A Birth Story

I have a wonderful birth story to tell!  It was really the most perfect delivery in every way.  Friday afternoon I had my 39 week appointment.  You know you're a spectacle when even the OB nurses gather around to see your belly every week.  I'd been begging for an induction for weeks and told my doctor if I didn't have a baby by the time my mom got here on the 5th, she'd break my water for me.   I went home pretty optimistic as contractions were getting a little rough.  Me and Link almost missed getting off at our subway station because I was in the middle of a contraction at our stop.  As soon as Jason got home we started timing them at 6 minutes apart.  As they got more intense and closer together, I figured this was it!  We put Lincoln to bed and called over some friends to babysit (thank you Jenn & Devin!).  We checked in the hospital at 8pm and I was measuring 7 cm!  I was insistent about getting my epidural, which leads you to this MUCH happier version of laboring Camille:

 We chilled until around 12:15am when the doctor broke my water.  When the nurse came back an hour later, I told her it felt like his head was right there.  She looked and exclaimed that she could see a head!  I laughed for Jason to come over and his entire head came out!  With a few more laughs, the baby fell right into the nurse's arms at 1:17am!

 

 And Parley Dean Millar was born with hardly a wimper.  He instantly cuddled up and calmed down on my belly.  ("Dean" is for my Dad, Robert Dean)

 I kept thinking, "What just happened?!"

 8 lbs. 1 oz. and 21 inches.  I can already sense some brother rivalry, seeing as they both wanted to be here 6 days early.  If Parley couldn't be heavier than his brother at birth (8lbs. 10 oz. and 20 inches), he'd atleast be an inch taller.

 This baby is just a sweetheart.  We haven't heard him cry more than 10 minutes in the last 3 days combined.  I figured he'd be a much calmer baby by how he behaved in the womb.

 Proud Daddy!  You're my steady!

 Thoroughly enjoying his first visit to the spa.

 We have CHILDREN!

 Lincoln is understanding whats going on a little more every day and I think he'll be just fine.  

He looooves to push Parley in his baby swing.  We'll keep an eye on that one :)

 Jason thinks he looks just like my baby picture!  Could it be!?  

I was sure all our children would be mini-Jasons.  I'd love one of my own!

I feel so blessed and SO HAPPY to mother a newborn again.  I love the opportunity I have to be a mother and I'm so excited to have this new little person join our family!

Fire Station Visitation

 We visited the Cambridge Fire Station for play group this week!  The firemen were so great to let all the toddlers climb in and out and all over their truck.  They must have laughed at our group of roughly 10 moms and half of us hugely pregnant.

Tales of a Seamstress

I continue to get a lot of sewing jobs that occupy my evenings, and I'd post pictures and tell stories, but they're just so ordinary: replacing trouser zippers, shortening sleeves, taking in temple dresses, etc. Though this week I got to replicate a bridesmaids dress into a different color and sew up 14 tunic/cover-ups for a girl in NYC who wants to start her own business! Small and simple these jobs may be, but I've raked in over $1,500 in the last six months!

But once a year, PROM rolls around and I get to make something lovely! This was for Nancy, and we designed this one together. I was secretly thrilled when she chose purple because the last 5 prom dresses I've made have been shades of blue. Plus, this color totally reminded me of making my own deep purple Junior Prom dress.  I think I even pulled out the same spool of thread from 9 years ago.

 Here are the Mormon girls with my adorably polka-dotted sister Janae, + friends

(I also made the navy blue dress two years ago--its fun to see the modest dresses being passed around each year)

I'm trying to turn down jobs for the next few weeks, just to give myself time to adjust to mothering two, (and in June I have another Capt. Hook enthusiast wanting a costume!) so until baby comes, I get to do some "selfish sewing" :) I've sewed up Jason's and Lincoln's Halloween outfits, made another nursing cover, another vinyl changing table mat, and will try to make a little romper for #2 tonight for our family pictures sometime this summer!

37 Weeks

My Manly 18-Monther

 18 Months Old!  What a little man!

Oh Hoppy Day

 Happy Easter!  We loved dying eggs this year with kool-aid (some turned out less spectacular than others), making an Easter egg banner out of paint samples, and went to the Primary Easter egg hunt!  Guess who's old enough for nursery!? 

 I just can't get enough of these gorgeous flowers right outside our windows! 

The lovely pink ones fill our kitchen windows, and the green buds fill our living room windows.  

Oh how I love Boston in the Spring!

Lincoln Lately

 Oh how I love this boy!  We love our daytime adventures together, and we're loving the nicer weather that lets us explore the playgrounds around here!  Its a whole different world this Spring, being able to run around!  He'll stay all day if I let him, and will run around making the sign for "more, more more".

  Linkers used to keep getting stuck in our desk chair and would push himself around and bump into things like this.  Pretty funny.   He's VERY attached to this blanket, and won't sleep without it.  

Nevermind the mismatched clothes.  When we don't go out, we kind of just wear whats clean around here.

 L loves to climb and crawl over and under everything!  I made him a little playhouse to throw over our kitchen table, and he loves it!  Its quite possibly the ugliest thing I've ever put together, but I figured I'd spend an hour of time and just use the scraps I had lying around then see if he actually likes it.  One day I'll make a super cute one.

 Look at those eyebrows!  They're crazy!  They're not mine or Jason's.  They actually look a lot like his Uncle Travis's :)

Sometimes he gets in a fit and doesn't want anything to eat except for, say, ketchup.  Or this raw potato.  Whatever, crazy kid.  Well Dude, lets make the most of this last month of exclusive one-on-one time together!