Take me out to the Ball Game!

Friday night was Cameron's first trip to a baseball game. In our town, the AAA affiliate of the Boston Red Sox has a team. They are the Salem Red Sox, and the stadium is literally 2 minutes from our house. Friday the weather was perfect, not too hot, not too cold and Cameron was a good boy all throughout the game! Okay, so he fell asleep in the 6th inning and we left in the 8th, but it was still awesome to have him there! Our seats were amazing...they were right on top of the Red Sox's dugout on the 3rd base line. In between innings, they had the "Sheriff of Mayberry" (hey, Andy Griffith is HUGE out here!) do contests with the Red Sox mascot and various fans. We caught some pictures of the Pie Eating contest that took place 5 feet from our seats! If you have ever seen the movie "Stand By Me" you'll agree with me that this scene was all to familiar! All in all, we had a fun, family night out and can't wait to do it again.

Mommy and Cameron:


Claussen's at the game!


Great Seats!



Pie Eating Contest!

Western Visitors

Last week we were so excited to have my dad, step mom and 3 sisters come out to visit us in Salem. My dad, stepmom and 2 sisters came from St. George, UT and my other sister Hannah made it all the way from San Diego! It was their first time meeting Cameron and we had a blast for the few days there were here. Since they were only here in Western Virginia for a few days, we made the best of their short visit by jam packing our days and nights! In fact, Cameron had such a great time and was so worn out that the 2 days they were here were the only 2 days he has ever slept through the entire night! Anyway, we went to visit a historic town nearby called Fincastle, went out to a sushi dinner that night and the next day we drove to Williamsburg, VA. That was a loooong 4 hour drive but well worth it since not only did we get time with the Western Visiting Family members, but my brother Dan, his wife Merianne and their baby David (who, by the way is 20 days younger than Cameron!) drove out from the Washington DC are to spend the day with all of us in Williamsburg.
Here are a few pictures of the trip!

Cameron with Grandpa:


Sushi dinner:


Cameron and 3 of his aunts:



Claussen's in Williamsburg:


Dan and his wife Merianne in Williamsburg:


Ralph pushing Cameron through gravel streets of Williamsburg:


Sister Ellie holding Cameron:


My dad and Ralph at Williamsburg:

My boy is 3 months old!!

I can't believe on Saturday Cameron will be 3 months. The best 3 months of my life. Here are a few recent pictures of my big boy.

Day at the Salem Fair

Every summer the Fair comes to town, and even though this is only our 2nd summer here in Salem, it has become our tradition to go and "people watch" and of course, ride the rides and eat all of the greasy Fair food. It is well known around town that Roanoke's best of the best rednecks come out from their backwoods homes and hills to visit the fair. Because of this, the Fair caters to them and makes them feel right at home. We actually saw this vendor with nothing but Rebel bumper stickers!


Last July while my family was in town, we braved the Fair for the first time with them in tow, and boy did my dear West Coast family get an eyeful. My sisters Hannah, Ellie and Erika had quite the experience paying 50 cents to view "The Smallest Woman in the World" and riding the giant swing ride. Here's a picture from last year of me, my dad and Hannah just arriving for a night of fun:




But it was fun this year for just Ralph and I to take Cameron-- and even though we didn't get to ride anything this year, we had a blast just strolling him through the crowds of Confederate Flagged tee-shirts and overalls.
Gotta love the South.







It was Ralph's TV station's night at the Fair, so here he is representing!

The Smiles...oh the smiles!

Okay so first things first...I swore that when I had a baby all my posts wouldn't be about the baby or being a mom. I lied. I'm sorry, but I really have nothing else going on in my world except him! Now for the fun stuff. Cameron smiled at me! I had been waiting since the day he was born for him to smile! And to smile at me, not off into space or one of those "gas" smiles. But the other day he finally did, and he has been smiling ever since. I got a really cute video of his smiling and cooing but I took it on my camcorder and I can't find my USB cable to get the video onto the computer. So yesterday I captured this video on my regular camera, it is shorter and not as many smiles, but you get the point!

