We were obviously so excited to be expecting a baby! We have friends who still remember how excited Brian was to share a recording of the first time we heard the baby's heartbeat. Pat Hembree, our Sunday school teacher, had asked for prayer requests and praises and Brian stood right up in class and pushed Play on a little handheld tape recorder! *lub dub lub dub lub dub...* WOW!
I was feeling great - and only had to be sick twice the whole time I was pregnant. Once because I hadn't eaten breakfast and was the passenger in a car that was headed down a winding mountain road. *Hello, McDonald's customers! Don't mind me, I'll only be in the bathroom for a second...* And another time after making some kind of garlic chicken for dinner and that smell put me over the top. ACK!
Because I felt so good, I continued to work part-time in the office with Brian until I was 7 months pregnant. My doctors were pleased with how well everything was going. I had decided to stick with the OB/Gyn I had before we were married (after all, that's not exactly something you "test drive") which meant we were driving an hour north for each appointment. We always scheduled on Brian's day off during the week and we would typically eat lunch with my mom, who worked close by, after our appointment.
My only physical issue was my back. Thank goodness I'm married to my chiropractor! Some days Brian would adjust me before he left for work or at work and then I would be in tears by the time he got home and he would have to adjust me again.
We went ahead and took a couple of trips that year because we suspected that it would be pretty difficult to do this once a baby arrived. I was about 6 months along when we went to the Cayman Islands. Oh my word! It was so hot and I was melting and the bed was way too soft so I wasn't getting any sleep. It was beautiful, though, and I LOVED snorkeling there! I could rest my big belly in that water and didn't have to carry it around by myself...it gives a whole new meaning to "I looked like a beached whale" to see a pregnant woman floating around in a hideous maternity swimsuit. We ended up leaving a couple days early because I just couldn't take the heat any longer.
We also went on a weekend trip to Hilton Head with Brian's parents just a month before my due date which was July 13th. Friday the 13th to be exact.
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We had decided not to find out the sex of the baby. We had several reasons for this not the least of which was that it didn't matter. We were just so excited to actually be pregnant that we wanted to focus on my health and the health of the baby and not on anything else and we didn't want to get a lot of baby clothes when we needed things like changing pads and a stroller and bouncy seats and ALL THAT OTHER stuff baby needs.
The name we chose if it was a boy was Cameron Winston; Winston after my mom's dad. And the name we had should it be a girl was Reagan Nicole; just because we liked it.
And Cameron Winston was born on June 22nd!
He was such a beautiful baby! And so easy! He only cried when he was tired and then he would just smile when you laid him down in his crib and go to sleep. God was messin' with us that year or maybe He was just letting us remain ignorant enough about how hard having a baby is so that we would want to have another. Either way, we were thoroughly enjoying it and had a beautiful summer with our brown-eyed boy.
On September 11th I was laying out a quilt that I was making for him on the floor to get it ready to piece together when my mom called. "Turn on the T.V.." I hardly moved from that spot for the next 3 or 4 days. I will never forget seeing that plume of smoke and dust when Tower One began to fall and Matt Lauer interrupting Katie and Tom by saying, "Wait! What just happened?" We were so worried about Brian's sister who worked just down the street from the towers and there was no way of getting in touch with her. Thank God she was fine and was able to get a call in to a friend who passed the word along to us.
I wasn't sure how to feel with this new little life in our midst since I had no idea what his world would look like after that day.
But there is healing and there is moving forward and there is living. And of course that's what we did and we celebrated our fourth anniversary on November 8th, 2001.
What did we learn during our fourth year?:
What did we learn during our fourth year?:
- Seeing a great doctor is worth the extra effort - There is no substitute for mutual respect and professional confidence. When you find a doctor that possesses these characteristics, don't let go of him/her for the sake of convenience.
- Surprises are nice - I used to say, "If God wanted me to know the sex of my baby then He would have put a window there to look in." Of course, I didn't adhere to that with the next two pregnancies and I'm not suggesting that you're interfering by finding out the sex of your baby. But it was such a pleasant and exciting moment to get "the announcement" once Cameron was born that I highly recommend that if you plan on having more than one child to wait at least once to find out. It was lots of fun!
- Evil exists - We already knew this, of course, but knowing it felt different now that we had a child of our own to protect. And it is up to all of us to teach our children how to love God and others. There is a need for more light in this dark world.
