10 000 Days Old

I got my call from Dale Shoults this week infroming me that I turned 10 000 days old this past Tuesday. I'm glad he keeps track and lets people know because I sure wouldn't have realized on my own. Maybe he should take it one step further and start marketing some birthday cards for these kinds of occasions. Or maybe I should.

30th Anniversary

I'd like to wish my parents a very Happy Anniversary! They celebrated their 30th on July 11th. They were married back in 1975 in the Cardston Temple and 30 years, 5 children, and 4 grandchildren later, they're still together. They've set a great example for us kids and I know that if science made it possible they would someday celebrate their 100th Anniversary. Congratulations!

Beef and Barley Days 2005

It's Stampede time in Calgary right now but Tammy and I haven't made the trip down to the grounds this year to see it. We did however make it out to Carstairs yesterday for their annual Beef and Barley Days celebration. We were a bit late due to feedings so we missed the pancake breakfast and the better part of the parade but we did take the tour of the craft show and we watched a bit of the baseball tournament. We should have done more things like go to the car show that they have every year but I really wasn't feeling well yesterday. We ran into Bud and Julie Gustafson at the game and showed off babies and chatted for a while. Most of Tammy's family shows up for the celebration so we hung out at her parents house with them for most of the day eating Burger Baron. One of the more important parts of the trip was introducing Emma to Max, the Olsen's aged cat. He's been with their family for 16 years now but they have no idea how old he really is as he showed up full grown. We wanted them to meet because we don't know how much longer he'll be around but then again, people have been saying that as long as I've known him. It was a good fun, hopefully next year we'll be able to make it on time for the breakfast and the parade.

Great Great Great Aunt

We found out that shortly after Emma was born that her Grandpa Olsen's Great Aunt passed away. She was over 100 years old when she died. I thought it was quite amazing that Emma's Great Great Great Aunt was still alive when she was born. I wish we could have gotten a picture of the two of them together. We also then realized that my Grandma Bourne is the last living Great Grandparent that Emma has out of the possible 8 from both sides of the family. Great Grandma Bourne comes home from her mission down in Salt Lake later in the year so I'm looking forward to introducing them to eachother.

The Birth Story

It was Friday morning and I was still in bed getting ready to get ready for work when Tammy tells me she thinks her water has broken. She wasn't having contractions so I was a bit skeptical but Tammy insisted that the trickling she felt running down her leg wasn't the usual trickling so we took some last pictures of her as a pregnant lady and headed for the hospital. On the way I called work to tell them I probably wouldn't be in and Tammy called her Sisters and both our Mom's. When we got to the hospital they didn't have any room left in triage so they put us in the ultrasound room and there they did the tests to see if Tammy's membrane had indeed ruptured. The results were negative although Tammy was starting to feel some contractions. We were laughed out of the hospital. No that's not the case, we were sent down south to go for Tammy's 41 week ultrasound and there we got to see our not so little baby on the monitor. They were estimating her weight at about 8lbs which made Tammy nervous but the technician pointed out that the baby seemed to have a lot of hair on its head which made Tammy very excited. We left there and came home feeling a bit like the day would never come when we would see our darling child yet Tammy's minor contractions continued. We decided to go to Market Mall to walk around and hopefully get things going but we had to drive through a rain storm that had people gathering animals two by two to get there. We walked around a bit, ate dinner at Ricky's, and then we ran into Kevin and Elise and their two boys in the food court. We hadn't seen them since Porter was born so it was a serendipitous chance to catch up, see little Porter, and watch Mason gag himself on his carseat strap. What kids wont do for a laugh. Anyways, the mall closed and we heard that people were heading over to Kristie and Iain's to watch a movie so we decided to join them. We stayed up talking way later than we should have as the events of the next day would soon teach.

We got home from the Mason's about 1:30am and soon settled into bed under the assumption that we would be sleeping in the next morning as per the usual Saturday routine. We were wrong of course, Tammy woke me up around 6:00am to tell me that she had been up since about 4:00am counting contractions and that her water had definately broken. We headed for the hospital again at about 7:00am and they put us in triage with about half a dozen other couples. I've always been a bit leary of hospitals but this time I felt at ease and completely confident about what was going to happen. They did the same membrane test and it came back positive so all we were waiting for now was an available delivery room. We waited there with occasional visits from nurses until almost 6:00pm before we were taken to a delivery room. It was a long wait and I was thankful for the change because I was starting to get uncomfortable with all the moanings and far off screams that we were hearing all day. It felt like we were in a Civil War hospital full of people getting their amputations. Once we were in the delivery room they gave Tammy a drip in her IV that would help induce labour. Predictions from doctors and nurses had us beleiving that we would be having the baby sometime that evening so we were getting pretty excited. Tammy's Mom, Jodie and Aaron and Madison, and Kelly and Kimberly came by for some visiting and it really helped take the edge off of waiting. We were all having a really good time and the excitement level was high even though we we're so tired. I'd like to thank Tammy's Mom especially for being there. She ended up staying through the whole ordeal and both Tammy and I are so glad she did because it was great to have another family member around as things started to get more and more intense.

