Emma's Story

I have been really wanting to record the stories of how each of our kids came into this world, because I want to remember and maybe someday down the road they might want to know.  

*Disclaimer: I know that some people are somewhat squeamish about things like this and don't want to know anything about that.  That is absolutely fine.  No judgement here. :)  But if you really don't want to hear anything about that, then this would be the time to close this window and not continue reading.  :)

When Randy and I first married in September, 2001, we had originally thought that it might be a nice idea to wait at least a year before starting a family.  (You know...give us some time to adjust to and simply enjoy being a married couple.)  It does sound like a nice idea.  Our families believed that there was no way that was going to happen, and immediately started a pool on when our first child would be born.  We laughed and said that was completely silly.  My sister chose July 15, 2002.  Emma was born on July 14, 2002. :)  Things didn't quite go according to our "plan" and that's ok.

So, backing up, I was taking the pill at the time we got married.  (This is something I would change if I could go back.  There are a whole host of reasons why I am not a fan, but that is something for another time.)  Despite taking the pill, we really thought that I had gotten pregnant the first month we were married, and we were really kind of disappointed to find out that I hadn't.  So, knowing that it can take up to a year to flush out your system and become pregnant, we decided to stop the pill and see what happened.  What happened was that I did get pregnant that very next month. :)  I really wanted to make sure that when I took the test I would get an accurate answer, so I went to get tested at our local crisis pregnancy center.  They rejoiced with us at the exciting news, and I had such a wonderful experience there that I became a volunteer.  (I would love to go back to volunteering there sometime, but that will have to wait for now.)  

We found out the week before Thanksgiving and told Randy's parents right away, since they were right here.  We wanted to tell my parents in person, so we decided that we would tell them at Thanksgiving.  Since I was in the habit of talking to my mom every day, and I am not very good at keeping exciting things like that a secret, that week was VERY difficult!!!  It was SO hard not to say anything, but I REALLY didn't want to spoil the surprise!  They were just as ecstatic as we were!  

The pregnancy went really pretty smoothly with no real complications.  I had some minor morning sickness, but nothing terrible.  The worst part was being very pregnant during the heat of the summer in a tiny little apartment with only a little window air conditioner in the living room.  (Believe me, I was very thankful to have that!)  During the last month or so, my feet started to swell.  (When I say "swell" I don't just mean a little puffiness.  I mean water balloons- as in it felt like they were literally going to pop at any moment!)  Aside from that, though, things were really easy!

We live about 20 miles from the town where I would be delivering.  On Saturday, July 13, we were in town shopping for a video camera.  We really wanted to make sure we had that before the baby came.  As we were shopping, I began having some contractions.  I was VERY excited and said we should go walk around the mall for awhile and try to really get things going.  So we walked, and walked, and the contractions stopped.  Completely.  Disappointed and disgusted, I said we might as well just go home.  Instead of going to our house, we stopped at the farm so Randy could work on a few things.  Within about 15 minutes, the contractions were coming less than 10 minutes apart.  When Randy came in the house about an hour later, I said that perhaps we should head to the hospital.  (Remember, this was our first baby and I really didn't know what to expect.)  


So, we drove to the hospital and got checked in, arriving right around supper time.  We called my parents to let them know that we were going to have a baby!  (Yes, probably a little bit preemptive, but again, we didn't really know what we were doing.)  We also called Randy's cousin, Renee.  She was in high school at the time, and very interested in becoming an ob nurse or midwife.  Knowing this, I had asked her if she wanted to be there when the baby was born.  Talk about excited!!!  So, she drove up to the hospital to meet us.  


When the nurses checked me, I was at 2 cm.  I was still having fairly regular contractions, and things were progressing, just VERY, VERY slowly.  (I am actually rather surprised that they kept me there and didn't just send me home.)  As 1 am approached, things still hadn't really changed much.  My parents had arrived, along with my sister and a friend, and the nurses told them they might as well go home, since it would be a LONG time before anything happened.  Being that they live 2 hours away, they didn't feel like driving back and forth more times than necessary, and unfortunately, it also happened to be the summer festival that weekend, so there were NO hotel rooms anywhere in the vicinity.  So, they continued to hang out in the waiting room.  


The nurses, in an attempt to be helpful, came in to give me a little shot to help me get some rest.  Had I known more at the time, I NEVER would have accepted that shot.  But, again, I really didn't know any better.  Renee, having been told that nothing would happen for a good, long while, decided to go get a little rest and come back later.  My family continued to camp out in the waiting room and the car, and I settled in to get what I thought would be some much-needed rest.  Little did I know.  


