Thank You Mariah

We are so grateful to Cam's cousin Mariah Baddas of Mariah Baddas Photography for capturing our little angel so perfectly. It was such fun to watch! Rachel has insatiable curiosity and it took us a while before we could get her to do anything other than reach for the camera and want to slobber all over it. Finally we got her smiling and you can see the rest. So beautiful!

visit www.MariahBaddasPhotography.com to see more of her work or get some pics of your own.

BTW - my photobucket slideshows have been getting cut off so if anyone knows how to fix it let me know...thanks

More Family Visits

So we were lucky enough to have visits from both my sisters and their families. when Rachel turned 3 months old. It was so wonderful and a good time to come as Rachel had been working a lot on her smiles. So sad that they all live too far away. Rachey would have so much fun with her cousins and get spoiled by her aunts like she deserves. Family is so important.

My Chiquita Banana and Lots of Spit Up

It makes sense doesn't it that if you hold a baby up in the air over your head you are going to get spit up in the eye? Guess it is just too fun to resist. Cameron was a good sport as I made him stay like that so I could get a good picture. Must be why she loves him so much! As soon as he walks in the room she just beams and coos. Me too!

Easter Blessings

When Rachel smiles her little toothless grin our hearts melt. When she laughs we squeal with delight. Its amazing how far we'll go to make her happy. The biggest wish of my heart is that she will know more joy and laughter than pain. I am so grateful that she got to receive a blessing on Easter given by Cameron with the help of her grandpas, uncles, and other worthy men who all came together to ask Heavenly Father for special gifts to help her be successful and happy during this life. We were fortunate to share this experience with family and friends.

Rachel was so sweet. I was petrified that she would just cry through the whole blessing and make it difficult for Cameron to concentrate. Just before church began she started to fuss a little and I was just pacing and rocking her. She finally went to sleep two minutes before I passed her off to Cameron and then she opened her eyes again and I wished him good luck. Cameron held her and the other men surrounded her in a circle. She remained quite for the entire prayer and I was relieved that she had gone back to sleep. When Cameron held her up at the end to present her to the entire congregation lo and behold she was awake and had been through the entire thing. She didn't fuss a bit but just looked around. That's our girl...so calm and peaceful.

We Survived!!!!

Intense. That sums up how I feel about the first month. Intensely joyous. Intensely painful. Intensely sleepless...difficult...emotional. You name it I felt it that month. It was more difficult than anything I had ever imagined or experienced. Labor was nothing compared to that first week. In fact the next day I couldn't even remember what labor pains felt like but I can still tell you how much it hurt to breastfeed. Funny! I certainly was not prepared for any of it. She made it all worth it though. So sweet and beautiful. Every new sound or action was a delight. We just couldn't believe that she was ours. The game began to find out who she most resembled...we are still adding up scores on that one. Everyone has their own opinion. In fact...that became one of the most difficult challenges of the first month...too many unwanted opinions.

Even little old men in restaurants chimed in. In the same day in the same outfit one group of people would set about to inform me of all the myriad of maladies Rachel could get from being too cold, including hiccups apparently, and then the next group would tell me that just looking at how warmly she was dressed gave them hotflashes. People I love with all my heart I could no longer stand to be in the same room with. So I came to the only conclusion I could...listen only to professionals and even then...only what they are professionals at in the first place. At least that way if she is screwed up in the end I can only blame the professionals.

Our New Life!

Our little Rachel was born on the beautiful morning of February 22nd. Ok...I don't know if it was a beautiful morning because I never got outside that day. I just stared enamored and awed at the new little life in my arms for the next 24 hours...all right I stared at her pretty much non stop for the first month. Literally. If sleep didn't happen much before she was born it was non-existent after. Not because she didn't sleep. Just because I needed to make sure that she was breathing while she slept. Don't worry I have gotten over that one by now. She just seemed so fragile and I was responsible for keeping her alive. Turns out she's not as fragile as I imagined.

So I took a lot of pre-natal yoga classes before she came but funnily enough it took a childbirth prep class from the hospital to plant the idea of a natural birth in my head. Our instructor compared it to running a marathon and I thought well I did that maybe I can go natural. Well the marathon was over after 5 hours but labor was NOT! It started Thursday but was not consistent so I didn't mention it. By Friday afternoon I was ready to get the show on the road so I made Cameron take me on a walk around Lake Poway...he still didn't know I was having labor pains at this point. I told him on the way home. Labor progressed a little and I spent the night practicing my techniques and thinking "wow these really work. I can do this." Still, sleep lingered somewhere off in the distance or at least at my side in the form of a resting husband.

Saturday morning we walked to the Farmers Market stopping about every 15 minutes to breathe. We ran into some friends and had some milkshakes then decided we better go to Target to get some things we needed for the baby. It was two weeks early and I wouldn't have minded the two extra weeks if I had had them. Then we got a phone call from one of our friends and found out we were missing a party so I suggested we go. What better way to speed up labor than Salsa dancing? I made Cameron promise not to tell anyone I was in labor and about every 9 minutes or so I would squeeze his shirt and smile really big as I breathed. Needless to say everyone knew I was in labor so we went home and got ready for the trip to the hospital. They admitted me and were getting ready to take me to the room when another lady came in already 8cm dilated. I was 4.5 at the time and to make matters worse she had only been in labor for 2 hours and it was her first baby too. What??? So they sped her through and I hobbled along after her to my room.

As soon as I walked in the labor and delivery nurse took one look at me and saw that I was at 'deer in the headlight' stage of labor and she put both her hands on my face and said, "ok now breathe." Once she got me calmed down a bit she asked me what pain meds I wanted and I immediately said, "give me an epidural." It was a decision I would not regret since the epidural made the world a happy place again, itchy but happy, and soon after I got it another women was brought into the room next to me just moments from giving birth and in pure agony. Oooouuuuccccchhhhh! 12hours later and after one hour of pushing it was finally my turn and Rachel was born healthy and peaceful and the world was perfect that is until we went home!