Tiny but Mighty

Camberlyn is 3 weeks old today, I can't believe it! She is so fun and wonderful, we are loving all the changes we see in  her each day. We tell her that she is tiny but mighty; at three weeks old she has grown a lot, gained a whole pound and grown 3 inches, but she is still just barely fitting into her newborn clothes so she is still tiny. that being said, she has started holding her head up really well ( the doctor said she is doing incredibly well for her age), if you hold her up she will use her legs to stand, and as of yesterday she has learned how to make happy little squeaky noises when she is playing. She has been able to smile since the day she was born and on a couple occasions we have caught her giggling. Tiny but Mighty :)

Every day with her is a blessing, she gives us perspective on what life is about, and what a gift living is.

Camberlyn Elizabeth Barney, here at last

She is finally here! On February 1st, 2012 at 11:49am Camberlyn Elizabeth Barney entered the world.

A few days before I had begun to think that she would never get here, which I think is probably normal when you reach the end of pregnancy, but it was hard to believe she was ever coming. On Tuesday the 31st I had reached my official due date and I was ready to be done with pregnancy and see my baby, and so I started walking. I walked up and down the stairs, all around the house, my mom and I walked down to the park and did a few laps, then came home and started again. By mid afternoon I was starting to get pretty regular Braxton Hicks contractions which just fueled the fire, so made sure to keep walking, standing, swaying....pretty much anything but sitting.
When Brynt got home from work, things were looking pretty good, my contractions were 6 mins apart and right on the boarder between very uncomfortable and painful. My mom suggested that we go out to dinner since it may be the last one we get alone for quite awhile. In the car we were trying to decide where would be good to eat, and then I got a really painful contraction (well at the time I thought it was painful). Brynt said jokingly, "should we get fast food?" , to which I replied " Well I think a long sit down dinner is out of the question". We ended up going to a cute little sandwich shop called Gator Jack's. The food was great, but contractions made it a little bit hard to enjoy.
When we got home we started the longest waiting game of my life. I labored at home till around 2am and then we headed up to the hospital because the contractions where getting very strong and were about 4mins apart. They checked me and said I was at about 3cm, so my options were to stay there and walk to see if I could make some progress or go home and labor there for a while longer... I chose home.The next couple of hours were long and hard, I took a nice bath and that helped a ton. at around 5am I felt like if I stayed home any longer, I might not be able to get up and go to the hospital, so once again we all got in the car and headed to Labor and Delivery. I cannot tell you how thankful I am that we literally live a block and a half from the hospital, that was miserable car ride and I am so glad it was over quickly. 
When they checked me the second time I was at 5cm and they said that was good enough to admit me. Now to be completely honest the next 6 or so hours were a blur. I had decided at the beginning of my pregnancy that I didn't want any medication ( unless it was needed), so I got to feel all the pains of labor. It was by far the hardest thing I have ever done, but that being said, I am very glad I chose that rout and if I had it to do over again I would still choose to go un-medicated. I am so grateful for my awesome husband who held my hand the whole time, reminded me to breath through the contractions and told me over and over that I could do it. I am also thankful that my mom was there the whole time, no matter how old you get, it always makes things easier when your mom is there to support you. My midwives were awesome, one of them was always there with making sure I and the baby were ok, and making sure I knew all of the different options I had (including sitting in the jacuzzi tub, which help IMMENSELY).
Like I said before, it was all kind of a blur, and I don't remember specific details until it came to the baby's delivery. That is an incredible feeling, one moment I was so tiered I honestly thought that I had nothing left and couldn't possibly go on, and the next I was holding my sweet baby girl and Brynt and I were crying with joy. All the pain was completely gone and replaced with an overwhelming sense of elation and excitement, I  have never felt anything like it in my life.
We had to stay an extra day at the hospital because Camberlyn had a high bilirubin count, but with the help of the "baby tanning booth" it went down and we were able take her home on Friday night.
Its been a week since she was born and I can't believe how much joy
she has brought to us already. Brynt can't get enough of her, the second he gets home he picks her up and has her with him where ever he goes. My mom has been soaking up every moment of being a Grandma, she loves this little girl. Aunt Baylee is over all the time so she can play with "Cambee". Camberlyn also gets to Skype with her family that is far away, we are so grateful for modern technology, it makes long distances a little easier.
As for me, I love being a mom, my heart is so full, I feel incredibly blessed and I am so looking forward to all of the adventures this amazing little person will bring into our lives.

The final days

So this morning I leaned over to Brynt and said "this time next month we will be parents". I am just about 38 weeks now so we have reached the final count down, She will be here soon!

There were some ups and downs during week 36 (I blame my crazy pregnancy hormones for it). I started having mini panic attacks, freaking out that things wouldn't get done, that I wont be able to keep up with school ( I am taking pathophysiology online this semester), that I don't know enough about having a new born.........the list goes on and on. After a few small melt downs, and lots of loving hugs from my sweet husband, I am now feeling much better.
Today I feel so blessed and excited, I know she will be here soon and I can't wait. I am so excited to see what she looks like, what she acts like, I want to hold and get to know who this little person is!

