Wishing you and your families a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!
Love, Mark, Susan, & Emma
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Welcome, Emma!
Lying on the bed next to me as I type this entry is the newest edition to the Mission: La Paz Team. Emma Izabella was born in the early morning (3:50AM to be exact) on Saturday, December 10th in Fidepaz Hospital, La Paz, Mexico. Emma weighs in at a healthy 8.2lbs and is 19.5 inches long, with lots of dark hair, blue eyes, and at the moment…a case of the hiccups. She joined us after 25 hours of labor which began at about 3AM on the 9th. At 8AM we had a regularly scheduled appointment with our OBGYN and our friend, and translator (and the inspiration for Emma’s middle name) Iza. After one final ultrasound the doctor indicated that he would be seeing us later in the day!
After running several errands, we arrived at home and thought it might be a good idea to start timing the contractions. A call to Susan’s doula (birthing coach), her arrival, and a re-checking of my math, and we were loading up the truck to meet the doctor at the hospital (that was about 2:30ish). With a quick examination it was determined that Susan was only dilated about 1cm. The doctor sent us home. We were disappointed, but began to prepare for what would become a rather long night.
Susan’s doula (also named Susan) rejoined us at our apartment around 5:30 pm, and we all decided to take a walk around the block. The contractions continued to grow stronger and increase in frequency, so at 7:30 we headed to the doctor’s office this time. His examination revealed that Susan was now dilated 5cm, and it was time to go to the hospital, where things progressed nicely until Susan hit the 8cm mark, where things stalled out for over 3 hours. No more dilation and the contractions were beginning to fall off.
The doctors, knowing our desire to have a natural birth – a rare thing here, became concerned because of the strain on little Emma indicated by spikes and drops in her heart rate. We did not want to go the Cesarean route, so we opted for medication to quicken the frequency and intensity of the contractions. Still nothing. Our now weary doctor and staff gave Emma another 10 minutes to get moving. She did, and with that we moved into the delivery room for the final push (Ok, pushes).
After Emma was born, she spent only enough time in the nursery to get thoroughly checked out by our pediatrician and a bath…she has been with us ever since!! She is absolutely beautiful in our incredibly biased eyes, and we can’t believe she’s actually here!
Susan handled the delivery amazingly, and is recovering well. Emma has been receiving visitors constantly, and we are finding time to rest whenever she allows.
Thank you all once again for all of your love, your prayers, and your unending letters of support and encouragement. We cannot wait for you all to meet our beautiful Mexican daughter Emma!
After running several errands, we arrived at home and thought it might be a good idea to start timing the contractions. A call to Susan’s doula (birthing coach), her arrival, and a re-checking of my math, and we were loading up the truck to meet the doctor at the hospital (that was about 2:30ish). With a quick examination it was determined that Susan was only dilated about 1cm. The doctor sent us home. We were disappointed, but began to prepare for what would become a rather long night.
Susan’s doula (also named Susan) rejoined us at our apartment around 5:30 pm, and we all decided to take a walk around the block. The contractions continued to grow stronger and increase in frequency, so at 7:30 we headed to the doctor’s office this time. His examination revealed that Susan was now dilated 5cm, and it was time to go to the hospital, where things progressed nicely until Susan hit the 8cm mark, where things stalled out for over 3 hours. No more dilation and the contractions were beginning to fall off.
The doctors, knowing our desire to have a natural birth – a rare thing here, became concerned because of the strain on little Emma indicated by spikes and drops in her heart rate. We did not want to go the Cesarean route, so we opted for medication to quicken the frequency and intensity of the contractions. Still nothing. Our now weary doctor and staff gave Emma another 10 minutes to get moving. She did, and with that we moved into the delivery room for the final push (Ok, pushes).
After Emma was born, she spent only enough time in the nursery to get thoroughly checked out by our pediatrician and a bath…she has been with us ever since!! She is absolutely beautiful in our incredibly biased eyes, and we can’t believe she’s actually here!
Susan handled the delivery amazingly, and is recovering well. Emma has been receiving visitors constantly, and we are finding time to rest whenever she allows.
Thank you all once again for all of your love, your prayers, and your unending letters of support and encouragement. We cannot wait for you all to meet our beautiful Mexican daughter Emma!
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
November 15th, 2005
I’m going to take advantage of this journal entry to focus on what’s been happening with Baby Emma!
I’ll take you back to Sunday, November 6th, when Crossroads threw a Surprise Baby Shower for us. We thought we were going to a youth event at Flor de Cardon (the B&B we stayed at when we first arrived in La Paz) with the youth of Crossroads where we would have a cookout and play some games. When we arrived not only were the youth there, but all of Crossroads was there, some of the pastors from the Mexican churches and their families, and all of our friends from La Paz! They somehow managed to plan a Baby Shower for Emma while we were in Los Angeles renewing our visas. How an entire church kept a secret for 2 weeks is still beyond me! We were overwhelmed at the sight. We were blessed with so many gifts from our friends, and everyone wore “Emma” stickers. Mark and some of the other men were subjected to participate in some games including seeing who could diaper a doll the fastest and the best while blindfolded (Lord, help Emma!), seeing who could identify the mystery baby food from diapers while blindfolded, seeing who could drink from a bottle the fastest, and also a relay race to see which team could transport cotton balls on a spoon the fastest. A more traditional game was seeing who could guess how many squares of toilet paper Emma and I are around. In case you were wondering, I am 11 squares around! We had a wonderful time, and feel so blessed to have such a loving community of friends and brothers and sisters in Christ! Thank You, Crossroads!!!
