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.

PREGNANCY UPDATE

I am now 31 weeks and 3 days pregnant. Yessss.....a little less than six weeks to go. I have gained 9 pounds. Why so little you ask? Because it's hard to gain weight when you are still throwing up everyday. It is a daily occurrence that I think this......I wish this baby would come NOW...oh, but then she'd be sick, never mind...is there a way to have your baby really early and not have her be sick?? Then I get over it....slowly. My hips hurt so badly that there are times when I seriously can't walk. I rarely move anymore without pain. I feel really horrible that my poor little kids are getting neglected as I have to rest ALOT. I even fainted in my room while getting ready for church yesterday. No Ben because he was at meetings and my kids were downstairs. Obviously I survived but I was scared. I know it doesn't sound like it but, I really am happy and excited to be having this baby. On a happier note. My blood sugars are stupendous and my kidneys and eyes are fantastic with no problems. The baby is moving alot and she is growing right on target. Ben will be in India for two weeks and will be coming home from India the day I turn 37 weeks and I will be having my amniocentesis without him. If the test is good then she will come shortly thereafter. Talk about close timing. Anybody want to come help me for those two weeks?? PLEASE!! Here is a picture of my ankles (or should I say cankles) at the end of the day.

HAPPY 6th ANNIVERSARY TO US!

Yesterday (the 4th) was our 6th anniversary. I don't have a scanner so I can't put up one of our wedding pictures so you can see how much we've changed. So since I don't have that, then why put up a current picture either. I'm tired peole! I have to admit with shame that I totally forgot about it. I swear it is pregnancy brain and not my lack of love for Ben. We hadn't even talked about it in anticipation and apparently I didn't think about it on my own either. So, on Friday we went to my parents' house to help them open their pool. When we got there Ben asked me where I wanted to go for dinner. I was like, what are you talking about......mom already made dinner. It's our anniversary on Sunday and I called your mom to see if she would mind watching the kids while we went to dinner. Since I am usually the one to remember and do something nice and Ben isn't, I felt dumb at that point. So, our options were to drive another 45 minutes to this really nice shopping center in Birmingham that has some nice restaurants or to stay closer to home. I was already in pain from the 1 1/2 drive over so I reluctantly said, lets go somewhere around here because I knew my options were slim. Where did we wind up going you ask? To the PELL CITY STEAK HOUSE!
My parents live in Pell City, AL and I lived there for 6 years before going to college. Every time I have come home to visit the town has changed a little and gotten a little bigger but the pell city steak house has always remained. As you can see from the picture it looks like it is lacking something to be desired. After my mom informed me that the food there is actually good we decided, what the heck, we'll give it a whirl. When we got there, the first thing I noticed was a sign on the wall that said, "Please don't touch the animals." As I looked around for some animals I finally realized what animals they were talking about. Stuffed deer heads and birds all over the walls. Then, as I looked around at the people I realized there were only old people and skanks there. But, we were there so we couldn't leave, right? We were seated and a lady came around and took our orders. And much to our surprise......THE FOOD WAS ACTUALLY GOOD!! My favorite part was when the lady came to fill up our water and I said thank you and she said back, "your sure welcome, baby". There's nothing like that southern hospitality. Ben got a steak and I got a hamburger because of course I didn't feel well. When we got up to pay they had an ancient cash register and these display stands of just as ancient looking wrigley's gum and certs mints. I spotted the bowl of complimentary mints. Andes mints.....score......until I saw the handwritten paper sign that said 10 cents on it. Dang it! The consensus is......we would definitely go back there for a burger someday.

UPDATE

Since I haven't updated in a while I thought I would give you the scoop on the kids.

