Oh to catch up...

WOW! I can't believe I haven't posted since July! What is wrong with me? Oh yeah, I had a baby, my brain fell out of my butt, I started school again and amazingly enough it's really hard to find the time to do this now! Haha. I'll get off my soap box on how busy my life is because it really isn't that busy, but it's amazing how much time a very small person can consume from my life. Kamry came home, and things just really started to settle into a routine. I was able to take a leave of absence from work the month of August so I could be home with her. That was really nice.

Before Kamry left the hospital we found out that she had a hernia on her left side on her pubic bone. The nurse noticed a small bump and they did an ultrasound. So when they did that they found out about the hernia. The nurse said that she had a baby that had that and they didn't catch it fast enough and it caused all sorts of problems. When you looked at her you couldn't even see the bump, you had to feel it. The nurse was doing her assessment and felt for it just to be safe. It was crazy how she found it. Anyway, so the day after Kamry came home we had to take her down to Primary Childrens Hospital for a consult. We met with Dr. Barnhart who was so nice and scheduled her surgery. So on August 10 Kamry had her hernia surgery. It was so sad to put her in a tiny little gown and watch the anesthesiologist walk away with her. Me and Nate were really stressing. Everything went fine and when they got in there they found that she had a hernia on each side so they repaired them both. I guess in preemies hernias right there on their pubic bone are actually really common. Dr. Barnhart said it was the most common surgery they do. Apparently their abdomen wall just doesn't close off all the way and the opening leaves space for a hernia to happen. Everything went great and she handled the surgery really well. My sister Deanna works in the Infant Med. Surg. unit at Primary's and she was nice and stayed the night with Kamry at the hospital (she was off duty) so me and Nate could sleep at her house and get a full nights rest. At first I thought her incision was a big one like my c-section incision, but once the glue like stuff came off of her there were just two very small incisions on each side. As she grows you probably won't even be able to notice them.

Once it came to going back to work though I started getting really nervous. She was still on the oxygen, and I hadn't nailed down a babysitter yet. So I started making calls and made arrangements with a really nice lady named Desi. She had a small daycare at her home and only had a few kids at the time which I thought was a good idea because then that means, less of a chance for Kamry to get sick from other kids. Sweet. Well, things worked out good for the first 2 days. Then I noticed that Kam was having a harder time breathing through her nose and was really stuffy. I mentioned it to the doctor and he thought she may have an allergy to the babysitters cat... and her house just wasn't quite as clean as I thought it should be. Those of you who know me, know my standards when it comes to clean.... they're kinda high. Clutter is one thing, but clean is another. So... after 3 days of having her at that daycare, we quit. Luckily, Nate was working with a guy, El (that's short for Ellery), and his wife is a stay at home mom and all 3 of their kids are in school. So I immediately had another babysitter. This girl, Jeanette was a clean freak. I loved it. Her house was sparkling 24/7. That worked out wonderfully. I started working again in the beginning of September. Before I had Kamry we had agreed that it was okay for me to go 3/4 time and only work 30 hours a week. That way I get to keep my benefits and everything. Well... when I analyzed it and realized that I was going to be working 30 hours a week, attending classes and doing 16 hours a week of internship... I would never be able to see Kamry. I was going to be gone way too much. Nate and I discussed it and decided that I only had 1 more semester of school to pay for so we didn't need my half tuition anymore. We could just pay full tuition my last semester. And we can get insurance through Nate's work, so just a few days before I went back I met with my boss and told her that I wanted to go part time and just work 20 hours. Well, I came back to work and about 3 days into it I decided I couldn't handle being away from Kamry that much. It was just too hard. So Nate and I discussed it again and decided that we could afford for me to stay home and just finish school. So I gave my notice at work. We were able to work it out so I only worked about 15 hours a week and we used up my remaining vacation leave to get me through the rest of September. Then, September 24 was my last day at work. I had been at my job for 4 years. It was sad to leave, but relieving that I could spend more time with Kamry where I was needed the most.

Friday Night, September 10 we decided to unhook Kamry's oxygen and let her try it on her own. The doctor had given us one of those oxygen saturation monitors that we hook onto her foot (because her fingers are too small) and we let her try it out. Let me tell you I didn't sleep much that night because I was so scared she was going to stop breathing. However, the night went great and that next morning we kept the oxygen off of her and it was official! She was off the oxygen and breathing completely on her own! YAY! That was a joyous day for me. No more hauling that stupid tank around and cute little Kamry could have a normal face and nose without a tube in it!

Anyway, so things were working out great with my babysitter, and then her husband got a job with the union and was stationed up in po-dunkville Montana like 15 minutes from the Canada border. Their initial plan was to keep living here in Utah, and have him stay up there and come home on the weekends because he was going to be working 4 - 16 hour days, but as it got further into the details of the job they found out he was going to be working 6 days on and 1 off so that plan kinda went down the tube. They then found out that he is going to be in Montana until July or August, so they decided to move. I had 1 week notice that they were going to move. It was insane. Luckily (AGAIN), Nate's cousin Sharon (that moved down from Idaho with her family in June) is a stay at home mom and said she would love to watch Kamry. It's working out fabulously! Kamry loves going there and Sharon and her kids just adore Kam so it works out perfect. One initial bump about it was that they live in Richmond and we live at the south end of Logan. So I was commuting her to Richmond every day and then coming back to pick her up. (I know it sounds crazy, but it will all make sense in a minute.)

We blessed Kamry on October 17th at my parents church in Lewiston. We decided that we didn't want to take her to the ward with so many possibly sick people so we did it after church in the Relief Society room. We also decided to keep it just close family, so only siblings and grandmas. We asked my dad to bless her and because I have a big pet peeve at blessings when there are so many people in the circle that they can barely touch the baby we decided to just have it be the two Grandpa's and the bishop. Well, Bishop Baldwin couldn't make it, but his counselor Ted King (my dad's cousin) was there so he was in the circle. It was a great day. It was funny because my dad was blessing her and said "Kamry Lundgreen".... that may not sound funny, but it is because he forgot her middle name! He should have said "Kamry Ann Lundgreen". Anyway, so after the prayer was over we kind of looked at each other and I told him that he forgot her middle name and he felt so bad. It was a simple fix though... so we had another short blessing to complete her name. Then we had dinner and just chatted. It was a lot of fun and a nice quiet blessing instead of an insane asylum party with 1000 people. That's exactly how I wanted it.

