Emily Update

Here are the Freeman Family Children, all of them. (What a beautiful bunch!) The kids had a great time visiting Mh at the hospital. Mh ended-up staying at the hospital until Friday evening. She has been feeling pretty good since the low blood pressure episode, and is feeling ready to take-on-the-world! Well, maybe ready to go home, climb the stairs and lay in bed for a few more days (weeks?!?). The kids are excited to have Mom home, but are already realizing that with Mh's current (though temporary, thank goodness!) limitations, they are now her arms and legs. Mom even had a job list for them Saturday morning.

Emily is doing wonderfully. She isn't sure about her bed at this point, but with some convincing, I think she might make it hers soon. Emily and Dad had to go to Boise to see a specialist for Emily's hips. It was discovered that she does in-fact have Hip Displacia, a condition where her hip sockets are under-developed and she must wear a brace until the joint is strong enough to stay in place. The brace looks like a parachuting harness except her legs are held at a 90+ degree angle holding the head of the femur in the socket. We don't know how long she will have to wear it. The doctor says that it depends on each kids development, on how she progresses and when then feel that she is ready - his words were, "a handful of months." Anyway, until then, here is our little mountain climber! (Jeremy, I think that I can adapt this to a repelling harness, I just need a very small carabiner!).

Emily doesn't seem to mind most of the time, though I think that sometimes she would like to stretch her legs a little and enjoy this new-found freedom that she has.
It is fun to see the kids get so excited about the new baby. I figured that after all this time with Nathan around, the girls might not be too excited about another 'invasion'. Even Nathan is enjoying her...

Nathan did find ways to entertain himself. He was VERY board in the hospital, and was told "NO" way too much. He did find way to entertain us though. He entertained us with new uses for some of the equipment in the room.

We tried to explain that this wasn't a toy, but I don't think that he go the message.

Emily is a welcomed addition to our family, even Mom and Dad enjoyed their time with Emily. Grandpa Evans even got in on spending time with Emily.

My First Road Trip!

Went on my first road-trip with the new toy. I was hired to do medical stand-by for a mountain bike race at Silver Creek Plunge. They had a new track and the insurance requires that they have medically-trained personnel on stand-by just-in-case.

I left early Saturday Morning. I was hoping to take one of the girls, but not knowing what to expect with this group, I went alone.
I rode up Hwy 55 through the area that I grew-up traveling. It was a great trip up memory lane. While growing-up, we traveled north for most of our camping trips and scout outings. One of the stops that we always made was the lower rapids in Banks, Idaho.

This is the sandbar that used to exit the river on, but this has been a good water year here in Idaho:

I continued to a little town called Crouch. We used to visit here while Mh and I were engaged because we had some friends that had a cabin here. It is a weird little town, but it has grown since the last time I was here (about 10 years ago).

The road to Silver Creek Plunge has really improved over the past years. I haven't been up here since Mh and I were engaged, so it has been like 14 years, but I remember the road being a lot rougher. It is some beautiful country though.
'The Plunge' as I learned it is called now, was not much different than it was 14 years ago. The lodge was the same, the pool was the same, but they had added some camping areas, solar panels and they had some amazing pictures of the forest fires from last year. They actually used the pool for a dip tank at one point. Even with the fires last year, it is an amazingly beautiful area.
The race was cool. This a very passionate group, but very accepting and entertaining. They had all levels of competitors, and a new, very challenging course. There was a spectator loop (beginner coarse that is also the beginning of the sport, professional and expert course), then the
big loop'. It was a killer loop of about 20 miles that I was told was the most difficult and strenuous coarse anyone had ever seen, but they loved the challenge and were looking forward to it next year. It was a fun day. I almost wish that I had brought my mountain bike so that I could have tried at least the spectator loop. The winner finished the expert course in like 2 hours and 20-some minutes, but we had one guy that was "lost" on the course (just very slow) and when he finally finished it was 6 hours and 50-some minutes, but he insisted on finishing. It was really fun talking to the racers and my job was simple. I bandaged just a few scrapes and bumps, but got paid and had a free lunch.

These last pictures were the placement board. As you come across the finish line, they record your time on a tag and hang it on the board. Instant results.

After the race, I took off to head home and decided to take a different route. I loved riding the dirt roads in the hills. I haven't done much off-road riding, so this was a cool, different experience.
I road through Garden Valley, then headed back toward Horseshoe Bend. Once there, I took Hwy. 52 toward Emmett. I love this road. It follows the river for most of the trip then opens into the reservoir above the dam. I stopped at the park below the dam to take a break.

