week:

    

        

   

One week old

February 16th, 2010
Today you are one week old baby girl!  We could not imagine life without you. We are so in love. I thought I was prepared for motherhood; I read all the books, took to heart all the stories from other mothers but nothing could have prepared me for how in love I am with my baby girl. I could just sit and stare at her all day long.  I think she is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.  Bobby probably put it best. He was holding her one evening this week and with tears in his eyes he said "if I would have known this would feel this good we would have done this a long time ago." I couldn't have put it better myself.  Seeing Bobby with Cami just makes me fall in love with him even more! Camille has been such a good baby and I don't for one second take for granted how blessed we are. We have had a very busy first week with our baby girl. 

Here are some of the things we have done this week:

February 11th:  We came home from the hospital. We were so ready to come home. I was still very sore from my surgery but ready to rest in the comfort of my own home.  We dressed Cami up in a cute little red outfit with a big red bow and home we went! 

February 12th:  We gave Cami her your bath at home! She screamed the whole time and mommy and daddy might have been just as scared as she was! I sure hope she learns to love baths as much as I do.

February 14th:  Camille's First Valentines Day! Daddy bought a cute longhorn onesie for his newest valentine! We dressed Cami in her 1st Valentine's Day outfit and we traveled to Moulton to Nana and Big Daddy's house for lunch. Bobby and I were definately ready to get out of the house. This was our first trip out since we brought Cami home and even though I was a bit nervous and probably packed too much stuff in the diaper bag, she did super! Also, even though this is a little random, we cut Cami's fingernails for the first time today; however, I made Bobby do it..I was too chicken!

February 16th: Cami and I both went to see Dr. Walker for her 1 week check up and my 1 week post op appointment.  Cami weighed 8 lbs 4 oz, back to her birth weight. I am not sure what she weighed when we left the hospital though.  They didn’t measure her length but Dr. Walker spent alot of time checking out miss Camille and all her reflexe.  He commented on what a pretty baby Cami was and we obviously agreed. The nurses were pretty smitten with her too. I got my staples out today also; it didn't hurt at all and Dr. Walker said everything is healing well.

 

Weekly Facts:

- Size newborn diapers
- Strictly Newborn size clothes
- Still has a head full of dark hair and eyes look blue for now

- Very alert when awake

- Nicknames—Cami, Monkey, Sweet Pea, Beautiful, Pretty Girl

-We started Cami on Formula on Feb 13th, a few days after she was born, and we have been alternating between formula and breastfeeding. Cami seems to be doing well with this. She was up all night the first few nights, seeming to be starving, so I was so paranoid she wasn't getting enough milk. I know that if you are breastfeeding the baby should be getting plenty, but it was so hard not knowing if she was getting enough. Also, with the formula daddy can help a lot too. Right from the start she switched back and forth very easily between breastfeeding and the bottle. So far she doesn't seem to have a preference of one over the other. However, I have noticed that she falls asleep very easily when she is being breastfed, so sometimes I will breastfeed after we bottle feed for a few minutes until she falls asleep..especially at night when I want to get some sleep. Right now she eats every couple of hours and when eating from the bottle she takes 2-3 ounces of formula at a time.

-waking several times a night to eat
-many visitors this week

Random Pictures from this week:

Welcome Camille Rose Cowan

I can't believe that Camille is 6 weeks old already..almost 7 weeks.  These last 7 weeks have been the most wonderful and exhausting weeks of our whole lives.  We are so very blessed to have Camille and I could not imagine life without her in it. Cami keeps me so busy, and I never want to put her down, so finding time to blog has been impossible for me. I want to take the time to catch up now before I get too far behind.  I am going to post the birth story first so I have it down for me to remember. Then I will follow with updates and milestones from the last few weeks. 

Birth Stats:
Camille Rose was born on February 9th, 2010 at 5:50 p.m. by cesearean section at Gonzales Memorial Hospital.  She weighed 8 lbs 3.8 oz and was 21 inches long.  She had a 13 inch chest and a 13 inch head with a head full of hair.

Birth Story:

February 8th, 2010 around 5:00 pm we checked into the hospital to get started with our induction. Luckily we had stopped to get some food (Chicken nuggets from Micky D’s…I’m not kidding) on our way to the hospital, because once I got settled, I was informed I was not allowed anything but ice chips from here on out. I got dressed (or really undressed) and hooked up to all the machines. I was already having some contractions on my own (yay), was not really dilated and not really effaced (boo).