On November 9th, we had our 8th month Emma check-up. There are pros and cons to having an ultrasound done every month. Obviously the pros include being able to see our little Emma and watch her grow and see her move and to be sure month after month that she is in fact a she! The cons include seeing things that are common but alarming to new parents. Before you think anything is wrong, let me explain. Last month at our ultrasound we discovered that Emma had the umbilical cord around her neck once. The Dr. assured us that this was very common, and most parents don’t even know it’s happened. He said everything is fine, we will just hope that she will get the cord off from around her neck soon. This month, Mark and I were anxious to see if she did, and of course Emma removed the cord! The doctor told us that she is already heading south meaning she is in the correct position for the big day – head down, feet up, the cord is away from her neck, and he also said that because it’s getting quite cramped in there for her, she will not be able to change positions, so she’s there to stay until she arrives. Her heart rate was strong at 158 beats per minute, and everything looks great. I have gained a total of about 22 pounds, and the Dr. estimated that Emma is already about 2.7 kilos which is close to 6 pounds! He’s anticipating a 7 to 7 ½ pound baby girl to arrive around the 2nd week of December, although he’s still saying she could come anytime between Dec. 6th and Jan. 6th.
We are getting more and more excited every day as we are in the home stretch. Physically I get tired very easily, but I feel great! Emma has definitely had a growth spurt in the past 2 weeks. Mark and I like to play “Guess that Body Part” when she moves around. We were able to guess that her feet were up around my ribs even before the Dr. told us by her movements and the shapes of the parts sticking out of my belly at times. The other night I was lying on my side, and Mark was resting his head on my belly. Within a few minutes, Emma kicked Mark’s head as if to say, “Daddy, get off – it’s already squished in here!”. I love feeling her inside of me, and I will definitely miss that part of being pregnant, but I can’t wait to see her in person! Who will she look like? How big will she be? When will we get to see her first smile? It’s so exciting! We set up her Emma space in our bedroom with all of her gifts. We had all of her clothes washed, and I even packed her hospital bag for the big day. I think we’re as ready as we’re going to be to be parents!
We hope you enjoy some pictures from Emma’s Baby Shower! We love you all and thank you for sharing in our joy from near and far away!
I’ll take you back to Sunday, November 6th, when Crossroads threw a Surprise Baby Shower for us. We thought we were going to a youth event at Flor de Cardon (the B&B we stayed at when we first arrived in La Paz) with the youth of Crossroads where we would have a cookout and play some games. When we arrived not only were the youth there, but all of Crossroads was there, some of the pastors from the Mexican churches and their families, and all of our friends from La Paz! They somehow managed to plan a Baby Shower for Emma while we were in Los Angeles renewing our visas. How an entire church kept a secret for 2 weeks is still beyond me! We were overwhelmed at the sight. We were blessed with so many gifts from our friends, and everyone wore “Emma” stickers. Mark and some of the other men were subjected to participate in some games including seeing who could diaper a doll the fastest and the best while blindfolded (Lord, help Emma!), seeing who could identify the mystery baby food from diapers while blindfolded, seeing who could drink from a bottle the fastest, and also a relay race to see which team could transport cotton balls on a spoon the fastest. A more traditional game was seeing who could guess how many squares of toilet paper Emma and I are around. In case you were wondering, I am 11 squares around! We had a wonderful time, and feel so blessed to have such a loving community of friends and brothers and sisters in Christ! Thank You, Crossroads!!!
On November 9th, we had our 8th month Emma check-up. There are pros and cons to having an ultrasound done every month. Obviously the pros include being able to see our little Emma and watch her grow and see her move and to be sure month after month that she is in fact a she! The cons include seeing things that are common but alarming to new parents. Before you think anything is wrong, let me explain. Last month at our ultrasound we discovered that Emma had the umbilical cord around her neck once. The Dr. assured us that this was very common, and most parents don’t even know it’s happened. He said everything is fine, we will just hope that she will get the cord off from around her neck soon. This month, Mark and I were anxious to see if she did, and of course Emma removed the cord! The doctor told us that she is already heading south meaning she is in the correct position for the big day – head down, feet up, the cord is away from her neck, and he also said that because it’s getting quite cramped in there for her, she will not be able to change positions, so she’s there to stay until she arrives. Her heart rate was strong at 158 beats per minute, and everything looks great. I have gained a total of about 22 pounds, and the Dr. estimated that Emma is already about 2.7 kilos which is close to 6 pounds! He’s anticipating a 7 to 7 ½ pound baby girl to arrive around the 2nd week of December, although he’s still saying she could come anytime between Dec. 6th and Jan. 6th.
We are getting more and more excited every day as we are in the home stretch. Physically I get tired very easily, but I feel great! Emma has definitely had a growth spurt in the past 2 weeks. Mark and I like to play “Guess that Body Part” when she moves around. We were able to guess that her feet were up around my ribs even before the Dr. told us by her movements and the shapes of the parts sticking out of my belly at times. The other night I was lying on my side, and Mark was resting his head on my belly. Within a few minutes, Emma kicked Mark’s head as if to say, “Daddy, get off – it’s already squished in here!”. I love feeling her inside of me, and I will definitely miss that part of being pregnant, but I can’t wait to see her in person! Who will she look like? How big will she be? When will we get to see her first smile? It’s so exciting! We set up her Emma space in our bedroom with all of her gifts. We had all of her clothes washed, and I even packed her hospital bag for the big day. I think we’re as ready as we’re going to be to be parents!
We hope you enjoy some pictures from Emma’s Baby Shower! We love you all and thank you for sharing in our joy from near and far away!
Monday, October 31, 2005
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