I then rode through Emmett, up Freezeout road to Middleton then home. It was a great day. I really enjoyed the freedom that you just don't get in a car. This was a new experience for me.

Kurt's New Toy

Kurt has picked-up a new toy that was sold as a gas saving device, but now has become a major form of transportation. He is very proud of his purchase and looks for every opportunity to use it.
This is the new toy. As you can see, it is already being put to good use. This is a picture of what it looks like loaded-down with all the fire gear for moving between fire stations. The large red bag is the turn-outs bag, the small red bag is the clothing/uniform bag and the pack on the tank is for misc. items. The bike does great! It covers the freeway/highway well, and is very economical in the process. It gets 50+ mpg!!! Tough to beat that!
Now, when he can acquire the gear, he is going to start doing some sight-seeing (thanks a lot Jeremy and Jeff!) and possibly some traveling. Just knew this wasn't going to be a money-saving device.

Newest Addition

Figure the best way to kick-off this Freeman Family Blog site is to announce our newest arrival. Emily Anna Freeman was born at 10:33am, Monday morning, 8.25.08 weighing in at 8lbs 15oz and 23" long. We had settled ourselves to having a boy, so when it was a girl, we were surprised.

Mh went into labor Sunday night about 7:00pm. This had never happened to her, she usually is always induced, so she was a little taken back with this new thing. We took her to the hospital and found that yes, she was in labor. She progressed nicely throughout the night, and about 1:00 am she decided it was time to try some pain control. She has never had very good luck with the epidural so we were a little apprehensive about another try. The Nurse Anethesitist(sp?) made two different attempts, but there was no luck. Out of co-incidents the on-call Anesthesiologist was called in for an emergency surgery and agreed to come have a look and make an attempt. Needless to say, Mh was not in a hurry or anxious to try again. After just a short time, she was resting comfortably with a fully-operational epidural! Boy was she happy! After about 6 more hours of lack of progress, the decision was made between the two doctors that were in-charge of Mh's care that things were not going well, and we decided to go to c-section. After our eventual positive experience with Nate, we were more willing to have a c-section this time and reduce any possible, future problems.

After a quick bit of major surgery, our baby was here. Mh had a few struggles in surgery, she lost about 2 liters of blood and had to have 2 units of blood post-recovery. The doctors were a little concerned for while, but she pulled through like a champ.

Emily Anna Freeman, 8lbs 15oz 23" long born 10:33 am 8/25/08

Emily also did well. There were no complications. She is healthy and strong. We took her down to the nursery and she was cleaned, poked, probed, warmed, bathed, checked and rechecked. But in the end, she was beautiful!


Things have been great ever since. She sleeps well, has taken right off to nursing, she has a great suck reflex and is a strong eater. The nurses have been checking her blood sugar all night because of her size and she is doing wonderfully.


Mh had a low blood pressure episode on Wednesday night. She was visiting with her dad and had a sudden increase in pain. She called the nurse and had her assist with standing to see if that would help with the pain. While she was standing, she began feeling lightheaded, and "the room began to go black." The nurse helped her sit on the bed, then Mh passed-out onto the bed. Over the next hour, Mh's blood pressure stayed low(54/30 at its lowest), the doctor was called and Mh was evaluated. Mh received 1000mL of fluid, and some different pain medication to try to alleviate some of the pain. The doctors believe that she had a vaso-vagel response to the pain that she had been feeling. They did an IV-P exam today(x-rays with contrast to see if everything is flowing correctly), and didn't find anything. She will be staying in the hospital over-night Thursday night and the doctor will re-evaluate her in the morning.
As for Emily, the Pediatrician is worried about her hips. He feels a 'pop' in the hip joint as he moves them so we are taking her to a specialist in Boise tomorrow to have her evaluated. We are told that they saw the joints attempting to sub-locate (pop out then back in) when they did an ultrasound, to the specialist will evaluate her to see the extent of care needed. We are told that most likely, she will need to wear a brace for about 6 weeks to hold the joint until the muscles and tendons develop completely. We'll see tomorrow.

Thanks for all the notes of congratulations and well wishes. We are very thrilled to know we have so many friends and love to hear from you all. We will do our best to keep this up and running, so please continue to check back.