(This is us before we left to the hospital)

The nurse placed Cytotec in my cervix…it is this pill like thing they put in to get things started (similar to cervadil that some people get). With some people this stuff can cause the uterus to hypercontract and can be pretty painful. It really got the contractions going like crazy…and it was somewhat painful. Nothing that I couldn’t stand at this point. This stuff lasts for about 4 hours and even with all the contractions it didn’t cause enough effacement/dilation. They let me have a little break and then placed another pill of Cytotec sometime early morning of February 9th around 2:00 a.m. There was already indication that miss Camille was not going to like labor at all because her heart rate started dropping some with my contractions. All night long they were moving me from side to side to try to make Cami happy, so I didn’t get any sleep. Luckily, I sent Bobby home to get a little rest, he left about midnight and came back at 5:00 am, because we are about to be in for the long haul. There was NO where for Bobby to get any rest in our room at the hospital or else he would have stayed. The good news is that they are redoing the OB rooms and they should be done in a few months, so next time the accommodations should be better! My mom and sister, as well as Bobby's mom, sat with us most of the evening as well as all day Tuesday.

Early morning on February 9th, Dr. Walker came to check me and I was finally starting to dilate (1-2) cm and about 50% effaced. It is about 5:30 am now and the pitocin was started. Dr. Walker checked me again around 7:00 am and said I could have the epidural now. At this point the contractions are starting to become pretty uncomfortable. Now....I am trying not to complain because I have no idea how bad this is going to get and I didn’t want to be a weenie…so I wasn’t about to ask for the epidural yet. However, thankfully my awesome nurse could sense this about me and called the anesthesiologist anyway. I got the epidural about 7:30 am and things were pretty painless after that.

As the morning went on the contractions were getting stronger and with every contraction the baby’s heartbeat would drop. They turned off the Pitocin after lunchtime to give Camille a break. I continued to have good contractions on my own. Around 2:00, Dr. Walker broke my water and had the nurse turn back on the Pitocin. I was dilated to about a 3-4 at this point. My nurse voiced concerns about starting the Pitocin again because she knew the baby was not tolerating it well. Dr. Walker said that we had to know whether or not she would be able to tolerate the labor as it got more intense. The contractions increased again and Cami’s heartrate kept dropping some. After a couple of hours the baby’s heartrate was not coming back up as fast as it should be after my contractions so Dr. Walker decided to go ahead with the C-section. It is now about 4:00 p.m. and it was obvious she was not going to tolerate labor any further. He also voiced concerns that there might have been a problem with the cord. Having a C-section was fine with Bobby and I at this point, because we were so worried about the baby. I ended up dilated to 6cm so we still had a little ways to go. Things moved pretty quickly at this point to get me ready for surgery.

Having a C-section was a weird experience because you can feel them tugging but it doesn’t hurt. I remember thinking that it seemed like it took forever to get her out once they had me opened up. At my one week checkup, Dr. Walker mentioned that she was just as hard to deliver by C-section as vaginally. She had made it pretty far down during labor and she was sunny side up (face up), which makes it harder to deliver apparently. He also said after he delivered her that there was not a problem with the cord, which was a relief.

Dr. Meredith assisted Dr. Walker with the surgery and Dr. Rivas (the pediatrician) was also there to “catch” the baby. Camille was finally born at 5:50 pm on February 9th, 2010. She weighed 8 pounds 3.8 ounces and was 21 inches long and had a head full of hair. She came out screaming which was music to my ears! Dr. Rivas checked her out and cleaned her up and they let me hold her before taking her out. I had to wait an hour in Post-op before they would take me back to the room. While I was in Post-op they took all her measurements and all of our visitors got to see her and some held her. They waited to give her the first bath until I came back to the room…. I was glad about that.

                                                                   
                                                            First family portrait

Camille's first bath

                                      

While we were waiting to go back for the surgery, one of the nurses commented that we must be really loved because we had a waiting room full of people waiting on this baby! I think they were shocked at how many! We are very blessed with loving family and friends! Some of the people there included: my mom, April, Linda (Bobby's Mom) and Mark, Robert (Bobby's Dad) and Mildred, Jason and Teresa and Kaitlynn and Garrett, Grandma Chumchal, Grandma and Grandpa Schumacher, Tiffany, Becky and Sammy and Alex and Samantha, Diane and Shae from my office, Robin, and Lana and Cirilo and Ethan. They were overflowing out of the waiting room.

Good Day Sunday!

