Thursday, January 31, 2013

Surprise!

Life has recently gotten quite a bit busier around the Wheeler home, so I'm cannibalizing an e-mail that my father recently sent his siblings to make an important announcement. Enjoy!


***

Good afternoon,

I have great and blessed news to share. However, the words I heard our dear mother say once in awhile "I don't understand all that I know about it" come to mind. Details are somewhat hard to assemble at this point. Cathy and I are in Omaha (Winter Quarters) which is over a thousand miles from St. George where our newest granddaughter safely arrived in mortality about 3:15 a.m. (mountain time) this morning (January 29th).

New baby girl Wheeler (she has no given name yet) was somewhat unexpectedly born, 10 days early, "at home" in the master bedroom. Jason was the sole architect, construction manager, obstetrician, husband, and father attending my undrugged daughter. This is their fourth youngster. Why wake up, or inconvenience, a neighbor or friend to watch Brooklyn (8), Talia (6), and Eli (3) when you need to flee to the hospital with little time to spare? Fortunately, the new baby was born without too much in the way of complication, and from the attached photo is a gorgeous, fortunate infant. Kara sounded calm, grateful and relieved when I spoke with her at 10:15 a.m.

Stunned to learn of the news through the photo attached to a 9:57 a.m. text message entitled, "Guess who showed up last night? Smile" I was able to deliver the good news (with photo) to my 10:30 a.m. Legal Research and Writing class. No, No ... I am not one of those bragging grandparents. I limited this personal intrusion to my lesson plan to 15 seconds.

Kara did assure me they were going to take their new arrival to their pediatrician at 4:00 p.m. today. She assured me that many babies have been born on this planet outside of a hospital, and Jason did assure me that he vacuumed the bedroom floor early last night, so I'm sure the room was "germ free" ... cough. I'm very grateful Jason was with Kara last night. He was away on a work assignment in New York most of last week, arriving home on Saturday night.

I do not have vital statistics to share. Jason says the baby is "about 7 pounds" -- a number arrived at by subtracting his own weight from the total when using a bathroom scale. I do not think they measured the baby's length with his construction tape yet. Of course new baby girl Wheeler will never be able to brag about a high Apgar score when she enters kindergarten. She was a "no-show" for her very first exam! As a law professor, I am appalled that one of my own would make such a choice! However, as I see her peacefully sleeping in the attached photo, my heart melts, and all is forgiven. I'm very, very thankful for the miracle of life and a kind heaven who is looking after a faithful young family in St. George.

***
While our sweet baby girl still doesn't haven't a name, the whole family is doing extremely well. At some point, a motherly perspective on our precipitous home birth will likely be forthcoming, and maybe I can even con Jason into writing a few of his impressions as catcher. But until then, onto the most important part--pictures. :)

















14 comments:

Crys said...

Oh my, she is beautiful! And I love your fathers retelling of the event :). I guess with your quick labors this is no surprise but I can't wait to hear all the details of how this event came to be :). Congrats Wheeler family!!!!!

michelle said...

Oh my! I've been thinking about your family a lot lately. I've rekindled my goal of running a 5K and reading Runner's World with all it's talk of marathons and half marathons reminds me of you guys. I think you are absolutely amazing and inspiring and since Mike has decided to run the 5K with me we talk about you guys often. However, I think Mike would not be so happy if we ever end up following this example of yours. (Having a fourth child is fine by him, but he sure hopes we never have a kid outside the hospital.) Congratulations!

Tiffany said...

Congrats on your new little miracle! I loved seeing all the pictures of her with your other kids, I can tell she is and will be well loved!

As a person with fast labors as well, I'm curious to know the details of this home birth, which I know you said you would share later. Glad to hear that things went well, this has always been one of my fears, and especially Quinn's! I'm so glad Jason seemed to handle it very well.

Jessica Bybee said...

Oh wow!!! Congrats! She is gorgeous!!!! Can't wait to hear more details! so glad she is healthy

Julie L said...

Oh, my, I am continually impressed! What a great addition. I saw a comment by Lance on Tuesday and thought, no, she isn't due for a little while yet, so she can't be having the baby today .....
Right.

Well, congratulations to the entire family! She is absolutely beautiful. Look at all that fun hair! See, she just had to be a girl.

Love all of you. Hope everything continues to go as well.

Susie said...

Such a beautiful baby and look at that hair!! Reminds me of her father's when he was born. Actually, reminds me of mine when I was born, although mine was pretty black! Glad all is well :)

grandma H said...

What a surprise!! Had Susie known,I'm sure she would have stayed a couple more days. What a beautiful little girl, & courageous & talented dad, & very brave & loving mom, to say nothing of the excited siblings! Those pictures had me in tears! Love Ya!

Erin said...

Congratulations and hooray! I cannot wait to hear the birth story in greater detail:) Hope you get some rest.

The Favorite said...

WOW!!!!! You two are amazing and she is SO very beautiful. That is quite a story that you will have for a long time. Great work, I wish you a quick recovery and lots of sleep :)
Love you guys!

Tanja said...

She is very beautiful and so is her Mom :) Congratulations to your third daughter and fourth child - I said it before and I can only confirm it - You guys are awesome!!!

Tanja said...

She is very beautiful and so is her Mom :) Congratulations to your third daughter and fourth child - I said it before and I can only confirm it - You guys are awesome!!!

Unknown said...

So was this a surprise or do you have all your babies at home? Just wondering because some do! That hair is beautiful and so is she! Cognrats! PS love his story you stole!

Marilee said...

I seems as if you are following our family a bit here in gender order, and Emily was baptized not too long before Lizzie was born too. Love your calm ways and miss you. You are a blessing to us. When the world seems dark, I remmeber the Wheelers.

Brian and Tonya said...

Yay!!! Congrats. She's beautiful.