Well, Nate and I decided that selling our house on our own just wasn't working, so we decided to sign with a Realtor. We had met with a couple of Realtors that we really liked, and then we met with the lady (Nancy) that sold Nate's grandparents house. She was wonderful and we really liked her, so we decided to go with her. Because we have a baby and a dog, it's difficult for us to keep our house in "showing" order and constantly perfect. So we decided that because our plan once our house sold was to move in with Nate's parents for a while (lots of mounting medical bills from Kamry), that we would move in with them now and just stage our house so it's always "show ready". So we moved in with Nate's parents and got our house ready. I only had to commute to Richmond with Kamry for 2 weeks before we moved, so it wasn't totally crazy. Kamry was a ballerina for halloween. My friend Megan had made her an adorable tutu and Marie had bought her a sleeper that said "My 1st Halloween" that was pink and had little bats, ghosts and pumpkins on it. So I turned her into a very tiny ballerina. She was really cute and although she didn't realize it, she had a fabulous 1st Halloween. I decided to quit pumping breast milk shortly after I went back to work (and quit anyway :) ) but because I was done pumping I decided to take on the HCG diet and see if I could lose a little more weight. I was 20 lbs. lighter than I was when I got pregnant at that point, so I only had 30 lbs to lose to get to my goal weight of 160. Well, that diet is stinking hard! It's very effective and if you stick with it you can totally do it but because I'm a loser and have absolutely no will power, I only lost 10 lbs. But I've been off the diet for a month now and I have maintained my weight. So here I sit at 180 and I'm very happy with it. I lost about 9 inches overall too so that's fabulous! I can pull all of my pants off without undoing the button! It's been really good living with the in-laws. They are great, and we really have our own space because of the basement. But it's nice to come home and have someone to talk to when Nate is working late and when Kamry has needed attention but I've needed to do homework Marie has been great to help out. Don't get me wrong, she's not a built in baby sitter by any means. I still do everything for Kamry, and I cook a meal here and there too so I'm not getting a free pass either. I've probably cooked more here than I did when we were living at our house. That's pretty pathetic. Once our house sells, we are looking at buying some land so we can build a house. Hopefully we'll get it sold and be able to build next Summer. That would be nice. Thanksgiving was fun. We ate this year with the Lundgreens. Sharon's family joined us too so it was a madhouse with 18 of us (19 counting Kamry) but it was a lot of fun. I thoroughly enjoyed my lemon pie after stuffing myself extremely full too. The semester is pretty much over (classes end this week) and I don't have any final exams so once classes are over, I'm done. It's crazy to think that only one more semester and I will be a college graduate. I love that thought. I've started revamping my resume and hopefully I'll be able to get a good job as a social worker. Thoughts of a masters degree have ran through my head a little, but I need a break before I undertake that. I hope to get my masters someday, but right now I need to take it easy. 6 years of school (including summers) is way too much for my brain. Kamry had her 6 month shots the week before Thanksgiving. They gave her a flu shot too so she had a total of 4. The girls that give the shots are way fast and do a good job but of course she still screams. When she got her 4 month shots she did the screaming so hard that she held her breath for a short period of time. So I was kind of expecting that this time, but what happened I definitely did not expect. They hurried and gave her the shots and the girl was like "okay you can pick her up" so I did and I was trying to love her better when I noticed she wasn't moving. Well.... SHE PASSED OUT! I looked at her and her whole body was limp. I started freaking out and crying and the girl was like "blow in her face" so i did and she was pinching her cheeks and playing with her hands and she finally took a big deep breath and started screaming again. I couldn't believe it. She held her breath so long that she passed out. I was so freaked out. The girl was like "wow. lets hope she doesn't make a habit out of that" and i was like "are you freaking kidding me?" anyway... that was scary and I hope she never does that again. On December 4, we went to the Festival of Trees at the South Towne Expo Center in Sandy, and then to see the lights on Temple Square. It was a lot of fun. Kamry slept pretty much the whole day, but we had her all snuggled in her car seat with beanie and gloves on so she kept warm. I hadn't ever been to the Festival of Tree's before. For those of you who don't know what that it, it's a big thing where Families decorate Christmas Tree's in honor of a loved one and then they are available for purchase and all proceeds from the ticket sales and the tree sales are donated to Primary Children's Hospital. It's a great cause. I guess usually they have a little paper by each tree telling about the tree and who it's decorated for, but for some reason they didn't have that this year. It was still fun to see all the trees, because they are all so amazing, but it would have been nice to understand the trees a little more. Some people had pictures of the loved one next to the tree, so that was nice to see... except for a lot of them were children. That was really sad.