Turns out, 15 minutes after the shot, my water broke in the middle of a big contraction.  Immediately, things picked up tremendously.  The contractions came fast and furious, and I was very ill-prepared for dealing with that.  I asked the nurse for something to help with the extreme contractions and was told that the shot was designed to help with that, and it was too early for an epidural.  Well, the shot did NOT help at all with the contractions.  It made no dent in the pain and just made me feel loopy and out of control (not cool when I already felt out of control and didn't know what I was doing.)  About 2 hours after the shot, it was time to push.  Thanks to the "restful" nature of the shot, I kept falling asleep in between pushes, and I really remember very little about the delivery.  One thing I will never forget, though, is that Emma had the hiccups.  All through the pushing, until her head was all the way out.  That was a very memorably odd experience. :)  Anyway, like I said, I would NEVER use that shot again, as it just made it very hard to focus and made me drowsy and unable to do my job.  But, in spite of all of that, our beautiful Emma Joy was born just after 3 in the morning, July 14, 2002.  Randy rounded up my parents and family to come see our precious blessing.  He had also tried to find Renee when I was in active labor, but to no avail.  She arrived at the hospital around 5, expecting things to just be picking up.  Little did she know she was 2 hours too late.  


In spite of all of the unexpected twists and turns, things turned out very well, and we were blessed with a sweet and beautiful daughter, with more hair than I have ever seen on a baby. :)  And that is the beginning of the story of Emma Joy.  

Birthdays and vacations

No, we didn't fall off the edge of the earth.  We have been quite busy this month, but in a very good way. :)  


We spent July 3-7 at Family Camp.  This was our third year (and for me, much more enjoyable than last year, when I was 9 months pregnant and praying we would make it through camp before baby arrived.)  Our first year, we stayed in one of the rooms at the camp, which worked pretty well.  Last year, we decided to take advantage of my father-in-law's offer to use his very nice, very new 5th-wheel camper.  It was lovely!  We had our own bathroom, our own kitchen, comfy furniture (including the 2 recliners where I spent much of my time last year, relaxing with my feet up), and we didn't have to worry about forgetting anything in the room.  Plus, we didn't have to deal with coolers, etc.  It just worked out really well.  So, we opted for that option again this year, and again, it worked really well!  The two big kids claimed the recliners for sleeping, Abby and Michael slept on the floor, and Randy and I got the queen--size bed.  Everyone did really well with sleeping, which made Mommy VERY happy!  I was also really pleased with how well Michael did in the nursery!  In the morning, there is a Bible study, and then there is another service in the evening with a different speaker.  There is a kids' program during both services for the older kids, and nursery care available for the littles.  (Abby could have been in the preschool program if she was fully potty trained, but she had a LOT of fun playing.)  When you drop the kids off in the nursery, they give you a number that corresponds to the number on your child's name tag.  If there is a problem, they flash your number up on the big screen in the sanctuary.  Our first year, when Abby was a little over a year, we got paged at some point during almost every service.  Last year she did fine.  This year, we got paged once for Michael.  I thought that was pretty good!  (Actually, when I got to the room, he had calmed down again, but once he saw me, it would have been a problem to just leave.)  Another highlight is getting to spend time with some of our best friends, the Seavers.  They were our next-door neighbors for 6 years, and Mike was also our pastor.  They moved about 2 hours away the same summer that we moved out to the farm.  We do get to see them sometimes when we visit my family (they live about 15 minutes apart), but it's not the same as having them next door. :)  The only real issue this year was the heat.  It was SO hot outside that we had to revise some of our outdoor planned activities in order to prevent the kids from roasting.  Actually, the heat might have been somewhat bearable, but the humidity was also in the upper 90s, which made it hard to breathe.  (Thankfully we had air conditioning, or it would have been a long, crabby, uncomfortable time!)


Anyway, we really did have a lovely time!  The speakers were terrific, the kids had a blast, and we had so much fun visiting!  We got home on the afternoon of the 7th and got things mostly unpacked and cleaned out.  The next morning was church and Michael's birthday.  Does it make me a bad mom that when I had been shopping earlier in the week, making sure we had everything we needed for camp, I completely forgot about getting him a cake?  After church, we went out for lunch and picked up a cake mix.  When we got home, we got the cake made, opened a couple presents with Grandpa (he really didn't have much to open since a lot of his presents were clothes and a pair of shoes, which we needed for camp, but I don't think he minded too much).  Then we ate cake and ice cream and got people to bed early. :)  


That night, Abby woke up with a fever and vomiting.  By the next morning, her tummy was doing a little better, but she still had a fever.  Michael also spiked a fever that afternoon, but no vomiting.  The next day, both of them had a low-grade temp in the morning, but seemed fine by that afternoon.  We were especially thankful that everyone seemed to be doing well, since we had been talking about taking a little vacation.  


Tuesday, everyone seemed to be doing well, so we got everything repacked and ready.  The next morning, we piled everyone in the car and headed west.  We spent the first night in North Dakota, visiting some friends.  The next day we visited the Little Bighorn battlefield, and spent the night in Montana.  Then, it was off to Yellowstone, via the Beartooth Pass.  We spent 3 nights in Yellowstone (Randy's 3rd trip there, and a first for the rest of us).  Emma got to celebrate her 10th birthday in Yellowstone, which was pretty neat.  Then we spent one night in Grand Teton National Park, before heading back up to Montana.  We finally arrived back home late on Wednesday night, the 18th.  


In order to avoid making this post WAY too long, I will just finish by saying that we had a tremendous time, and there will be more posts (and pictures) to follow!