Growing Up

There has been a lot of growing up going on around here lately... for all of us.

Saturday was Cameron's 1 month birthday. I can't believe that he is already a month old. I know that I am literally attached to him all the time, but I still feel like I've missed so much. With Luke I had ample time to just sit and stare at him and take a million pictures. I'm still enjoying Cameron as much as possible but our time is often interrupted with other demands. He is a sweet baby but I can already tell that he has a passionate streak in him. He can go from fussy to all-out screaming in 2 seconds flat. People always tell me he looks just like Luke. I see that too, but I think he has more Stacey in him. Especially his deep, intense eyes....we have staring contests all the time.

Here is Luke when he was about the same age:

Cameron:

What do you think?

10 pounds 4 ounces and counting... (only a mother could think that these are clearly 3 very different photos)

Luke has been growing up too. He LOVES Cameron and is very attentive to his needs. As much as he loves his baby brother, I can tell that this is an adjustment for him too. For the past 9 months I have been in survival mode and, because of that, Luke has pretty much had his way. However, now it's time to put order back into our lives. We've started instituting some rules and have tried to be very consistent even when it is SO HARD and I just want to give in and take the easy way out.

This is the face that Luke makes when you tell him to smile :)

We did have a major breakthrough this week. One of our new rules is that Luke has to eat at least one bite of his meal (my friend had this rule growing up and they called it the "gratitude bite"... I like that). You must know that Luke is a TERRIBLE eater and almost never eats what we are eating. We are hoping that this is a baby step towards getting him to eat only what we are eating. The first few meals were an all out battle. There were repeated time-outs and many tears (from Luke) as I kept repeating to him that he needed to take at least one bite before he could play or eat something else. Ultimately he took a bite but they were always foods that he usually eats anyway.

The real test was on Thursday night when we had chicken pot pie...something he had never tried before. I was dreading the enforcement of our rule. Surprisingly after only about 5 minutes of protest, he broke off the tiniest piece of the crust and put it in his mouth. VICTORY! I actually was a little embarrassed at how happy I was. I mean, seriously?! He chose the most nutrient-empty part of the meal and the piece was practically microscopic.

Here is an example of how big it was with a cheerio as a reference point. You may think I'm pathetic but I have never felt so victorious. I won! Oh yes, we're definitely growing up around here.

Luke's favorite book of the moment. We read it several times a day.

I'm also doing some growing up too. The Friday after Cameron was born, we came home from the hospital and by dinner time I was completely overwhelmed with our family of four. My mother-in-law had cooked a great dinner and we all sat down at the table. Luke started crying because he wanted to eat suckers for dinner instead. I looked over at Luke and realized that I had no clue what he had been doing for the past several days while I was in the hospital. Something triggered in me (probably hormones) and I realized that my life (and specifically my life with Luke) would never be the same. His whole childhood flashed before my eyes and for a moment I missed it all so much. So I started crying. I don't mean "teary-eyed"... I mean "trying desperately to keep breathing" type of crying. Andrew sat between us, looking at Luke on one side crying about his suckers and me on the other, crying about who knows what...I'm pretty sure he wanted to throw himself out a window at that very moment :).

Needless to say... Luke got his sucker. I don't think I'll ever forget that moment. I had to let go of the old and move on to our new family of four. Hormones always makes that a little more dramatic than it needs to be. However, the fear of what the future would hold only lasted a moment. Everything has turned out great. Everyone grew up a little and is adjusting to new responsibilities. I have felt so grateful to my Heavenly Father because I know that He gives us the extra strength and abilities we need to rise to new occasions in our lives. He always knows how to calm me down and give me, bit by bit, the new game plan I need to tackle the challenge of the moment.

This whole growing up thing is better than I thought it would be.

Still Pregnant

I thought I had the baby, but apparently he wants to pretend he is still in my belly. This is the only way I can do anything during the day and at night he sleeps next to me in the crook of my elbow. I never thought I would be a "co-sleeper" but after two nights of NOT A SINGLE WINK OF SLEEP, I quickly converted. Now I'm a believer. I love snuggling up to this big lug! I try to keep a good 3-5 inches between us when we sleep but he always body rolls his way over to me like a little inch worm.

I'm not looking forward to the day when I have to break it to Cam that he needs to sleep in his own bed. But if Andrew thought a queen bed was too small for the two of us, he surely isn't going to think it's big enough for the three of us. Our snuggling days are numbered...

Remind me when we move...

...to look for a place with a garage or at least covered parking.

If I laugh and say that it's "no big deal," make me watch this video.

Thanks.

My entire car was covered in about 1/4 inch of thick ice. Took 1/2 hour to get the windows clear.

I stole these pictures from my friend's blog so you can get a better idea of the ice world we're living in here in Ohio (hope you don't mind Heather :)).

Moving to Ann Arbor in 2012

I was pretty sure that no one was going to understand Andrew's picture. Lets just say that some people really took Lebron James betrayal to heart and still make weekly references to his infamous press conference.

If you don't know how matching into a residency works...allow me to explain (forgive me, this is not very good writing but my mind is working off much less sleep than normal).

First, apply to tons of schools with residency programs in your desired field (ours was Ophthalmology... eye surgery). The number of schools you should apply to varies but the more competitive the field, the more applications to send out. We applied to about 70.