6 Weeks Old Today

I cannot believe how fast time flies. 6 weeks ago today I was pushing (hard!) to get this little boy out of me. Now, 6 weeks later, he is almost 4 pounds heavier and my arm muscles are getting pretty darn big! I have been a slacker on this blog lately, but I hardly have time to shower these days, and I'm sorry y'all, but getting cleaned off from spit up, poop, pee and who knows what else comes first!

I am a litle sad that I start back up to work on Monday, but feel blessed that I did get a maternity leave and that I don' have to leave Cameron in a daycare somewhere. Now we'll see how much work I will get done while breastfeeding, calming a screaming baby, changing diapers and trying to give my poor Sadie dog some attention as well.

I love being a mama!

The Happiest Day of My Life!

For 9 months, you imagine how the day will go. When will it happen? Will you be nervous? How it will feel to have your baby placed on your chest for the first time? What will he look like? Will you be in too much pain to notice?

On Friday April 24th, I woke up thinking my water had broken. I was 39.5 weeks along, and all I knew was it felt like I had peed my pants overnight! I called Ralph to come home from work so we could go to the hospital. As we were driving there, all of those emotions that had been building for 9 months began to well up inside of me! Was this going to be it? I almost peed my pants for real just thinking about it.

When we got to the hospital, the Doctor checked me and told us that I had an amniotic fluid leak, and that the best thing to do was to start the labor process. So i was admitted and they started pumping me full of Pitocin to start my contractions.

And oooh the contractions!

They started about 90 minutes after getting the Pitocin and they were very painful! I only endured about 4 hours of this before I asked for and received my epidural. At this point I was only about 4cm dilated. It was about 3p at this point. The dilation process slowed way down after the epidural.

But, at about 1145pm, the nurse told me that I was 10cm dilated and ready to push! At midnight, the pushing began! I pushed for about a half hour with just the nurse, and the the Doctor came in for the final pushes and the delivery. The Doctor told us that the baby was in the occiput posterior position, or face up. In deliveries, babies should be face down as they come out or it makes for tougher pushing for longer periods of time. But not for me! I was determined to get him out! At one point, he was so close to being delivered that the Doctor told me to reach down between my legs so I could feel his head. I did, and i completely lost it...the tears started flowing and fogging up my oxygen mask! It was becoming so real!

After 14 hours of labor and 1 hour of pushing, my sweet precious angel, Cameron Ralph Claussen was born at 1:02am on Saturday, April 25th. He was absolutely gorgeoous, conehead and all! My doctor and all of the nurses said they had never seen an occiput posterior positioned baby come out in less than 2 hours of pushing...and I did it in 1. Yes, I truly felt like Wonder Woman at that point! When they placed him on my chest I could not stop crying, and neither could Ralph. It was the most amazing moment in my entire life.

Cameron was 8.5lbs and 21 inches long and was born with a full head of dark brown hair. Ralph and I are so much in love and are so grateful and blessed to have this sweet blessing from God in our lives.

The Agonizing Last Week...I'm almost there.

A lot of people have emailed and asked me to send them a picture of my big ol' belly. I am 39 weeks...only 1 week to go! As much as I want this child out every single day, I am trying to remember that this pregnancy has been a true miracle for us and I should be taking in every last minute of it. Who knows when I'll be pregnant again! And seriously, forgetting about the last few weeks of irritability, so so swollen feet, ankles, fingers, excruciatingly painful tendinitis in both wrists, heart palpitations that just about make me pass out, peeing every hour on the hour, crying at Pedigree commercials and all that fun stuff, this pregnancy really hasn't been too much trouble at all!

It will be just under 3 years when he is born from the time we tried to conceive him, so I have said it before and I'll say it again --this pregnancy and baby are the answer to a lot of prayers from this mommy and daddy to-be.

