Merry Christmas Great Grandma White!

Kehoe Christmas

We had another successful Kehoe Family Christmas party last weekend. Enjoy these pics!

Cammy enjoying the cousins

The start of the talent show...

Cammy's talent... making funny noises!

The aunties

Our sweet girl

Holiday season has begun...

Lots of pics!

Going to see Santa for the FIRST time...

Turns out he was a nice guy :)

Excited after seeing Santa and mostly excited to see Grandma

Cutting down our tree...

Cammy's first Christmas tree!

My happy 11 month old who kept getting out of the chair...

11 months.

Dear sweet Cameron Ann,
At 11 months old you do so many things that melt Mommy and Daddy's hearts. You are a super fast crawler, quick to stand up at anything; my favorite is when you crawl over to me and stand up at my leg and want to be held.  You said your first word (other than mama and dada) this month, BOOK!  Your version is more like "b-uh" with a silent k.  You first said it when we were in your rocking chair and you pointed toward the book shelf and said "b-uh." You just love turning pages in books and being read to.  The only thing that keeps you still on the changing table is if I give you a book to read. You will then quietly look at the pages until we're done. You bring me books when we are playing on the floor and then patiently wait for me to read it to you and you turn the pages. 


You also discovered the kitchen this month and in particular the tupperware cupboard! You always make your way into the kitchen to the cupboard and open and close the door and get things out, you are so careful to stand in the right spot so you can use the handle and also be out of the way of the door.  You get really excited each time you open the cupboard and usually yell out in delight. 


Also this month you are getting the hang of sharing.  You will often be playing with a toy and then try to hand it to whoever you are playing with.  You will even hand over things you really like when we ask you to see them and say please. You usually will squeal with some discomfort once you hand it over if it's something you really love like our phones, but you are patient and usually get it back when you ask.  Still working on please and thank you! :)
Other milestones this month, MOLARS!  You got your bottom two 1-year molars within the last couple weeks.  You lost some sleep a couple of nights as we noticed you toss and turn on the monitor, but never fully woke up because of it.  You continue to amaze us as we enjoy every moment we get to spend together as a family.  


Love you! xoxo
Mom


P.S. I'll be posting pics of your photoshoot this weekend! Can't wait to see what you think of the chair this month. Also, we'll be cutting down your first Christmas tree tomorrow!

Cousin playdate

Great weekend up north.

We went up north for the weekend and it was a much needed escape. The men went to check on their hunting blinds while Cammy and I stayed at the cottage and relaxed. Cammy had a nice long morning nap and I was able to get a lot of scrapbooking done.

Grandpa Faust had a lot of good time with Cammy and she showed him all of her tricks. I just had to get a video of them playing. As far as the cottage is concerned, there are little Cammy face and handprints on all of the windows as she loved looking out at the water and also the Mr. Potato Head magnets on the fridge were a big hit with her. She pretty much went from one to the other the whole time. She had a lot of room to crawl and exercise. What a great weekend!

10 Months. WOW

I'm about a week behind on this post. At 10 months Cammy is crawling all over the place, pulling up on EVERYTHING, and almost standing on her own. She waves, does 'so big', nods yes, shakes her head no, loves to read books and turn the pages, and so much more. She is starting to eat more and more of what we eat, her current favorite is cottage cheese with bananas. She sleeps from 8pm-8am with two naps during the day, one around 10 and the other around 2:30.

She is the joy of our lives. Such.a.happy.girl.

Enjoy these pictures of her 10 month photo shoot.

Another big week/weekend

Cammy is learning new things almost daily as she improves her mobility skills.  Within the past 4 days she learned to pull up to standing and has now mastered that skill. Time to lower the crib mattress! Save this momma some worries when it looks like she is trying to throw herself out of the crib on the monitor.


We had a great time yesterday seeing part of our lamaze group. There are so many cute babies and so fun to hear how all of them were born and see how they are doing now. 