That morning (before leaving for the Festival of Trees), Marie and I went to Kmart as volunteers to wrap presents for the "Shop with a Cop" event that they have every year. It's where cops take under privileged kids shopping for the families for Christmas and they get to ride in the cop car and go to breakfast and everything. That's a really good event too. Well, right after we arrived at Kmart, Nate called and said Kamry had a huge lump on her neck. Well, Marie and I headed straight home and then Nate and I took Kamry to the doctor before we left for the festival of trees. The doctos said she had an infection and that he lymph nodes were infected and that's what the lump was. Well, he put her on antibiotics and told me to come back Monday. Well, today was Monday and when I woke up, Kamry's neck was even bigger so I called the Dr. and changed her appointment from 3:30pm to 10am so I could get her looked at sooner. I went there, and he decided it was best to get a second opinion and sent me to see Dr. Bennion, an Ear Nose and Throat specialist. He gave her 2 shots (so sad) - one was an antibiotic and one was a steroid. He said that I needed to watch it really closely. If it changes at all to call him. He was concerned because she's so little and I guess it's not very common to see this kind of infection in a small baby like her. He said there is about a 50/50 chance that they will have to do surgery on it (lance it) and release the infection. It's possible that the steroid will just make it go away on it's own. Well, I had to take her back each day to see how it was going. She got the shot on Monday, another one on Tuesday and Wednesday when I took her back things were looking great. The bump was getting smaller so he decided not to give her another shot and just put her back on the augmentin antibiotic. Well, Thursday things were looking great and it was a tiny bump. I went to my internship at Sunshine Terrace and when I was headed home, my babysitter Sharon called me and said that Kamry had been good all day and then woke up SCREAMING from her nap and the bump was back and it was huge. Her appointment was at 4pm that day so I was already on my way to pick her up to take her there. Dr. Bennion was disappointed but not completely shocked to see that it had come back. He was worried about that. We decided the best option (really the only option) at that point was to do the surgery to lance it. We scheduled it for 7:30am the next day (Friday Dec. 10). Dr. Bennion was leaving town for some work things, so Dr. Wood was the one we scheduled the surgery with. He's really nice and was great to work with. There we were again, watching an anesthesiologist walk away with our baby. It was so sad. Her poor neck was massive by that time and you could tell that it just hurt her so bad to move her head. Everything went well in the surgery and Dr. Wood said that there was A LOT of puss in there and that they irrigated a whole gallon of saline through the wound. Her cut is about an inch long on her neck (just a little below her ear). They had packed it with gauze that has antibiotic ointment on it. I have to take her back in each day to have a little bit of gauze pulled out and then once it's all gone, they will repack it and do it again. Dr. Wood said that it's very important to let the wound heal from the inside out or the abscess would come back. Kamry has been so brave through the whole thing. You could tell after the surgery that she was really hurting, but once we got her on a pain med schedule she was pretty happy and kind of returned to her usual self. This poor girl just can't catch a break. I sure hope that it's smooth sailing from here on out for her.

Well, If you actually made it thru that whole saga of the last 5 months I'm amazed. Here are a lot of pictures with captions of what's been happening too.

These first ones are pictures my friend Megan Bair took when Kamry was 5 months old. I love these pics! They're absolutely fabulous and there were so many adorable ones I couldn't choose. I printed so many of them!

















I absolutely love her blessing dress. It was perfect!



















Does this one say that she is my daughter or what?




Her random sleeping styles were so cute!



Nate was worried she would get cold when she was in the swing, so this was his solution.



This is the hernia on her belly button (umbilical hernia) prior to surgery



Kam in her little tiny surgery gown


Kam in her GIANT crib after surgery



Post umbilical hernia surgery. I didn't take pics of the scars on her pubic bone, but they're both about 3/4 of an inch long on each side.




Kam's blessing day





This is her "post blessing" dress


On Halloween, Marie and I went with Cori, Cooper and Kilee to Lee's to do the trick or treat thing and Marie had these so we put them on Kamry. CREEPY!

My beautiful Ballerina


First time eating cereal





Guess who found her tongue?!




HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Her bib says "Everyone is Thankful for Me" and that is SO true!


She kinda looks like a boy in this one cause I don't have a bow on her head yet. She's still cute though.


This is when we went to see the lights on Temple Square. She was wearing mittens to match too!


This is right before surgery. If you look at her neck you can see the huge lump. That was the abscess.


At the hopspital in her little gown (that was way too big for her) before they took her to drain the abscess in her neck.


Laying in the crib that fits her a little better now after the surgery. Her poor neck was wrapped up like a wounded soldier.

Again with the oxygen.... at least we didn't have to take it home this time.


Well that was all the pictures of the past few months. Christmas will be here all too soon and I'll post again.

Welcome Home Kamry!

WOW! A lot has happened since I last posted and the biggest one of all is that our little girl is finally home! She is so strong and healthy! I can't believe she got to come home 2 weeks earlier than her due date. We have been so blessed through this whole ordeal and I can't thank anyone enough for their thoughts and prayers. It has been a roller coaster ride, but we have made it and now the real adventure begins. Here is what has been happening since my last post. (I'll try and mention everything in date order so you can see her progression). - - -When Kamry was born, part of our "Welcome Packet" into the NICU included a calendar with lots of stickers to document important moments during her stay there and as I went, if there wasn't a sticker for something I wrote it in so it may look a little weird that I am saying dates along with these things- but because of the calendar, I actually remember when things happened.

On June 21 she weighed 3 lbs. 8 1/2 oz. and on June 22 she did her first breast feeding where she actually took milk from me. The nurse that night (Raini) saw me doing non-nutritive with her and said that it was time to make her actually eat. So I went back later that night at the 11pm cares and she breast fed. She ate for about 4 minutes! They told me that it takes roughly 10 minutes of active sucking to get a full feed so when she was done and tuckered out at 4 min. we fed the rest (estimated the amount) through her feeding tube. She did so awesome on her first breast feeding and from that point on I was not to do non-nutritive with her anymore and always be giving her milk. I use this thing called a "nipple shield". It's a plastic thing that just sits right over my nipple and makes it more like a binkie nipple to help her get the idea better. She took to it really well, and it also helps control the flow just a touch more too.

June 25: My mom and Grandma King came to visit and I decided that it was time for Great Grandma to be able to hold her so Great Grandma held Kamry and loved on her for 10 or 15 minutes. This was a seriously exciting day because Nate got off work early and came while my Grandma was holding her AND at that moment, we switched her into a "big girl bed" and out of her isolette. She has been maintaining her body temperature really well and even getting a little hot in the isolette so it was time to move her out. She has done awesome ever since and we've never had to question putting her back because her temperature is really stable.

June 28: KAMRY WEIGHED 4 LBS TODAY! She DOUBLED her weight from her lowest point! A huge feat and she did it so quickly and so well. June 29: Kamry took her first bottle from nurse Lisa and she ate her FULL feeding amount. Nate got to feed her a bottle first on July 2 and then the next day I bottle fed her. (I hadn't been bottle feeding her those days in between because we kept doing breast feeding because, well.... it should be obvious that I'm the one with the milk filled boobs! :) She lost a about 3 oz. and went back down to 3 lbs. 13 oz. and I started to wonder if maybe she wasn't getting as much as we thought she was when she was breast feeding. The past few days she had been taking full feeds from me about once every 12 hours so at those times we didn't "tube" any of her food. So me and Nate talked about it and we decided that until she is bigger and we know she can eat well enough by breast feeding, we are going to bottle feed her my milk. That way we know exactly how much she is getting and there won't be any question on it. Even though I really want to breast feed, I feel it's the best thing for Kamry and honestly, it's saving me time. She can't eat all the milk I produce so after I was feeding her I was still having to pump off everything else, so really it was taking twice as long.

