The Story

After Easter Dan jumped onto an airplane and flew back to Ohio to officially check out and drive his car here to San Diego. The plan was for him to take the Monday night red eye, check out Tuesday, and spend the rest of the week driving to arrive back on Friday or Saturday the 29 or 30th of April. Keep in mind that Evelyn's due date was May 8th (the same date plus two years as Madelyn's) and Madelyn wasn't born until May 13th. Now they say every child is different and now we understand why. This was our plan, but not Evelyn's plan.


Monday night Madelyn was up all night with a fever. Tuesday night I was up all night puking my guts out and on Wednesday afternoon I noticed that my Braxton Hicks were getting more intense. Dan called that afternoon to check on us and I told him I was having some strong Braxton Hicks. I also told him that the minute I dropped him off at the airport there seemed to be a lot of drama at the house so I wanted him to come back as soon as possible. He laughed and we got off the phone. I finished giving Madelyn her afternoon snack and decided I should call someone to come give me a blessing just in case this turned into the real thing. The only problem is I had only been to church twice and didn't know anyone. Luckily the senior missionary couple had given Dan their number at church. (I decided they were a better fit than the 19 year olds who did actually knock on my door while I was puking my guts out to see if they could help me. To this day I still regret turning them away. They knew nothing of my troubles at time but just stopped by to see if there was anything they could do for me.) Anyway, I called the missionaries and they brought the Elders Quorum President with them. The first thing the Elders Quorum president said to me was it is the Lords will not mine. I think he could tell that I had called them over to stop my labor from happening. All I ever wanted was to stop this whole process from happening until my husband returned. I had to suck up my pride and accept whatever the Lord's will was at that time for me.

Before they left my house, the senior missionaries had arranged for a women from church to drive me to the hospital in about 30 minutes to determine if I was indeed in labor or simply feeling the after effects of a night of puking. At this point I decided to call Dan and let him in on how my afternoon had mushroomed into going to the hospital. He was shocked but very supportive. He quickly realized that his presence was certainly needed in San Diego and the 33 hour trip from Dayton to San Diego that was supposed to be spread out over Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday would need to be altered. Fortunately, Dan had driven a few hours Tuesday evening to avoid bad weather that was headed to the Dayton area and had made it through the worst of the severe weather that had been riddling the Midwest this year. My ride showed up and Madelyn, Jamie (who I met as she rang my door bell), and I headed off to the hospital.

At the hospital they confirmed that I was in the beginning stages of labor and that all my puking the night before was pre-labor (yuck). Anyway, they gave me a few options, 1. Go home and see if it will stop (highly unlikely) or 2. they would break my water and start the party. With Dan's progress taking him only to Oklahoma City at about this point, I picked option # 1. And so home I went.

Once I got home, I put Madelyn to bed, called a lady I had met once to see if she would baby sit Madelyn that night and through the morning ( if this turned out to be real and I needed to return to the hospital), took a shower, and prayed that the contractions would stop. Two and a half hours later at about 10:30 pm things were getting a little intense. I called my new friends Jamie and Sarah to come help me out. After briefing Sarah on Madelyn's routine, Jamie and I took off to the hospital for the second time that evening.



Yes, indeed I was in labor and there was no more denying it. I was admitted to labor and delivery at about 11:00 pm with no husband and a bunch of nice strangers. The doctors offered me a narcotic to see if I could relax enough to stall out and not have my baby until another day, the senior missionary couple came back to stay the night with me, and Dan decided to drive all night and show up as soon as possible. At this point the whole entire Hospital Staff knew my story and some thought I was crazy, some thought Dan was crazy and a few cheered for me to hold the baby in, but by the end of it all I knew every signal nurse and doctor who worked that night and early Thursday morning.

Here comes the miracle. The narcotic worked and I fell fast asleep until 6 am., when I asked for an epidural. I slept most of the night and most of the next morning. I had a moment of doubt at about 9 am when I thought I had to push, but Sister Smith (the missionary) gave me soothing encouragement to relax and I fell back to sleep. I was in labor for about 24 hours. Dan showed up to the hospital at about 12:30 pm having driven straight for 28 hours and our beautiful baby girl was born at 3pm! At this point in my life I know this whole crazy story couldn't have worked out without the Lord blessing our family.