Bowen 2 weeks

Bowen is 2 weeks old! It's crazy how much they change so fast. Bowen only lost a few ounces in the hospital and within a couple of days got to his birthweight. This last pediatrician visit he was 8.3 ounces. This kid can eat! Maggie is getting a little jealous. I found her snuggled in Bowen's boppy the other day. Here comes competition. Chris is on paternity leave right now which timed out perfect. I am glad that  we timed it after my mom left because then I have a some more time with help during the day. 

I have been a little scatter brained with a newborn in the house. I sent a text message to my friend the other night that was supposed to be to Chris. I said, "Hey don't forget to put that sleeper thing on him. It's in the brown wicker basket." She then responded Sure no problem! Then texted you must be sleep deprived. As most of you know we got in an accident on my due date. We were waiting for this check to go through in the mail and when we got home with Bowen the check was in the mail. With all the chaos and no sleep we misplaced the check. We resolved it but still... no rest for the weary. Last night School also has not taken a break so on top of the no sleep, breastfeeding every 2 hours, I am taking full time graduate level classes. I saw that one of my assignments was graded. Clicked on it, and noticed I had submitted my notes and not my paper! This mom's gotta get some sleep! Luckily, they still took my paper it could be worse. 

Bowen officially has his birth certificate and social security card. He is now officially recognized by the government. 

Last Saturday I had a friend from the ward come and take newborn pictures. They are absolutely precious. I am so happy to have done them because he is already growing so much I can't stand it. We are completely in love with him and can't wait to get out and have some fun with this boy. 

Love to all,

Cameryn

Bowen's First Week

Exactly why I don't believe in birth plans because it never goes as expected! After laboring for 20 hours, getting terbutaline, O2, and multiple turnings, they docs finally called it. I can just hear them in their station. "She's getting cut." After working in this specialty I knew I was getting cut. From the moment he started to have some variables I knew he had a cord around his neck. When I finally dilated to a 10 and his HR dropped to 74 for a few minutes the doctors said we can push in the OR. That never happened. They came in and rushed me out within seconds. And 5 mins later baby BOWEN was born! I looked at him and just had a feeling he needed to be called Bowen, he wasn't a Bennett. As much as I wanted the name Bennett. I definitely have sympathy for my patients who go through c/s especially a stat one like mine. I don't know why but I was so calm as they took me back I knew what was going on and what was going to happen. They were going to transfer me from my bed to the stretcher, clean my belly with chlorexadine for 30 seconds, put the bovie and scratch pad on, count the instruments, time out, and then testing...cut, skin, uterine, baby, placenta! I just remember all I wanted to do was hold someone's hand. I just kept reaching out. I held my nurses hand, even reached out for the anesthesiologist! Haha. Chris finally got there and after he got a good peek over the drape talking to the OB docs about the size needle he was amazed how big the needles they use on me. Finally he held my hand and I calmed down a little. Chris was whisked away and got to cut his cord and take pictures. After they stitched me up they asked if I wanted to bring the baby out to the room. I could not stop shaking. A mix between hormones and the side effects of the epidural. I was rolled into the room half dazed but so incredibly happy.
Recovery has been tough I won't lie. The day after I could hardly move and I was expected to breast feed and take care of this child while completely exhausted from both labor and the c/s. Never in my life have I been in so much pain and so incredibly happy at one time.
"A note to future self bring good food, a pillow, and a sleeping bag" - Chris. Hospital food is disgusting. I couldn't even eat the eggs! My last meal before my diet changing to clears.
My support team- mom and Chris were great while I was in labor. All I wanted was them to massage my lower left back. Right when a contraction was coming I couldn't even talk I would just point and they knew what to do. Also, women were not made to labor in bed! I loved the birthing ball.
Bowen is a week old! We made it a week as parents! It has been a three man team. But soon to be Chris and I holding down the fort.
Some memorable moments this week:
Bowen's first pediatrician visit was this week. While getting all registered Bowen was letting them rip! He peed and after changing him was making grunting sounds. Mom was holding him and he kept letting them loose an then eventual total blow out making it look like it wasn't him but the person holding him it was so funny.
Bowen has a cute little scowl, today I found him doing the blue steel with his scowl. I could not stop laughing.
Bowen went to the market this week and to our favorite Mexican restaurant. We also went on our first walk where he loves his car seat and stroller.
Bowen likes to be sang to and listen to the piano from his dad- mom doesn't have too much time to practice and play right now. School doesn't wait for a baby :( I have a test next week but hopefully it will go okay... :)
He goes through several outfits a day and we get to dress him in his cute little onesies. We did newborn pictures on his one week birthday and he was completely content in the basket. Amy would take a picture and the click would sound and he would look up and keep waking himself up.