July 8 was a very sad day for me. I had seen Kamry get a shot a couple days before and so when they told me that she was going to be doing her 2 month immunizations that day I ran away and couldn't watch. Some moms can do it, but she had cried so hard when they gave her the shot earlier it almost made me cry. Her little face went so red and she quit breathing ( you know how you can't breathe when you're crying really hard) and then she SCREAMED louder than I've ever heard before! It was awful! My friend Skye came to see Kamry that day, so we went to lunch and I just stayed away until the unit opened back up at 4 and her shots were done. That night she even fussed a little through her bath because her little thighs were still tender. So sad!

July 9 wasn't a great day either. Kamry has an umbilical hernia (very very common in babies) and usually they fix themselves. Well this particular day, nurse Lisa had heard about a baby that spent quite a bit of time in the NICU and how she is going down to Primary Children's Hospital now to have a hernia fixed on her pubic bone (just to the inside of her left hip). So Lisa got thinking that it's common for little babies to develop hernia's so as she did Kamry's assessment, she found a little bump. And you'll never guess where it was.... on her pubic bone just on the inside of her left hip! It was just little, but when she pushed on it Kamry got really fussy and cried. So they ordered for an ultrasound and indeed, she has a hernia there too. They started consulting with a doctor (Dr. Doug Barnhart) down there at Primary's to see if she needed to be transferred to have it taken care of. After much evaluation of her ultrasound pics, they decided to have it watched for the weekend (to be sure it wasn't getting bigger or changing colors on her skin) and do another ultrasound on Monday. The next few days were a WHIRLWIND of events. On Sunday July 11 we came in and the feeding tube was removed! She had been eating all of her meals for the previous 48 hours so the feeding tube could officially be taken out of her nose. Instead of feeding her every 3 hours now, she is ad-lib. When she is hungry, we feed her but she can't go more than 4 hours. Well, as we were getting excited about that, they told us that she could potentially come home on Tuesday because she was having her eye's checked one more time and then would be good for 6 months if everything went well. So when I came down on Monday, they told me to bring my car seat for the official "car seat check" and we would begin preparations for her to come home.

July 12: We put her in the car seat to see if she is big enough for it, and made a few adjustments to the straps. We had to give her "Princess Laya" rolls to hold her head from bobbing from side to side and she was required to sit in it for an hour without having breathing problems. Well, once we got her in there (she was slightly fussy as we messed with the straps - which by the way were really easy to adjust) she fell right to sleep. She is SO tiny in the HUGE car seat! She sat there for almost an hour and then all of a sudden the hearing test people came and instead of waking her up and moving her around (because they need the baby to be calm for the testing to work properly) they took her in her car seat. About 30 minutes later they came back and said everything checked out with her hearing. It had been almost 4 hours since her last feeding so we took her out and she ate like a champ. They did the other ultrasound on her hernia, and it had definitely grown bigger. You could feel it when you touched it. At first it was like the size of a pea, but now it was more like an olive. So they scheduled an appt. with the doctor at Primary's for Wednesday morning. When we bathed her and did her assessments she weighed 4 lbs. 9 oz. and was 17 inches long!

Tuesday July 13- THE BIG DAY: Nate took work off because we needed to be there for oxygen training and CPR training. We went down and it was a crazy few hours of constant learning about all the things we needed to know to take her home. We signed a million discharge papers, and talked to I have no idea how many different people. Kamry had her eyes checked and she is in "outer zone 3" which apparently is great, so she doesn't have to be seen for 6 months now. Me and Nate chose Praxair to supply Kam's oxygen (we pretty much chose them because they have an office in Logan so it's easy access and quicker service) so the girl came and did training with us. She has a monitor that is attached to her to make sure she doesn't de-sat or quit breathing. We put the little leads on her chest and this machine kept making the LOUDEST BEEPING I'VE EVER HEARD! Her leads just weren't reading rights, so we defaulted to what the girl called the "mommy saving belt". It's a piece of material that fastens around the baby's chest to hold a better set of leads. I have no idea why we didn't do that in the first place. Once we got that put on there, the machine quit beeping. I have to say that if she quits breathing in the night we will know IMMEDIATELY because that thing is so loud. We'll probably both have heart attacks in the process. I am happy to say at this moment, over 24 hours after we put it on it has not beeped once! Then after learning about the oxygen, Nate and I had to do CPR training. We didn't get certified because we didn't take a written test, but we now officially know how to administer infant CPR and how to stop her from choking. Of course, they have the little doll that you practice on and when it was Nate's turn to do it, he BROKE THE BABY! There is a little spring on the inside that makes the chest go up and down when you do compressions, and he broke the spring! I laughed so hard. The lady was like "that has never happened before!" He wasn't pushing too hard or anything but instead of being on the floor like we would be if it was a real baby, we just put it in our laps. Well, he is a boy and of course didn't put his knees together so when he pushed on the baby, it's head and legs were on his knees and the body was pushed down into nothing, so it broke. HAHA! I do feel better knowing that we both know how to do CPR on her if it's needed. Finally at 1:00pm we we finished. We loaded her up and were on our way home. I sat in the back with her since it was her first car ride, to be sure she was okay. She slept the entire ride home! As of right now, she doesn't mind her car seat so that is a really good sign. She is such a mellow and relaxed baby that it really takes a lot to upset her or make her mad. Nate's parents and my parents were able to come over and see her and my sister Melanie brought her old bassinet from my mom's house to us so she got to hold Kamry for the first time ever. Of course I was nervous for the first night with my baby, but Kamry did awesome. Just in case she didn't wake up to eat, I set an alarm for 3 hrs. and 45 min. after her last feeding so that I would for sure wake up so she didn't go hungry at all. She was still snoozing when I woke up to my alarm. I don't know how long she would've slept if I had let her. I got her bottle warmed up, changed her bum and she ate so good! When I put her back in the bassinet, she kind of made little noises for a few minutes and then was fast asleep again. She is an amazing baby.