Mia is 4 1/2 and lives this age to it's fullest. She is quite smart and sometimes I feel that is a disadvantage to parents. You can't slip anything past her. She remembers everything and can recall it on command. She has to do eveything on her own including serving her plate at dinner.....and she does a pretty good job at it too. She is no stranger to making messes and waits until Dallin is napping and I need to lie down to make the dirtiest of all her messes. She is now becoming more compliant with cleaning up her messes too. We have now had to put a lock on the fridge and tun off the water in the door because water or something in the fridge is always involved in her messes. Dragging a chair around the haouse to get anything she wants is apparently no struggle for her. She is in the CTR 5 class and loves going to Primary and did a great job giving her first talk recently. She is usually nice to Dallin but when she's not she doesn't know when to stop and she has a bite mark right now to prove it. Mia can talk anybody's ear off if you let her. She can'twait to go to Grandma and Grandpa Martin's house alot this summer and swim in their pool. She is also really looking forward to preschool in the fall since she will miss the cut-off for Kindergarten. Mia loves playing outside and especially running to the mailbox to get the mail. Dallin is just shy of 2 1/2 now. He is half sweet boy and half stinker. Okay.......maybe more like 55% stinker and 45% sweet boy. He talks in long sentences now and wastes no time telling you what he wants. He knows just how to push Mia's buttons and they have at least one session of chase each other around the house per day......mostly initiated by Dallin. He is in his naked stage of 2 right now and to catch him in his true form I would have had to put a nude picture of him up. He is gearing up for potty training because he takes his diaper off when it gets wet or stinky.......much to my dismay. Dallin loves to be around his Grandpa Martin and when he sees grandma without grandpa he asks where he is. He needs no help from Mia to make horrible messes but that is usuallyhow it happens.....the two of them together. He is my muscle man and I caught him today carrying around a 5 lb. weight in each hand with no struggle. Maybe every two year old can do that for all I know but it seems like alot to me. He loves to play outside and ring the doorbell as he comes in. He also loves to help his daddy fix things......mostly to play with the tools.

GROSS, GROSS AND GROSS

I'd have to say that my first two pregnancies were pretty hard on my body. But, this one by far has been the hardest. I'd like to tell a story that might illustrate what I mean. This morning I had to go to the doctor......big surprise. I got the kids ready and was getting myself ready when I started to feel a little sick. We got into the car and by that time I felt worse. We are on our way 3 miles down the road to my brother's house so my sister-in-law Lisa can watch the kids (I don't know what I would do without her). About a half mile away from our house I got that horrible feeling in my stomache and my mouth started to water. I thought, I'm gonna throw-up.......no problem, I can make it to Lisa's. Then, I started thinking franticly, do I have something in the car I can throw-up in? My eyes were searching for a place to pull over because much to my dismay I was not going to make it to Lisa's. Ah.....the Dollar General......thank you! I pull over far away from the few cars in the parking lot. I barely opened my door and leaned out when it started to come. Wretch after wretch I thought......could this possibly get any more embarrasing and misserable? YES!! I was hoping that no one would notice me with all my glory. You know, throw-up slobber hangiong from your lips as you wretch again and you don't even care. Just as I was finishing, a man walks toward me and asks if he can buy me a drink or something. It was very nice of him and I think I managed to get something out like....."I know this is so gross....sorry......I'm pregnant.......I have water in the car but thanks anyway". I was thinking......NO, don't come over here......you'll make me feel even more disgusting, and you'll see the nasty stuff. As I drove away, I thought......would I have ever offered help to a person throwing up? Probably not. I have problems! And one of them is that I still throw-up ALOT......at 7 months pregnant. This can't end soon enough.

TEN FOR TUESDAY 4.15,08

1. I forgot to post last week so this will count for the past two weeks. Not only is Dallin really good at making messes, he is now really good at recognizing he has made a mess. I came down this morning to find this. I said to Dallin, "WHAT is that Dallin"; to which he replied, "it's a mess, mommy". I had to laugh at his candor but I did make him help me clean it up.

