Lola Mae Diehl was born on Monday September 26th
2016 at 3:10pm in Madison Memorial Hospital in Rexburg Idaho. Her birth story is unique among our children
for many reasons. She is our only child
not to be born in San Diego or on a Sunday or at night.
In the final month of Emilee’s pregnancy, I begin to joke
that she would give birth on a Sunday.
Up to this point all of our kids had been born on Sundays. I even calculated the probability of having 4
kids born on Sunday (it is roughly 4 out of 10,000). On Sunday September 18th, the
Sunday prior to her due date, it was obvious that Lola was not coming and as
Emilee and I sat in a family history class at church I decided to look up some
details about my Great Grandmother Lola Lavora Taylor. We were quite sure at this point that we were
going to name our new baby Lola and I thought it would be fun to learn a little
more about one of the ancestors for whom she was being named. (Side note:
Emilee has a great aunt named Lola May whom she greatly admired and my
Grandmother Diehl’s middle name was Mae, these three remarkable women are the
source of Lola’s name). As I perused the
information and dates about my great grandmother Lola I was surprised to
discover that her birthday was September 25th. The very next Sunday would be September 25th. This little coincidence was a spiritual experience
for me, it convinced me that we had chosen a good name for our new baby
girl. It also made me believe that she
was going to be born the following Sunday on September 25th the same
day as my Great Grandmother Lola.
Lola’s official due date was Saturday September 24th. Her grandmother Jere Diehl came a few days to
the due date in anticipation of her arrival and to help take care of Lola’s
siblings during the birth. Prior to
Grandma’s arrival there weren’t many strong indications that Lola was about to
come. It seems that with the other
children there were one or two instances of a false alarm prior to their births
where we thought they were coming. For
example, with Coulson we took a drive into the mountains above San Diego in
early to mid-October and Emilee experienced strong contractions during the drive. There were no such experiences with
Lola. I think that this lack of signs
that her body was preparing for child birth and the hope that Lola would arrive
while Grandma was in town put some extra stress on Emilee. As Lola’s due date neared and then came and
passed Emilee grew ever more uncomfortable and impatient. Finally, Sunday September 25th
came and Emilee experienced some strong contractions that morning. But as she got up and took a shower the
contractions subsided. We went to church
as a family but Emilee went home early from church to rest with the hope that
being able to relax in peace and quiet would allow labor to initiate. I was convinced that Emilee was going to give
birth that day. While I attended the
remaining church meetings I anticipated a phone call from Emilee but it never
came. When we returned home after church
I found out that Emilee experienced no further contractions. We were disappointed. Emilee was exasperated, she was convinced
that she was never going to deliver the baby.
That night passed without incident but the next morning
Emilee again experienced strong contractions like the morning before. But she refused to get her hopes up and I
went to work to teach a lecture in my intro Biology class. I taught a terrible lecture as I was very
distracted. After my class concluded Emilee texted me that she was experiencing
strong contractions but that they were erratic.
I remembered these kinds of contractions from previous pregnancies and
was quite certain that the birth day had come.
I stayed at work for a couple more hours and was meeting with a small
group of students in my office when Emilee called and told me that she was
still experiencing strong contractions but that they were still inconsistent
and that she going in to see her midwife.
I asked a colleague to cover my afternoon class and rode my bike to the
midwife’s office and met Emilee there as she was leaving her appointment. The midwife had informed her that she was dilated
to 6cm and that she should go get her things and go to the hospital to deliver
the baby.
Emilee and I went home and gathered our things and then headed
to the hospital, which is two blocks from our house. As we arrived at the hospital Emilee was not
experiencing any contractions and said that she preferred to wait in the
car. So I parked in a secluded parking
spot at the hospital. We weren’t parked for more than 2 minutes when Emilee
experienced her strongest contraction yet.
We immediately walked into the hospital and checked in around 1pm.
By 1:15pm we were in a labor and delivery room. Emilee’s
midwife Marie Horne checked her again and she was still dilated to 6cm. After answering a barrage of questions from
the nurse all while experiencing intense contractions the midwife then broke
Emilee’s amniotic sac. From there Emilee
was able to get into a large bathtub and for the next hour or so labored in the
bathtub which appeared to greatly decrease her discomfort. Also, I should mention that from the time we
arrived at the hospital I was live-chatting the progress of the labor to both
my family and Emilee’s family. Once
Emilee got to the point where she started to have the urge to push the midwife
and I helped her out of the tub and back to the labor and delivery room. Once back in the room Emilee begin to
actively push and after about 10 to 15 minutes of intense and painful pushing
Lola was born. When Lola first emerged she was purple and did
not cry for 3-5 seconds after birth. But she quickly started to vocalize and to
gain color. The midwife handed Lola to
her mother with the umbilical cord still attached. In this moment I experienced what I have
experienced a deep spiritual feeling of love and responsibility. I felt that this child was sent to us from
heaven and that she was ours to care for and to love and to teach.
Shortly thereafter I was able to cut the umbilical cord. Lola was screaming quite loud by this time
but Emilee was able to calm her down by breastfeeding. It wasn’t until after 30-40 minutes of breastfeeding
or suckling that Lola was finally weighed and measured. She screamed the entire time the nurse looked her over. Lola weighed 8lbs 4oz and was 20.5 inched
long.
Within the hour after birth they moved Emilee and Lola to
the Mom and Baby unit in the hospital.
Emilee and Lola stayed two nights and the nurses there took amazing care
of Emilee and Lola. The treatment and thoughtfulness was way better than what
we had experienced in San Diego. The hospital even went so far as to provide us
with a steak dinner for both mom and dad.
While in the hospital grandma and Eliza came to meet Lola. The next morning (9/28) Emilee and Lola came
home and Adelaide and Coulson were elated to finally meet her. We didn’t bring Adelaide or Coulson to the
hospital as they both had experienced fevers in the two days Emilee was in the
hospital. We did not want to risk Lola or someone else’s baby catching whatever
infection they had.
We feel very blessed to welcome Lola to our family and are
very grateful that she is healthy. The
kids absolutely adore her, especially Coulson.
He more than anyone else wants to hold her and has to always know where
Lola is and what she is doing. He is a
very protective and caring older brother.
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