We had a 9am appointment at Primary Childrens with Dr. Barnhart to have him look at her hernia and schedule a surgery. He assessed it, and of course he had to push hard on it to see if it would go back in, and she did not like that at all. She fussed and screamed because it hurt. Me and Nate felt so bad for her. It was heart breaking to see her in pain like that. The doctor was really nice and explained how they are going to fix it. Basically, the hernia was caused by small opening in her abdomen wall, and things can get pushed through the hole creating the hernia. In extreme cases, bowel can get sucked through there and it can cause a lot of damage and problems. He said to fix it, they will make a small incision on her pubic bone, go in, push back the protruding hernia (which he said is most likely her ovary sticking through the hole in her abdomen wall) and sew up the hole. They are also going to check the right side to be sure nothing is going on there. He said that even though the hernia just appeared, she was born with it so checking the right side will ensure that another hernia doesn't pop up later. They are also going to fix her umbilical hernia while they're doing it. So we got the surgery scheduled for August 10. It's considered an out-patient surgery, but because she is less than 8 months old, the anesthesia can sometimes (in rare cases) cause them to stop breathing, so the hospital requires them to stay 1 night for observation until all the anesthetic is out of their system. That way if anything does happen, they can intervene quickly. Me and Nate are completely fine with her staying the night. I don't want to her stop breathing at home with us. It's sad to think my little girl is going to have surgery, but it's going to fix the problem and then everything will be fine. I was so surprised because Kamry did awesome the whole ride down to Salt Lake and the whole ride home. She started getting fussy in the doctors office, so we fed her, changed her and she was a happy camper again.

On Friday (7/16) Kamry had her first appointment with the pediatrician in Logan - Dr. Brown. I really like him. He seems so nice, and my cousin Rachel takes her kids to him and she just loves him, so I think I've picked a good doc for my little girl. She weighed 4 lbs. 13 oz. at her appointment. Almost 5 lbs! It has been an insane few days but some of the most amazing of my life. The past 9 weeks have been so tiring and exciting and crazy that I don't know if our life will ever settle back down. But having her home is a great way to start it. Kamry officially spent 65 days in the McKay Dee NICU. WOW!

This was her at the hospital when we did her car seat check. It actually fits her good, but to keep her head from bobbing from side to side we improvised with these blankets. The car seat specialist (yes, they really do have a specialist) said that doing this with blankets is totally fine because if we were in an accident, they would just fall out and not go behind her head. Anything that sits behind the babies head is at risk for keeping their head pinned to their chest and making it harder for them to breathe. She really discouraged any after market car seat things that don't come with your car seat. I was mentioning those little things that you can buy to go around their head (from ear to ear) and she said no because they can fall behind her head. Scary. I never thought about those things before. We will only have to do these rolls for Kamry a couple more days because she is getting bigger and more stable in the car seat now. (The lady said to do it for about a week after she came home).


I snapped this one when Kamry was sleeping in the bassinet one morning. Too cute!


We were still holding onto the bottle, but I thought it was so cute how she was holding it to her mouth.


Kam's first bath at home. (This is a yawn, not a scream). She loves bath time and it's so fun.


After her first bath at home. Sheena gave her this little hippo towel. too cute!


One of her adorable outfits. I love when they have stuff on the feet!


Cute little socks. She has these in pink too.


This is the table runner and center piece that Kallie is using for her wedding on the tables. Nate thought Kamry's outfit matched so good he wanted pictures. They turned out really cute.


This is about as close as Tommy has been to Kam since we brought her home. I think he still finds it strange that there is someone else in the house. He has been really good with her though. She started crying the other day and he ran to her and stayed there until we came. I think he's going to be protective of her once he gets used to her.


Could Nate be more comfortable?

Most Recent

Well, there has been a lot going on. I was hoping to keep up on this blog a little better, but I don't always have access to a computer unless I come home, and even then it's still hard to find time.

Things are going great. Little Kamry is a trooper. She currently (as of today 6/19) weighs 3 lbs. 5 oz. and is filling out nicely. She is kind of getting little chubby cheeks on her and I love it! According to my last post she was on a CPAP. Well, she was on that for a few days and then went onto an Oxygen Nasal Cannula. She did really well for about a week and then did go back on the ventilator for a very short time and then was off and just on oxygen again. She is currently just on the oxygen and is doing great with it. They have weened her down from 4.5 Liters to 2 Liters in just this short time and she is usually between 28-32% oxygen so she is handling things really well. Usually when we hold her, they have to turn down the % of oxygen she gets because her saturation's will go too high. She loves being held and of course we love holding her.

She got to start wearing clothes too! I love seeing her in clothes. I cried the day that we came into the NICU and she was dressed. It makes her look so adorable, but it also makes this more real. Knowing that she is doing good enough to wear clothes makes me so happy. She had to have all of her IV lines removed to be able to wear clothes, so that is a great sign on her part. The clothes are all so tiny and they are still huge on her! Whoever designs preemie clothes needs to be hit in the head. They think a 5 lb. baby is a preemie! What about the 2 lb babies like mine? They just have to drowned in the fabric? I guess so! Even though the clothes are big, they are ADORABLE on her. I love it.

This was the very first outfit she ever wore. It was one they had at the hospital but I do have to say that it is really cute!





My friend Brittany Anderson gave her this one. You can see what I mean by people not knowing how big a real preemie baby is! Look how huge it is!





Grandma Lundgreen gave her this little outfit. I thought it was SO cute and she looks so adorable in it. This is the pic I got that shows the most of the outfit. Doesn't she look comfy?


