The Blur {that is the Past Four Weeks}

Cam is growing, Cade is starting Kindergarten soon, and Reese keeps asking me to put make up on her...I'm far too hormonal and emotional for time to be rushing by so quickly!

July pretty much has felt like a blur.  Thankfully I can look back through my camera roll and try to piece together what we were up to!

Fourth of July outfits for all!

It's going to take some practice capturing a good pic of all 3 at once...

So relaxed, enjoying a quiet and uneventful 4th of July.

The big kids headed to GB to enjoy, no doubt, a wildly loud 4th of July.  They had a blast with Grandma and Grandpa Keeley and the Beck cousins.

We napped, went to Dunkin Donuts (I'm addicted to their Caramel Swirl iced coffees) and went for a walk for our celebration.

And napped some more...

Matt spends most of July traveling for Breakthrough Basketball camps and recruiting so he headed out July 5th to be gone for 14 of the next 18 days.  I felt bad for him as I know he hated to leave Cam when he was so little.  Luckily our family and friends helped me out by either taking the kids or coming to stay with us during most of this time.  Gentry came back for a few days for what we called "newborn baby training" as she is set to embark on her own adventure with a newborn in October!  She did great.  She's ready!

Cam is the 3rd child to NOT be enamored with the swing.

Off to Cam's one-week-old doctor's appointment.

Already back up to birth weight, woo-hoo!

Gentry and I were feeling strong and took the kids out for the morning to Crown Center and Union Station.

It was a fun outing...but wore everyone out...including me.  Way too much walking for me!  What was I thinking?!

Mom, you've got to take better care of yourself!

Luckily there are many hands wanting to hold Cam at all times...

Matt was back home for my birthday weekend and my parents came back to town and voted for a trip to the farm (Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead) because who doesn't love that place?!

Reese (the new middle child) knew just how to play her cards to get a pony ride...

And feed the goats.

Being manly...or creepy.

Aunt Beth came for a visit to meet Cam all the way from Fresno!  She and Christy helped me to celebrate my birthday and Reese was stoked Beth got to see her gymnastics class.

And introduce Cam to snap chat!




Matt was off again and my parents took Cade on a trip with them to the Wisconsin Dells (he had a blast!) and it looks like Cam and I just hung out and took lots of selfies.

In Cam's third week of life his cord FINALLY fell off.  Then it proceeded to bleed for the next few days which freaked me out.  I'm finding this kid is just different enough from the others to make me feel like a new mom!  After extensive Google searching and calling the nurse-line, turns out it may bleed after the cord falls off and it's not a cause for concern.

Once the cord (and circumcision ring--which warranted more calls to the nurse line) fell off it was time for a "real" bath!






My helpers were in tow and it looks like bath time is Reese's specialty!


My high school bestie, Audrey, came to work her magic taking newborn pics just as she's done with the other kids.  We had the best time just chatting away as if we get to see each other every day of our lives--I love that we can always pick up where we left off.

She got some great pics!

We keep getting fun packages in the mail!  Cute clothes from my aunt, MNU gear from the alumni association and this fun quilt from Matt's aunt.  Thanks, everyone!

Someone wake me when it's football season...

Because who doesn't love having a camera roll full of a squishy sleeping baby?!

We decided to road trip to GB for a few days to pass the rest of our time while Matt was away.  The kids traveled really well--it just took us an extra hour longer than usual to get there...

Cam took his first bottle at 3 weeks...because come October, somebody's gonna need to be willing to take a bottle.  Again, the helpers loved being involved!

We really hit a fussy stage there for awhile where Cam was just inconsolable in the late evenings.  G-mom and Papa purchased this vibrating bouncy chair to help combat it.

When Matt returned home this is how Cam spent his usually fussy evening-time...guess he was just glad we were all back home together!

I can't believe tomorrow is August 1st...I'm just thankful I still have two months until I start school instead of two weeks!  Whew!

Welcome, Baby Cam!!

In my mind, Cam was coming early.  I was induced with Cade at 38 weeks and went into labor with Reese five days before the scheduled c-section date, so I just planned on having this baby at about 38 weeks the whole time.  I disregarded the 5:30am report time on the scheduled day and the fact that Matt was working a camp that week because I was so sure he would be arriving the week before...

Headed to the hospital at the scheduled time.  5:30AM on June 28th!

It didn't take long to get all hooked up and ready.  The best part was having one of my best friends, Jessica, as one of the nurses.  She was so sweet and it was so fun to see her in action.  She had made all these arrangements for me and even had a gift there waiting for me.  She took great care of me and even stayed after her shift was over to help out.  She arranged for me to have Kreisa, a friend of ours from the MNU family, who is one of the best nurses around!  It was so nice to be surrounded by friends for such a special time!

