Dear Family and Friends,
2023 also began with two fun secrets-I was pregnant, and I had a huge frozen waffle obsession. Perhaps those two secrets are really only one since the frozen waffles were just a pregnancy craving, but the joy I felt after getting home after a long day and popping two frozen waffles into the toaster as a pre-dinner snack was unmatched. I purchased a jumbo box of them so it would last me for weeks. On the third meal of waffles I promptly decided they were disgusting and I would never be eating them again, and the mostly full box sat in our freezer for the rest of the year, untouched. That did not stop my increasing appetite, though. While many women spend their first trimester barely able to stomach anything, I was unceasingly starving. My backpack I brought to work became my portable pantry, and Tyler and I discussed the possibility of me making a career change to a professional eater.
The next months were filled with lots of preparation for the baby-figuring out what we needed to buy, attending showers hosted by incredible friends and family, picking out a name for our son, and me asking Google on a scale from one to ten how weird my name ideas were. In the evening a week before my due date, I started feeling a lot of intense back pains which I insisted were not contractions, which of course actually were. Tyler and I left the house around 10:30 pm to head to the hospital, and we were just a few minutes away from the hospital when we heard we ran over something. I laughed and talked to Tyler about how crazy it would be if we actually got a flat tire on the way to the hospital. I did not have to imagine what that would be like for very long, as 30 seconds later Tyler pulled our car over, opened the door, and heard air rushing out of the rear tire.
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While I hadn’t really written out a formal birth plan before labor
started, Tyler and I had discussed months previous that the birth plan was to simply to arrive at the hospital, get pain medication as soon as possible, and have the baby. We had even driven to the hospital as a trial run so we knew where to park and check in. One of my favorite moments of the evening was as we pulled over and realized there was no way to drive the rest of the way to the hospital on the quickly deflating tire, and Tyler quickly saying, “This was not part of the birth plan!!!” The next hour and a half was full of calls to family, timing contractions that were four minutes apart, and a mix of laughing and disbelief that this was actually happening. Luckily my awesome father-in-law came to help Tyler change the tire and we eventually checked into the hospital right at midnight. Fortunately the rest of my labor was fairly uneventful, and Cameron arrived later the next day.
We are so lucky to have Cameron, and he is so calm and fun. Tyler and I agree that he is exactly what our family needs. The following months after his birth have been spent feeding, taking thousands of pictures, and learning how weird babies are. My baby’s skin is shedding and I’ve wondered if I accidentally birthed a reptile? Normal. My baby has a soft spot on his head that vibrates up and down to the tempo of Stayin’ Alive? Also normal. He is perfect in every way and we are so happy he is ours. While we wouldn’t mind if he would sleep in just a little longer, there is no better noise to wake up to in the morning than him throwing both his legs down into his bassinet like a ground pound in a video game and shrieking happily.
This year we have had so much support and love from family and friends and we feel truly grateful for you.
Merry Christmas!
Love,
The Neeleys
