Emery's Birth Story

Emery’s Birth Story. (I wrote it to Emery)

I thought for sure you were going to come early. Brandon came on his own at 38 weeks and 3 days, Malachi at 38 weeks. I figured you’d make your appearance sometime between 37-38 weeks. When that didn’t happen I started getting frustrated! Silly me to think I controlled anything :) Grandma flew in Thursday, August 30th (2012) (38 weeks 3 days). Luckily, my doctor (Kenneth Spielvogel) wanted to induce me Friday, August 31st because I had PUPPS (severe itching…. aaaaah…. drove me crazy). I was thrilled because Grandma got to be there, and I didn’t have to be pregnant much longer. Plus, we really want to have you before September 1st so you wouldn’t be held back because of your birthday at school. I was a little nervous though because I had never been induced before. We were all concerned also about having a repeat of what happened after Malachi. Dr. Spielvogel was pretty confident that with the extra pitocin from the induction it would prevent me hemorrhaging again.

Friday August 31st we left Brandon and Malachi with Oma at home at 4:30am. Dad, Grandma, and I headed to the hospital. I checked in and headed up to the Labor and Delivery. After I got settled, IVs, hospital gown, etc. They checked me and I was dilated to a 3 and completely effaced. That was good because that meant I didn’t need to do cervadil, just pitocin. I was already having contrations every 8-15 minutes (for the past week!). They started the pitocin and I felt things kick up a bit. Every 20 minutes they would come in and increase the dosage. We watched Warehouse 13 episodes on Dad’s laptop while we waited for thing to get going. Around 8 am Dr. Spielvogel came in and checked me at 3 cm still, then broke my water. Everything was clear and good. That’s when my contractions really started getting stronger. After a while (I don’t remember the time) a nurse asked how my pain was. I was still able to handle the pain but I knew I would want an epidural at some point. She told me that after I told her I wanted one it was going to be 30 minutes so I should plan accordingly. I decided to wait through two contractions and make a decision then. After those two contractions and comparing them to contractions I was feeling a half hour before that, I decided it was best to ask for my epidural. Almost exactly 30 minutes later I was really in some pain and super excited for that epidural! Dad and Grandma had to leave the room while I got it but I had an awesome nurse that helped me. The anesthesiologist was AMAZING. That was the best epidural I’ve ever had. I instantly started to relax and I felt sooo good. I hadn’t realized how uncomfortable I had been going through all those contractions the whole last week. I got really sleepy too.

Things moved along. Slower than Brandon or Malachi’s labors, but at a normal rate for an induction. Around 2:00 pm I started to feel some pressure and my contractions were decelerating so I got oxygen and they put me on my side and sat me up a bit. By 2:30 pm I was starting to feel a lot of pressure. I could feel your head moving down with every contraction. I called in the nurse to check me because I figured I was ready to push. She said a 9 but not ready to push. After she left I turned to Grandma and I said, “She’s wrong”. But I figured there was no use in saying anything. You would come when you wanted to whether or not the nurse said so. Only a few minutes later Dr. Spielvogel came in to check me. The nurse said she already had but I gave Dr. Spielvogel a I-feel-pressure-and-this-nurse-is-definitely-wrong look. He checked me and he said I was a 9.5 but I could definitely push through it. Right before we started pushing the nurse noticed I had run out of epidural medication. I freaked out a little in my head! Uh yeah, can I please get some more…REALLY FAST?! We started pushing (and my epidural was AWESOME) and I could tell you were bigger than I had originally thought. I figured you were around Brandon’s size (6lb 12oz) but then I was sure you were around Malachi’s size (7lb 6 oz). I was pushing and I could tell everyone was a bit on the disappointed side when a nurse quietly asked Dr. Spielvogel if she should get the forceps. He said, “not yet”. That’s when I put my game face on and decided I was going to get you out. I was not going to have to use forceps ever again! I pushed you out in the next two pushes! After that your cry was so sweet. The first thing I noticed was how much hair you had and that it was so curly! As they took you away from me to warm up and clean off you tried to grab my face and got….goop?....across my cheek. Then they weighed you…7 lbs 13 oz! I could not believe it. Dr. Spielvogel couldn’t believe it! You were 20.5 inches long with a 14 inch head. My biggest baby.

