Made In Korea

What a crazy couple of days! Life is a miracle and experiencing little Sadie's arrival has just confirmed this. Ten years ago when I was knocking doors in Pusan I would have never believed that some day I would be here again with a wife and two kids getting ready for another. When I was a kid, it seemed like every once in a while the teacher would have each of the kids in the class tell everyone where they were born. Most everyone was born in Utah. One time I tried to be different by telling everyone that I was born in Yellowstone National Park.... needless to say I could not back that one up. Now I have three children, one born in Utah, one in Maryland and now one in Seoul Korea. What an experience!
So here is Amber on her "third" last doctor's appointment. This was preceded by here "forth" last trip to the commissary... With Logan coming a month early and Addy coming 2 weeks early, we were sure that Sadie would be early too. Sadie had other plans. The doctor had Amber's due date as 3-6-11, Amber had calculated 3-9-11. So last Friday we had an appointment and the doctor was really anxious to be the one to deliver Sadie so he scheduled Amber for another appointment on the coming Wednesday (3-9-11) to see if he could get things started while he was still on-call. Wednesday morning at 0900 Amber was examined and Amber began having regular contractions. They monitored her for a couple of hours (which she hated since they wanted her to lay still on the bed) and then sent us home. By the time we got home Amber's contractions were pretty strong but she was just happy to be able to walk around the house and not be stuck in a bed. Once Amber starts labor, she cant stand to have anything touching her. I think this is one of the reasons she likes to put off going to the hospital as long as possible. By noon, she was in considerable pain and we started making sure we had everything ready to go. At 1420 we called up our good friend Diana to come and watch Addy and pick up Logan from the bus stop. We arrived at the hospital at 1430 and had the nurse check Amber again. According to the nurse she was dilated 3cm. Amber got in the shower and began laboring pretty heavily. I went and talked to the nurse to tell her Amber's history of fast labor and got the nurse nervous enough that she wanted to check Amber again. By 1450 Amber was dilated to 3.5cm and the nurse was still skeptical. She told us that she could not move Amber into the delivery room until she was to 4cm. We all kind of gave her a look and she made an exception to start getting us into the delivery room. Once in the delivery room (1500) Amber was having really strong contractions, luckily, the hospital staff was fine with Amber doing all of this standing up. We spent the next 15 minutes refusing medications and I.V. preps, which really freaked out the nurses. I don't know if they had ever had somebody turn it all down. They told me I would have to sign release forms and they actually went out and made a form. At 1520 the room was prepped and the nurse was out at the check-in station calling the doctor. Amber's water broke so I ran out to tell the nurses. When I got back to the delivery room, Amber looked like she was about to be finished. The nurses came in and told her to stop pushing and to get on the table. The nurse tried to reach the doctor again but was forced to put the phone down because Sadie's head was beginning to crown. The nurses told Amber to stop pushing again but by then, there was nothing anyone could do, Sadie was coming. First her head came through and everyone was tense, then the silence was broken by the phone blasting the "disconnected" tone. One of the nurses went to turn off the phone and then when she came back the other nurse helped Sadie's head turn and then with all of the pressure building behind her, Sadie shot out into the air (1555). Luckily the nurse had a hand above Sadie's shoulder, because the force pushing her out probably could have skipped her right off the end of the delivery table. The first thing I noticed was her long wavy hair and her fingers and toes. The nurse rolled her onto her back and at that moment I saw a large quantity of slimy stringy substance get sucked into her mouth. It was as if she went to take her first breath but instead was nearly drowned with the membrane that was holding her in. The nurse did not appear to see this and was calmly prepping the cord for cutting and that is when Dana and I started saying, "she's choking." The nurse grabbed the suction bulb and with one good swab, suctioned a huge mass out of her throat, then came the best sound ever, crying. Right about then the doctor came walking in, disappointed that he had missed the whole thing.
Compared with the births of Logan and Addysen, despite her being our largest baby, Sadie's birth was probably the least rough on Amber. Not long after giving birth she took a shower and was feeling pretty good.
Sadie is a wonderful eater, and was on the prowl for her first meal.
Her stats: 8lbs 8oz, 20.1 inches, O+ blood
She has shared her father's birth mark with both Logan and Addy.
As far as looks go, her hair is much lighter than Logan's or Addy's. Her face is very similar to Addy's when she was born. You can click the link to see each of the kids at birth. I will put up some comparison pictures soon.
We are home now from the hospital and both Amber and Sadie are doing wonderfully. We are so happy to have her here she has brightened up our house.