Our Little Wii

Camden spent the better part of the day doing what he does best, which is sleep. We did, however, get some good awake time with the boy. We had a nice dinner with Jennifer Dugan who stopped over for a visit tonight. Jennifer has been such a great friend to us over the past few months while Kim has been on bedrest. Our meager spare rib dinner was the least we could do to thank her.

We also had my coworker Mike Farmer and his wife Susan over for dinner last night. In all the excitement we somehow forgot to snap a picture with them. In any case, we were happy to have them over to visit with Camden. They, like my parents, have grandchildren that are hundreds of miles away so they could relate with my parents. Farmer also got a chance to reminisce about 'Nam with my dad. Not the war, but from his days with Cargill Animal Nutrition and his trips to Vietnam :)

To wind down after a long day, my parents requested that we Wii. My mom played the boxing game while Camden watched in horror.


Grandma Nguyen Wii Boxing


"What is that evil machine?!"

Daddy Returns to Work

I returned to work today for the first time since Camden entered our lives. It was tough leaving Camden this morning, but it wasn't as hard to be at work as I thought it might be. I knew that I would be coming home at lunch and could visit with him then.

When I arrived at work this morning, I was greeted by five gift bags from my co-workers. Quite unbelievable. Well, not really if you know the people I work with. My team at Cargill has to be some of the most caring people I know. What more would you expect from a group of touchy-feely, HR, learning and development people :) The gifts are more than we would ever expect, but very much appreciated. Kim is excited for when Camden is big enough to fit into some of the outfits and I look forward to when he can begin to comprehend the children's books.

Not sure Camden knew I was gone today or not, but when I got home for lunch he was wide awake and full of smiles. It definitely made his Daddy happy to see him alert and see him having happy times. We've also learned to recognize what Kim and I affectionately call his "poo" face (pictured). It's the face he makes when he's....well, the name speaks for itself. We haven't been able to decipher if the "poo" face means he's doing #1 or #2 yet.

I went back to work after lunch and went about my day. It wasn't as bad being back at work as I thought. Not that my work is all that bad, but I thought being away from Camden maybe harder than it was. It was nice to get back into the swing of things again and resume what Kim and I refer to as our "new normal" lives.

Kim is doing great and seems to be recovering nicely. Having my parents around has been a huge help. My mom made a great dinner tonight for us and our friends Megan and Vinh (pictured left). Megan is an avid reader and will have to call her co-workers into her office to show them she made the blog.

Obviously as first time parents we take lots of pictures. The digital age makes snapping pictures so easy doesn't it?! As my co-worker Fernanda says, "Your camera won't be able to keep up with the cute". Well, we're doing our best and remember that you can always view more Camden photos by clicking "Camden's Photo Gallery" link on the left side of the page. In the meantime, here are some more pictures of the star of this site...


Camden practicing his O-H-I-O.


Momma's boy.


Camden doing what he does best. Sleeping.


Camden doing what he does 2nd best. "Pooing."

Grandma and Grandpa Nguyen

Grandma and Grandpa Nguyen made it into town without incident. Well, except for a lost piece of luggage that was brought out to the house later that day. As expected and as you can see below, they're loving they're time with Camden.

They arrived on a football Saturday so we're all decked out in our Ohio State gear. Camden finally grew into the outfits that his Auntie Paige bought for him. The Buckeyes prevailed once again with a 33-14 victory of the Washington Huskies. Camden was certainly happy, but wishes the Buckeyes could show more consistency on offense.

In more shocking news, the other side of our family's fanaticism, Iowa State shocked the Iowa Hawkeyes 15-12 in their annual rivalry game. The final field goal, of ISU's 5 on the day, happened as the final seconds ticked off the clock. Grandpa Sindt must think Camden is the Cyclone's lucky charm.

On to the pictures...








GO BUCKEYES! (and Cyclones!)

But somethings don't change...

Steve still manages to squeeze in some time to play Madden 08 on his PS3.

Oh how times have changed...

