Cristyn

I decided on the advice of a friend to call the kids by their middle names and so everyone knows who I'm referring to I'm going to tell a little story about each one.

Our eldest daughter, Cristyn, was born in November of 2000 with the help of in vitro fertilization.  She was born 5 weeks early due to my high blood pressure and gestational diabetes.  A c-section brought relief from failure-to-progress after 36 hours of labor.  I only managed to dialate to 3 centimeters in all that time.  FInally, she was born and was 7 lbs 2 oz and 18 inches long.  We had a little fight to get through as she wound up being transferred to another hospital and being put in NICU and I wound up being put in ICU myself due to some problems after delivery.  However, we got through it and a few days later I was released and went to hold my baby girl and a few days later she was released to come home too.  Just in time to celebrate her first Thanksgiving.  Our little baby girl was healthy and beautiful and we were so thankful for her!  God had definitely answered our prayers!

When Cristyn was just 3 months old, Hubby got laid off.  We sold our house in Illinois a couple of years later and moved back to Michigan.  We thought being around more family would help as Hubby continued to look for work.  I went back to work when she was 3 and had to put her in daycare and it about broke my heart.  It took both of us to work and we both weren't making much due to Michigan's job economy.  Cristyn enjoyed daycare and she made friends there too.  She started noticing though after awhile that her friends all had sisters and brothers and it brought the question of "Why don't I have a sister or a brother, Mommy?"  "How come there's just me?"  We had been open to life for quite awhile trusting God's timing and not knowing if I could emotionally handle the rollercoaster of infertility treatments again.  We weren't sure of what to do and just gave it a little more time.