Next, wait for interview offers. This is agonizing. Each program only has between 2-7 spots to fill and you always wonder why a certain program offers an interview while another program does not. There doesn't seem to be any distinguishable pattern to the process. Also, many interview offers are for the same day making it necessary to choose which one to go to and which ones to drop. Again, agonizing. It is especially fun when there are two interviews back to back on different sides of the United States. Andrew probably spent at least 5 nights sleeping on the floor of an airport.

Next, spend thousands of dollars flying to interviews all around the country (by the way, thanks to all those who let Andrew crash on their couch :)). After each interview, call your wife and tell her how it is the coolest university with the best faculty on the planet and it might be your new number one. She will promptly remind you that you have said the same thing about all the other programs. Become very confused about where you want to end up and what your real priorities are.

We ended up with 14 interviews which we ranked (if you know Andrew and I, you know that coming up with a rank list took us HOURS and HOURS of contemplation and debate to complete).

Each program also ranks the candidates they interviewed and submits that list.

Then the MATCH (a mysterious third party) takes all these rankings and puts them into a statistical algorithm that works some mathematical magic and spits out the best match for each candidate (theoretically this should be the highest program on your rank list that liked you the best as well). Make sense?

What all this means is that last week, our future was decided by a statistical algorithm. Scary. I didn't know whether to be relieved that we didn't have to make the final decision or frustrated that so much was out of our hands. Still, it has been a busy few months. We finalized our rank list and submitted it the day after Cameron was born (while we were still in the hospital). Then last Thursday we got the phone call...

In 2012, we'll be going to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

How do we feel about this? I think I can safely reveal that the University of Michigan was very high on our list and Andrew literally became tongue-tied when he found out (Andrew is rarely ever caught speechless). I'm excited for a new adventure (even if it will be a cold one). We probably won't move until the summer of 2012 but we don't find out about our match for intern year (2011) until March (confusing I know...welcome to med school). It is SO nice to finally have somewhat of a plan for the next 4 years.

We Gonna Take Our Talents...

To Ann Arbor, MI (in 2012, explanation to follow.)

New Arrival

I made it sound like the birth story of our little Cam is full of dramatic details, but really its just your typical birth story without even the drama of naturally going into labor. If you want to read a really dramatic birth story, you should read this one instead (courtesy of a former roommate).

This time around, we decided to schedule an induction which made it much less stressful to plan for Luke's care and make sure Andrew would be available, etc. I felt good about the decision but it was so weird to drive to the hospital and feel perfectly fine. Even weirder to change into the gown, get an IV, and play games on Andrew's itouch, all while feeling no pain at all. They kept bringing forms for me to sign, etc and I vaguely remembered having to sign the same forms with Luke only I was screaming in pain and extremely annoyed that they were pushing me paperwork.

They waited until the petocin made me feel a few very light contractions and then I got the epidural. Ah, epidurals! I could never say a single negative thing about them. They are just pure heaven. I am always a little jealous when I hear women talk about their wonderful experiences with natural childbirth. I am totally convinced that it is a great experience for many women and one that I sincerely wish I could try sometime. But after getting that epidural I was reminded that I will never be an natural childbirther. Maybe its my personality, pain tolerance threshold, or tendency towards extreme sassyness when I'm uncomfortable, but drugs are the only way for me to enjoy the experience.

Of course, that part didn't last forever and eventually I did feel what they so carefully call, "pressure". You can guess the rest although I will say that it took much longer than expected to push this little guy out. When he finally did come, the doctor said something like, "Whoa, that's a big baby! Didn't expect that!" I opened my eyes and was pretty shocked as well. Luke was only 7 lbs 5 oz and broke my tailbone, so I was happy to walk away with a only few stitches.

We had a long list of names that we liked and each day we tried to widdle it down a little. Once again we were filling out the paperwork as they were kicking us out the hospital doors. I don't know why names are so hard for us to commit to. I never thought I would name one of my children Cameron. It was never on any "baby name list" that I ever made. But a few months back when we had the ultrasound (to find out the gender) Andrew said afterwards that when he saw the baby up on the screen he just couldn't stop thinking that his name was Cameron. We entertained many possibilities since that time but I think we both kind of thought that would end up being his name in the end. He definitely looks like a Cameron to me. Reese is a family name on both our sides (but it's spelled Reese in my family and Reece in Andrews....so don't think we're related or anything :).

Each day we are getting to know this little guy better and better. For instance, I recently discovered that he can sleep much longer with me cuddling up beside him, he hates baths and diaper changes (really I think he hates the cold like his mama), and the key to his heart is lots and lots of food. I can't even physically keep up with the amount of milk it takes to keep this little guy happy.

Luke is handling all the change in his life very gracefully. He likes the baby but doesn't really pay much attention to him for the most part. However, he does insist on watching the same Little Einsteins DVD all day (which we give into) and he has been carrying around this beat up plastic tube full of suckers and other random stuff wherever he goes....whatever makes him happy for right now. He is a funny kid.

We are having some real baby pictures taken next week but in the meantime, here are a few more:

I've decided that some women look great after they give birth and others just don't...no matter how much makeup they put on. I'm of the latter half. SWOLLEN.

Baby Cameron brought a gift for Luke which he LOVED. What a smart baby!

Our Little Nine Pounder

Introducing....

Cameron Reese Stacey

January 5, 2011

9 lbs 22 inches

Future Linebacker

We are doing great. Stay tuned for all the juicy details...