Just this week I began "non-nutrient" breast feeding with her. That is where I pump and remove all the milk from me, and then we try to get her to latch on. Tuesday was the first day we did this, and she latched on right away - only for just a second, but she knew what she was doing. Then on Wednesday she did awesome! She latched on and off for about a half an hour sucking really well. We did it again Thursday and she is doing great. This past Thursday she "turned" 34 weeks. ( I don't really know how to phrase that. Oh well). The lactation specialist told me this is a great time to start trying to get her to latch because we will then take her up a little each time and soon she will be able to try nursing. Not full nursing, because we don't want her to choke, but they said that I'll pump out a lot of my milk, and then she can try nursing some. But that way she won't get a rush of milk into her mouth and end up choking. Gradually we will work her up to full nursing and see if she'll take bottles too. It's interesting to experience this all, but I'm grateful that I have specialists there to tell me if I'm doing something wrong. I mean, lets face it - I am a breast feeding "virgin"! :)

Last week we were able to have the grandparents hold her for the first time. They were all absolutely thrilled and it was so sweet to see all of their faces as they held her.

Grandma King


Grandpa King


Grandma Lundgreen


Grandpa Lundgreen


I still don't know when we can bring her home, but she has to be able to eat and breathe on her own and maintain her own body temperature. Her due date was July 29, which is roughly 7 weeks from now. I'm thinking she will come home between 4 and 6 weeks from now. We'll just have to wait and see. I'm also completing her room too so when it's done, I'll take pictures and post those as well.

Kamry also got to start taking baths in a little pink tub instead of having sponge baths. She absolutely loves them! I couldn't believe her reaction! We wrapped her up in a little towel to help keep her warm, but she didn't fuss at all the first time. She just sat there wide eyed enjoying every second of her warm bath. I wasn't able to get pictures of video the first time, but Nate was there for the second "tub bath" she got and video'd the whole thing. It was awesome! I tried to figure out how to upload the video from my video camera, but of course I am technologically retarded so some day, when I have figured it out (or found someone smarter to figure it out) I will upload the video so you can see it.
This is the little tub we bath her in. She's almost getting too big for it now, but it has worked great the first couple times.


First Kiss from daddy!


Nate of course had to have a pictures of this outfit. It's very very true too! She is definitely going to be a daddy's girl. You can tell he is such a proud dad and he is going to be a great dad too.

Kamry Update

Baby Kamry is doing really well. She was taken off the ventilator last week and put on a cpap. I hated seeing her like that. They had to put this little beanie on her head and had to strap it on so they didn't move. Me and Nate decided we hated the cpap more than the ventilator because it looked so sad. The pics below show it really good. Her whole face was taken up by that. They had to put this little beanie on her to be able to attach the hoses to it so they didn't move too much. It was SO SAD! After about 2 days on the cpap, they took it off and put her on just a nasal canula with oxygen. We were so relieved to see that! Here are a couple of pictures to show you just how sad it was.

Here she is squeezing Aunt Deanna's finger



She has been gaining weight pretty good. They told us it could take up to 2 weeks for her to get back to her birth weight. She went from 2 lbs. 3 oz. at birth to 2 lbs. even. She has gained and lost a little but she is still above her birth weight. The nurse was telling me that it's really common for premies to gain and lose a little before they start gaining continuously. She is still so tiny, but seeing her put weight on is great.

Last Saturday (May 22) I got to hold her skin to skin. The nurses were saying it's great for mom & baby because it helps them bond and also helps baby feel closer to mom. I can seriously say that it really does. When I was holding her against my chest she was so relaxed and they had to keep turning her oxygen down. She went from like 45% oxygen to 25% oxygen while I was holding her. She slept on me and was so comfortable. Her little arms were outstretched onto my chest. We were concerned that she might get cold (even though we had a warm blanket over her) and the nurse told us that it's been shown (by research i guess) that when the baby is being held by mom, if she gets cold or hot, moms body will change temperature to make the baby comfortable. Apparently dad's body doesn't do that so they have to pay more attention to if the baby is comfortable. Mom's are so amazing. The things our bodies can do to create children, bring them into the world and then care for them. It's just amazing! Women rule! These are skin to skin pictures from 2 different times I've held her like that.

She almost always has a hand on her face when she sleeps. The nurses were telling me that it means that she is content. It's so cute when she does that!

Our little girl is so amazing. Even though she is so small she is so strong! Compared to some of the other infants in the NICU she is so low-maintenance which is such a good thing! Every time I go in the nurse tells me that there really isn't anything to report. She just uses her oxygen and occasionally has a breathing treatment. They haven't been worried about anything else really since her heart PDA closed up. I know that we're not out of the woods yet, there are still a lot of opportunities for things to happen, but she is so strong and healthy that I cant help but be so greatful that she is so amazing and strong.

Hospital Latest

May 13: I officially became a "Boarder" at the hospital. I moved rooms, and am now staying at the hospital as a boarder and not as a patient. What that means is that I get to stay in a hospital room, still get 3 meals a day and be close to Kamry without having to pay for it. It's a service they offer for nursing mothers to be able to keep us close to our babies. The staff does not check on me anymore, and I can come and go from my room as I wish. The other nice thing is that I don't have to pee in that stupid hat anymore. Because I was so swollen and had retained so much water they had to monitor my intake and output to be sure I was releasing the water that I was holding. Well, they told me that it could take a week or two to lose all the water, but in a 24 hours period I pee'd out 4 LITERS! The nurses about died when they told me that and you can only imagine my reaction.

Nate went home for the first time to get a good nights sleep on an actual bed. He said our bed has never been more comfortable. The recliner they had for him in my room did not look comfortable at all! He came back this morning and brought me a few more necessities, you know... clothes, underwear etc... When I got up and showered and actually put clothes on today I felt SO GOOD! I can't believe how nice it is just to be able to get dressed and wear normal clothes. No more hospital gowns! YAY!

May 14: Today was pretty relaxing. Brian and Kelli came to see us and we left the hospital and went to lunch. It was so nice to leave the hospital because I haven't been outside since last Saturday. Well, I guess if you count being loaded into and out of an ambulance as being outside, then it was Sunday. But Nate drove his truck today so I did have the challenge of getting into his huge truck. Luckily he is a thinker and pulled a step ladder out of the back of it and I climbed the ladder to get into his truck. A picture below will depict the humor. If you can't laugh at this, you're dead. I even had to use it to get out of the truck too. I just can't lift myself or stretch my body that much yet since the surgery.

