Monday, December 20, 2010

Count your blessings: Part One



































































I started this blog to tell Hudson's story and to help with the healing process. I have three blessings that have helped me get through and I thought it was time to dedicate a blog post to each one of them.












Emmaleigh Kaylyn Grace Snell












September 9, 2004












3 lbs 15 oz












16 inches












When I was pregnant with Emmaleigh, I was visiting a friend in Bloomington (a three hour drive from home) when I suddenly began to have contractions at thirty weeks. I was a first time mother and scared to death. Once the doctors at the hospital in Bloomington decided that I really was in labor the rushed me to IU medical center in Indianapolis. When I got there they started giving me magnesium to stop my labor, which was successful. What I didn't account for was the extended hospital stay I was about to have. The doctor came in one morning and told us that I would be staying in the hospital until I had the baby and since the hospital I had planned to deliver at was not equpped to handle a delivery under 34 weeks, I would have to stay in Indianapolis (an hour and a half from home), but once I got to the 34 week mark then they would transfer me back home.











Our little peanut had other plans though. At 32 weeks my water started to leak. The doctor's monitored the fluid around her closely and monitored me for signs of infection. At 33 weeks I began to develop an infection and the doctor decided it was time to induce. After six hours of labor...and I don't know maybe a couple broken hands (from my squeezing them), we welcomed Emmaleigh Kaylyn Grace into the world at 3:23 pm weighing just shy of four pounds. I got to hold her for just a minute before they took her away to the NICU.











Emmaleigh spent the next four weeks growing bigger and stronger. She had to be on a CPAP for a couple days and on oxygen for a little over a week. She had no major health problems and was what the nurses called a "feeder and grower" By the time we left the hospital four weeks later on October 6th she weighed exactly six pounds.











Now fast forward six years......Emmaleigh is my quiet observer, she doesn't miss a thing. We often have to remind ourselves that she is only six because she has always acted older. She is my little mommy. She is always trying to take care of and boss the younger ones around. If one of the younger ones is in trouble or crying for any reason, it is Emmaleigh who is there to take care of them. She is also my picky eater. She won't touch hardly anything until she examines it thoroughly and knows exactly what is in it. She really reminds me a lot of myself.











Emmaleigh has taught us that good things come in small packages and was our first reminder that God is truly in control and that he has a plan for each and every one of us no matter how small.












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