So hopefully the next post you get from me will be of Ralph and I holding our little boy.

I've Been Baby Showered

So as everyone knows, Ralph and I don't have any family here in Roanoke. Actually, we have very few friends either, except the ones we've made through work. But one of those friends (Rhonda) was so excited when I told her that we were pregnant way back in September that she told me she was throwing me a shower. And she did! We invited all the ladies from Ralph's work at the TV station plus a few others. I had an absolute blast. The thought of having everyone pamper me that day as well as celebrate this baby that Ralph and I have been waiting so long for was surreal. Here are a few shots from my awesome baby shower! Thank you Rhonda!

Eating cake and yummy finger foods in the kitchen:


The diaper "cake":


Chatty Cathy:


The generous gift pile:


The group (in the 2nd pic you can see our 3D ultrasound DVD we had playing in the background):




The diaper "teddy bear" gift"


Me having my tummy measured (it was one of the guessing games):


Happy mama opening presents (that's Rhonda to my right!)

Nobody cares what I want!!

So my last post was called "I want Spring." I even wrote a line in there about the fact that I was sick of it being so cold and not even having any snow to enjoy. Weeeelllllll..... someone WAS paying attention about the snow thing. But apparently they also don't care that I want..no I NEED Spring! We don't get much snow here in the South, but Saturday night it started falling, and didn't stop until Monday morning. Here is what we got:




That's a picture of our backyard through our back window (Hey I'm not going out there if I don't have to!) All in all, we probably got about 4 or 5 inches, which for a city that hadn't seen ANY snow all winter long, it was a big deal. What makes me laugh though is that they close down all the schools and busnesses (even my Lamaze class tonight got cancelled!) and people are stocking up at the grocery stores like it's the end of the world. The peeps back in Salt Lake City would be laughing there heads off if they could see the pandemonium and breaking news stories. As for me, my commute from the upstairs to the downstairs was extra treachorous this morning. Maybe I'll say I need to take a "snow day."

I want Spring.

So this morning I went outside to get some fresh air-- and enjoy the fact that it is 60+ degrees at 10am today. I was happily enjoying the warmth and playing ball with Sadie for a few minutes. Then I noticed this:



It is the cutest little Daffodil emerging from the garden! It gave me hope that despite the fact that the forcast for tomorrow and Saturday is a high of 38, Sping IS right around the corner! I am sick of wearing a down jacket to go to the grocery store. I'm sick of 20 degree days with NO snow to at least help you enjoy the beauty of winter. I am sick of dry winter skin and sore throats. I can't wait for those warm, non-humid Spring days EVERY day. Must be the San Diego girl in me that longs for those 75 degree days every day of the year!

Va-Va-Valentine's Day

This year was a fun Valentiine's Day for Ralph and me because we knew it'd be our last with just the 2 of us. We tried to be as romantic as possible--- okay no we didn't-- we decided to do a deep cleaning of our house together! I started on dusting and then sweeping (our entire house is hardwood) and Ralph started on the kitchen. After about 3 hours of this, there was a knock at the door, and it was the flower delivery man. Here is what he brought:



This was the cutest gift ever from Ralph. The big bouquet was from him, and the card said "I love you very much! Love, your husband Ralph." Then i opened the card on one of the small roses. It said "I love you very much! Love, your son Cameron." Then the third card from that rose said "I love you very much! Love, your first born, Sadie." I started crying! The small roses totally caught me off guard, i had no idea who they were going to be from when I first saw them! Ralph outdid himself again, and i loved it.

Then after all the cleaning was done, we headed off to our dinner reservation. As big as my belly is now, I can't eat very much these days without getting too full, but I did get to enjoy about half of my delicious steak and potatoes! Here we are at dinner at Frankie Rowlands.

After that we came home and played games together (wouldn't YOU like to know what kind of games?!!!) Anyway it was another great Valentine's Day. And we have a clean house.