2. My brother Frank wanted to get rid of this bed so we gladly said we'd take it. It was in Dallin's room for what seemed like forever before he decided to give up his familiar crib and explore the scary big boy bed. He now exclusively sleeps in his car bed.
3. Dallin LOVES music. We frequently catch his dancing or clapping his hands to anything with a good beat. When I have my ipod music playing on the computer, he comes over and sits with the speaker right in his face. I couldn't catch the right image because he kept holding the speaker like this......but, you get the point.
4. Mia was invited to a "princess" birthday party and all the girls were supposed to dress up like princesses. She got the invitation on a Sunday and asked me everyday, "how many days is it until Saturday.......because that's when the princess patrty is". She enjoyed the party and even came home with a princess bag full of mostly......princess junk.
5. I have discovered many times as I go to take a picture and then stroll through the ones that have already been taken, that Mia has been getting the camera off the shelf that she should not be able to reach and has been practicing her photography skills. She mostly takes pictures of toys or a snack she is eating.......occasionally of the T.V. too. This picture of her little people farm horse is one of ger better ones.
6. Since 5 specialists apparently wasn't enough for me this pregnancy......I have decided to add another one to the bunch. I am now seeing a hematologist. He specializes in cancers and also diseases of the blood. I am very anemic and the iron pills that were prescribed for me produced a daily barf-fest. So, I will find out on Thursday how he will treat me after checking my blood. I think it will probably be iron administered by I.V.
7. My kidney specialist has also prescribed Procrit. A drug given to people who don't produce enough red blood cells.......which obviously I don't. I checked my insurances' website to see if it is covered. It is, but you have to have prior authorization. Wonder why?? Maybe it's because it costs about $1500 for a month supply.
8. Ben has been busy with home improvement projects lately. Including but not limited to, painting the walls in all our hallways, removing the gazebo thing over our back porch because it was rapidly deteriorating after all the bad storms we've been getting lately, and some yard work.
9. I had to be a substitute teacher in Relief Society on Sunday. It went fine and I got lots of comments on how good it was. I attribute that to people just trying to be nice and not that it was true. I had spent a good part of the evening before trying to make an awesome handout for everyone. UNTIL.......Ben talked me out of finishing it because it was 11:00 and I could barely walk after sitting in the chair so long. Don't worry thouigh. I have some great homemade card type things to use later. All was not lost.
10. Mia has been assigned the talk in Primary for this coming up Sunday. She is really excited. She has chosen me to come and help her with it. She's a smart girl.....I hope she won't need much help!

ANYBODY WANT TO RETURN TO THE 80'S??

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK IS REUNITING. LOOK OUT FOR AN ALL NEW ALBUM WITH ALL NEW SONGS AND A WORLD TOUR. DON'T WORRY......THEY WILL STILL PERFORM THE OLD SONGS TOO. EVERYBODY......HANG TOUGH 'TIL THEN.

TEN FOR TUESDAY 4.1.08

Ten for Tuesday is a fun little way to give everyone the highlights of our week. It is something that I saw on my friend Jessica's blog and I wanted to copy it so she encouraged me to do so.

1. Our church is being remodeled right now so we are meeting amongst all the trash and torn up walls. When we walked in on Sunday, Mia said very loudly, "our church looks horrible." Exclaiming something like that in the middle of sacrament is the wrong timing but it is absolutey true.

2. Mia has been invited to a little girl in our ward's birthday party. It is a princess party and everyone is supposed to come dressed up. It is on Saturday and every morning Mia asks me how many more days it is until Saturday. She is really excited. Now, if I only knew what to get the girl.

3. Yesterday, I was in my room and Dallin came in holding a spoon and wanted me to kiss an ouchie on his finger and he handed me the spoon. A few minutes later he came in saying, "mommy, bad no no, bad no no" so I wanted him to show me. He took me to our hallway where we have a carbon monoxide detector plugged in. The outlet and the back of the detctor and part of the wall were all black. Once I put two and two together and went back and looked at the spoon I realized that he had stuck the spoon on the tongs of the detctor plug-in and he probably got a little shock. He tripped the circuit to most of the outlets and lights upstairs in the meantime. I am glad he wasn't shocked worse and that he didn't start a fire.......little stinker.