Cammy had her doctor's appointment this morning and she is 28.5 inches long and 17 lb. 14 oz., 90%ile for height and 50%ile for weight. Doc called her 'lean and mean.'  No shots this time, and that was a welcome break from the past three Doctor's visits.  Cammy was a little wary of Dr. Welker and did not like when he used the tongue depressor to look at her throat.  She gave him some good cries after that, but calmed down quickly after he was done. Although, I'm not sure she would have let him hold her again. 

Cammy crawling

Enjoy this video from this morning.

8 months.

This is from 9/7/11. She's almost 9 months now!

Cammy is on the move.

This is serious. :) While she's been able to move backwards, scoot, roll and otherwise get to where she wants to go with a lot of effort for some time, she now can crawl in a conventional way to get where she wants to go a lot more efficiently! Something clicked overnight for her on Tuesday, because she did it a little on Wednesday, and then a lot yesterday. Yesterday when we got home I put her on her blanket with all her toys, and she immediately started crawling to a piece of paper that was farther away.  She continues to amaze us with how fast she learns.

On that note, looks like our weekend is going to be full of baby-proofing and organizing! I'll try to capture a video to share tonight.

On her way to grandma's

Go Blue! Cammy enjoyed the tailgate again this morning. My mom came to pick her up while Randy and I go to the game. Her favorite part of football Saturday's is going for a walk up to the stadium. She smiled and laughed at EVERYONE.

New high chair :)

BIG WEEKEND: Tooth #7, Canada, and Whitmore Lake

Cammy's lower left incisor was through as of this morning! Hopefully she'll have a little break now, although not likely until number 8 is through... :-/  Overall she has been very happy and easy throughout the teething process. Orajel has worked wonders for her when she justs needs a little help getting comfortable to go to sleep.

Over the past 4-5 days she has mastered sitting up! I still put a pillow behind her, but she hasn't decided to fall backwards in a great while. She 'falls' to the side when she wants to get moving. But she has gotten a lot more control with this and it doesn't worry me as much anymore.

Also over the weekend Cammy has started to eat a lot more solids, including an early morning meal.  I'm looking into making my own baby food, so hopefully I'll be able to do that soon! She is loving all types of foods, but her favorite is anything with banana.

This weekend was a big one. We celebrated my brother and future sister-in-law's engagement over in Tecumseh, Ontario on Saturday. It was great to see where Heather lives and where Scott will live after the wedding. Cammy and Owen got in some good cousin time and even we able to both sit up in the pack and play and 'share' some toys.  At one point they both got a hold of the same toy. They are cute together, and no nose pinching this time :)  Cammy needs to get a passport soon... although her birth certificate worked just fine in crossing the border this time. Not sure what the age requirement is for when you need a passport. Scott and Heather asked me to be a bridesmaid and I couldn't be more thrilled. It will be a fun party! I'm excited for all the wedding plans and festivities this year and anything I can help them with.

On Sunday Cammy and I reconnected with more friends from high school and their babies. Barb and Junior had us over to where they are living on Whitmore Lake for a bbq and we met Bella who is 2 months older than Cammy. Katie and Tom were there with their son Kohen who is 13 months. Kohen and Cammy go to the same daycare, randomly, so it was fun to see them interact and for me to get to meet Kohen officially :) He loves the 'wa-wa' or water and says 'ahhhh' whenever he wants something to drink, such a cutie! We also got to see Darcie and Lindsay. It was a fun day!

Tooth number 7

Can you believe that my baby is working on her 7th tooth and she is only 7 months old!! I can not believe it. I thought we'd get a break from teething, but only two days after she got her 6th tooth, we're at it again! She is now working on the lower incisor teeth, not sure which one will come through first. Cammy doesn't like to let me peek in there too often :)

Cammy waves!

It started with me trying to get her to do 'so big' and hasn't stopped since. Enjoy this video!

Using the big girl ducky towels for bath time :)

Cammy is growing up so fast. She loves bath time even more now!

Cammy now has 4 teeth!

Her second top tooth cut through today. This week she ate carrots for the first time and really liked them. She now has had apples, sweet potatoes, and carrots. She is growing up so fast!