I kind of hogged you after all was said and done. At first you didn’t want to nurse but then I realized it was because your right eye was glued shut from vernix. Once we cleared that you latched right on and ate and ate. You are a very peaceful and happy baby. You only cry when you are hungry or need a diaper change. You've passed your hearing test. We couldn't be happier to have you as our son. We love you!

Introducing......Emery Lloyd Conary. Born August 31st, 2012, 2:57pm.

And the proud big brothers:

Music and Cochlear Implants

Go check out my newest post over at Malachi's blog:
http://adventuresofbionicboy.blogspot.com/2012/04/music-and-cochlear-implants.html

Family Update

I haven't updated this blog for months. So sad! Lets go through everyone in the family:


(Brandon took a pen to himself while waiting in the van for Daddy to get out of the motorcycle shop)

Brandon is now 4 years old and busier than ever. He's learning to ride his new bike he got for Christmas. He loves everything that has to do with dinosaurs or pirates. He's hungry ALL THE TIME. I'm nervous for when this kid hits teenage years. I hope Brian is an administrator by then! He's going to eat us out of house and home. He's finally getting excited about learning his ABCs. His brain thinks and learns differently than mine so I've had to be inventive and creative (thank goodness for pinterest) to help him stay interested in the alphabet.



(Malachi playing with his new drum he got from his physical therapist)

Malachi is growing and learning by leaps and bounds. I feel like everyday he is doing or saying something new, which is a nice change of pace for us! For the past year every milestone or achievement has been after weeks of work and lots of sleep lost on mommy's part thinking about how to help him. I'm still updating a blog for him at www.adventuresofbionicboy.blogspot.com because I don't want to turn this blog into everything to do with Malachi's CIs. I just posted something new over there this morning so go check it out! He's signing about 14 signs right now, and responses to a good chunk of them by sound too. He's starting to play with sounds more. He's babbling a lot, which is awesome! He's just figuring out that you "talk" on the phone and you actually hear something come out of it. He's also learning to love and understand music. He now gets that music is different from other sounds. We've had many dance parties lately and so far the favorites are Michael Jackson and Queen.






Right now I'm 13 pregnant with baby number three! This pregnancy has been particularly exhausting. My doctor said that most of the time when he sees women who are in their third pregnancy usually complain more of the exhaustion than the nausea. It seems to be that the morning sickness is starting to wear off a little, so here's to hoping that we're only a week or two away from it all being gone! My due date is September 11th (I know no one is ever going to forget that lol). I'm not really up to much else than just trying to keep up with the boys and try to keep the laundry going and keep the house clean.




Brian has been crazy busy as always. He teaches Spanish 2 all day, coaches track all afternoon, and working at the local rec on Saturdays. And this is probably his least busy time of year. He is still in the Stake Young Men's presidency and in our stake, this time of year during ward conferences means traveling several hours almost every Sunday. He also recently ran the Myrtle Beach Marathon and qualified for the Boston Marathon AGAIN! But this time he cut more than 7 minutes off his PR. He ran a chip time of 3:01:03. He ran his heart out and I am just so crazy proud of him! Here is a video of him finishing his marathon :)

A Miracle

We had a very interesting and special experience yesterday (November 5th, 2011). I also posted this over on Malachi's blog www.adventuresofbionicboy.blogspot.com.

Brian and I are cross country coaches. Yesterday was the State meet in Columbia, SC. We took the boys with us because we didn't have a babysitter for them overnight (this is definitely the last year we're doing that!). Malachi wore his processor the whole time, even with a beanie with ear flaps. If he wears a size bigger in hats (aka, Brandon's size) then the processor doesn't get pulled off.

After the awards ceremony we high-tailed it for our vehicles. There is always a huge line trying to get out because hundreds of cars and lots of buses all try to pull out of a field parking lot to a single lane road with a stop sign exit. Brian drives the bus with the team on it and I was in a rental van with the boys. When I got to the van I was just trying to get the boys and our stuff in as fast as possible. As I took Malachi's beanie off his processor fell off. I remember thinking to myself, "as soon as I get him buckled in I'm going to grab it."

As I pulled into a restaurant parking lot 10 minutes later (feeding the team lunch before we headed back home) I remembered about the processor. I couldn't remember putting it back on Malachi. I jumped out and  started digging around the van hoping to find it. It wasn't there. I called Brian and started yelling that I had left the processor in the field! I felt like hyperventilating. I literally felt crazy, insane, and stupid. WHAT DID I JUST DO?

