Brady Louis Campbell

Here he is! I know it took me a very long time to get this posted, but you wouldn't believe how unbelievable busy he has been keeping us! 

Brady was born on Monday, October 20th at 7:27 am. Here's the condensed version of his birth story......My water broke around 7pm Sunday night. Contractions started around 11 pm - they were very strong and close together from the start. Rob woke up to all my "birthing noises" around 2am. We called our doula and she came over around 4am. I was begging and insisting that I no longer wanted a natural childbirth and needed to get to the hospital to get an epidural. She checked me and I was 4-5 cm. We left for the hospital at 5am. By the time we arrived, got checked in, & my midwife checked me again it was around 6:30 and I was already 8-9 cm. I was screaming for the epidural and the anesthesiologist was actually walking through the door. But my midwife, doula, and Rob kept distracting me and put me in the shower and sent him away instead! My doula had me kneeling in the shower and told me to do some "mini pushes" to help push the last bit of my cervix away. All of a sudden my body just started pushing on it's own. It was crazy...I didn't want to push because each time I did it hurt sooo bad, but I couldn't stop myself from doing it. I got back on the bed around 7am and they put the "birthing bar" on the bed for me to use. I pushed for about 25 min and Brady was born at 7:27.

We don't actually know how much he weighed at birth because something was wrong with the scale in the room. When they first weighed him he was 7lbs 8oz. However, the following day he weighed 8lbs 6.4 oz. Since babies almost always lose weight after birth for him to gain over 14oz is impossible. The doctors at the hospital are guessing he was probably closer to 9lbs at birth. He was 21 inches long.

I did have a 2nd degree tear, however, recovery has been much easier than I expected. I've already lost 27 out of the 38 lbs I gained! Breastfeeding is going very well...although I did have a mini meltdown the second day home from the hospital because I couldn't get him to latch on properly. Things have drastically improved though and Brady is well on his way to mastering the boob! Here are some pictures...

Hospital Pic

Showing off his strawberry blonde hair

1st Tummy Time

Chillin' in his bouncer

1st Bath @ home

Trying out his swing

Getting cozy w/grandma & Frank

On Wednesday Brady took his 1st outing. My bible study class at church was having it's final meeting and everyone wanted to see him so we took him by. Afterwards we stopped by the pumpkin patch to snap some pics. Unfortunately the patch was closed "due to a bad shipment of pumpkins" so we didn't get to take many pics. But we had fun anyways!

My Water Broke!

Woot woot! My water broke this evening around 7pm, but I'm not yet having regular painful contractions. I called my doula and she said to go about my normal routine and try to get some sleep tonight and then to call her back when I can't ignore the contractions any longer and she will come over. So that's what I've been doing....cleaning and getting things ready. I actually just got done mopping the bathroom floor! Hopefully things will pick up and I'll be holding my baby boy by this time tomorrow night! I will post again as soon as I can (not sure if the hospital has wireless internet or not). PLEASE PRAY FOR ME!

It's My Due Date!

Where is this child they keep telling me I'm going to have???

Don't Give Up on Me...

First of all I want to apologize for my lack of posts lately. I've just been too exhausted to think of anything to say. Some of you probably got excited and thought I had the babe, ahh, wouldn't that have been nice! Unfortunately he's sitting tight. Tomorrow is supposed to be a full moon - maybe then? 

Anyway, I don't have a whole lot to blog about right now. I've been nesting and cleaning like crazy the past few days. Everything is ready. The ladies in my Wednesday morning class at church threw me a baby shower a couple weeks ago. I was definitely taken back by their generosity. I just met these women a month earlier and here they all were buying me gifts and wanting to celebrate with me. Rob couldn't believe how generous they were either. When I brought home all the gifts, he kept saying "I can't believe people you barely know bought you all this stuff!"

Rob & I went to the hospital this Sunday after church to look around so we would know where we were supposed to go when we got there. This really sweet nurse named Rachel showed us around. I told her I wanted her when I came in, but unfortunately the only day of the week she works is Sunday....and hopefully he'll make his appearance before next Sunday! Rob and I also went to see "Fireproof" last week and, oh my, I am so glad we did. Britni recommended it, but I was nervous as to how Rob would react considering how much they talk about God in the movie. But he really liked it, and I have to say he has been so incredibly sweet to me ever since we went to see it - not that he wasn't already sweet to me, but he's definitely acting differently. Last night we were laying on the couch and I was pretending to be asleep as he was talking on the phone to his brother and I heard him mention it to him. Now, of course his brother is "too cool" for stuff like that and must have made fun of Rob for seeing a "Christian" movie, but Rob seemed to shrug it off and said something about it still being a good movie. Have I mentioned lately how much I love him?

That's about all that has been going on in our lives lately. I wish we had more exciting news, but hopefully that will change soon. I hate asking people to pray for me because I always feel selfish doing so, but please keep us in your prayers - #1 one that I go into labor SOON and #2 that I will have a fast, safe, & easy delivery so we can finally meet this little boy!