Miscarriage # 1

MISCARRIAGES: #1 I've had 5 miscarriages--one was twins--and 5 D&C's. The first was before children. We had been married 4 months and had gone to Flaming Gorge to be with family. When I told Mom that I couldn't handle seeing chicken, she said, "You're pregnant!" I had no idea. I was. The end of July I started bleeding. I checked in with my doc. He said, "Go to bed to save this baby." I was in college and had to take mid-terms. How could I go to bed?!? But then I decided I could for the babe. I was given a blessing that it could go fast if it needed to go. Within a couple of days I started into very painful labor. I realized this after I had had children. The problem was that it was the day I was going to meet my new brother-in-law, Bryan. The family had plans to go to the temple. I couldn't go, so I sent Lawrence. I hoped he would really hurry home. It was a Saturday and I couldn't check in with the doctor again, I would have to go to the emergency room. Finally my husband came, they had templed and gone out to eat, and I cryingly scolded him for leaving me so long. We went to the emergency room. They put me on a relaxer and did a very painful D & C in the ER room. The next morning we went to his parent's house and I met his brother and family. We took family pictures. I look at those pictures and realize the sadness and experience in my eyes. I felt like it was a babe who needed a healthy body and this wasn't healthy enough. I got pregnant again within two months and this babe carried full term. It was Stephanie! She has a very healthy body and has a hard time knowing when she's sick. Her appendix was about to rupture once and she was hurting some. I'm thankful she has a healthy Andersen body. Sooner than we expected we were expecting again! Kristen had to get here. I knew I was pregnant because I was morning sick while trying to make countless batches of English Toffee for Brad's wedding. People would see me holding Stephanie and say, "Oh, you're going to have two babies, huh?1?" and I'd think that no, Stephanie was old (a year and a bit). But I really did have two babies! I hoped that Stephanie would walk before Kristen was born. She barely did. They are 16 months apart. They were good buddies, then a great threesome when Lauralee came along. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Kristen was so excited to get here, but then she didn't want to be born. She was 18 days overdue, no matter what I did to try to get her here. But when she came she just wanted her mom and no one else for many years. I remember leaving her in Kindergarten, crying, trying to hold onto my leg. She finally got better when she was about 7 or 8. Her first night after birth the nurses did all they could to try to calm her, but finally brought her in to me. Kristen went straight to sleep. She just loved her mother, and knew her mother could protect her from the boogeymen.

Finishing Off Our Basement

I haven't written for a year and a half. That's awful. Well, we are in the middle of finishing off our basement. Sheena chose it for her senior project. She fulfilled her hours just packing up everything and taking it out to the Homestead. And there are so many hours yet to come! Lawrence and I shopped for almost everything at Home Depot last Saturday. It cost $1500, after a 10% discount for opening a Home Depot credit card. We get 5% of things we buy now. We will put a toy closet, a game closet, and a blanket closet in the hallway and finish off the furnace room with some new shelves and the old clear containers. I'm excited about it. Right now Lawrence is doing the electrical and filling and painting the cement walls of the furnace room. Then he'll do drywall and plywood for the closets. We'll do some type of flooring in the furnace room, too. We've been in the house almost 29 years so it's about time we finish the basement!