January had a few surprises for us. Our newest addition was due on Jan. 4. Being that he/she was our fourth child and all but our first son came between eight and 10 days early, we were expecting a Christmas baby.
On Christmas Day, Barb had a Christmas dinner for us and Gregory’s siblings. After we made it through Christmas with no new baby, we thought he or she would be a New Year’s baby — but New Year’s Day came and went and we still had no baby.
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I had a checkup with the family doctor in North Battleford on Jan. 4. The doctor checked us both out and said all looked well. There was some discussion about induction, but I was not too keen on being induced for the sake of a date on the calendar. So, I made an appointment for the following week to keep track of the baby and to make sure that there was no need for induction.
My next checkup was on the 10th and all was still good with the baby, but the weather had turned very cold. Our next appointment with the doctor was set for Tuesday, the 16th. The doctor was getting more anxious about induction and said if we made it to the 16th, which would make me 12 days overdue, we would have to seriously consider induction. The 16th is John’s birthday, so we were wondering if our new baby was trying to be birthday buddies with Grandpa.
In the end Anna Rose Eppich decided to show up on her own date — eight days later than the due date. It was just about bedtime for the boys when I felt the first contraction. I had them get ready for bed, then instead of heading upstairs I told them to go put their boots and coats on. They were a little surprised but are always happy to go over to Grandma’s house. Joseph and James had a good idea about what was going on, but poor Ian was very confused. He was quite happy to go to Grandma’s but after a while he was done visiting and wanted to go home. He actually got his coat and boots on himself and would have taken himself home if he had been able to open the door. Finally, Grandma convinced him to stay for the night.
On Friday, Jan. 12, at 3:02 a.m., Anna Rose Eppich made her arrival. She weighed eight pounds and was 22 inches long. Her godfather recorded the temperature at -42.9 C on the day of her birth.
Due to the extremely cold temperatures, Gregory had to go home and feed and bed the animals Friday afternoon. They were very grateful to see him. When he came back to the hospital, he brought the battery booster with him. The next day our Explorer would not have started without it.
Saturday afternoon Gregory warmed up the Explorer and picked up some extra blankets, gloves, toques and hand warmers just in case we had trouble on the way home. We let his sister in North Battleford know when we left and John and Barb and the boys were waiting for us at home. With all our supplies and extra help if needed, we carefully took our new baby girl home. Her brothers were very excited to meet her!
The cold weather lasted for several days, then there was a big warm-up. On Saturday, Jan. 27, we celebrated Anna’s baptism, then had neighbours and friends join us for a wiener and marshmallow roast afterward. The temperature was very nice but just a couple of days after that, it actually got above freezing. The boys spent lots of time playing outside but were very wet when they finally would come in.