The nurses continued to up the dosage of the inducing juice and Tammy soon found herself dealing with some real contractions. She handled them so well, I was amazed. She had this incredible ninja-like focus with her breathing and everything, even the nurses were surprised. The contractions didn't seem to last long enough though and they were happening almost one right on top of the other. The baby's heartbeat was getting speratic too so the nurse backed off on the juice a bit to help calm things down. It gets a bit blurry after this as we were both getting so extremely tired. What I do remember is that around 10:00pm or so, the doctor tried to help spur things along by breaking the rest of Tammy's water and all heck broke loose. Seems the baby didn't respond to that very well and her little heartbeat dropped to the point where they couldn't find it anymore. They were flipping Tammy over all sorts of ways to try and get the baby to respond and they became very frantic. They put her on oxygen and an emergency team of doctors came bursting in and I became very worried. I tried to keep talking to Tammy to keep her calm but no one had told us what was going on so inside I was coming apart. Finally they fixed the problem and the heartbeat returned to normal but I dont think mine will ever be the same. They decided to back her off the juice entirely and just let her body take over instead. The doctor told us that Tammy was only dialated about 2 or 3 cm so now the predictions were looking more like 3:00am to 4:00am. The contractions started getting more spread out and Tammy kept her focus during all of them. It continued like that until about 3:00am when the pain started really getting intense and Tammy was becoming over exausted. It was then that something magical occured. It's called an epideral. A very large man with a red handlebar mustache came in with some needles and with him came sweet relief. It's a tricky thing to inject something into someones spinal column without doing any damage, especially when that someone is having contractions, but despite Tammy's inabilty to remain still and the nurse's inabilty to remain out of the way, the doctor did a fantastic job. Within 15 minutes Tammy was pain free and we were all told to get some rest. I just couldn't beleive it at first. We were actually going to sleep for the first time in almost 24 hours! The BYU t-shirt I borrowed from Aaron led us to find out that "Big Red" is a member of the Church down in south Calgary so we chatted for a bit and he was on his way. Two of the chairs in the delivery room were converted into beds so Tammy's Mom and I could sleep too, and that we did. The three of us went down at about 4:00am, not really knowing what was going to happen in the morning, but we were so tired I dont think any of us bothered to ask.

At about 7:30am I woke up to nurses rushing around the room again with Tammy back in the position they put her in when the baby's heart rate dropped. Her epidural had worn off and she was feeling some major contractions again. The heart rate of the baby was looking pretty jumpy again too. They called in the epidural guy again and they decided to give her a stronger mix. They gave her the stuff that they give women who are about to have a c-section and it seemed to take pretty well. After everything started calming down again, they decided to get the doctor to check how much Tammy was now dilated. The doctor came in around 10:00am and found that she was only dilated 5cm. I didn't know how much more I could take of this and I couldn't imagine how Tammy was feeling. Not only was Tammy not dilated much but the baby wasn't descending so they started talking c-section. The surgeon who would perform the operation came in and told us we had two options: have a c-section now or wait to see how things progress and have a c-section in 4 hours. We decided to get it done now. I had a few questions about it and I was not a little nervous to tell the truth. The doctor explained everything really well and all the nurses reassured us that he was the best there was at this sort of thing. Within 20 minutes or so I was dressed in the surgery garb and we were wheeling down the hall to the operating room. I was really glad that Aaron and Jodie were there as Aaron was able to assist me in giving Tammy a blessing before she went in. I started getting pretty emotional at that point as I was trying to balance the excitement of the baby finally arriving with my worries about the operation. They wheeled Tammy in to prep her for the surgery and I waited outside with Tammy's Mom and her two older Sisters, Kristie and Jodie. They were going to be watching the operation from an observation room and I was to go in once they were ready to go. I took the time to eat something and call my family to let them know what was going on. After about 20 minutes they brought me in to the room and sat me down up by Tammy's head. She was visibly shaking and pretty out of it so I did my best to keep her mind occupied. They started by saying she was going to feel a bit of pressure and within minutes I was standing up watching them bring the baby out. I was once worried about seeing it all happen but the miracle of seeing the baby for the first time after such a wait was a beautiful thing. I was surprised at how good she looked and how little amounts of cleaning she needed. They cut the cord as I was spatially restricted from doing so myself and they brought her over to the cleaning table. I thought I had caught a glimpse of something male so I was announcing that it was a boy to everyone but the nurse soon corrected us all and pronounced that it was a girl! I went over to the table and helped clean her off and held her little hand for the first time and I felt an instant attachment to her like I've never felt with anyone before. We wrapped her up and I brought her over to Tammy and laid her on her chest so she could see her little face for the first time. I got pretty emotional at that point and one of the nurses said "Happy Father's Day" and the tears started flowing. Tammy was still in the midst of being stitched up and she was still heavily under the influence of the drugs so unfortunately she couldn't fully enjoy the moment. However, I think we'll both always remember the way Emma's little tongue was going a mile a minute like a lizard on a Popsicle. They say that’s common for c-section babies because the drugs mess with their coordination a bit. Within 20 minutes of the baby arriving they had Tammy stitched up and brought to a recovery room where we would spend the better part of the day. Emma was born at 11:23am on June 19th, 2005 and when they weighed her she was 8lbs 4oz and she measured 21.5 inches long. Tammy's family all had a chance to come in and visit for a bit and to hold the new baby but after they left it was Dad's turn and I held her for hours as the nurses continued to help Tammy through the recovery process and as she got some much needed rest. Those hours were some of the most precious I have ever spent, it was a fantastic way to celebrate my first Father's Day.