Family Vacation

Our first official family vacation was to Cancun - yes, Cam is an international traveller. We had lots of fun, and mom and dad got to walk EVERYWHERE with Cam in tow. With the help of Julia and Adam, we introduced Cam to the water, getting him in the pool a couple of times (and dropping his pacifier in the dolphin tank when mom was swimming with Flipper...)

A couple of updates on Cam - he's now 5 1/2 months old, is already rolling over from back to belly and from belly to back. He's already eating rice cereal (in addition to feeding like a madman), and has one tooth that has already poked through and another one right behind it... he's getting so big so fast - it's amazing.

Take a look at some of our photos from the trip:

Photos @ Shutterfly

And some more of him getting a bath and eating:
Shutterfly 2

(Hopefully, Julia will send me some of her photos from the week in Cancun and I can post more soon...)

Update

Hello everyone! OK, so it's been a little while since you've gotten an update. It's been a busy month with Mom and Cam travelling to DC a couple of times. It's hard to believe that Cam is three months old! The link below has a ton of pics from the last month or so. (And how can you not love the "Risky Business" homage!!! Cue up some Bob Seeger...)

Shutterfly link:
share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AbuG7Jw0ctGLw4

Professional Photos

Two weeks ago, before we went to DC for the weekend, we had professional photos taken of Cameron by Allison Hope in Manchester. The photos came out beautifully.

Cameron was very good throughout the entire photoshoot, and only peed on us once. We're going to have this photo blown up to 10"x10" for our bedroom.

Follow the link below to see the photos from the shoot. You can actually order any of the photos you'd like to have for your own (because all of you should have a photo of my child in your home...).

www.4portraits.com
Username: Stevens
Password: 4909

I'll have DC pics posted in a day or so...

Updated Photos

Cameron continues to grow more and more every day. I feel like he's at least 10 1/2 to 11 lbs. It's hard to believe that he's already 5 weeks old. He gets to go in for professional photos on Saturday, so that's exciting.

Next week, Cam is taking his first flight. We're going to DC for the weekend. We're staying with Justin, Zoey and Andrew, so Cam will have his first friend his own age. So, if you're in DC, we'll see you soon!

New pics:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AbuG7Jw0ctGLvA

New Photos

Because I've been truly delinquent in getting new photos to everyone, here's a big batch all at once:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AbuG7Jw0ctGLtI

Cameron had his first "big boy bath" this evening, which is evidenced towards the end of the photos. It's hard to believe he's three weeks old. On one hand, it still feels like he hasn't been with us for that long, but on the other, I can't remember what it was like without him. Last Tuesday, at his two week check-up, he'd grown 1/2 an inch and weighed in at 9lbs 4.6ozs. Growing like a weed. Mom has taken to calling him "Peanut" at every given opportunity. She thinks I'm making fun of her, but she's OK with that...

Headshots

Also wanted to post a few headshots. Hopefully more photos tomorrow.

share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AbuG7Jw0ctGLrQ

Cameron's Bris

Well, Cameron survived his bris yesterday. A bris is a jewish religious ceremony performed eight days after a male child is born, in which the child is circumcised. Sounds like lots of fun, huh?

All in all, it was actually pretty painless (I know, easy for me to say huh?). The mohel who performed the bris, Cantor Sam Pessaroff, was excellent - and quite a character. He was 100 mph from word one. He was very informative and had a great sense of humor to help allay the fears of mom and dad. We were both pretty nervous, the whole thing happened pretty quick. The one thing that threw me off, was about five minutes into the ceremony, the mohel turned around to me very quickly with the knife pointed at me. The first thought that came into my head was, "wait a minute, you're about 28 years too late..." The reason for turning the knife on me - tradition states that the father perform this ritual on his son - and handed me the knife. I couldn't get rid of that thing faster, except the mohel wouldn't let me give it back to him for about five minutes. I could then give the knife back and give him the authority to perform the ritual.

Cameron was outstanding. He didn't cry much more than if you were changing his diaper. That might have had a little to do with the fact that the mohel's finger was dipped in Manischewitz wine and planted firmly in Cam's mouth. And actually, as the mohel explained, there is very little pain for the child. Eight days after a child is born is an ideal point in time because the nerve endings aren't developed enough yet for any significant pain, but their blood clotting is still high enough to efficiently deal well with the proecedure. Cameron was in good hands and is recovering nicely.

Here are some photos from the day, and again, all photos are from a very stomach friendly point of view: share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AbuG7Jw0ctGLpY

Back Home

Well, we finally made it home on Friday. Cam passed all of his checkout appointments. He'd lost a little of his birth weight (that's normal for the first few days) and left the hospital at 7lbs 14oz (remember that number). Mom got checked out and passed her examinations with flying colors, so we were good to go.

We survived night one at home, with only a few minor meltdowns during the night, but only because baby was hungry - very hungry - and definitely let mom and dad know. And, like mom and dad, Cam tends to be an overachiever. He's been feeding ahead of the scheduled amount for his age, and produces more wet and soiled diapers than his average peer (lucky us). The diaper changing hasn't been too bad, and mom is becoming a diaper champ. (Dad does OK, but mom is much better - insert your own joke about mom being used to putting up with dad's poop...)

And now, for what everyone's been clamoring for, more pics:

Photos from the days at the hospital:
share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AbuG7Jw0ctGLlo

Photos Coming Home from Hospital:
share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AbuG7Jw0ctGLng

Still working on cleaning up the video, that should be posted soon. Oh, about the weight he went home at, on Saturday, Cam had his first post-hospital doc's appointment, and weighed in at 8lbs 2 oz - he gained 4oz overnight. Like I've said all along, he feeds like a champ...

Hospital Stay

Everyone at Elliot Hospital was wonderful and made this whole experience very easy so far. Cameron has been sleeping through the night and allowing both mom and dad to catch some shut-eye. (I've been warned not to get used to that though.)

We've decided that we're going to post pictures on Shutterfly so that people can see pics more than one at a time. So over the next few days, I'll post a couple of different Shutterfly albums for your perusal.

To see a few more photos from Cameron's birth, like the one above that I'm sure mom's gonna love, click here: share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AbuG7Jw0ctGLjw

Thank you to everyone who has left a message or has text-messaged Alli and I over the past few days. As we get more comfortable living with an infant, we'll try to get in touch with everyone.

Look soon for more pics (and possibly video of the birth) posted here.

We Have Baby!

Cameron William Stevens was born yesterday evening at 5:20pm via C-Section. Both mom and baby are doing very well. Cameron slept through most of the night and is feeding like a champ. Mom did very well throughout the surgery and dad didn't even come close to passing out (and even cut the cord...).

We'll be in the hospital until Friday at least, so check back after that and we'll get pics and video up (we do have video of the birth, from a very stomach-friendly perspective - right where dad was sitting).

Vitals:

8lbs 6oz

21 inches long

Bald as a cue ball