Dear Caroline: Waiting on Baby

Dear Caroline,

I'll never forget the morning I found out that you were in my tummy - January 15th. I had a dream that I was pregnant so I woke up at 4:30am to take a test. Sure enough, I was! I ran into the bedroom and woke your Daddy up to tell him the news. We were both so surprised and excited.

Two weeks later we went to the doctor and saw you for the first time. This is what we saw:

You were 8 weeks old on this day. We just KNEW you were a girl, but we had to wait a few more weeks for the doctor to tell us.

Three long weeks later, we went back to the doctor for some more pictures. They told us what we already knew in our hearts: you were a GIRL! From that day on, we called you by your name: Caroline Campbell.

We wanted to tell all of our family that we were having a girl, so we invited all of our most important people over for a "Gender Reveal Party". Daddy, Hayden, and I all decorated a big box and filled it with pink balloons so when we opened the box the pink balloons would fly out letting everyone know you were a girl. Your Daddy had some other tricks up his sleeve. He wanted to make everyone think you were a boy, then tell them the real truth. So - he put a baseball glove and bat in the top of the box and pulled it out to make everyone think BOY, then let the pink balloons fly out, letting everyone know the real deal - that you were a sweet little baby GIRL! Everyone was so happy and most people said they knew you would be a girl. Your big sister was especially excited. She had been praying for a baby sister and had finally gotten her wish.

Here are some of your ultrasound photos:

8 weeks

12 weeks

20 weeks

24 weeks

31 weeks

Your Aunt Julie and Cousin Chloe decided to give us all of Chloe's baby clothes for you. Most of them had a "C" on them, so they were just perfect! It took Daddy and I days to sort through all of the clothes, and we got so excited seeing all of the cute things to wear and picturing you in them.

I tried to stay active with you, so every night I would walk around the block a few times. Carter and Hayden and Daddy would walk with me, and they all said I was slow, but I was walking for two!

Speaking of active, you were VERY active in my tummy! Every night at 11:00pm on the dot you would start partying and kick kick kick for about an hour. Daddy and I had the best time watching you from the outside and feeling you roll around. It was a feeling I'll never forget and I loved knowing you were healthy and happy in there.

The foods I ate the most were rotisserie chicken, broiled tomatoes, and apples with peanut butter. Pimento cheese always sounded good to me, and I ate my fair share of it when you were in my tummy. The hardest thing to give up was coffee. Mama loves her coffee! But - I knew it was probably best for you to give it up, so I did. Anything for my sweet girl.

We moved to a new house when I was 7 months pregnant with you. After we moved, I spent a lot of time working on making your nursery perfect. I hope you loved it! Here are a few pictures for you:

By August we were READY. I had all of your clothes and baby gear in order. I had washed your tiny little clothes in Dreft and lined your dresser drawers in pink shelf paper. One thing I just had to have done was cleaning my car. I couldn't stand the idea of taking you home in a dirty car! Mama is funny like that sometimes. It's a good thing we were ready early, because as it turns out, you were ready to come out into the world on August 29th.

Here are Mama's belly photos: