The Pumpkin Patch!

There is a fabulous pumpkin patch that I have heard about for the last couple of years and have yet to go. Well, we decided to go on the MUDDIEST day ever! Although Camille may not remember it as the most fun pumpkin patch, we still got some adorable pictures! It was so muddy, that Camille actually willingly stayed on the stroller the entire time to avoid getting "dirty!" I hope to go back when she can play in the mazes and bounce houses.
My favorite! I stuffed my diaper bag and blanket down inside the pot so Eli could lay on top. He slept through this entire trip to the pumpkin patch of me moving him back and forth from the carseat to taking pictures.

Fun with B-B!

This past Thursday was my first time to be alone over night with BOTH kids while Clayton went out of town for a conference for 2 nights! As we were getting closer and closer to him leaving, I started to get a tiny bit nervous (ok...BIG time nervous!)! The kids actually did very well the first night and our favorite B-B came the second night! We enjoyed dinner at Rainforest Cafe and then some shopping to top it off. I quickly realize that shopping with 2 kids is not near as fun as shopping used to be! We had a great time and thank my wonderful sister, Brooke for her help!

1 month!

Since we've come home from the hospital, life (and Camille) has been moving very quickly around here!

Eli got his very first documented bath! We missed out on his first actual bath at the hospital (and I'm kind of bitter about it!).
We always have a great big sister helper!

Eli got all dressed up for his first trip to church! He slept and made little noises all through church...very well behaved!

Like mother, like daughter! Camille is paying attention to EVERY little detail! She is taking very good care of her babies as well!

Just a cutie! He is pretty laid back so far...which is what we have prayed for! He only gets mad when he is hungry or sleepy! He definitely enjoys his paci when it's sleepy time!

Nap time on the couch! She looks so big and he actually looks small compared to her!

An officialy 1 month photo. In every attempt to get this picture, he either looks scared to death or mad at the world. I chose the picture where you can see his name on his shirt. Happy 1 Month Birthday, Eli!

Proud Big Sister

I LOVE this picture! This was the first time she held Eli and she was SO excited! She did see him a few times in the NICU, but didn't get to hold him until he was in our room.

She LOVES giving him the paci! We can't leave paci's laying around the house, because if she sees it, her hands are all over it and then in Eli's mouth! This does come in handy sometimes though because she can sit there and hold it in while I am doing something else. She is a great helper!

Before Eli was born, Camille picked out this puppy dog that sings the ABC's. She is giving it to him in this picture and she is so proud!

He gave her a boy baby doll. She loved it and it even came with it's own paci, too!

Here they are just before we were leaving the hospital. She loves holding him and he handles it pretty well.

We have had some pretty funny conversations with Camille lately. She make us laugh all the time with the new things she says. Here some funny things to remember:

When my parents and Camille were waiting outside our room during the delivery, Camille saw another baby boy in the nursery and said, "What is that on his vagina?" She's dropped that one for now.

When Eli is crying, she'll say "it's ok, baby Eli, your big sister is here!" So sweet!

We were giving him his first sponge bath and he was pretty upset. After trying to convince him it was ok, she said, "we've got drama!"

The nursing has definitely brought up many conversations! It didn't take her long to notice what was happening. This is her feeding her baby after the first time she saw Eli nurse. She has since asked to nurse Eli herself.

Camille loves her baby brother! He is the first person she asks about when she wakes up in the morning, she is quick to introduce him to anyone around and she runs to his rescue anytime he begins to cry!

What we didn't plan on...

After they allowed me a few minutes with Eli, the nurses took him to clean him off and take his apgar score. Clayton followed them over there and watched as I tried getting the best view of him I could from my bed. There were still several nurses in the room and people were talking back and forth as I tried picking up on as much as I could. They said his apgar score was between an 8 and 9. Then the nurse turned to me and said, very calmly, that she would like to send him to the nursery to have professional eyes on him for an hour because his coloring and breathing wasn't consistent. That really didn't worry me and I thought he would be back before I knew it. Well, he didn't come back to our room for another 48 hours.

Everyone that kept coming in to talk to us did a very good job at making us feel at ease and answer any questions we had. They sent him to NICU from the newborn nursery. Once I was in my postpartum room and was able to move around, they wheeled me down to NICU. This just isn't anything I had every imagined having to do! I thought NICU was for small, premature babies, not full term, almost 10lb babies! It was so sad to see him hooked up to so many wires, tape all over his body and a feeding tube down his throat! They immediately put him on oxygen, a feeding tube and IV. They started him on antibiotics in case something showed up on his blood cultures as an infection. We didn't take many pictures of him in the NICU because it was just sad seeing him that way.
He was very content in there and didn't seem to be in any pain. It was hard to not be able to pick him up anytime we wanted, nurse him, show him off to our friends and family that came by and not be able to inspect every inch of his body!

Each time we went in to see him, they had lowered his oxygen levels and had positive things to tell us. At midnight the first night, I woke up pretty upset about the whole situation and Clayton called down to check on him to put me at ease. At that point his oxygen level was 30 (21 is normal). By the next morning, they were able to take off his oxygen and feeding tube (Eli actually pulled the feeding tube out when they were bathing him). I was able to begin nursing him the next day at noon and he did great! From that point on, I was going down there every 3 hours to nurse.

The doctors finally came to the conclustion that he had pulmonary hypertension. That means that his body had a hard time transitioning from blood flow and oxygen going through the placenta, to blood flow and oxygen going through his lungs automatically when he was born. Once they put him on oxygen and helped him out for a while, his body got the hang of it and it doing great now! Thank you, Lord!

I was discharged on Thursday and we moved down to the Rooming In Room right next to NICU. They brought him to our room so we could stay one night with him before going home. The NICU nurses still came in to run vitals on him through the night and he still had his IV in his right hand because we were still waiting on results from the last blood culture.

Doesn't he look like a little football player in this picture? Daddy will be so proud!We survived the first night together with little sleep! All of a sudden, he didn't like sleeping in his bed! Everytime I walked in to feed him in the NICU, he was sound asleep in his bed, but not when he was in the same room with him! We are still working on this one!

All of his blood cultures came back negative so they took out the IV and was discharged on Friday. We were so happy to be going home as a family of 4!

Birth Day

* So frustrated! Why can't I move these pictures around anymore? Did they change something that I missed since I have updated in so long?

September 8, 2009 was a magical day! The birth of a child is so amazing to me! It is definitely a work of the Lord and a good reminder that things don't always go as we had them planned! This post is a run down of the whole day so that I can look back later and remember the parts that we so quickly throw out.

7:00am

Clayton and I arrived at the hospital, got checked in, changed and ready for the nurse to begin the day. As the nurse walked in, I immediately grinned and said "I remember you from our first child's birth!" Nurse Kathy was our Childbirth Class teacher and was my nurse with Camille's delivery. It was so good to see a familiar face! She and nurse Brittney (a "learning" nurse) began my IV's, set me up on potocin and began the long list of questions.

8:30am

Contractions began getting pretty strong.

*Dr. Preston delivered Camille and although we were at the same hospital, he no longer delivers babies. I was very sad when I heard this, but was also very blessed to have Dr. Parikh deliver Eli. She had already put my mind at ease a few weeks earlier that she allows an epidural when ever I want it! Yipee!

9:15am

Dr. Parikh arrived to break my water and check my progress. I was 4cm, 80% efaced and Eli was at a -2.

10:00am

I received my epidural! It was taking him a long time to put it in, and I began to get a little nervous! I just kept praying that my body would accept it and I would shortly feel no more pain! I don't understand why anyone whould choose not to have an epidural! He finally got it in and began doing it's job.

11:20am

Nurse Kathy and Brittney were off shift at 11am and Nurse Becky came on. She was also a wonderful nurse to have! She had been there for 32 years...she knew what she was doing! She put in my cathetar and checked my progress - 5cm.

Shortly after that, I began feeling strong contractions again. With Camille, I took naps and felt NOTHING once I got my epidural.

11:50am

The anestesiologist nurse came in to give me some more meds to help with contractions. This continued to happen every 30 minutes or so. I would feel real good and then it would wear off.

1:00pm

Nurse Becky checked my progress again - 8cm!

1:15pm

Dr. Parikh came in to check my progress - 10cm, fully efaced and ready to push!

The dr. and nurse both agreed that since I had just received another dose of meds through the epidural and I was feeling pretty good, to let me continue through some contractions and allow Eli to do some of the work on his own. Dr. Parikh went across the street to see a patient and wait to be called again.

1:45pm

Eli was ready! They could see his head so they called Dr. Parikh over.

1:56pm

I pushed through 3 contractions and Eli Lewis Woods was born weighing 9lbs, 14oz and 20.5 inches long! Everyone in the room was commenting on how BIG he was! Dr. Parikh had guessed 9 to 9.5 lbs. so he was even bigger than she had guessed. They immediately layed him on my chest and allowed me to soak up my precious little boy for a few minutes!

Eli Lewis Woods

Eli Lewis Woods was born on September 8, 2009 at 1:56pm. He weighed 9lbs 14oz and was 20.5 inches long. The labor was very quick and smooth, but shortly after the nurses became concerned about his color and breathing. They first wanted to keep him in the general nursery for an hour and that turned into the NICU for 48 hours. They started him on antibiotics, oxygen, a feeding tube and many other wires. In less than 24 hours, he was taken off oxygen, the tube was taken out and he began nursing. He is expected to be released from NICU within 48 hours of birth and go home the next day. Clayton and I will be staying an extra night so that he will get to room in with us one night before going home. Thank you to all who have prayed for our little man! He is improving every time we see him.

July 4th

*I'm very frustrated that Blogger will not let me move my pictures around! They are all backwards!

We had a great, but hot, July 4th! Our church hosts the Pancake Breakfast and 5k run/walk for the town of Trophy Club. We woke up extra early to get to the church to help serve pancakes at 7am to find that we would only be in the way because there was plenty of help. We kept looking at ourselves wondering why we were awake so early! We then loaded up on the church float and rode down to the Country Club to begin the parade. It was super-duper hot and I found my place inside the truck with AC! Camille even ended up inside the truck by the end of the parade.

Afterwards, we went home cooled off, cleaned up and took naps! That evening we went to our friends' house - Matt, Kyla and Mark. We enjoyed a good cook-out and then a firework show. Although it was super late, Camille did very well and loved the fireworks! She was asleep as soon as we got into the car!