After Brian and Kelli came, my old roomie from ISU Lindi and her mom came to see me too. I haven't seen Lindi for months so it was so nice to see her and be able to take her in to see Kamry. She was just in awe at how tiny she is. The pictures really don't make her look as small as she really is. You definitely get a better picture when you see someone hand or something next to her. Its funny to see people's reactions that have never seen a premie her size. They're just in shock. After Lindi and her mom were here, Brittany Anderson and her husband Jon came. It was funny to see the shock on Brittany's face too. I love the reaction. And it amazes me how everyone just is so drawn to her. Kamry is so sweet, and so tiny that it's impossible not to fall immediately in love with her. It was really nice to see friends today. I've had a lot of visitors this week, and every day it's fun to see people. Tomorrow is going to be much slower so we'll see how the day goes.

We got to go hold Kamry again today (5/14). Here she is peeking at her daddy with one eye open. She loves being held by her daddy. I told Nate that I'm pretty sure she is going to be held way too much when we get her home and he said that if she is sleeping, and he is home, she will be sleeping on his chest. Just the thought of our little girl sleeping on her daddy's chest makes me want to cry. It's such a beautiful image.

First Kiss from Mommy!

The Terror Continues...

Sunday May 9, 2010

On this morning, I woke up, obviously still in the hospital, but feeling just fine. Dr. Strebble (the on -call doc that was watching over me all weekend) was planning to review my latest labs as soon as they were back and then we would discuss the best plans for me. I decided that I wanted to take a jacuzzi bath to relax but decided to wait until I talked to the doctor. I knew as soon as I got in the tub he would come and want to talk.

In the mean time, Nate's parents arrived to visit and then Nate came up shortly thereafter. Because my labs had been so steady, he decided to sleep at home and get a full nights rest. Well, after just a little bit, Dr. Strebble came in and discussed my labs with me. He felt that the best plan was to transport me to Ogden to McKay Dee Hospital and have them monitor me because my toxemia was not getting any better and my blood platelets were still low. (Normal platelet level is over 200 and I was in the 90's). He wanted to speak with the specialist in Salt Lake City, then also with Dr. Ahlstrom who would be my physician in Ogden. He left momentarily, then came back saying that they had ordered for an ambulance ride to Ogden and I would be on my way within the next few minutes. Me and Nate both had a look of fright in our eyes, but we knew everything would be okay. I knew that if they were tranferring me to Ogden, it was the best thing for me and for Kamry so I had to trust their judgement and know that the doctors know what is best. At this point though, I decided that I'm glad I'm a social work student because it came in handy trying to keep myself calm and not freak out. All the lessons my teachers have taught me over the years really paid off.

When the ambulance guys got there, they were great. Making jokes and keeping a smile on my face. We had a nice ride down (even though you feel like you're riding in the back of a dump truck). Me and the one guy (I think his name was John but I can't remember exactly) sat and chit chatted about my work and the differnt things that I do up at school. He seemed very impressed with my career goals, and the fact that even though I was most likely going to be having a premature baby within the next few days I was keeping very calm. He was relaxing to talk to and it made the trip down really comfortable. All I can say is that I truly appreciate the men and women that are willing to do those jobs because they can really make or break the sitaution and this guy totally made mine.

When I got to Ogden, the nurses that were working were very surprised because apparently they had heard that a 28 week pregnant girl was coming in and they were expecting the worst. They had the NICU team ready to go and were prepared to take me straight into surgery. Much to their surprise, I was smiling and talking to them as if nothing was wrong. About 20 minutes after I got to the hospital, Nate arrived. He drove down seperate so he would have a vehicle, and could stop by the house to get some items for us.

After having even more labs drawn, I asked Dr. Ahlstrom if I could take a shower. He said that would be okay if it was kind of a quick one. That was fine with me, a shower just sounded really good. Nate left to run down to the car to get my shower stuff, and forgot the keys. So he came back in, grabbed the keys and left again. Right after Nate left to go get my shower stuff out of the car, Dr. Ahlstrom came back in and said that they were going to take the baby and to begin preparations for it. I wanted to cry. I asked him if I could still take a shower because I wasn't going to get one for a few days. He said that was okay, but still to make it quick. While waiting for Nate, I got in the shower and began to wash. He came in and helped me with my hair and helped me dry off. We said a quick prayer to ask for strength and for me and the baby to be safe. Then I was loaded onto a bed and began to prep for surgery.

The nurses and sugical tech's were great. They gave me some pills and a "shot" of some grape crap drink to help with nausea from the anesthesia. I've never gotten sick before, but this was a new experience because I've never had an epidural before. As they wheeled me back into the operating room, I suddenly got very hot and just knew I was going to throw up. Luckily I said something fast enough and the speedy tech got me a puke bag. I threw up in it and of course, threw up the nausea medication they had just given me.

I was moved onto the operating table, and was told to lean forward as far as I could while they placed the epidural. Nate sat there with me and held my hand. The first needle just took me off guard because I wasnt expecting him to stick me right then, but as he was preparing the epidural, all the little "local anesthetic" shots is what really started to hurt. Needles normally don't bother me, but this time I was squeezing Nate's hand. He said I wasn't putting any pressure, but I felt like I was squeezing as tight as I possibly could so apparently I was very weak from this whole experience.

They laid me back and put the curtain up so I couldn't see. Nate was seated right by my head and told that they would say "Baby Time" when he could snap a quick picture before they whisked her away. He didn't watch any of the surgery, but we both laughed at the doctors. They had such great humor. One of the nurses had her IPOD in her purse, so they hooked it up and let me choose the genre (country of course). I laughed because when I was getting stuck with the needle for my epidural, the song "Some Beach" by Joe Nichols came on and it was just too ironic.

During the surgery, I felt a lot of pressure right under my chest bone, and the anesthesiologist said that is normal because that is where the epidural begins. But of course, instead of just answering, he told me "oh, the doctor is just taking a break and is leaning on your chest bone for support". They teased about "who brought the 12 pack?" and "i think I'll take a smoke break now and finish this later". It helped keep the mood light and kept me smiling. I think truly talentd doctors know how to make their patients comfortable, and these guys did great.

