Christmas - Round 1

We had our first Christmas celebrations of the year this past weekend with David's family. We started out the day with breakfast and gifts with Grandma Dunaway, Dan, Jaci and the girls. Beckett had a blast opening his gifts and playing with them right away.

This is the best "kids" picture we could get.

 

Then we spent the afternoon over at David's cousin's house for the big Dunaway Christmas celebration. Santa made an appearance, and scared the crap out of Beckett. Camden was cool with him, he just tried to rip his beard off. Our kids will be getting coal this year, I'm sure.

 

 

 



 

 

Trouble

Look what Beckett decided to do:

He loves to paint, and he loves lotion, so it was really only a matter of time until he put the two together.

 

He's crazy.

 

 

 



More newborn pictures

I love these, and I am so glad that I have them to look back on and remember just how tiny he is now.

 

 

 

 

 

Painting the bathtub

Since I've been home on maternity leave, Beckett has been home every day with me. Some days I think he goes stir crazy, especially since it's been cold and we can't go play outside like we've been able to do all fall until recently. I've seen this idea on Pinterest before and always wanted to try it, so yesterday we did! Beckett was about to drive me crazy, so we went to the store (with a toddler and a newborn alone is NOT an easy task) and bought some Crayola washable finger paint and paint brushes. I threw him in the bathtub and let him go to town! It kept him busy for over an hour and he had a blast! Extra bonus was that it was super easy to clean up. We'll definetly be doing this again in the future.

This is his serious painting face.

 

 

Here's what Camden did the whole time:

Our Hospital Stay

Camden's birth was amazing. Recovery was even better, and it was all because of the nurses and doctors we had at Methodist Women's Hospital. The  hospital itself is only a couple years old, so everything was beautiful and new.

We had to go in early in the morning on Thursday, December 15th, because I was having a c-section. Camden was breech, and had been pretty much my entire pregnancy. So c-section it was. I was okay with this, as I just wanted him out safe and healthy. So we got to the hospital, spent a couple hours in pre-op with our extremely nice nurse and nursing student, and then we were wheeled into the OR.

David got to wear some pretty sweet paper scrubs.

 

The surgery itself was super quick. First, the anesthesiologist gave me a spinal, which completely numbed me from the chest down. It actually made it a little hard for me to breath, and I was concentrating really hard on staying awake and breathing. Once the spinal was done, they scrubbed me down with some soap, and put up the curtains so we couldn't see anything (thank God). It was only a matter of minutes after that and Camden was born! I had no clue that they had even started cutting yet, as I couldn't feel a single thing. I had prepared myself to feel pressure, and pulling, but I felt NOTHING. I was surprised, and a little relieved. So our amazing Dr. Wedergren announced his birth and told David to start snapping away. He was born at 10:28 am and weighed 8lbs, 7 ozs. After that, they just had to stitch me up, which took the longest. From the time that we got into the room from when we left, only about 40 minutes had gone by, and about 30 of those minutes were me being stitched up. Then it was off to recovery.





 

Recovery was super laid back. I got to hold Camden and breastfeed him for the first time. My nurses were so helpful and nice. I just remember feeling an amazing sense of relief that he was here, and healthy, and didn't have to go to the NICU. He did have to have about an ounce of formula because his blood sugar was a little low. It wasn't a big deal though, and didn't affect our breastfeeding at all. We spent about an hour in recovery and then were wheeled up to our room.

 

We had some family waiting to meet little Camden shortly after we got to our room. Big brother Beckett was the first, and he wanted nothing to do with Camden! He was very scared of everything, and wouldn't even come to me in the bed. They didn't end up staying too long, as Beckett was pretty upset by everything. So Grandma and Grandpa Sneller took him back home. Grandma Dunaway was there too to meet him. We had a few close friends come to visit us, but we mostly had a lot of time for just David and I to get to know our second little man.

 

The next two days were spent resting and snuggling. Camden got his first bath the first night we were there.

 

 

Beckett and the grandmas came up again the second day and had much better luck with Beckett meeting Camden.

Beckett was so cute with Camden. Already trying to share his toys.

