Still Fat......Just a Little Less Fat!!

Me.......2 1/2 weeks before I had Cami

Me.......3 weeks after having Cami

Photo's from India

Mia and Dallin,
I hope you like the photos of the animals.
Love Dad

CAMI UPDATE

CAMI WENT TO THE DOCTOR ON FRIDAY AND IS GROWING WELL. SHE IS BACK UP TO HER BIRTHWEIGHT OF 4 LBS. 14 OZ. SHE LIKES TO SLEEP AND EAT. SHE IS CUTE AND IS SMILING NOW. MOSTLY IN HER SLEEP. HER MONITOR GOES OFF OFTEN......ALERTING US THAT SHE HAS NOT BREATHED IN A WHILE OR THAT HER HEART RATE IS LOW. NO BIGGEE. THE KIDS LOVE HER TO DEATH. FOR ALL OF THOSE WHO THINK THAT SHE LOOKS BIG IN ALL OF HER PICTURES......WELL, CONSIDER THAT DALLIN IS ONLY 2 1/2 AND SHE IS ONLY AS BIG AS HIS LEG FROM THE KNEE DOWN. PRETTY SMALL.

DADDY......WE MISS YOU A LOT!!

THE KIDS

AS LONG AS CAMI IS BUNDLED AND WARM.......SHE SLEEPS PRETTY WELL
CAMI LOVES TO STRETCH OUT HER LEGS
MIA ALWAYS WANTS TO HELP......AND HOLD THE BABY
IT'S HARD ON DALLIN HAVING A NEW BABY SISTER
MIA IN HER NEW DRESS......THIS ONE'S FOR BEN

Cami Update

Cami came home on Thursday. She is doing well. She sleeps well.....and a lot. She is eating well. She nurses just a little and then stuffs herself with a bottle. We are still working on the nursing thing. Her mouth is so small. She is as cute as can be. Ben left today for two weeks in India. I miss him already and have shed many tears. I could have insisted he not go but, it is a great career opportunity and I know he wanted to go, even though it was hard for him too. I think we'll survive because of all our great helpers.....namely Ruth and Grandma Martin. And maybe Grandma Engstrom if she is able to come. Mia and Dallin love their new baby sister. Well.....Ben and I do too. Words can't describe how blessed we feel that she is healthy. AND, I only gained 10 pounds during the pregnancy but have now lost 25. If you do the math it equals one happy mommy. I'm sure it won't last long. Cami while still in the NICU
Daddy and Cami checking each other out.
Mommy loves to cuddle with her.
YES.....there is a baby under those buckles
Mia and Dallin checking out their baby sister.

The Baby Story and Update

So.....for all the friends and family that read our blog that haven't heard the rough story of how this baby came about, here it goes. About 8 months ago, Ben and I were feeling especially romantic..........just kidding! Anyway, on Thursday night, I was having some braxton hicks which was not uncommon for me or any pregnant woman. But, they were hurting me a little but not coming on a regular basis. I read in my pregnancy book that if it is not your first pregnancy you can experience some pain towards the end of your pregnancy with these but make sure you don't have more than four in an hour. I thought nothing more of it. I went to bed later and remember dreaming about having contractions and in my dream specifically I kept having the same four contractions over and over. Once my brain woke up a little I started to realize that I was having real pain and it wasn't a dream so I continued to toss and turn for a few minutes and realized I should start timing these pains. 3:13 a.m.......ouch, 3:19 a.m.......that hurts, 3:25 a.m.......uh, 6 minutes apart! These aren't braxton hicks anymore. I have never gone into labor before so I had no clue what to do at this point. I woke Ben up to tell him what was going on. We think we should go to the hospital but I'm like, what if it's not labor, what are we gonna do with the kids, I'm just 34 weeks pregnant.....CRAP!! I call my brother and wife that live a few miles away to see if someone could stay with our kids. They think it is just braxton hicks. I somewhat believe them so I call a nurse hot line that our insurance company has. I'm in total pain right now and she's asking me stuff like, what is your height, address, # of prenatal visits, hair color.....whatever lady, I gotta go to the hospital. Call my brother back and talk to his wife ....Diane, you sound like you're in pain but give it a little longer. Crap, they are 3 minutes apart by now. NO!! can Josh come sleep on the couch, I'm IN LABOR!! Run upstairs and get dressed. Ben picks up Josh and we head to the hospital which is about 20 minutes away. I get there. Have two contractions while walking in. The admissions lady is taking forever while I have 5 contractions. I'm starting to worry by now that she might come out in the chair because she was breech at her appointment just days earlier and I knew I would need a C-section. I get upstairs and the midwife and doctor come in. I am bleeding heavily at this point and getting very worried. I immediately tell them I need a C-section hoping they would hurry. But, they do a quick ultrasound to find the head and she was in the birth canal, head down and I was already at a 10! . WHAT!! I was very happy about that because ultimately I didn't want a C-section but was open to it because I thought I needed it and because I didn't want to go through labor after a hard pregnancy. I was in triage for that and then they moved me to a birthing room where they started my I.V. and got things ready. Then they tell me the midwife was busy. GREAT! As soon as she got there she broke my water and I push her out at 5:31 a.m. I think, I just woke up at 3:13. Man that was fast. No epidural.....I was happy about that because I didn't want one. No pain meds......because the stuff they offered makes me whacked. They look at the baby for about twenty minutes and decide she should go to the NICU. I got discharged Sunday and Ben and I come back twice a day for 3 to 4 hours at a time to feed her and be with her. As of today (Wednesday) she is ready to go home but will probably not go home until tomorrow. Cami had several things that she had to do before she was ready to come home. She had to keep her body temperature up on her own without heating lights. She did that. She had to be able to sleep in a regular crib instead of the special heated one. She did that. She had to be able to feed from the breast or a bottle for 24 hours straight and eat all the required amount and not from her feeding tube. She did that as of this morning. She had a sleep study performed because she would stop breathing several times a day and would need to be stimulated to start breathing again. So now, we have to get her a monitor to take home to alert us when she heeds to be rubbed to help her start to breathe again and she has to take caffeine orally once a day to help stimulate her to remember to breathe. I know, caffeine, weird, huh? At this point, Ben and I have to be taught infant CPR, she has to get her monitor and we have to just spend a little time with her practicing everything before we take her home. We don't want to rush anything so that is why it will be tomorrow before she comes home. I am hoping that it will be fairly early in the day so Ben will have lots of time with her before he leaves for India on Saturday. We'll post more pictures very soon......like later today.

Little Girl

More Pictures

Cami Pictures

Suprise - Cami Ellen Engstrom has arrived

Much to our surprise Cami arrived at 5:30 this morning 6 weeks early. She was 4lb 14oz and 16 ½ inches long. Mother is doing fine and baby looks good, although she is staying in NICU for precautionary measures. In our rush to leave we forgot the camera. We will post pictures soon; she is as cute as can be.