Cammy's Arrival

So, I've thought about writing this down for quite awhile so I don't forget all the details, and Randy might have to fill in for me, because some of the details I have already forgotten, but here goes:

Way back in April we were given a due date of December 30, 2010. If you would have asked either Randy or I years ago we probably would have said the only month that we would try to avoid having a baby would be December. So when I first saw the due date, I have to admit I was worried about my baby having a holiday birthday and all the things that come with that. But overall I was thankful to be pregnant and thinking of all the ways I could spin a Christmas baby into the best birthday ever, after all, to share a birthday with Jesus, that is special! I also was preparing myself to think that it could be January, thinking that 1/1/11 would be a great birthday.  Even though my tax accountant husband was thinking that 2010 would be better.  All in all, I am so thankful that I had such a non-eventful pregnancy. I was healthy and happy throughout. I was nauseous for about 4 days and overall just really excited for the baby, who we didn't know at the time if baby was a girl or boy. 

Anyway, my last day of work was supposed to be 12/23/10, and I started having some very mild contractions on 12/22/10 while at work about every 10-15 minutes. I thought that I didn't want to be stuck in Ann Arbor if things progressed so I brought enough work to have something to do at home on the 23rd, and I would be more comfortable there. Driving was becoming increasingly uncomfortable, and so was I. Well, I continued to have these 'contractions' although not painful, I was hopeful that they would start to get more painful and closer together at any minute. Fast forward through Christmas and I had more contractions on the 29th and there were some that were sort of painful and they got to be about 6 minutes apart, but didn't get any closer than that or any stronger than that. We even packed the bags and got the car seat in the car that evening and I thought that I would wake up from the pain of the contractions getting stronger that night, but instead I woke up nearly every hour from a contraction, that wasn't that bad and I just had to pee. I was incredibly frustrated that morning (my original due date 12/30/10). I stopped paying attention to any contractions and would focus on walking, eating pineapple, and everything and anything else that was said to 'induce labor naturally.' Nothing worked. I just kept having weak contractions at regular intervals.

Finally we made it to my last scheduled OB appointment, 1/4/11 and they said that I was 2-3 cm and 50% effaced. It could happen at anytime, but at that time they also scheduled an induction appointment for me at the hospital for 1/6/11 at 6am. I kept hoping that I would go into labor before that, but was relieved to know that I wouldn't in fact stay pregnant forever. (Although I was feeling like I would be.) I was happy to think that January 6th could be my babies birthday and at the very latest, January 7th.

I was home and made my labor playlist and focused on other things until eventually it was the night of January 5th and I tried to sleep as much as I could, only getting up to go to the bathroom. And eventually it was 4am on 1/6/11 and I called in to make sure they had a bed available at 6am and they said they did, so I ate some breakfast knowing that once I got there I wouldn't be able to eat, and then got about an hour more of rest before getting up to shower and get ready to have my baby!!

So this is where the whole experience started getting surreal for me. I have never been in a hospital as a patient. I typically do not like going to hospitals. Therefore, walking into the hospital and checking in, felt weirdly out-of-body. Actually looking back on the entire time that I was in the hospital before Cammy was born, is weirdly out-of-body for me.

Ok, so we got there at 6am, checked in and they had me change into a gown and get into the hospital bed. Another weird calm before the storm feeling, I remeber thinking that that was the last time I would be wearing my maternity clothes for this pregnancy. Once I got into the gown, there was no going back. So we set up at the hospital, preparing for a long day, but hoping that it would go quickly. I had my iHome with my iPod loaded up with my playlist, we had the laptop and I played solitaire at some point. The doctor checked me shortly after we got there, and said I was 3cm and 70% effaced, and already contracting on my own when I got there, so all these were good signs. They started me on an IV of pitocin and fluids. I was also informed that I couldn't drink water, but only have ice chips. This was a bummer because one of my comfort items was my trust purple water bottle that I had used the entire pregnancy. 

