Be Thou Humble

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted. My internet has been out of commission and it's been driving me crazy! Thanks Cari, for helping me get it all figured out! I'm a total blog-aholic, so I'm very happy to have it working again. I've been dying to share some of the adorable pictures that Lincoln took of Cameron while we were at the hospital. We have such talented friends! For those of you that don't know, the adorable baby in the picture with Cameron is Liam, Lincoln and BreAna's little boy. It's going to be so fun to watch them play together like Carter and Logan have over the years.

So, I guess I'll share some of the experiences I've had with my sweet Cameron so far. I've decided that Cameron has been sent here to humble me, for several different reasons. First of all, the delivery. There was a little confusion with my due date, which I thought was the 2nd, but ended up being the 1st. I kind of expected to go over, and I didn't really mind because I wanted his birthday to be as far away from Christmas as possible. However, I was still very grateful to be getting some regular contractions throughout the night of the 6th. After receiving very little sleep, Randall and I dropped the kids off at my in-laws and headed for the hospital the morning of the 7th. Here's where the humbling part comes in. Once we got to the hospital (a 35 minute drive by the way) they checked me and said that I was dilated to a 4, but my contractions had totally slowed. They observed me for an hour, and then sent me away! I've heard of this happening to other people, but since I've delivered 3 children, including one natural delivery, I thought that I would never have to experience it myself!

After being rejected from the hospital, I talked to my sister-in-law on the phone about how my contractions had slowed and that I felt them more in my back than I remembered with Meleah...which meant the baby was possibly posterior. Hoping to fix the problem, I laid in this crazy position my midwife showed me last pregnancy that helps turn a posterior baby. It was during the time that I was laying in the back of my Honda with my bum in the air (thank goodness I have tinted windows!) that I started thinking...this is not how it's supposed to happen with your fourth delivery!

After losing all feeling in my legs and feet, Randall and I went to Olive Garden and ordered the spiciest/most garlicky thing on the menu. At this point my contractions had completely stopped and we decided to head home. Randall went to his parents house to be with the kids and dropped me off at home to take a nap. I slept like a rock for three hours, then shortly after waking up I started having very consistent contractions that were fortunately not like the back labor that I'd been having the night before. They were coming about two minutes apart so Randall came and got me, and we headed back to the hospital. A little over an hour and three pushes later, my beautiful baby was born! All in all, I couldn't have asked for an easier delivery, and I loved my stay at the hospital. There's nothing like being waited on hand and foot and being able to doze in and out all day without any screaming children in the background.

The weekend after we came home was also very fun, with lots of family visiting, and Jana and Rachel staying with us. However on Monday when life went back to normal, I felt a little overwhelmed (when I say a little I mean a lot) and I had my second humbling experience in the form of an enormous emotional breakdown. I've always been a fairly level-headed person that's not really too prone to tears, but on this particular day...I could not stop crying. Fortunately my sweet in-laws came and saved the day by taking my kids and making sure that Carter got to school. It's really hard for me to accept help from others, but after a day of just being able to hold and enjoy my new baby, I was feeling much better. I chalk the whole experience up to hormone changes and lack of sleep, which leads me to my next humbling topic...why doesn't this kid sleep at night?

It literally took us two years to get Carter to sleep through the night in his own bed. Since then, I attributed my success with the girls to my excellent mothering skills. I'm now discovering that my girls just really liked to sleep and didn't mind if they were in the cradle rather than cuddled up between Mom and Dad in their bed. Cameron has decided to be more like his brother and wake up at extremely regular intervals to be fed and changed and put back to sleep only to wake up ten minutes later if I should dare to put him into the cradle. Luckily he's so dang adorable, so all the long nights are somehow worth it.

Last night Meleah was bringing potatoes that I had peeled from the table to Carter who would then wash the potato and hand it to me to be chopped. All the while Lydia was sitting on the floor by Cameron shaking a little rattle over his head to keep him happy while we were making dinner. I couldn't help but think "we got this!" I'm going to try to remember that moment when I'm feeding Cameron for the fifth time at night, or when Lydia and Meleah are competing to see who can make the most high-pitched, mind-numbing screams while I'm trying to get Cameron down for a nap. If that memory is not enough then I can always read this scripture:

D & C 112:10
Be thou humble;
and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand,
and give thee answer to thy prayers.