Jul 23 2008
Cameron Bennett
Dear Cameron,
Today you turn 5! I can hardly believe it; time truly does fly. I know it doesn’t seem like it at your age, when Christmas always seems so far away. But trust me on this one. Savor every minute of your childhood. You don’t have many responsibilities right now, no worries, no cares other than whose turn it is on Lego Indiana Jones. I hope these days slow down so I can have more time to enjoy your carefree childhood days.
Since Andrew learned about his birth yesterday, would you like to hear about yours? Yours was a lot less eventful than his, but so special nonetheless. The day before you were born was, obviously, Andrew’s birthday. Dad and I took Taylor and Andrew to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate. After that, we all went to my doctor’s appointment to see how you were doing inside my tummy. The doctor said everything looked great and I was a couple of centimeters dilated (your due date wasn’t until August 10). We had been so worried that pregnancy as we had just had Andrew and gone through such a hard time with him. I was very worried that you would be born too early, as well. We had one scare a few weeks before you were born and so my doctor told me to stay off my feet. I did pretty well with that until we went to Chuck E. Cheese! But the doctor said everything was going so well that she thought we had at least another week with you cooking in my tummy. We told her that we were predicting August 3 as that would follow the pattern of birthdates of our kids so far (1st child was born 5/1/01, 2nd was born 7/22/02). Since you were the 3rd child and it was the year 2003 we thought you would be born on a day ending in 3.
The next day was pretty exhausting for me. It was hard work keeping up with an energetic 2 year old and an even more energetic 1 year old. When Dad got home from work I told him I was going take a bath. I soaked in the tub for a while. As I was getting out, I suddenly thought, “Maybe I should shave my legs just in case since today does end in a 3.” So I got back in and shaved my legs. I got out of the tub, dried off, and went over to my dresser to get pajamas out. As I bent over, guess what? My water broke! My water didn’t break on its own with Taylor or Andrew so I was in some doubt as to what had happened. But I called my doctor and she said head to the hospital. We called Grandma and Grandpa McGrath as they were going to be at your birth, just like they were at Taylor and Andrew’s. They brought Colin to babysit the other boys and then Brianne came over to take care of them when she got off work. When we got to the hospital I was already 7 centimeters dilated. After a little while, your heartrate started skipping beats and getting erratic. The doctor put a fetal monitor on your scalp and started talking about having to do a c-section. They flipped me on my side and gave me some oxygen to help your heartrate. I was going to have you without an epidural, but then had to get one in case they had to do a c-section if your heartrate didn’t stabilize. However, labor was going so fast that as soon as they got the epidural in, I needed to push. So I had to push before the epidural had time to really take effect. It’s a good thing, though, as you were born at 11:51pm. 9 more minutes and you wouldn’t have been born on the 23rd and the pattern would have been broken! You were 7 pounds, 6 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long– really good for being almost 3 weeks early!
You were a healthy baby! I had been told after Andrew that all our other babies would be born very sick and need to be in the NICU, so imagine my surprise when you were healthy and we were able to room-in together in the hospital! I was ecstatic. You were jaundiced and had to go home from the hospital with a bili-blanket for a week. The only other health problem you had was a condition called hypospadius. We can discuss that together another time. You had surgery to correct it at 6 months and even though it was a very painful surgery, you were an angel throughout. You never cried as a baby, including through that recovery. You were also born with very dark hair and an olive complexion. You hair lightened up as a toddler but is getting darker again now. You had blue eyes until you were 6 months old and then they started turning brown. Now you have what Grandma calls “chocolate pudding eyes.”
You are so tall for your age and always have been. You have always been the tallest kid in your preschool and Primary classes. You have always been way off the charts for height and down towards the bottom of the charts for weight. That’s why your pants refuse to stay up, huh?! And it’s why we call you the Jolly Green Giant. You are so tall and always so happy. You are so easy-going. You have always been such an easy child to parent. I wonder sometimes if you feel lost in the shuffle of our family since you don’t demand our time and attention. But then you come to me for a hug and kiss and I ask you if you know that I love you with all my heart and you say that you know. I really hope you do know, Cameron. I have always said that Heavenly Father knew exactly what kind of baby I needed after all the trials Andrew’s birth brought. And he sent us the most cuddly, happy, cute baby. It made life so much easier. Even when you were 5 months old and we were in Colorado with Dad and me shuffling back and forth to the hospital to be with Andrew when he was sick, you were perfectly fine with the strange situation. You just always adapt to whatever is thrown our way. I really appreciate that.
Luckily, you’ve remained a pretty healthy child. We’ve had some scary asthma moments with you where we’ve had to rush you to the ER when you couldn’t breath and your inhaler didn’t help. And not too long ago you had to get stitches in your chin, but you were so brave with that.
You love school and are such a quick learner. You especially love math and continually surprise us with the amazing things your mind can do. I know that you will be so successful as an adult and that gives me great comfort.
I love you so much. You are such an important part of your family. I hope you will always be quick to give me hugs and kisses like you do now, even when you are grown. No matter how tall you get (and I’m sure it will be very tall), you will always be my baby.
Love,
Mommy
Happy Birthday, Cam-Bam!
Love,
Jeremy, Aidan, and Shelby
That’s not what happened. You did take a bath and your water started to leak as you bent over to get pajamas, but… you started eating dinner and you kept feeling like you had pee’d your pants. You got up like three times to change your pants and then realized that it must be your water. I remember that because I was already at your house. Remember how I always went over to your house after work? That was one of those days. And that is the rest of the story.
Well… I wanted to leave out the part about thinking I just kept peeing my pants! Too much info for Cam! But notice the words “but I was in some doubt as to what had happened.” I was just going to leave it at that, but thanks for putting that out there! I think you were just there on your dinner break like you would usually do. And then you had to go to back to work but were going to tell them you had to leave early. Cause I definitely remember Colin coming over because he made me mad because he said he wasn’t going to change Andrew’s diapers. And I made him promise to change his diapers or I would kill him. And then I worried the whole time that poor Andrew was sitting in dirty diapers and kept making Mom call home to see if you had gotten there yet. But on second thought, Jordan probably didn’t come over with you. She was, after all, a newlywed.