Baby update

If you want to follow what's going on with Gabe, go here.

Well, this is interesting...

So I feel like it's more than time for an update. It's been almost a year, so I think I ought to explain what's been going on. And why I haven't really taken the time to write.

Things were going really smoothly for Emma and I as the first three months of our marriage sailed on by (by the way, marriage rocks, even at this current trial in our lives, which I'll explain in just a little bit). In October, and after many many visits to the temple, we decided that it was time to start trying to expand our family. I know, a crazy thought after only three months of marriage, but we decided it was right nonetheless.

Two months went by, and still no progress. But at that time, we were focused on our plans on going to San Diego for Christmas to spend with my family. We did that for two reasons: 1. San Diego's closer to Rexburg, and 2. we had the wedding in Minnesota. It seemed only fair. My sister came up from Provo with a friend who was going to BYU and going home to California with us. After dropping the friend off, my family whisked us to Disneyland since Emma had never been there. It wasn't much of an experience since it was raining almost the entire time. It was still fun, but she wasn't able to get the full experience. I think it was because of walking around in wet socks and shoes the whole day, but I somehow got an infection in my toe, and it hurt to walk. Because of that, I went to the doctor's and they gave me some antibiotics and Vicodin for the pain. Now, I had never taken Vicodin before then, so I had no idea how it would affect me, but I knew of stories of how it affected other people. That and I also saw it firsthand when my dad had a hernia surgery right before I got home from Washington.

The day after I get the prescription (which was the 23rd), we go Christmas shopping. I couldn't drive because I had taken my drugs and was very loopy. Now here's how the Vicodin affected me: I could still understand what was going on, in fact, I remember a lot of what happened that day. I just couldn't control my reactions or what I said, all while thinking, "did I just say/do that?!"

Anyway, after we get all the shopping done, Emma takes me to the room we were staying in at my parents' house and shoves a soft, wrapped present in my hands. I open it, and find, wrapped in a lot of plastic shopping bags a pregnancy test. It was one of those easy to read ones. It read "pregnant". Now remember, I'm still high on Vicodin, and in my mind I'm screaming for joy. On the outside I just kind of stared at it with this blank look on my face and said, "That's cool". I personally think she did that on purpose just so I wouldn't tell anyone until Christmas morning.

Here's where things start getting interesting. On Christmas morning, we announced to both sides of our family that Emma was pregnant. The contrast of both sides was really amazing to witness, and kind of disturbing at the time.

I'll start with my side. Everyone had their suspicions that Emma was pregnant, but didn't know for sure until we told them. They were just as excited as we were, but no screaming of excitement (which I half expected my mom and my little sister to do). It was more of a "I thought so," moment. It was kind of disappointing, but at the same time, it was nice.

Emma's side though, seemed on the opposite side of the spectrum. This was the second bomb that we had dropped on them in nine months time (the first being that we were engaged after only six weeks of dating back at the end of April last year). There were a lot of mixed messages coming from her family like "Oh, you're pregnant? That's...um, great..." Emma took it pretty hard. She was excited and it seemed like her family didn't support her. Or maybe, they just didn't like me, and the fact that we now have a kid on the way means that they were stuck with me. At least, those were the thoughts that were going through my head.

Don't get me wrong, Emma's family is awesome. It was a rocky start at first, and I don't think I've won everyone over quite yet, but only time can tell for now. Not only that, but after they had some time to sit down and think about it, most of her side has gotten baby fever, getting onesies, knitting stuffed animals and other things. So things are a lot better now.

Anyway, on with the story. On New Year's Day, my parents had redeemed the Greyhound Bus tickets that we were originally going to use to get to Minnesota for the wedding to get from San Diego to Rexburg. Which seemed OK, other than the fact that it would make a 16 hour car ride into almost double the time to get there.

I will say this about Greyhound. YOU SUCK! Seriously. Especially the part from Las Vegas to Salt Lake. See, I can understand stopping every once in a while to pick up and drop off passengers. But to stop every two hours just to smoke?! You have got to be kidding me! What made it worse was that Emma was really starting to feel the effects of the first trimester on that ride. It wasn't pleasant. By the time we got to Salt Lake, we missed our connector by more than an hour. Fortunately, the people at the station in Salt Lake called another connector to take us to Rexburg. That did mean that we didn't get back until around 2 AM.

We got back to our apartment to get ready to start the Winter Semester. Emma's morning sickness was getting worse as time went on, and she had to drop two of her classes just to stay sane. The one class we were taking together we almost failed, but didn't, thankfully. Eventually, the morning sickness went away and Emma glided into her second trimester.

As the weeks went on, Emma kept getting bigger and bigger, which was a good sign that the baby was doing well. As 20 weeks rolled around, we were excited to figure out the sex of the baby. We went in and sat down for the ultrasound. It's a boy! And then the whammy hit.

It didn't hit right away, but it was just as powerful. After the ultrasound, we went to another room and sat there for about half an hour. This was unusual, since before (and after) the doctor was there within about 10 minutes. When he came in, he said that there was a complication. The baby had something called "gastroschisis". Long story short, his intestines were poking out of his belly out of a hole to the right of the umbilical cord. He reassured us (and further research and doctors' appointments had confirmed this) that it had nothing to do with genetics. And that it was easily fixable once he was born. Unfortunately, Emma needed to be watched closely to make sure that everything was going to turn out OK.

Again, the weeks went by, and Emma got bigger, but then the doctors and the specialists we had been seeing in Idaho Falls were noticing a problem. The amniotic fluid was dangerously low for how far along she was. We later found out that her AFI (Amniotic Fluid Index) was at a 3.6 when it was supposed to be at a minimum of a 9. The specialist put her on bedrest until it was time for her to deliver.

This was a hard time for Emma. It was good that she was off-track at this time, so she didn't have to drop any classes, but it meant that all she could do was lay around all day. The Ward we're in helped out a lot, bringing dinners since I was at work during that time of the day and in taking 14 credits that current semester.

At the beginning of July, we got permission to go to Salt Lake to meet with some of the doctors down there. Emma wrote a more detailed account of what happened then here, but I'll give a summary. She got admitted to the hospital because her fluid was so low. Obviously, she was released, but it was stressful night for the both of us. Before she was released she was taken off bedrest and was told that she needed to come back down and stay there until she gave birth. And she needed to be back down a week before my finals.

What that meant was that I would stay up in Rexburg, work and get my finals taken care of before I go down myself. I also had to get the apartment packed since we were moving into a small house about three blocks away. We still had no idea of when she was going to need to give birth. Eventually, we got everything taken care of, I passed all my classes and got everything moved. I went down and found out that she is expected to be induced on the 9th. In three days from the time I post this blog.

In the meantime, I had come back up to Rexburg to try to get some extra money. Hopefully, things will turn out alright and I'll post pictures of my son as time goes on. As it is right now, more then likely the next post I make will happen after I become a dad.

Wish me luck.