Yesterday turned out to be a pretty darn good day! First of all and probably most important in our house right now is that the Cowboys came through with a WIN!! We had a good day lounging around, being lazy and watching football most of the day. I was a little productive when I finished cleaning out the rest of the closets to make room for baby stuff. Next on the agenda is cleaning out the baby room. I don't think we are the only people who have a room that somehow becomes the 'junk' room. At least I hope we are not...please tell me we are not! We have not used this room for much of anything since we moved in except to collect all the stuff we are too lazy to find a place for. With the baby on the way the room is getting a much needed cleaning and makeover. I won't post before pics before we clean because lets face it...it is too embarrassing...and I don't get embarrassed easily. The other really exciting thing that happened yesterday is that I ordered the furniture for the baby's room. I found a set I really loved a while back at JC Penney. We were planning on waiting a little longer to order since we didn't even have the room ready to put it in. However, I was looking online and found out it was on SALE!! We couldn't resist and ordered it yesterday. I am so excited to get it in and to get the room all ready for the little one. Here are some pictures of the furniture...we ordered the crib, dresser and changing table in the espresso (dark) wood color shown. They show the crib with girly bedding but it looks equally as cute with boy bedding depending on what we have! Now we just have to wait untill our sonogram on Friday to decide on bedding!

Big Week

Hi everyone (all 2 of you). It has been too long since my last post. Many of you already know that Bobby and I are expecting our first bundle of joy in February! We are very excited. I have been feeling well and just this past week I have started to feel the baby move a little...AMAZING! This is a BIG WEEK in the Cowan house. First of all the Dallas Cowboys start their regular season today against Tampa Bay. I hope they do well and I really hope they win.. because lets face it....the Cowboys losing makes for a LONG week in our house. The other exciting thing we have going on is that on Friday (September 18th) we will be having our 20 week ultrasound. We are praying that everything will be perfect with the baby and we are hoping to find out whether or not we are having a boy or girl. I honestly don't have a preference either way...we just want a healthy baby. We do have a name picked out either way! We have been working on the house off and on since my last post. We have all of the big projects completed for now. The next project is to get the baby's room ready...it needs paint for sure and we would like to put in a new floor. I have to admit I am most excited about this project than any other. I have been in a mini-nesting mode, cleaning out closets and orgainizing cabinets trying to get things organized before the baby gets here! The Cowboys are about to start so I better get going. I hope to keep you all updated much more often now that I am back!

"Project" Update

Many of you have been asking how the 5K Training is going. It has been going good so far. Every workout is a challenge for me and I thought it might get easier as I go, but that has not been the case so far. I just started week 4 of the training. My sister and I decided to do week 3 twice because it was so difficult. I ran for 12 minutes straight tonight--the longest time yet! I realize that for some this might not be a big deal, but for me it is huge. I run really slow--more of a jog really--but I went a little over a mile tonight. I am very proud because 4 weeks ago, I wasn't sure if I could run for one minute much less one mile. Maybe there is still hope that I can actually do 5K in the end. Wish me luck!

In other news, we had Bobby's Christmas party on Saturday night in San Marcos at the new Embassy Suites convention center. It was fun! We spent the night at the hotel and finished up on our Christmas shopping on Sunday.

Yesterday was the funeral for my friends husband. His name is Timothy Kostelnik. The rosary and funeral were even harder than I imagined and my heart just aches for my friend Jennifer and her two precious little girls. Please continue to pray for them. They will need to be covered in prayer during this difficult time and season.

The week will be busy for us...getting presents wrapped and beginning our many Christmas celebrations. Thursday night, Bobby and I are having his Dad and Mil over and his Brother, Jason and his family over for dinner and to exchange our gifts. With all the places we have to go on Christmas Eve/ Christmas, we always end up missing them and have to get together later to exchange gifts. Friday, I am having my Christmas outing with the ladies from work. We are going to New Braunfels for some pottery painting, lunch, then off to Fiesta Texas for the evening. Hopefully it won't be too cold. Sunday, we are having our Christmas with Bobby's mom and family. Monday, another get together with the ladies from work with our spouses for dinner and a gift exchange. Tuesday, we are having Christmas at my Mom's. Wednesday, with the Billimek's. Thursday with the Schumacher's for lunch and Chumchal's for dinner! Wow..that really sounds like alot when you put it all on paper! Hopefully I will get some pictures put up soon of all of these events and I know I owe you all an update on our FINISHED dining room--Bobby did a great job!

I hope that all of you have a SAFE and BLESSED Christmas.

Please Pray

The husband of one of my dear friends died late last night in a car accident. He was 30 years old. Please pray for her and their two little girls as they deal with this tragedy. I know she is surrounded by family and friends. Please also pray for his family in this difficult time. He was a good man and husband and father and will be missed dearly. Please pray that my friend will be covered with a peace that surpasses all understanding and that the hand of God be over her and their families as they cope.
Melanie