Cameron: One Month

{I can't believe mom is making me take these pictures!}

Stats: 9 lb. 6 oz. I believe were going to have a chunker on our hands :)  50th percentile! 21 3/4 inches long 60th percentile

Firsts: Basically everything he does is a first (which is very fun!). We got to see his first smile! He took his first sponge and regular bath! Went to his first doctor appointment! Met family! Stayed at Pops and Cece's without Mom and Dad! Trip to Huntsville! First basketball game!

Milestones: Umbilical cord stump fell off, sleeping in your bed for nap, outgrowing newborn footie outfits, sometimes following things with your eyes- when you want to!

Food: We are breastfeeding and boy have we made progress since our first few days. We still both get frustrated sometimes! You are a pretty slow eater, taking around 45 min every 2 hours in the day and only waking up once around 3:30 at night. When you are well fed you are a happy little boy. Mom gets most frustrated when you fall asleep while eating! I try to tickle your feet to wake you up! So far I'm not feeling that wonderful bond through breastfeeding, but I assume as we both get better at it I may enjoy it more!

Sleep: For the first four weeks we let you be in control of everything, I fed you when you were hungry and we let you sleep when and wherever you wanted. When you hit four weeks, we decided to try getting some kind of little tiny schedule-ish thing going on.

Our days: A consistent schedule would be a joke, but this is what we typically do and what we are striving for. You wake up around 7:30 and eat. You are super content and chill after this and we usually lay around in bed and take a nap around 9 till 10:30. You are awake till around 1 and you sleep in your bed for a two hour nap. After that we hang out till you get tired, usually around 6. Then you are up till bed time pretty much which is at 11 or so. You usually wake up around 3:30 to 4:15 and then are asleep till 7:30. We are working on getting some more sleepy time in there. You are awake a lot!

Favorites: Mommy loves when you show us a big smile or make your birdie sounds! Daddy loves when you just relax and chill on his belly.

Nicknames: Cam, CamMan, Birdie

Photos of your first month:

Our 2nd night in the hospital. Little did we even know then how much this little guy was going to change everything!

First sponge bath!

Wearing a "First Christmas" outfit to celebrate with the Watfords the day after we got out of the hospital!

Survived our first photo shoot- Newborn photos!

Big yawns when I'm sleepy!

Sporting my Under Armour sweatband from Uncle Blake!

Our first trip to the grocery store!

I've done really well at the doctors office so far! I was wide awake for my 2 week appointment!

Sleeping on daddy on a Saturday morning! {One of Mommy's favorite pictures}

I love to get snuggly in my cozy swing!

Hanging with Pappy watching Coach Malzahn on the ipad!

After Daddy's basketball game!

Nursery Reveal.

I hate that I couldn't get this posted before Cameron came, but we had some issues with our rocking chair. It originally took forever to come in... then it was the wrong color when it finally did come in. So, we got the right one about a week after Cameron arrived- so happy to have it now!

My original concept for his nursery was grey and white. I knew I wanted to atleast make the bedding useable for a baby girl (if that's in our future). So I thought, for my CamMan we can do grey/white with orange and if a girl ever comes along we will switch out the orange for a pink or yellow.

Let me tell you... I LOVE how it turned out. Can I post it all over pinterest and be repinned millions of times?! Haha, I'm thinking crazy here... but that is how much I love it!

We knew originally we would have a space issue. We wanted to incorporate a single bed for our house guests, and since we had little space we decided to take the closet doors off and use that in our space. It is more "full" then I would prefer but we are working with what we have!

*Thanks to everyone that helped with our nursery. My dad made the door headboard! Aunt Susan made the crib bumper and skirt! Mammaw made the throw pillows and crib sheet! Jeanna made the wreath (that we also used at the hospital)! Katherine made the CAMERON banner! Meagan made the BoyOhBoy banner! And Nan & Daddy Butch, Pappy & Gigi, and Pops & Cece for the crib, dresser, and rocker!

Cameron's birth story.

 On Christmas night we crawled in to bed hoping to get a few hours of sleep... but as we closed our eyes all we could think about was that this was the last night we would sleep in our apartment as a family of two. It wasn't a sad feeling in the slightest, it was an anxious, excited, nervous feeling. Hubby and I were about to become parents. 

I think I may have gotten two or three hours of sleep before my alarm went off at 4:30 am. I had to shower, straighten my hair, and get all pretty before heading to the hospital for delivery! My nerves were high, but my excitement was even higher!!

{Our last picture before heading to the hospital!}

We headed to Brookwood and carried all of our bags and went up to the third floor: Labor and Delivery floor. I signed in at the front desk at 6:00 am and they quickly took us to our room. The room our baby boy would be born in. 

First things first, I got that gown on and hopped in the bed. Our nurse put my IV in and I was ready to get started! She told me Dr. Adcock would be there sometime before 7:00 to check me and get the pitocin started! He got there around 6:45 and he said I really was starting at 1 cm and atleast 50% effacement. I thought, oh gosh, a set back from the start- we thought I was beginning at 2 cm and 70% effacement! But nonetheless we were ready to get everything going and progressing!