Chris and I are completely smitten over this boy. Who knew you could give this much to love.

Letter to our Eugene Missionary

Hi Tanner How are you? How's the mission? No baby yet... just fyi we will keep you posted and pictures to come of your little nephew.

The TED talk of the week is what I am sending to you. To celebrate the new year,I think we can all agree that we can all work on how to gain control of your free time. I know you as a missionary don't have a ton of free time but I think this talk can help you to gain control of your time on your mission and what you do with it. The TED talk is called " How to gain control of your free time." By Laura Vanderkam. 

She says there are 168 hours in a week. That is a lot of hours. She asks the question: how do we find time for what matters most? This women- Vanderkam is supposedly a time management expert. Which I have a hard time believing I mean who can be a time management expert, seriously? But she does offer a few practical strategies to help find more time for what really matters to us. I think this is a good way to start in the new year! Here are parts of the talk that I really liked and can be more applicable to you. Here it goes enjoy!

Beginning of her talk:

But after studying how successful people spend their time and looking at their schedules hour by hour, I think this idea has it completely backward. We don't build the lives we want by saving time. We build the lives we want, and then time saves itself.

ExampleHere's what I mean. I recently did a time diary project looking at 1,001 days in the lives of extremely busy women. They had demanding jobs, sometimes their own businesses, kids to care for, maybe parents to care for, community commitments -- busy, busy people. I had them keep track of their time for a week so I could add up how much they worked and slept, and I interviewed them about their strategies, for my book.

One of the women whose time log I studied goes out on a Wednesday night for something. She comes home to find that her water heater has broken, and there is now water all over her basement. If you've ever had anything like this happen to you, you know it is a hugely damaging, frightening, sopping mess.So she's dealing with the immediate aftermath that night, next day she's got plumbers coming in, day after that, professional cleaning crew dealing with the ruined carpet. All this is being recorded on her time log. Winds up taking seven hours of her week. Seven hours. That's like finding an extra hour in the day.

But I'm sure if you had asked her at the start of the week, "Could you find seven hours to train for a triathlon?" "Could you find seven hours to mentor seven worthy people?" I'm sure she would've said what most of us would've said, which is, "No -- can't you see how busy I am?" Yet when she had to find seven hours because there is water all over her basement, she found seven hours. And what this shows us is that time is highly elastic. We cannot make more time, but time will stretch to accommodate what we choose to put into it.

***And so the key to time management is treating our priorities as the equivalent of that broken water heater by putting them into our schedules first. We do this by thinking through our weeks before we are in them.
When should we plan this time management? I find a really good time to do this is Friday afternoons. Friday afternoon is what an economist might call a "low opportunity cost" time. Most of us are not sitting there on Friday afternoons saying, "I am excited to make progress toward my personal and professional priorities right now."

But we are willing to think about what those should be. So take a little bit of time Friday afternoon, make yourself a three-category priority list: career, relationships, self. (Or in your case Tanner you could do a priority list pertaining to the people you teach, scripture study, and tracting) or something to the lines of that...
 Making a three-category list reminds us that there should be something in all three categories.  Then look out over the whole of the next week, and see where you can plan them in.
This is the part I love-(Cameryn) I love how she says this because it is so true. And I know in my life the small things matter the most. Even if it seems like a burden you can't think of it as a burden your just gotta do it. That's why I like Nike's slogan Just do it. It requires no thinking but you take action and get it done. 