At 7:33AM--right on schedule--we got to finally meet Cam!  Now this is going to seem strange, but I had read somewhere that you can request that the curtain be dropped during a c-section and watch if you prefer.  Since this is my 3rd c-section, I was very curious as to what goes on behind that curtain (Matt had described what he had seen when he watched the previous two times) so I thought I'm at least going to ask!

Since my nurses were so awesome--and my friends--they made sure it happened and I got to see him delivered.  It was actually really, really cool.  I was nervous I might get grossed out, especially when the anesthesiologist kinda freaked out about it all and started asking if I get easily nauseated by seeing blood, etc.  From the angle I was at I couldn't really see any of me, just Cam.  I'm so glad I got to share in that moment and see what everyone else in the operating room was seeing!  (Then they put the curtain back up to sew me up...which is a weird sentence to write actually...)

This was actually my first baby to get to hold "skin to skin" right after he was born.  Cade was a very different story since he was an emergency c-section and had already had a bowel movement before delivery so the first few minutes of his life were very chaotic.  With Reese I think that was just before the hospital started doing that with c-section babies so she was weighed and washed and wrapped up before I got to see her even.  Anyway, this was a special "first" for me that will probably always bring tears to my eyes whenever I think about that feeling of holding my sweet Cam against me for the first time.

Cam looked like a very plump baby!  Everyone was commenting on how big he was we were all very surprised that he only weighed 7 pounds 11.9 ounces!  The doctor had them weigh him again to be sure.
 

I had a spinal block before the c-section which again, like with Reese, made me nauseous and caused me to throw up intermittently for the rest of the day.  I hardly remember that now.  As long as I was getting to hold this guy I didn't mind.

Later that afternoon, my mom and Gentry brought the cutest big brother and big sister up to the hospital to get to meet Cam.

Cam, meet G-Mom!

And your Aunt Gentry

Reese still only likes to hold Cam for about a minute at a time...

Surprisingly, Cade is our nurturing one who will hold Cam for extended periods of time and tries to soothe him whenever he's upset.

So sweet!

I love this picture of our crew.  First picture as a family of 5!

At the end of the first day we got moved to a larger corner room down the hall so there would be room for Matt to have the pull-out queen bed and me to be able to stay in the hospital bed in the room also.  That way Matt wouldn't have to bring his air mattress like he did with Cade and Reese!  (More hook-ups from Jessica and Kreisa!)

This face deserves a bigger room, right?

The rest of the days blur together a bit for me.  We enjoyed getting to introduce Cam to some of our favorite people as they visited.  Cousin Keeley is an expert at holding babies these days!

The Birt Bunch.

Cam and Cousin Max were thrilled to be together!

Papa made a surprise visit as well!

Brett McFall just couldn't resist getting to snuggle a new baby. :)

My sweet friends, DeAnna and Jamie, came bearing gifts and outfitted Cam with some Wildcat gear!

And hopefully they weren't too disturbed by the visit from the lactation consultant that happened while they were there... #truefriends

Cute new hat from the Birts.

It was such a special treat to get to see Amy, Brenley and Bryson Hepker!!

Cam, meet our favorite school counselor, Susan.  She will hook you up with a sweet schedule one day.  So nice of her to come visit us!

Reese was beginning to wonder if we were ever going to come home...

We took our first family walk around the halls of the hospital.

I'm usually a huge proponent of sending your baby to the nursery while in the hospital, especially if you have other kids at home.  This time we actually only sent Cam to the nursery one night and the other nights we kept him with us.  This is mostly due to the fact that our room was really far away from the nursery and I felt bad that the nurses had to keep bringing him all the way across the hospital to me and by the time he'd get to me he would be so, so fired up.

Matt is an expert swaddler.

We received some pretty flowers from my parents and the kids--AKA also my parents.

Another first, a shoot with Bella photography!  (They weren't doing this four years ago when Reese was born.)  It was so neat to watch the photographer work her magic.  She got some great pics!

Friday, July 1st, time to head home.

My mom texted that these two were patiently waiting to welcome us.

A selfie before we hit the road.

G-Mom had orchestrated quite the welcome for us!

Cam's first day home involved lots of snuggles!

Meeting Grandma and Grandpa Keeley!

They even had an ice cream cake to welcome me home!

First sponge bath with G-Mom refreshing me on how these work...

We have had a lot of family come through to visit, make us meals, entertain the kids, and stock up our fridge and pantry as well as so many sweet friends offer to bring meals, watch the kids, etc.  We are truly a blessed family of 5!  We are so thankful to add Camden John to our bunch.
Welcome, Cam!  You are so loved.

A look back:

Welcoming Cade

Welcoming Reese