By 8:30 or so the contractions had really picked up and I was starting to feel uncomfortable. My nurse told me that I could get some pain meds through my IV before receiving my epidural- I was pumped for that!

By 9:30 I was convincing myself to hold out til 10 am to get the epidural. {I thought that 4 cm was the magic number but I learned that isn't so}. I was SO ready to get my meds but was trying to hold off because they were telling me that it could potentially slow down my progress- you just never know! People who go natural are amazingggg. I have no clue how they survive that!

So right after 10 am I received my epidural. I was a little scared before the whole process about getting this- I was so scared it would hurt. Um, no... it's amazing. Best drugs everrrr. I felt the bee sting numbing shot and thats it. Yes please. After a few minutes I was feeling good and ready to have this baby. Thankfully, after getting it I actually started progressing even faster. By 1 oclock pm I was complete and ready to push.

{The last picture of our family of two}

Before starting to push the family got to come and say good luck- which was so very comforting. Mom, dad, Liz, Wade, Amy, Tatum, Blake, Katherine, Caroline, Grandaddy and Grandmother all came to see us! By this point I was feeling a lot of pressure and ready to get it all done!

I pushed with the nurse for about 15 to 20 minutes before she called Dr. Adcock in. She was already seeing Cameron's head by then! When Dr. Adcock got there I pushed through 3 more contractions and Cameron was born!! We had a little scare- atleast for us uneducated people- when Cameron was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck two times. After he came out the cut the cord from around him and set him on me- at that point he wasn't breathing and his lips were blue... so immediately the tears came. Right after about 10 people rushed in and helped him get a jump start- as they were calling it. Once they had him going I got to hold my sweet baby boy. He was precious.

And content. And amazing. And ours. Cameron Martin Watford. My son.

After getting cleaned up in the labor & delivery room and feeding Cameron for the first time we went up to the postpartum floor to get ready and welcome our family to meet Cameron! The nurse went over some hospital info and then finally our family came to meet our son. The nurse gave him a bath and everybody watched and took tons of pictures!

{Our little family of three!}

Our hospital stay: We had a nice time in the hospital but were definitely ready to head home when they gave us the green flag. Matthew and I loaded up and headed home on Friday the 28th. Cameron did great- he loves to ride in the car!

{Our handsome little guy ready to go home for the first time!}

Favorite 10 of 2012.

#10 Moving to a new apartment in August! When we found out we were adding another member to our family we knew we would have to get a bigger place! The Lord provided the exact place I wanted to move into originally when we moved to Birmingham! It was a process of a move, but so perfect for us!

#9 Getting to stay at home! I finished working at Pinnacle on November 30th. Although that day was bitter sweet, it has been wonderful every since! It was fantastic to be able to have a month to prepare and rest before Cameron came! It's just a tremendous blessing to be able to stay at home and I'm so thankful!!

#8 Making new friends! One specific prayer I had was that we would find a core group of Christian couples to consider some of our closest friends in Birmingham. Of course the Lord provided through our Sunday School class at Shades! We are so thankful for the relationships that have grown strong over this past year! Looking forward to many more!

#7 Our family was extremely blessed when Matthew was offered an accounting position with Colonial Property Trust in October! Because of this job change I am able to stay home with Cameron! Matthew has enjoyed learning another side of accounting and getting to know some new folks!!

#6 Thanksgiving with all the Watfords in November! It was so wonderful to have EVERYONE together! Since Tucker was just born a little before we all headed to Nashville to stay with Brandon and Meaghan! It was some great family time!!

#5 Thaxton family beach trip in June! We had so much fun all being together and not having an agenda :) We were hoping Caroline would make an early debut... but she didn't! Love all these people so much!!

#4 Traveling to Israel with our Sunday School class in July. It truly was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity we were so blessed to experience. It was amazing to serve the people in Israel, but also have the chance to actually walk where Jesus walked! We read and understand the Bible differently now.

#3 New additions to the family (besides our bundle of joy!)
Caroline Grace Thaxton was born to my sweet brother and SIL, Blake & Katherine in June! Tucker Brandon Odom was born to my sweet SIL and BIL, Meaghan & Brandon in November. And my sweet cousin Robyn married the love of her life, Greg Abernathy, in August! And just recently Matthew's cousin, Courtney, married her main-man Ryan (Sadly we were unable to attend due to Cameron entering our life!)

#2 Our one year anniversary in May. Yes, I survived one wonderful year with my sweet sweet hubby. Unfortunately I was a little sickish with just finding out I was pregnant so dinner and such wasn't SO magical but it was still so wonderful! Excited for many many years to come :)

#1 Cameron Martin Watford. The biggest blessing of all even if he came only a few days before 2013. We are just eating him up and adjusting to our new life.

Just like 2011, God was so good to us in 2012. And we look forward to 2013 with anticipation!!