Category: Daughters

It’s MDF’s birthday today! It’s been amazing to see her grow and develop. Just looking at pictures, I can see how much she has changed each year.

Yesterday MDF and Carolyn (um, I mean Beanie) were picking flowers from the wild Morning Glory plants that were blooming in the soy bean field across the road from their house. I had taken MDF for a ride in the red truck a little while earlier and on the way back we picked a couple of flowers, because there were not any blackberries to pick.

After we got back though, MDF wanted to go pick more, so she and Beanie went and picked a bunch. She was quite pleased with her bouquet.

Pretty flowers

I was getting ready for work Monday morning. CEF had just finished eating and CDF had put her down to go do something. CEF was just content to lay on the couch and sleep and I thought it was funny how she had positioned her head.

Saturday night was the first night we put CEF in her crib. Up until
now she has been sleeping in a bassinet in our room. We never did
that with MDF, but this time CDF wanted CEF in our room.
After five weeks it has been nice to be able to have the light on and
not worry about being as quiet so we won’t wake the baby in the room.

CEF was baptized yesterday — one month old. A lot of family showed up, from both sides: our parents, Janet and Philip, Dom and Amber, Heidi, etc. Ivan brought along a friend, Seth Davis, and one of Gideon’s deaf friends was there too. Vance and Pat Moore and their daughter Lauren also came.

CEF and Pastor John

John preached on baptism, and then CEF was baptized at the end of the sermon. She was good for him, even had her eyes open while he held her.

Family picture after the service.

Thanks to Dom for taking these pictures.

Quite often MDF will come up with a funny pronunciation of a word. The latest and greatest is how she says hyena: “hi-nee-na”. She has been watching and reading a lot about Disney’s Lion King and has become fascinated with the hyenas. A couple weeks ago, when I would get home from work, she would ask me to be a “mad hineena” and chase her around.

Now she wants me to be the ogre from Kings Quest I…

Yesterday, or maybe Friday, I was doing some yard work outside and
MDF was helping me, or so I thought. When she went in for a
drink she told CDF that I “was a great helper” and I was doing a
good job outside. 😉

We were also driving the riding mower around with the trailer and
picking up piles of debris left over from Tropical Storm Ernesto, and
whenever I stopped to pick up piles I would turn off the engine and
let her sit in the seat. She would sit and say “start the onjon”
just to get me to say, “that’s not the word,” and then laugh about
it. It was great fun.

CEF arrived in this world earlier than expected. CDF was sent to the hospital on Friday, Sept 1, after the doctor determined that she was leaking amniotic fluid — and had been for the past few days. Because there was a danger of infection, she (Dr. Tolofsen) decided to induce CDF that afternoon.

I got to the hospital about 4:30 PM, and by 5:30 CDF had a room and the nurse had started the Pitocin. Carolyn met us at the hospital and took MDF back to Burgaw to spend the night. Then CDF and I settled down for a long wait.

To start with the contractions were very light. It wasn’t until about 11:15 PM that she requested Staidol for the pain. After midnight (when the pitocin was dripping at max) the contractions started getting harder. By 1:00 AM the doctor said CDF was about 5 or 6 cm dilated — which was good — and that now she should dilate about 1 cm per hour until she reached 10 cm. That was not so good, since it meant another 4-5 hours of labor! But at almost 2:00 AM, CDF
started feeling a lot of pressure, and said she was feeling the urge to push with the contractions. A nurse came and checked her, and discovered she was at least 8 cm.

CDF had another hurtful contraction, and this time cried out, which brought the nurses rushing in. Apparently they can tell by the sound how close a woman is to giving birth — at least they have with both of ours.

It didn’t take long after that. The doctor came in and started getting ready. A nurse coached CDF on how to hold her breath and not cry out so she could concentrate on pushing (she started doing so well they had to tell her to hold off on a couple contractions). I just stood beside CDF, holding her hand, and concentrated on wiping her face occasionally.

At 2:21 AM on Saturday, September 2nd, CEF was born. It was amazing to look down toward the foot of the bed and see a baby appear. She started crying right away and struggled a bit while the doctor tried to get her untangled from the umbilical cord. Of course I had the “honor” of cutting the cord — it’s not pretty, so it must be a symbolic thing — and they placed the baby on CDF’s chest so she could hold her while they finished wiping her down.

Finally I got to hold her, and she felt very tiny. I don’t remember how MDF felt — but CEF looked small. She lay quietly in my arms and looked around, cried a little, and just rested.

She weighed 5 lbs 5 oz at birth.

Sleeping well Saturday morning

Mother and daughter

Two sisters

Two nights ago MDF woke up in the middle of the night crying. At first she just went with me to get water, but when she got back in bed, she pulled her sheet over her ear. I asked if it hurt, and she started crying and said yes. We tried to get medicine, but she started coughing and got so worked up that she threw it up. After that she just wanted to go to bed. CDF lay with her for a while and eventually she went to sleep around 1:00.

Then yesterday CDF took her to the Doctor and they confirmed that she had an ear infection and gave her antibiotics. Interestingly they said she probably couldn’t hear out of that ear (I think it’s the right one), and we had started noticing on Saturday that she was saying “what” a lot. But I don’t know if it really related or not.

Last night MDF told me an interesting story:

“My daddy died. Some bad men dropped a rock on his head and he died…”

“But then he was alive again…”

“And he turned into ‘watermelon fox!'”

I do not know where she came up with this.