The Holidays and our new Daughter.

The year in review will have to wait for the last two weeks in review. Which have been about as packed as the last year has been. Needless to say we are all exhausted. I am sorry this took three days to get out but as you can guess, it’s been really hectic here.

The Accident:
It got interesting on the 23rd when we were sandwiched between one person screwing up, and another screwing off. We were cut off and had to swerve to avoid hitting another van jumping out into our lane when we were slammed by a woman speeding in hers. I will post exact details later but the long and the short of it means we were without a van. Yes, we were hit that hard. Everybody is ok, which was a real blessing! Not even the driver that hit us. On the dark side it’s looking as though the insurance company is doing everything in their power to give us the bone. We are definitely going to have to get a Lawyer on this one. Our Van is drivable but I don’t know for how long, and how it’s going to fail. It creaks, groans, pops and squeals from various locations along the body when going down the road.

Christmas:
We are still at the point of barely keeping up, but we are still doing a lot better than we were last year. Gifts from Us weren’t overflowing and most of the gifts under the tree came from donations made from anonymous friends and members of the Church. More family sent their gifts ahead of time in the form of cash for the buying of presents, and we got a few things from the local Christmas box. But after the accident it really felt that our Christmas gifts were nobody getting hurt. The children opening their gifts seemed anti-climatic for us, but the kidz had a ball for certain. Everything was well received. Christmas for us came on the same evening that Erin came over to offer the ride to the rescheduled NST. Annette and John called and offered us their old 15 passenger van. For Free, which is newer than ours, and has a bigger engine. Needless to say we were, and are blown away by their generosity! Words cannot describe how we feel still! As soon as we have the money we can get insurance and title. The old van was insured in Florida, as it still had the Florida plates, so I just can’t transfer it to the new van in Texas. We still don’t know what to say…

Debbie’s Birth:
I went in to work as normal on Monday. Nobody is really in any serious mood to put their nose to the grindstone but we managed to make it through the day. Tuesday I setup for the in-service and clocked out for Megan’s NST appointment which doesn’t happen. I end up catching up on sleep since I hadn’t gone to bed until 4:30 that morning. Tuesday evening Erin came over and offered us a ride and babysitting to reschedule the NST visit. Almost Immediately after she leaves John and Annette call and offered us their van ( Read above) Wednesday morning Erin gives us a ride to the NST appointment at 9. When we arrive we get put on the machine to check the Baby and everything is fine. When the doctor gets there we are told we are being induced because he wants to go on his vacation and none of the other doctors will do a VBAC, Despite Megan having two successful VBACs at home, unassisted.

We are not asked, or advised, but flat out ordered, at the top of the doctors lungs no less. ( There will be *much* more on this little tidbit later. ) This has caused ripples that are going to have a most pronounced effect on the direction of our family’s lives. We intend to do everything in our power to effect a change that will prevent this kind of behavior from being possible at all. Individual discipline of the incident is a waste of effort, compared to getting above the problem and preventing it from propagating across the discipline. I have 6 girls I hope will never have to go through what we did on Wednesday. If there is anything I can do to prevent that I will.

After getting to the hospital things went pretty much as expected, Megan was induced against her will and we had our little baby girl at 12:18 am on the 31st. The date was auspicious but the means were not. Deborah Elizabeth Baker weighed 9 pounds, 9 ounces and is 19.5 inches long. Rowan still holds the record as our smallest at 9 Pounds 5 ounces. The Biggest was Jaydn at 11 Pounds and 5 Ounces. She was born on the 2nd Blue moon of the year, the next 2nd blue moon is not expected until 2028. The 31st was also the night of an eclipse in Europe. As Spaceweather.com put it

BLUE MOON ECLIPSE: Blue moons–rare. Blue moons on New Year’s Eve–really rare. A lunar eclipse of a Blue Moon on New Year’s Eve–well, that’s just ridiculous.

( Read More )

As for the birth, Outside the office, the Doctor was a different person. Once induction was started they left us alone to do our thing with the monitors on. He let me help catch which is practically un-heard of, and offered to let me cut the cord. She had lots of vernix ( Wikipedia Link ) which tells us she was due in the oven for a lot longer.

Wendy had come over to watch our brood while we went to our appointment, and then took them all over to her house to spend the night when it became apparent that we weren’t going to be coming home until the next day. Annette and John took them over to theirs in the morning for a few hours. .

New Years:
Having been born on New Years Eve we were allowed to go home a little early so we could all be together, which again after the exhaustion and getting the kidz settled made the new year really anti-climatic. The only reason I was awake for it is because two of the alarm clocks in the house that keep track of the date went off on their own accord. Knowing how dangerous I am in the kitchen, The relief Society at church has been bringing over meals so Megan doesn’t have to cook.

Other than all that everything seems almost normal. It’s been a very blessed, eventful and life altering two weeks. Stay tuned and your almost certain to hear all about it coming up!

Oh and as promised, photos are available!