But small moments can have great power. You can use your bits of time for bits of joy. Maybe it's choosing to read something wonderful on the bus on the way to work. I know when I had a job that required two bus rides and a subway ride every morning, I used to go to the library on weekends to get stuff to read. It made the whole experience almost, almost, enjoyable. Breaks at work can be used for meditating or praying. If family dinner is out because of your crazy work schedule, maybe family breakfast could be a good substitute.

It's about looking at the whole of one's time and seeing where the good stuff can go. I truly believe this.There is time. Even if we are busy, we have time for what matters. (Love love this! Make time for what matters most in your mission, I know you don't have technology to get you distracted as much but I think this is a big problem in our culture right now.)  And when we focus on what matters,we can build the lives we want in the time we've got.
Anyways I know you were wanting a TED talk! I am going to try and send you the ones I really like it may not be every week but the ones that affect me the most. Hope this is interesting to you I know it was to me. 
Just a little snid bit of our lives right now and what we have been up to this week. I worked a little last week and Chris has had thursday-monday off this week which is really nice. We have been on lots of hikes trying to walk this baby out. No luck, he likes it way too much in there. I am feeling contractions/braxton hicks. Which means he is coming eventually. 
We have been hanging with some of Chris's residency friends too. We went to dinner at one of Chris's fav. restaurants called Byrd and Barrell. You would really like it. I got to try fried chicken liver... weird after taste. Baby didn't like it so much. We went to a resident new years party and celebrated in incoming new year. We had sparkling cider and appetizers and played Code Names which is a really fun new game that came out this year. But mostly we have just been relaxing and enjoying this time before the baby comes. Taking full advantage of it- going to movies, going to dinner, playing games because we will more than likely be stuck here in the house for the first while when he comes. So that means I can send you more TED talks :) We found this really cool bar/restaurant called Pieces- they charge a small fee but you can choose over 500+ games to play and they will walk you through how to play. It was super fun. Anyways, hope you have a great week and we will too! Love you bro!
Cameryn 

Castlewood State park- It was 55 degrees beautiful here in STL!

Puppy kisses don't get grossed out just because we kiss our dog. 

Birthday/Christmas Eve/Christmas Day

This is always the biggest week of the year! There is always so much packed into this week.
I worked my birthday- my choice. I know I can't believe I did but I actually really enjoy my job being 39 weeks pregnant. I get lots of attention ;). All the nurses are amazed how well I'm doing. There has been a couple of residents and nurses who are pregnant that had premies/pre-eclampsia, htn, and other complications. It is because the workplace is so stressful! I am so happy I went PRN. One of my colleagues wanted to do some acupuncture on me. She said it got her water to break. I was a little reluctant and let her do it for a minute and then I was just not feeling it. He will come out when he is ready!
For my birthday I watched lots of Gilmore Girls and Chris talked me into going ice skating... at 38 weeks. Well he didn't really talk me into it i'll admit I really wanted to go. So I was very very careful and it was lots of fun. We then went to Pi pizza- my favorite! This has been a birthday tradition since I have lived in St Louis for the past three years. Skating and pizza.

We made it past our goal! Baby has stayed nice and toasty past Christmas. We matched check, I finished finals check, we had Christmas check, now to just have a baby! Ah it is crazy I can't believe this little guy will be here so soon!
I have never been away from family during Christmas so it was kind of hard this year but also fun. Chris and I got to spend some family time as two soon to be three. He was on call so I was hoping and praying he wouldn't be called in. He rounded on some patients Christmas Eve and then we had went and played after. Meaning we went to the gym and got some last minute dinner stuff for Christmas day. We went to a movie, got Chinese food just like Christmas Story and ran into our friends (the other smith's) at the restaurant.
Chris was thinking he had to go in Christmas Eve so I really wanted to do something to pass the time. I am not sure why but I really just wanted to do a puzzle. So we ran over to Target and that was an experience of itself. I felt so bad for the workers there. The place was a madhouse. The only puzzles that were there were were Disney which was 500 or more and then Noah's ark which was about 300. So I grabbed that and got out of that store as quickly as possible.
It was a Christmas Miracle! Chris didn't have to go in, the patient pressure was adequate and he didn't have to do surgery after all. We decorated the "Picasso Gingerbread House" is what I am now calling it. It was already falling a part. We turned on some really bad Christmas movies that I thought would be good- A Christmas Spirit got 4 1/2 stars and I don't know who rated it but it was awful! We did our Noah's puzzle while watching it.