At 10am the doctor came in and I hadn't made any progress, so they decided to break my water. This is when contractions started getting more intense (I think they also upped the dose on the pitocin) and closer together. I had decided to try to go as long as I could without getting any pain medication, and I was starting to need Randy's support to get through contractions. I was sitting on the ball, leaning over the bed, and trying any other upright positions I could, all while being tethered to an IV and monitors for the baby and contractions. Randy used massage and counter pressure to get me through each contraction, and things were getting pretty intense for me. I kept thinking that all this was good, and that the pain was purposeful and trying to remain as relaxed as possible. At about 1:30 the chief resident came in to check me and said that if I hadn't made any progress, they were going to put internal monitors in because they were having trouble tracking the baby and they would be able to tell the strength of my contractions. When he checked me I was still at 3cm and 80% effaced, I was really bummed. I was hoping that the past 6 plus hours of working through the pain had gotten me closer to my baby, but I was just not progressing. He went ahead and put in the internal monitors, which meant I was even more tied to the bed. At this point, I just didn't think I could go on without any pain medication. I had hit my wall and talked to Randy about getting the epidural, and he was more than supportive. Once I decided that I would get the epidural, they couldn't come soon enough. It's interesting to me that nobody could really describe the pain of labor to me when I was pregnant and now looking back I can't exactly remember what it felt like to put it into words, but it was definitely intense and before I had the epidural, I was vomiting from the pain. I couldn't imagine going through that with such little progress for any longer than I did.  I think that if the doctor had said I was 7 or 8 cm I think I could have kept going. But the mental set back along with the physical pain was just too much for me to bear.  I am thankful for the anesthiesiologists, although not completely happy with my epidural experience, I don't know if I would have made it without one.

For the most part the pain was in control after the epidural and I was able to relax and rest as my body continued to to its work. This is where the details get fuzzy for me. It seems every hour or so the doctor would come in and check me and at about 5pm (when my doctor was done for the day) she said I was 7cm and 100% effaced. She thought I was going to deliver before she left, and said it shouldn't be long now and was very positive with her check.

I was excited by her positivity and knew in my head that once I was at 7cm, that I was in 'transition' and that was supposed to be short like an hour and then pushing would be an hour. I was hopeful that I would be meeting my baby that day!! Then another hour went by (it was 6pm) and it was about time for my nurse to go home so she checked me and said I was 7-8cm and 100% effaced. She was hopeful that it would happen soon for me and said that she was on the next day and better not see me still in that room (and was pretty sure that she wouldn't) I kept changing positions and hours kept going by with no progress. My next doctor came in about 7 and checked me and said I was only 7cm and 90% effaced. He had the nurse increase the pitocin because we needed more progress. He was worried about me stalling, which wasn't good when I was that far into it. After another hour or two went by he checked me and I was 8 cm. Dr. Meyer wasn't positive at this point and said that if we didn't have more progress we would need to start to consider 'reality' We went along like this with him checking every hour and finally at 12am I was 10 cm but the baby wasn't quite ready, so he had me labor down for an hour to see if the baby would drop and that would make pushing easier, and after an hour and nothing happened, he had me start pushing at 1am. 

Now began my next mental battle.  I started pushing and everyone kept telling me that I was doing great and that I was doing the right thing. Dr. Meyer said that if I wasn't doing good he wouldn't let me keep going. I just remember that I kept looking up at the clock between contractions and hours were melting away. I thought that pushing was only supposed to last up to an hour! At about the 2 hour mark I was almost ready to give up. My epidural had worn out on my left side and I was feeling pretty much the entire contraction on that side. I wasn't believing anyone that I was pushing correctly because it was taking entirely too long. I was losing focus and couldn't relax between contractions because my side hurt constantly.  At that point is where Randy really saved me. He got in my face and told me that I had to do this and I was doing it and there was no giving up. I started saying over and over, I have to do this, I have to do this... and somehow focused on that. I knew what I needed to do, and became very demanding to Randy and my nurse. The pain was better when my legs were being held up, so they didn't put them down in between contractions. I was in control and finally believed that things were going to happen once they uncovered instrument trays and more people appeared in the room. I was over the hump! And then all at once in the same contraction, 2 pushes my baby's head came out and then her body. It was a girl!! We had a girl!! I was hysterical and had immediate pain relief once she was out. Photos were taken and then the rest is a blur... we had our daughter! What a huge blessing!