Happy Birthday Emma!!!

Miss Emma has turned 4 years old. I am filled with mixed emotions as I think back to when she entered this world.

I can remember it like yesterday. I was not doing well. The doctor had put me on bed rest and had been running tests on me. I had sugar in my urine, I was swollen like an elephant (no joke...Dusty said I had "elephantitis"), I couldn't breathe, my blood pressure was extremely high and I had a 4 year old and a 2 year old at home. The doctor had told me that he wanted to get me as far along as I could but to be prepared he gave me steroid shots for the baby's lungs. He told me that the last symptom of my condition would be my liver failing. When your liver fails you are at risk of having seizures, and if that happens the baby gets no oxygen.

Basically, my body was shutting down as a result of the pregnancy. The technical term was pregnancy-induced hypertension. Well, let me tell you, you know when your liver starts failing. It was the MOST painful thing I have ever been through. So we rushed to Alta View Hospital in Sandy, Utah. As we entered the office around 9 PM the nurse who had been running my tests saw me and immediately rushed me in to a room.

After that it was a whirlwind. They were shoving tubes down me and i.v.'s in me. They immediately called for a helicopter to "life-flight" me to LDS hospital. I was only 30 weeks along and they could not support a baby born that premature. The helicopter would only hold me on the stretcher and the technician. So, my sweet husband sat in the parking lot and waited until we lifted off and followed us all the way to LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City, UT. I was in a lot of pain and the technician finally offered me some pain medication. I was able to calm down a little and remember the helicopter circling the Salt Lake Temple over and over. There was another helicopter on the landing and we had to wait for them to move so that we could land, so since the hospital is very close to the temple they circled around in the air until we could land. Seeing that temple was one of the most comforting things to me.

After we landed I was rushed to a room to be monitored. My pain had increased significantly and I had started to vomit. I was begging for more medicine, but could have no more without hurting the baby. Finally, the decision was made to deliver the baby via emergency c-section. On September 3, 2004, Emma Beth Burke was born weighing 2 pounds, 3 ounces. I was so sick that I did not see her. I was taken back to a room where they discovered that I had pneumonia and fluid in my lungs (hence the reason I could not breathe). My blood pressure was through the roof so they put me on medicine which made me very loopy and tired. I also hemorrhaged and had to have blood transfusions.

Emma lived in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) for 2 months. I visited her every day and in the end was visiting her 3 times a day to feed her. After this experience our doctors told us we should not have more children as what happened to us would only happen again but earlier in the pregnancy each time. We were told we were very lucky to have had Alexis and Jacob without any problems.

So I have mixed emotions because my 'baby' is not a baby anymore. But I am so happy to see her thriving and happy and alive. She has been called a "mini Sherrie" and has a personality of a princess. Emma is a spit-fire (I think she had to be from the very beginning of her existence on this earth). Her little feet still have the scars from being poked daily when she was born and are a constant reminder to me of how lucky I am to have her. Dusty and I are truly blessed to have been given the privilege to be her parents. She is the last addition to our family and we love her with all our hearts.

This picture is of Emma in her incubator. The 2 circular openings are what you would put your arm through to touch her.

This next picture is of me changing her diaper. Notice how big my hands look compared to her foot. Her head is a little bigger than the pacifier in the bottom right corner.

This is one of me and Emma cuddling. This is called "kangaroo care'. It is therapeutic for premature babies to be held against their mother's skin. The big cotton ball on her head is actually where her i.v. is. Premature babies veins go bad so quickly that they have to change them every day or so. Every time I came in she had a different spot on her where they had poked her. The i.v. was huge compared to her head and was probably one of the harder things for me to get used to.

And here she is in her blessing dress at about 6 months old.

A busy little 2 year old...

This is Emma at age 3...

And now it is 2008 and she is a big 4 year old that goes to preschool and runs around the house in her princess dresses.

We love you Emma!!!