Rich's Birthday

Today is Rich's birthday - 37 years old - can it be possible. I remember every detail of that day as if it were yesterday. Up to that day our family consisted of Jerry, Linda, Robert 5 1/2 and Lynette, just turned 1 four days before.

Richard John was such wonderful gift from Heavenly Father. We thought we would only have one child and so we adopted Lynette and then when she was only 3 months old, much to our surprise, I found out that I was pregnant. It was quite a summer with the news of Lynette's problems and dealing with morning sickness. I suppose all of that stress was some of the cause of the gestational diabetes that the doctor discovered about three weeks before Rich was due the first week of October. My regular checkups with the OB were usually early in the morning before Jerry went to work, but that September morning, I got a call that they had to change my appointment until later in the morning. Instead of waiting to eat breakfast when I got home, I went ahead and ate before my appointment. I remember it was a Friday and they did the regular urine test. However, the doctor came in to see me and said that my test showed positive for diabetes and I would have to go to the lab the next morning fasting to have a blood glucose test. Monday afternoon I got an urgent call from the doctor saying that they needed me to check into the hospital immediately as my blood sugar was high and the baby was at risk. Total madhouse to call mom and dad to come to be with Rob and Lynette, make arrangements for the neighbor to watch them until they could get there from Price, get some things together to take to the hospital, panic, panic, panic - is the baby okay? This is 3 weeks early! Is the doctor going to start me? Questions, questions, questions!

And thus, Tuesday, September 18 was the day for this little boy to be born. He was put in the preemie nursery to watch for problems related to the high blood glucose levels, but he did just fine and at 7 lbs 1 oz, he looked big compared to the tiny little preemies that were there. We brought him home and then there were five!

I must add one picture of Rich's hairy little head.