These pictures are from google maps. This first one is looking to the left of the field we parked in:

View Larger Map


This is looking to the right of the field:

View Larger Map

This last one is the aerial view. Zoom in and compare the field to the cars on Clemson Rd. You can really get a feel for how big this field is.

View Larger Map

It seemed nearly impossible. How in the heck were we supposed to find Malachi's processor in that huge field? Even if we were to find it, it should be broken from being (a) run over by me, (b) Mr. Brown one of our chaperons who was parked and drove right behind me, and (c) because everyone was cutting through the field run over by someone else!

I was just so mad at myself. I was calling myself stupid, moron, idiotic, lazy, pathetic. We just can't afford the $8,000 to replace the processor. Brian drove with me back to the field. Interestingly enough he was rather calm and just told me we needed to start praying. I prayed the whole way to the field.

It's a good thing the Lord has blessed me with good navigational skills because I was able to get us pretty close to wear I had parked from the way the grass was matted down on the field to tell where the aisles were, the surrounding  fences and buildings, and a single truck still parked in the same line I had been. After searching for about 5 minutes I was loosing hope. I thought there was no way we could find it. I decided to move down a little farther to a spot I really thought was too far away from where I thought we'd parked. I prayed a small prayer again. Then I thought, "You are stupid. There is no way Heavenly Father is going to help you. This was YOUR stupid mistake, not an accident. Why would He help you? YOU ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH."

Then I looked down. AND THERE IT WAS. I gasped and said, "Oh. My. Gosh." I picked it up. It was still on and completely intact. Not a scratch on it. I could not believe it. Tears started running down my face.
I instantly felt that the Lord was trying to tell me something. That my faith is good enough. That he does love me and care for me. I struggle with feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt regularly. It's just one of my personal demons. I learned that day that my Heavenly Father still loves me anyways.

Brian asked to give me a hug but all I wanted to do was get into the van and cry. (I didn't however, because that would have really freaked out the boys). We checked the processor with the remote assistant to make sure everything was good and put it right back on Malachi.

We experienced a miracle.

Malachi's Left Ear Activation!

Yesterday was the big day! Malachi's left ear cochlear implant activation! Here is the video I put together. We had about 23 minutes of video I had to cut down. Now it's about 7.5 minutes. I'm not sure you will be able to view this in a email. So if you are receiving it via email, go to our blog address to watch it.

9.11

Several family and friends have been talking about where they were 10 years ago on 9.11 so I decided to share my story.

My alarm went off around 6am to get ready for school. In those days my alarm was a radio and I had it set to Z100. The talk show hosts were discussing something about the world trade centers...I had know idea what those were. I was 14 and it was the first week of high school for me. What was on my mind? A boy I liked wanted to "go out" with me and I was planning on surprising him by walking with one of my best friends to a different bus stop farther away so that I could ride his bus to school.

After I was on that bus and on our way to his bus stop I hear over the radio again that the world trade centers have been hit by an airplane. My best friend told me that they were big tall buildings in New York City. A billion questions ran through my mind. Who would do that? Why? Are there people in those buildings? What time is there?

After I was in class at school there was a TV on with the news. It was live. I literally watched the news cover the second plane hit as it happened. I didn't know what to think. Every one of my classes had a TV hooked up to the news. We didn't do any work that day, just watched the news.

When I went to seminary the Church did it's news conference and we got to watch that live as well.

I've always felt like that was the day I was introduced to a whole new world that I had no idea existed. I didn't fully realize that people hated the USA. As far as I knew it was a pretty great place live and why would anyone hate that? Part of my innocence was lost that day, but I think it was for the best. I started to understand the larger world around me.

What's kind of funny is that Brian was in the MTC on 9.11 (he's 5 years older than me). He didn't really know anything about it because they only let them watch the Church's broadcast about it. To this day every year when there are videos and pictures on TV about it, a lot of it he has never seen before.

Where were you?

Adventures of Bionic Boy

I just thought I'd let everyone know that I've started up a new blog. I will continue to update this one for our family in general, but I needed a different blog to post about everything to do with Malachi's deafness/CIs etc. I wanted to have something to share our experiences so that hopefully someone else that becomes in our position will have the chance read it and feel comfort and possibly find answers. You can find our new blog and subscribe or follow it at: http://adventuresofbionicboy.blogspot.com