Camille's First Week!

Camille is now one week old as of Thursday April 19th!  It surely has been a whirlwind of a week, but we have loved every second of our new life as a little family.

Last Wednesday, at 39 weeks, I had a doctor's appt. where I was hoping that he would announce that I was making some progress towards having this baby. I was really afraid of going past my due date which was April  15th. I was so pleased to hear that I had dilated to 2cm and that if I hadn't had the baby over the weekend that he would induce me on Tuesday! When I  went to see the receptionist she said that the doctor induces or does c-sections on Tuesdays and Thursdays and she asked me if I wanted to induce the next day! Oh my God that would have been so exciting, but Dustin had some really important meetings on Thursday and he had asked me early to please try and not have the baby that day! So I definitely didn't want to do anything to purposely have the baby that day. So we opted for Tuesday, April 17th.

Mom and I went to lunch after the appt. and within an hour I had had 12 rather painful contractions so I called the doctor back and he said that his exam might have stirred things up and to go home, put my feet up and that the contractions, if not the real deal, would go away. I did that and they did go away...so no baby that day, or so I thought!

Later that night around 7pm I started to have those painful contractions again, but this time they weren't going away they were getting worse and closer together. I called Dustin, who was playing kickball with his coworkers and said that he should probably come home as I thought something was happening.

During the contractions there was a point when I had to laugh because I remember asking my sister when would I know if the contractions were real! Well now I know that you just know! By 10 o'clock my mom and Dustin were demanding that I call the doctor. The contractions had gotten so bad that I wasn't able to talk during them and they were now about 5 minutes apart. I kept thinking this can't be real and I would be embarrassed if we got to the hospital and they had to send us home, so reluctantly I called the doctor after an hour of saying okay in 5 minutes I'll call. I'm glad I did because by 10pm they were so painful I didn't care if it was real or not I was ready for the pain to be gone.

When we got to the hospital I was 4cm dilated and the contractions were 3 minutes apart so again...very glad I called! My plan from the get go was to get an epidural, but when we got there I expected them to want me to wait a while, but pretty much as soon as I got in the bed the nurse asked if I wanted to get going with the epidural...I kind of went back and forth for a few minutes feeling like a little bit of a wimp for only going through labor for a few hours, but the nurse was really good about making me feel better about it so she went ahead and put an order in for one. Well as it turns out it took about an hour for the anesthesiologist to arrive and in that hour, after many teeth rattling contractions, I had absolutely no guilt about getting that epidural...whew!

Here I am in between contractions still smiling!

And me during a contraction...not really in the mood for a photo!

It was kind of funny to me because I always thought I wouldn't want anyone to be touching me during contractions, but in reality I needed all of my support people right there...and each one had a job to do...Dustin was in charge of holding my right hand and being my cheer leader, Steph had the task of rubbing my legs, a technique that she learned from her doula, and mom had to fan me and hold my other hand. If one of them was out of the room I would be screaming fan me fan me or in a panicky voice someone hold my hand!!  No one is holding this hand, hurry hurry!!

Here are my awesome support people...btw these are pictures of them after I got the epidural...so they were off of their hand holding duties for the time being!

At about 6a.m. Thursday morning...the one day Dustin had asked me not to have the baby :)  I was ready to push!  I remember exclaiming, after 11 hours of labor, partly natural, partly medicated by epidural, that I wanted everyone to know about epidurals and they should get one! I was ready to shout it from the roof top, " PREGNANT LADIES OF THE WORLD GET AN EPIDURAL!!  I could not possibly imagine doing this the o' naturale way! Sorry it's just not for me!  So here is Dustin getting suited up.

And here's me after 3 hours of pushing, which isn't exactly easy or painless even with an epidural. I was a little overcome with emotions knowing that with one more push I would meet my long awaited baby for the first time. I don't know if anyone has noticed, but I started this blog almost 4 years ago. Back then I had a little secret...we would start trying to have a baby and naively I started the blog right away thinking that I'd soon be filling the pages with my happy baby news and pregnancy. Little that I knew that starting a family isn't exactly easy for everyone. So here we are almost 4 years later with a lot of heartache and bumpy roads behind us...about to come face to face with our dream come true. It was a feeling of awe I can hardly put into words.

And here SHE is! We had kept the baby's gender and name a secret so it was a very exciting moment for us all.

Camille Mae Kirkland

All 7lbs 11oz. of her!

Getting checked out by her nurses

Daddy's little sweetheart already!

I love those chubby cheeks and rolls.

Here she is with our families...Mimi

 Gran and Pawpaw

Nanny

Bob and Mimi

There is nothing that melts my heart more than this!

Ready to go home!

She has been doing great!  It did take us a few days to get acclimated to our new way of life...being wide awake at the wee hours of the morning, but we've gotten pretty good at taking turns with her and  life is good!

Here she is at 10 days old...pretty in pink!

-Kim