I know that things are going change greatly, and I can't wait. I can't wait to meet my little Camberlyn!

Getting ready for Christmas

Making Sugar Cookies

Our tree! that is a top hat on top :)

So we have been getting ready for Christmas here in Idaho, and its been lovely! I love Christmas, SO much. There will be one big thing missing from Christmas this year and its Family. We can't go home because its just to close to my due date, so we are staying here. It makes me sad because I have never not spent Christmas with my family and that is going to be really really hard. But, in a little way I am excited to spend Christmas just me and Brynt. We have grown so much as a couple being far away from family and I treasure all the special moments we get to have together. So in a way this Christmas is the cherry on top of our first year of marriage sundae. And the next year is sure to be full of adventure with the arrival of Camberlyn to  start things off :)

Up all night....

So, funny story. The other night I woke up around 3 in the morning because I was hot ( a common thing now a days), I went down stairs and turned down the thermostat and then got back in bed. Well apparently that was enough to wake up the baby. She started kicking, and rolling over, and giving little punches.... at one point I'm pretty sure she had the hiccups too. No matter how I tried to lay, there was no escaping her, or getting back to sleep.  So I decided that I would get up and walk around and see if the motion of me walking would get her to sleep ( or at least chill out a bit). At 4 in the morning I was walking aimlessly around my house, avoiding our bedroom so that Brynt could sleep. After a good 20 minutes of walking and swaying, she seemed to be resting so I decided to head back to bed. It had worked! My stomach no longer looked like it had popcorn popping inside of it and I was excited that my plan had turned out so well. BUT........... I had been walking around for 20 minutes and was now wide awake. So I lay there for a long time trying to will myself back to sleep, when all of the sudden, guess who is awake? Yes, the baby. After her power nap she was ready to start dancing again. So at 5:15 am, I threw in the towel and got up. I cleaned the kitchen, tidied up the living room and read a book...... meanwhile thinking about how this little girl isn't even here yet and she is managing to keep me awake all night :)

In other news...... Brynt and I celebrated our one year anniversary on the 6th!

I can't believe that a year has gone by so fast, but so much has happened and it has been wonderful! More than ever I have realized that Brynt is my best friend, I can't imagine my life without him. The blessings have been more than I could have ever imagined. I am so grateful for the incredible man that Brynt is and for the person I am because of him.

I look forward to the future, there are MANY adventures ahead of us and I can't wait to face them together!

Baby on the Brain

Well the last few weeks have been a fun new chapter in pregnancy. First off, about three weeks ago I was able to start feeling the baby moving! Woo Hoo, was that ever exciting!
Secondly we went to my 20 week ultrasound and found out that this little one is a GIRL!
We are So happy and excited! It was great to see her little face and how she moves around in there, we loved it :)
Soon after the ultrasound, Brynt got to feel her moving for the first, which was such a neat thing for him.
Now that I know what we are having I have been able to really start planning how I want to do her room and stuff like that. We decided that we wanted to do pictures of all different great children's characters, So for the past little while I have been tracing and drawing lots of different pictures of our favorite characters. After I drew the pictures I found a bunch of picture frames for them, I painted all the frames different colors to bring some life to the room since we aren't aloud to paint the walls. Needless to say, I have been having lots of fun being crafty lately! Below are a couple of my favorites, but there are quite a few more :)

So its been a while!

It has been a while since I have posted anything but now its time to do some catching up....
Last month Brynt and I had the chance to go home to AZ for a week, what a blessing! it was so wonderful to spend time with both of our families, who totally rock by the way.

A week is never long enough but we are definitely grateful for the time we had, we enjoyed every second of it.
Since we have gotten back I have been packing for our move to the new apartment, to say I am excited about it would be an understatement. I can't wait to move! we get the keys this Wednesday, woo hoo! This apartment has been great for us to start out in, but we are ready for something a little bigger and a much less crowded area. The other thing that I am especially looking forward to is the extra room we will have so we can start getting ready for the baby, yay!
In baby news.........

This is my bumb, that I love :) I am now 17 weeks along and the pregnancy is going wonderfully. At the last Midwife appointment things are looking great, and we have set an appointment to find out the gender....September 14th! I can't wait, mostly because I want to start making stuff and decorating so I want to know what color to make everything :)
This last Saturday, Brynt took me to Yellowstone for the day, we had such a great time!

It was a beautiful day there, so we really got to enjoy all the gorgeous scenery.

We saw some elk, deer and a buffalo while we there, not bad for just a couple of hours :) Brynt was really hoping to see a bear but no such luck. Fortunately for us, Yellowstone is only about an hour from Rexburg so I am sure this will not be our only visit :)
Well I have some more packing to do!