 

I got to go home just 2 days after being there. I was able to walk around and take care of Camden, so they let me go home to finish recovering. The first 3 weeks were pretty painful, with the first week being the worst. I'm lucky to have such a great support system around me to make things as easy as they could be!

 

After our terrible experience with Beckett, I was terrified to do it again. I really wanted things to be different, and they were. I wouldn't have changed a single thing about our hospital visit with Camden, c-section and all. I just remember feeling happy, and peaceful the entire time I was there. Every single nurse we had was amazing. They were all so helpful and caring, and that's what made the difference between Beckett's birth and Camden's birth. We'll never go anywhere else to have our babies! If there's more, that is ;)



 

Welcome Camden Scott!

I know it's been months since I've updated, so I'm making myself do it now. I WILL get better at this, as I'll have a lot more to talk about now. Beckett is almost 22 months, and just an amazing little boy. He really is growing up so fast and learning so much. It's amazing the things that he catches onto just by watching us and listening to us talk (which means it's REALLY time to start watching our language....Dad....). He is also now a big brother!

Camden Scott Dunaway joined us on November 15th at 10:28am. He was 8lbs 7 ozs and 21 inches long. My whole pregnancy he was breech, and the doctors always mentioned there was a possibility that I would need a c-section if he stayed that way. I always brushed the thought aside and believed that he would flip before it was time for him to come. Well, he didn't. So c-section it was. I tried several techniques to get him to flip, including seeing a chiropractor who performed the Webster technique, and all were unsuccessful. I have to say though, I didn't mind the c-section one bit. He is here, and he is healthy. That's all I wanted. After having Beckett in the NICU, I was terrified of having that happen again. Camden is healthy, so I am feeling extremely happy and blessed.

He's been an amazing baby so far. I know he's only 7 days old, but he's sleeping great, nursing great, and barely ever cries. I spend most of my time cuddling him up as much as I can, as I know how fast these boys grow. Beckett is adjusting pretty well. He loves Camden, and insists on giving him a kiss at least 20 times an hour (I'm really not exaggerating here). He's learning how to be gentle, and is always concerned about where "baby" is. We're working on getting him to say Camden.

I attempted to do some newborn pictures myself one day when it was just Camden and I at home. Here are a few:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'll update more later on our hospital stay and Camden's first Thanksgiving. Now it's time for Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving with the family!

 

 

 

Our family is growing.

I guess I should've made this post months ago, but at least it's getting done at all. Our family is growing yet again, and I'm due in November! Aaaaaaand it's another boy! I'm so excited to watch Beckett grow up with a little brother less than two years younger than him. I have no doubts that this will probably be one of the hardest things I've ever done (have two little boys so close in age), but I'm convinced it's going to be amazing.

When I was pregnant with Beckett, I was very good at making sure I took a belly picture every 2 weeks so I could see how I grew along the way. I'm very sorry to say that I'm almost 24 weeks pregnant and have really only taken one official belly pic at 10 weeks. It's terrible. This pregnancy is flying by, and I just don't think to do things like that. Chasing around an 18 month old might have something to do with that. Here are the few pictures that have been taken along the way:

We had some family pictures done by my cousin Nickie, and decided to throw some special announcement pictures in there as well. This is how we told all of our Facebook friends.

I had this really cute idea of taking a picture like this every 2 weeks or so with the week written on my hand. I did it once. At week 10, as you can see.

This picture I specifically wanted. Beckett was 16 months old, and I was 16 weeks pregnant, and I wanted to document that. I really love this picture.

We had the big 20 week anatomy scan at the beginning of July, and wanted to find out the sex a fun way. We had the ultrasound tech write boy or girl on a piece of paper and seal it in an envelope. I then went to a florist and had her put the corresponding color of balloons in a box that I had decorated. Later that night we opened the box in front of a couple close family members and friends. Blue balloons came out!!

I know that Beckett doesn't really understand what it means to have a little brother, or have a new baby come into his life, but if I ask him where the baby is, he will lift up my shirt and touch my belly. He will then rub my belly and say "niiii", which means "nice", and give my belly kisses. Then when he's done he'll pull my shirt back down and say "buh bye!" It's so darn cute I just about die every time he does it. I know he's going to be a great big brother, and I can't wait to see the two of them grow up together!

I really do promise to do better on the belly pictures!