Just Can't Believe It

This post is going to start heavy...but it will end positive! 

There are many things that I can't believe. 

I can't believe that I struggled with infertility for 2 years before even getting pregnant.

I can't believe I had two early miscarriages.

I can't believe that I am the mother to a beautiful baby girl I had to bury.

I can't believe 2 years has passed since we said "hello" and "goodbye" to Bailey.

I can't believe that I had the courage to go through pregnancy again after what we went through.

I can't believe that I am now the mother to a beautiful rainbow baby girl.

I can't believe that Cameron is now 8 months old.

I can't believe that as of yesterday, my 8 month old now crawls!!

I can't believe that as of today, my 8 month old pulls herself up to a standing position!

I can't believe how quickly it all goes!

The last 2 days have been VERY eventful in the Southerland house!  Cameron officially is a crawler!  Not the army crawl or scooting crawl...it's the "take off on all fours and see what kind of mischief I can get into" crawl!  Her favorite item to crawl to?  Desmond's toys!  I swear...I think my dog puts his toys just out of reach from her so she will crawl to get them.  He knows what he is doing!

Then tonight, right before bath time, she crawls over to her exersaucer and pulls herself up to a standing position!  She was so proud!  And I have to admit, I am one proud mommy!  But, that means she is getting so big and before I know it, she's going to be walking and talking and causing all kinds of trouble!

I guess it is officially time to baby proof the house!

Eye Surgery Success!

I don't think that I ever posted that Cameron was going to have eye surgery.  She was a classic case of Infantile Esotropia, which means she was severely cross-eyed!

So, this past Thursday, Cameron had eye surgery on BOTH eyes.  She made a small incision on the inside of both eyes, detached the muscle, and reattached it 7 mm back from where it was.  This will allow her eyes to go to where they are supposed to be.

We checked into the Surgery Center at 6:15 a.m.  We met with the nurses, anesthesiologist, and her Dr. before she went in.  They took her back at 7:00 and we got called to the front desk at 7:30.  They told us she was done.  Her doctor said she did great and once she woke up we could go back to recovery with her.  They called us back at 7:45.  She was NOT a happy camper!  We gave her a bottle, and then shortly after 8:00 they told us we could go home!  So, we did! 

As soon as we got outside, she popped her eyes open and started looking around.  And then she cried!  Seeing bloody tears come out of her eyes was a little on the creepy side, but just seeing her eyes for that first time...there was a HUGE difference!  See for yourself....

Taken on 5/10/2012 - right before her surgery

Taken 5/10/2012 - evening after her surgery

Taken 5/13/2012 - 3 days post surgery and at Target

The worst part of the surgery was the 2 days after...we had to put drops in her eyes, and she did NOT like that!  In fact, we had tricked her on Thursday night and put the drops in while she was eating her last bottle.  Uh, Friday night...that trick didn't work.  She saw the eye drop bottle, launched her food bottle, sat straight up, and screamed bloody murder!  NOT fun!

It is highly likely that she will have to have another surgery later this year due to the severity of the cross, and it is possible she may have to other surgeries in a few years.  We'll cross those bridges when we get there.  But, the change has been amazing! 

For MONTHS we though she had colic (and she may have).  You name it, we probably tried it.  For the past 8 months, we have had the baby who screams every night.  Come 6:00 (used to be before), she would get horribly grumpy and scream.  It was all we could do to get through the last hour before her bedtime. 

Post surgery - she is so happy!  She plays and smiles...she watches EVERYTHING and is so observant!  She laughs at most everything!  We joke and say that it's like we traded in the grumpy version of Cameron and got the version that is happy!  We really do think she was probably having headaches which was what was causing the fussiness.  We'll see how long the happy version of Cameron lasts though!

And to top it off, today she is 8 months old!  Of all her pictures I tried to get this morning and this evening, this one is my favorite.  She looks exceptionally bored with this whole picture business!

Hurry up...okay mom?

Playing with her feet and tongue out...that's my girl!