One of my favorite sites I go to is Slickdeals.net. I used to go there in search of hot tech deals. Now I take more notice of things like this:

Babies 'R Us 15% off printable coupon

I figured other parents out there might find it useful. The site only let's you print it off once, so make sure you print off as many as you need or be prepared to make some photocopies of it later.

Camden's arrival: A three day process

I have been wanting to write about Camden's arrival for quite some time. We had quite a few challenging weeks with my maternity complications. My blood pressure just wouldn't settle down...luckily bed rest worked and we managed to get within a week of having a full term baby. Camden was 36 2/7 weeks when I was induced. Just under 4 weeks early.

Those same complications however made for a pretty long labor and delivery process. We were checked into Methodist Hospital on Sunday, September 2nd, for 24 hour monitoring of my blood pressure and watching for extra protein. We made it 12 hours and at 2:00 in the morning the resident and attending doctor decided to induce. A little surprising. Steve had gone home to sleep, since we thought we were just being monitored and we thought we would be checked out Monday afternoon.

Before we knew it, I was hooked up to anti-seizure medication and the induction process begun. Neither mommy or baby were ready for this, so it took quite awhile for the medication they use to soften the cervix to take effect. Finally by late Monday I had dilated a whole centimeter.

Monday night was more of the same... hurry up and wait. Finally, Tuesday morning, everyone was ready to get the show on the road. And I got my first shot of pitocin. The contractions finally started to occur consistently and I spent a couple hours laboring through them.

Since I was confined to the bed, laying on my left side, I had a lot of discomfort laboring through contractions. (I hadn't been out of the bed since monday afternoon). I also had only been allowed to eat a small meal Monday morning and another small lunch Tuesday before the Pitocin was administred.

I hadn't planned on an epidural but after lengthy discussions with the medical team, we decided it would be for the best. Once that was administered, things continued to move onward (or should I say downward). By 10:00 or so, all was ready to go and the pushing began. The epidural was turned down and I pushed hard through each contraction. For FOUR HOURS. Baby just wouldn't crown.

The doctor stopped in and mentioned that maybe we get the vacuum to assist the delivery and after a few more pushes, the baby crowned. I'm not sure why they didn't mention the vacuum earlier, apparently that was all the incentive I needed.

Camden arrived and Steve cut his cord and he was ushered over to the NICU nurses to get checked out. We heard his little cries and my heart just melted. At this point my bed was positioned so I was head down and I had a huge dose of fluids being administed by IV.


Finally, Camden was brought over to me and I got to see him for the first time. It was so amazing, no words can describe it. Just a few quick kisses from Mommy was all I got before he and his daddy headed up to the Level 2 nursery to check him out in more detail. Because he was four weeks early and because of the meds I was on, he needed a little extra boost from the neonatel nurses.

He was given some glucose in an IV to increase his blood sugar level and they monitored his breathing to ensure he would do fine on his own. Thankfully the small IV was all he needed and he was sent back down me. It wasn't long before Daddy ushered baby back to my room to
begin our family bonding time. A little delayed, maybe, but it was certainly quite precious all the same. Once in the post partum room, we started making all our calls.

First Grandma and Grandpa Nguyen we're notified, then Grandma and Grandpa Sindt. We then called Aunt Paige and Uncle Tony and Aunt Lisa. It was with such joy that we announced his birth!

Mommy's week in review

I love being a Mommy! We brought our son home a week ago and it's been a true whilwind. There's been so much to process with being new parents and we are so lucky to go through everything with such supporting friends and family. Everybody has been absolutely amazing. I think we're doing pretty well on the learning curve. Camden complains very little, so we'll take that as a good sign.

Since Camden's homecoming last Friday, there's been a lot of laughter and joy in this house. Steve found my attempts at pumping absolutely hilarious, which made us both break out in fits of laughter. Breastfeeding has been going really well, thanks mostly to Camden since he latches so well and is a good eater. After less than a week home, he's already surpassed his birth weight and had a great well baby visit at the pediatrician.

It's still hard to believe this beautiful little baby boy is really ours. He's so cuddly, so expressive and so easy to stare at all day (and all night, since he's up) long.