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!

Weekend Recap...and Happy Father's Day!

I'm sitting here typing this when I should be in church right now. Rob had to work today so Britni & her hubby, Justin, were going to pick me up this morning so I could go with them. I got myself all prettied up and was sitting on the couch waiting for them when suddenly I got the most awful stomach ache ever. I felt terrible but I had to call them and tell them I wasn't going. Of course 5 minutes later it went away and now I feel fine again. Figures.

I had a really good weekend, although not very productive. On Friday night Britni & I went to the movies expecting to see the new SATC movie. By the time we got through the never ending ticket line though it had been sold out. So we decided to go see What Happens in Vegas starring Cameron Diaz & Ashton Kutcher instead. I really didn't have high expectations for the movie, but it turned out much better than anticipated.

On Saturday I planned on going to the gym to exercise my fat pregnant self, but something came over me, and Frank and I fell asleep on the couch after Rob left for work and we slept till 11:30! Shame on me! I haven't slept that late in years. Then Rob called and told me we were going out to dinner at our favorite restaurant, Felix's, with Justin & Britni, and another couple - Chad & Melissa (Chad is a good friend of Rob & Justin's from Pharmacy School @ Auburn) who were in town for the weekend. This made my day...did I mention it is my favorite restaurant in Mobile? But now I didn't have any time to go to the gym since I also needed to go to the mall and buy some more clothes that actually fit me. Until recently I was still able to wear some of my "regular" clothes, but I have now graduated and am fully in maternity clothes now :(

Anyway, dinner was excellent and we had a great time with our friends.While at the mall I also picked up this adorable Auburn baby gift set (t-shirt & bloomers) for our little man for Rob's Father's Day gift. Now our little one can be decked out when they watch the Auburn/Alabama game together!

In other news....we painted the nursery (pictures to come) last week. We did a light blue above the chair rail and a brown on the bottom. I'm not used to seeing so much color in that room, but I think it will grow on me. It also looks funny because we've still got the double bed set up in there to be used as a guest room. The crib also arrived from the Land of Nod and let's just say I'm not that impressed :( The first one they sent us had a broken side rail, so I called and they sent a new one. It's now fixed and I like the Jenny Lind style (I was going for a vintage

 theme), however, it doesn't seem as sturdy as I'd like it to. We plan on using the same crib for every child we have (3 or4) and I'm concerned about the quality. We found a great baby store here in town that we found a dresser/hutch piece and upholstered glider that we plan on ordering and they also sell an incredibly sturdy crib that matches the dresser/hutch which we're considering purchasing and sending this other crib back. The problem is that this new crib is $700! That's nearly double what the LON one cost. And it's not the style that I wanted, however, it is still beautiful - and like I said incredibly sturdy. Now, I'm not sure what to do :( I'll update you later when we decide.

Here's a picture of the new one we're considering

Oh and here's an updated picture of my baby belly, taken last week at 21 weeks (please ignore my dirty painting clothes!)

Well, I'm off - I've got a monstrous cleaning to do list for this afternoon that I've been putting off for too long. Our house is a mess!