4. THEN, about an hour later, he and Mia were playing in some stuff in his closet. I heard him screaming and wondered what Mia had done to him. I ran in there to find Mia running out and Dallin rubbing his eyes. Mia didn't do it. He had gotten a little bottle that Mia had knocked down from the high shelf and poured DVD cleaner(which is mostly just alcohol) in his eyes. I forced him to let me wipe them clean with a cold wet cloth. Now all of you know why he is all the boy I can handel.....right??

5. I went to see the parenatologist last week and of course Mia had to ask me if I was going to get the baby out. She hasn't quite grasped the concept of how long I have to be pregnant before the baby comes out. The appointment took me 4 hours and the good news is that in 3 weeks I have to start seeing this doctor once a week and I have been told by the receptionist that it will take that long every time. Lucky me!

6. We bought paint on Saturday to paint our walls. The paint that was painted on our whole house beforewe moved in is flat and is very thin. It is impossible to get crayon off that stuff. Needless to say, we bought semi-gloss. Thank you Mia and Dallin.

7. All our easter candy should be gone in the next day so now my kids won't have anythng to snack on while I'm not in the room.

8. I am not really enjoying this part of spring where we will have two really sunny, warm and beautiful days in the 70's and then the next two days are like cold, wet and in the 40's. I guess I do enjoy the warm days but I wish there was more consistency.....please!

9. Dallin is still napping but that is quickly coming to an end. There are days when he will willingly walk upstairs with me so he can get in bed. BUT, lately he does not want to and it has become way to hard for me to carry a heavy, wiggly kid up our 15 stairs to then heave him into bed. I think he is playing me. But, he is starting to sleep in his big boy bed so that is good.

10. I have been really happy that Mia and Dallin are now starting to eat ALL of the dinner we put on their plates. Mia is better than Dallin. But, it is a start and a great thing to see.

PREGNANCY UPDATE

I am now 24 weeks pregnant. We found out that we are indeed having a girl so now we can move on to securing a name for the little wiggler. She is very active but mostly when I am trying to fall asleep. I have now started taking iron pills which is no suprise since I took them with the other two, however, they have made me start throwing up again so I am not a big fan. I seem to always be hungry these days. I can no longer go for 4 or 5 hours without eating or my stomache kills. My hips hurt alot and so do the bones that are in my crotch......sorry people, I'm just keeping it real. I am trying to enjoy these last few weeks before I start seeing the doctor twice a week for non-stress tests to make sure the baby stays alive in my womb that ages much faster than other women because of my diabetes. Baby is growing well and she is now almost 14 inches and weighs almost 2 lbs. The doctor said they have checked all her body parts and major organs and see no problems. If all goes as planned she will be here at 37 weeks......don't be jealous.

EASTER MORNING

This picture is fuzzy but you can still see how cute Mia was in her Easter dress.
Dallin in what he wore on Easter.
Don't they look cute?
We had to let them play in all the plastic eggs.

Disclaimer: I have to put it out there that we are the type of parents that want Dallin to wear a white shirt to church and he apparently likes it too. In fact, at times I have given Dallin the choice between a colored or a white shirt and he adamantly chooses the white shirt. BUT, I wanted him to be a little springy without having to go buy him a vest or something. I somehow convinced him to wear it though.

BELATED BELATED EASTER POST

The day before Easter I hosted a get together with my family for our yearly easter egg hunt and food. I did it last year too but my parents have done it in the past......but they were in Hawaii. We had plenty of food and the egg hunt was enjoyed by all the kids except for maybe some spoiled kids who thought all the eggs should be filled with candy. I don't have that kind of money but, I did send them all away with a treat bag. I'm not that mean!

Dallin keeping watch over his eggs.
Everybody had to get their video and/or pictures. Most parents were doing double duty.
You can see Mia at the very bottom of the yard collecting her loot.
The kids decorated easter sugar cookies and Dallin made sure we didn't have any frosting to clean up......well, except for what was on him,.
Crash and burn after all the excitement........and the sugar.