Christmas morning was special I woke up and made a breakfast casserole and cinnamon roles. "Yes an unhealthy breakfast!" was Chris's reaction. We opened presents starting with Maggie- she got a couple of bones, a snowman, and new collar! Although what she really needs is a grooming they don't have any openings during the holidays!! Chris got a NES Classic which he has been playing, and Chris got me a T-Swift piano book haha. I have noticed Chris likes the Twofer gifts. Which is cool because we both want it. We got a cool portable speaker that is rated one of the best. I also got a Google Home thinking we could use it for other things and a speaker. When I asked Chris why don't we just take back the other one? He looked at me and said ya but it's waterproof... so where do we go that is supposed to be waterproof? The beach, pool,.. I don't know. We don't go to the beach or pool... Okay maybe the OR... ah there is the real answer.! He also got us a tripod for your phone to take pictures. I did get a big purchase this year really wanting a vitamix... (birthday/ Christmas) combo. Ya this is going to be an expensive time of year with the baby's birthday, Christmas, and my birthday!

Hour church! We had our Christmas program and Chris played a great piano piece. We played with all our toys and gadgets and talked to my brother Tanner calling from Oregon! It was so good to see him, he seems so happy! We went to our neighbors for dinner who just had their baby a couple of days ago. She is so sweet! Her name is Flora Lupine Horrocks. Noelle showed me how to do a Moby and it is actually very comfortable!
We already have a girlfriend for him ;) We had some ham, funeral potatoes, and green bean casserole, I made a salad and some bread. We played games until 11- mostly Bang. Which the outlaws won! Seriously everytime I play Chris is Sheriff.. I swear there is something he is doing when he is dealing.
Well Christmas was very special this year and I was sad I couldn't be with family but we made it special! We love you all and wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Ice Storm

 I always get sick right before my birthday probably because of finals and many people in close proximity. I have a feeling I either got sick from work or the Christmas party we had last Sunday. I started feeling sick a couple of days after so who knows which one. I always thought you got a cold from going outside man I have come far since NP school. This girl in my pathophys. class and I have been studying for most of the semester together. I definitely feel more motivated when I study with someone. 

This weekend was scary with the ice storms. I had gone grocery shopping during the day and was working on my Relief Society Lesson. Chris and I wanted to go to dinner and he called me and said I don't want to leave tonight the roads are awful! I didn't know how bad it was not going outside at night. We walk Maggie and literally I was iceskating on the roads. I could not stop laughing. Everything was canceled this weekend all our fun plans! We had a date night planned, fun residency party we were planning on going to, caroling at the church, and teaching relief society. None of which happened. What did happen was me finally cleaning out my closet, cleaning, and washing baby clothes and getting the crib together. It was actually very productive although we literally did not leave the house for days. I guess we need to get used to this before the baby comes! Start finding some indoor hobbies. I am keeping up with my piano. I have to say piano is MUCH more fun when you practice everyday. If I skip multiple days and then come back to it it always takes me twice as long to learn again. 

Having no school means more homemade meals. Chris is not complaining. I have made more food this weekend than this whole semester of school! I made fudge, a roast, taco soup, pancakes and eggs. Since this weekend we literally did not leave it was kind of fun to be stuck at home. Chris watched a lot of football...and more football. He also helped our neighbors with the annoying barking dog who barks at 4pm every night and it doesn't stop until 11 pm. I have to text him to bring his dog inside. Isn't that animal cruelty? It is 10 degrees outside!!

I had what the nurses called "princess shifts this week". I have to say it is SO nice to have 5 hours of work and then go home or go grocery shopping. I could get used to the princess shifts. I ended up signing up for work on my birthday, who does that? Well we do have our Christmas party that morning and it is single bonus so why not right. 

Chris and I have been taking advantage of going to the movies, since it will be a while when we get to see more movies again. We went and saw Moana. Not my favorite honestly, its going to be hard to watch all kid movies in the future...

Well this week I turn 26 it is christmas eve and christmas! So exciting. 

Love, 

Cam