Well, yesterday was Emma's birthday. I can't believe that she is 10 years old. So much happened and I look at her and realize what a miracle she is. Many people do not know everything that happened during her pregnancy and what it took to get her here.
It started when Jacob was 2 weeks old. Jason woke up one day and said "I had a dream about a little girl with dark hair and blue eyes, and I think we are suppose to have her now." Well, as you can imagine with a 2 week old, I laughed it off. But he kept talking about it and it became a point of contention with us. I finally said " There is no way the Lord is going to ask me to have another baby, so soon after s having another." To which Jason countered with "Have you prayed about it?", which I did so sure that I would be proven right. Well I was wrong and I came to know that this little girl was suppose to come to our family. But it took over a year and a miscarriage till I was finally pregnant.
During this time we had made a move up to Lyman, Wyoming. The only family around was Jason's Aunt, whom at the time I did not know very well. The closest Dr was approx 45 minutes away in Evanston. I was automatically considered high risk because of my previous 2 pregnancies and the closest high risk Dr was in Salt Lake, just over 2 hours away. I was put on light bedrest at the very beginning because of my history. Bedrest is hard with a 4 year old and 2 year old. I soon became very ill and was hospitalized due to dehydration and losing 15 lbs in a month. I was in the hospital for 5 days and the day after I was released I started bleeding. At first they said it was a popped vessel by the cervix and would stop bleeding within a few days, however days turned into 2 weeks. They said the bleeding had moved up by the placenta and was causing it to detach. By this point, Emma had stopped growing, and was measuring 2 weeks behind. The Dr in Evanston told me to abort her. He said that for her to go that long without growing showed a serious problem and that IF she was born, she would be physically and mentally disabled and that I would not want to saddle myself with a child like that. He gave me a less than 10% chance of having her at all. I remember sitting there in disbelief, first that I may not have my baby, and second that the Dr was advising me to get an abortion. I walked out of the office with Jason and said "Take me to Salt Lake, to Cottonwood Hospital." I wanted another opinion. Just prior to us leaving I asked Jason for a blessing. In that blessing I was told, not that everything would be ok, but that this specific trial was being given to me for a reason, and that in order to have my baby I would need to totally rely on Heavenly Father and not on the Dr's, and that if I had complete faith in Him, I would have my baby and she would be whole. It seems easy enough to believe. Then we went to Salt Lake. The ER Dr, after doing an ultrasound, advised me to go see a high-risk specialist. He said he didn't see how I was going to have this baby, but they were not equiped to deal with the problems I was having. When Jason pressed the Dr for more information he said that my placenta was approx 7 1/2 cm by 5 1/2 cm, roughly the size of a tennis ball, that the hemmorage behind the placenta causing it to detach was 7 cm by 5 cm. Basically only 1 cm of the placenta was attached.
An appointment was made for me the next day to see the specialist and after reviewing all of the tests and ultrasounds he told me that there was no way I would be able to see the pregnancy any further, but that he would make me as comfortable as possible until I lost the baby. I went home devastated and confused. My Bishop came over that night, to see if there was anything he or the ward could do. Already the Relief Society had stepped in and were taking care of my children and cleaning my house. He gave me another blessing and repeated what was said in the first blessing, that if I had faith in the Lord, I would have my baby. I would recieve that blessing, verbatim, 3 more times but 3 different people, none of whom were present at any of the other blessings. I then became determined to build my faith in the Lord. I wanted this baby more than anything, even knowing that she could have physical or mental disabilites. I found things to do that would increase my faith which included reading the scriptures and other uplifting books, listening to uplifting music. I made a gratitude list, and went over the things I was grateful for each day and tried to add something new everyday. I tried to stay positive. For about 4 weeks the hemmorage stayed the same and she still was not growing, but she was still there. The Dr's were amazed, I was seeing 2 at this point. But they still cautioned me about the physical and mental problems that she would be born with. At this point, she had not grown for 6 weeks.
Around the 7th week I went in for a checkup and ultrasound. The Dr was unsually quiet and then brought in another Dr to look at the ultrasound. She had grown and the placenta was starting to re-attach. It was nothing short of a miracle. Soon every week the Dr noticed more and more of the placenta re-attaching and she was growing. The Dr said he had never seen anything like this and started calling her his miracle baby everytime he saw me. Every week he was amazed at her growth, in a short time she caught up to where she was suppose to be and then she started measuring bigger.
About the time the Dr declared the placenta to be fully re-attached, he also noticed I was starting to dilate. Yep, I was in pre-term labor. It was a problem I had with my other kids. I was 26 weeks along at this point. So, while I was hoping to be taken off of bedrest, I was not. Still down.
I made it to 35 weeks, when they did an amnio to determine if her lungs would be developed enough to be born, and amazingly they were.
Now here is the miraculous part Emmalene Charity Bishop was born 5 weeks early weighing in at 7 lbs 3 oz and 20 1/2 inches long. She had no sign of being born pre-mature and had no physical disabilities. Time would tell about anything mental. We were cautioned to not get our hopes up. According to the Dr's there was no way she would have suffered during the pregnancy the way she did and not have any side effects.
Well 10 years later I am happy to report there have been no side effects from her traumatic pregnancy. She is in the honors program at her school. She is bright, loves to read, has a natural ability to play the piano and sing. She is beautiful, happy and very tender hearted. She has a huge heart and is very sensitive to the feelings of those around her. She is truly my miracle child and I am so grateful that the Lord blessed my life with her. There are times I wish I could take her to the Dr that told me to abort her and let him see what a miracle she is.
