Birthday Wishes

Dear Caleb,
Today marks your 9th birthday. Ending the 2 weeks that both you and Liahona were both 8 years old together. You will always have your place as the big brother no matter how old your siblings continue to be. We are so grateful for such a great and wonderful example that you set for them to follow.
As I woke up this morning I was thinking of the glorious day of your birth. You came at 2:00am in the morning to join our family, at the Madision Memorial Hospital in Rexburg Idaho. When both dad and I were still in school at Rick’s College, which was the last year that that school would be known as that name, and was changing to BYU-Idaho.
The 22nd of June 2001 was your actual due date, I started contractions at 2:00am that morning with just minor cramping. We didn’t think much of it, thinking that it would just be false labor, so we just continued with our day. In the late afternoon they started to get stronger. I had a visiting teaching appointment scheduled with a dear friend, Crystal, and as we visited with her I was timing the contractions. They were now 5 mins apart. When we were done with our fun visit, I went home and told your father. He thought that if it were false labor they would stop if we changed our physical movement. And since I was just sitting at my visiting teaching visit; he wanted us to go for a walk. It was a very nice day, pretty warm, so we went for a pleasant walk. I remember taking pictures with your Dad on our walk and he took some of us as I stretched after the walk. Once we got back it seemed to have worked the contractions stopped. But it didn’t last too long, only about 20 minutes before they came back, but twice a stronger. We timed them and they were about 3 mins apart at that time. We started to get a little anxious, not really knowing what to do so your father called your Grandmother Mathison. She told us that we should call our doctor and head to the hospital. So we called the doctor, and Dr. Crouch told us that same thing, “Get to the Hospital.” It didn’t seem like a huge problem to us, so we were taking our time getting our stuff together as I paced around the apartment. It felt weird to be going to the hospital, not knowing what to expect. It was scary yet very exciting at the same time. Knowing that soon we would be parents with a little baby of our own to take care of and to love. We got to the hospital at 6pm and the main entrance was closed so we had to find and enter into the Emergency Entrance.
As we checked in I was pacing a lot more. The policy there at the hospital was that I had to be wheeled up to the maternity level, I did not like that. Sitting down hurt much more then standing. And the person was going so slow, that it was making me a little unhappy. I just wanted to get up to my room and get some medicines to take the edge of the pain away. We had the most wonderful Nurse; of which I am sad to say cannot remember her name. We were only dilated to a 2 when we arrived and they wanted me to be at least dilated to a 4 before they would give me any pain meds. She was very nice and got us all situated, and out of my way as I continued to pace the room’s floor, practically running over her and your father. Your father learned quickly that all of our Lamaze classes were just a waste of time, and a joke because it did not work for us. I was just expecting some nubane IV drug, when the anesthesiologist came into the room to give me an epidural. My contracts were a min on top of each other at that point and I just wanted anything, however, thankfully I was close to being at a 4 so they prepared to administer the epidural just so I would calm down. Eric had to do all the read of what could happen and his eyes widened very wide. Asking me if I was sure that I wanted to do this? I remember saying, “Anything that will make this pain stop I am all for it.” So he signed all the papers and listened to and answered all the questions that I was asked because I would NOT answer them, nor acknowledge that they were even there in the room, because I was focused on one thing and one thing only…. The Pain.
Once the epidermal was in I remember apologizing to everyone. I felt bad that I couldn’t seem to be myself with all the physical pain that came on so fast, but once the meds were in it was all good. I remember trying to take a nap, but waking up shortly to your father watching hockey, the Stanly Cup. We were progressing well until midnight hit. When we were finally at a 10, my contracts slowed down tremendously to every 15mins. So the doctors were going to use the vacuum with you to help get you out, but I refused. Two hours pushing with contractions every 15mins, you finally came 24 hours later, 2:00am today, 9 years ago.
Happy Birthday Caleb. I would do this all over again just to bring you back here to be with us again. Because not having you here is MUCH more difficult and Much more hard. We love you and miss you more than our words can describe. We tried to do things that you would have wanted to do, to show you our love….. but it obviously wasn’t the same without you here.
Happy 9th Birthday!! Love your Mommy, Daddy, Sisters, and Baby Brother