Directly after surgery right when they were about to wheel me out to recovery, I threw up again. This hurt so unbelieveably bad. The muscles that had just been cut into now felt like they were shredding apart in my belly. Even though I had an epidural and was still numb I couldn't believe how bad it hurt.

Once in recovery, they let my family come see me. I didn't realize that almost my entire family came down when they heard I was being transferred to Ogden. My parents, Brent, Deanna, and Melanie came. Nate's parents, Ben, Cori, Kade and Kallie all came too. So 2 at a time they shipped them back to see me, and then of course the grandparents got to see Kamry. After I was finished in recovery (about an hour later I think) they wheeled me in to see Kam before they took me to my room. I got to see her for a minute, and of course, what happened. I threw up again. This time it hurt even worse! The nurse had told me that I should take a pillow and push down as hard as I could. I didn't have the strength, but luckily my dad came to my rescue and pushed on my belly with a pillow for me. It really did help too so I'm glad he was willing to do it.

All in all this experience is one that of course I will never forget, but I am grateful for at the same time. You love this child so much before they're even born and then once they get here you can't believe how much you love them. Well when they're so fragile and small it seems like your love grows 1000 times more for this child. If you're not a parent yet, you will totally understand when you are, but it is the most amazing feeling in the world and nothing could replace it.

Here are some pictures from her first few minutes of life:

Sunday May 9, 2010

7:26pm

Kamry Ann Lundgreen

2 lbs. 3 oz. 14 1/2" long

Welcome to the world little one!

Proud daddy

28 Week Terror

On Friday May 7, I went to the doctor for my 28 week appointment. I was all prepared, I drank my glucose orange drink for diabetic testing perfectly, I arrive the 15 minutes early to my appointment like I was supposed to and then I got called back into the office. Everything was going smooth. I had planned to talk to my doctor about swelling because my feet and ankles had been swelling pretty bad, and the past week had been a lot worse than before. So I get weighed, and I gained 11 lbs. from last month!

Let me give you a quick picture, and I'm going to give the actual numbers here so please no judgements. I know I need to lose weight, but at this moment... I don't care. So when I got pregnant, I weighed 212. Then because I was sick in the beginning, I dropped 5 lbs. down to 207. I held steady there for about 3 months. Well, then at my first weight gain appointment in April I put on 7 lbs, so technically now I'm only 2 lbs over my pre-prenancy weight at 214. Well at this appointment, I get weighed and I'm at 225.

So to continue the story... my urine sample came back with higher protein than they like to see, and with the swelling my doctor then proceeded to tell me that she is concerned with toxemia and/or preeclampsia. (here is a good website to learn more about that: http://www.preeclampsia.org/symptoms.asp). So she told me that they would run my labs and if anything was abnormal she would call me. Well, I get up to work and just about an hour later she called and told me that she wanted me t0 go check into the hospital for 24 hour surveillance.

Of course I immediately called Nate. He was headed home from work (this is about 11:30am) for his dad's surprise birthday party we were throwing up at the University (his dad turned 50 on saturday). So I told him the story and just said instead of going to the party, he needed to go the hospital instead. I drove to the hospital and checked myself into labor and delivery. About an hour later, Nate got here and we just got to sit around because they have put me on bed rest. I can get up to go to the bathroom, and shower and thats pretty much it. They are keeping my blood pressure monitored every hour. It was every 15 minutes, then every 30, but now we're down to every hour (which is nice) and they do blood draws every 12 hours, and monitor the baby's heart beat and whether or not I'm having contractions about every 3 hours. Lets just say its a lot of poking, prodding and noisy machinery. I tell you there is nothing better than hearing Kamry's steady heart beat on that monitor though. My favorite is when she kicks it trying to move it off of her (that's what I'm assuming she's doing at least). The little monitor just sits on my belly, and after a couple of minutes of it being there she starts kicking it, then she finally gives up. It's pretty funny. I'm glad my little girl is tough - she gets that from her daddy I think.

On Saturday: When the doctor talked to me on Saturday morning, he has decided that I am officially here in the Logan hospital until Monday, but possibly (most likely) further than that. It all depends on my labs and how my body responds to the bed rest. I'll definitely stay on bed rest until the baby is born, even if I get to go home. They have also officially diagnosed me with toxemia, and they're still monitoring preeclampsia. I asked if there is anything we can do to help with the swelling (like water pills or something) but he said when it's toxemia, the only solution is to deliver the baby - which we obviously don't want to do yet. They're hoping that we can hold off on delivering her until atleast 32 weeks (4 weeks from now), but preferably 34+ weeks. It will all depend on my body and how I respond. I'm really pushing for at least 32 weeks so she is further developed and weighs more. When they did my ultrasound on Friday when I got here, they estimate she currently weighs about 2 lbs. 4 oz. so she is very small. Average for 28 weeks, but still too small to feel good about delivering.

Nate got permission for me to go for a wheelchair ride and the doctor said it was okay for me to go outside. I just couldn't be gone for very long. We were only out for about 10 minutes, but it was a beautiful day and that 10 minutes was fabulous! Nate spent the whole day with me and we napped, watched tv and chatted. It's scary for both of us, but its so nice to have him here with me. Even when we're just sitting doing nothing, it means the world to me that he is here. He stayed through the night on Friday night, but last night we decided he could go home and get a better nights sleep since my labs had stayed pretty consistent.

I'm allowed to have visitors, but I have to keep them limited and I have to keep calm. My blood pressure spikes if there is too much going on, or even when I'm laughing too much so it's pretty solomn in here... but we make it work.

Well that is my current 28 week terror story. I'm trying very hard not to dwell on the thoughts of all the possibilities because I don't want to stress my body into having this baby, but it definitely puts your life in perspective and makes you really think about things. My dad gave me a beautiful blessing on Friday evening, and that made me feel a lot better.

I'm taking a few pictures here and there and will post those soon with updates of what is happening. Pray for the best, and lets just hope that this little girl can come into the world in a few weeks when she is stronger.