Emi's Info

Emi was born Emilia Lucille English on a very warm August 3rd afternoon in 1982, at Northern Montana Hospital in Havre, Montana. She was named after her Grandpa Emilio and her Grandma Beatrice Lucille. She was the fourth and last of our children. I had gone shopping with my mother to buy birthday gifts for Emi's older brother Joe, whose birthday is August 5th. While purchasing the gifts at the check out stand, I began writing a check and WHAM!!! I got my first strong contraction. It bent me over and winded me. The sales clerk and Mom noticed I was in pain & I told them I was definitely in labor. Needless to say, we hurried home.

Tony and a gang of his friends had decided to pour our cement basement floor that day and it was only partially done by the time I got home, so I decided to quietly handle the pains without letting Him know I was in labor. It was about 1 in the afternoon and had been an active day. I was feeling great! I cleaned up and packed a bag and sat down to watch my soap operas as the pains grew stronger. About an hour later I had a hard and heavy contraction which broke my water; so I went upstairs and cleaned myself up, knowing it wouldn't be long now. This was the first time my water had broken at home.

At about 4:30 I heard the guys come upstairs and go out into the back yard, and knew they were done. I got up off the couch and waddled out into the back yard and said "Tony, it's time. We need to go to the hospital." He replied, "Are you in labor?" to which I said "yes, and we have to go now". He said "OK, I'll just finish this beer and we'll go." He was used to waiting out those long labors at the hospital and had no idea I had been in hard labor for several hours.

I told him, "We have to go now!! My water broke a couple hours ago and my pains are between 3 and 4 minutes apart!!" At that news, and probably witnessing first hand my next pain, he came running, got me into the car and away we went. FAST!!. I had to really hang on with the way he took the corners� We walked into the emergency room, (which was filled with people, of course) and he say a nurse and said he needed a wheelchair for his wife who was in labor. She looked at him and nodded and went about finishing her conversation. At that moment I had another contraction (about 2 minutes apart at that time) and as I squeezed his arm, he cried out to the nurse, "I said my wife needs a wheelchair right now Do you want her to have it right here??"

When she heard the urgency in his voice, she broke off her conversation and quickly wheeled me upstairs to a room while Tony filled out the paperwork. There was only one nurse on the floor in maternity and no doctors, so the nurse began prepping me, then realized I wasn't going to wait much longer. She put in a call for my doctor, got my on a guerney and out of my room and into the delivery room she pushed me, by herself, smashing my fingers on the doorjams as we went. By the time she had my feet in the stirrups I was bearing down and she was begging me not to. To please wait until the doctor got there She had never delivered a baby before and didn't want this one to be her first. I couldn't wait and told her so, and I guess we were making so much commotion that we had caught the attention of Dr. Kelley, who had not checked into the hospital but was checking on another patient in labor. He opened the door to the deliver room and saw that Emi's head had already arrived, and what's more, the cord was wrapped around her neck. He came running, the nurse slipped on his gloves, and he managed to untangle the cord and Emilia Lucille English was born. It had been only � hour since I had arrived at the hospital. My doctor, Tom Booth, had gotten stuck in suppertime traffic and came rushing into the delivery room just as Dr. Kelley was sewing me up. Luckily, after having given birth 3 times before Emi, and not every being able to watch, for one reason or another, because the mirror wasn't in place; this time the mirror just happened to be positioned right and I got to witness the whole thing. It was great, I felt good, and I noticed that this sweet baby girl looked just like her big brother Frank had when he was born, except that she was much tinyier and her head was not shaped like a football like his had been!!

All babies should arrive as easily as she did.

Emi was a real delight as she grew up. After having three others, I was finally able to stop and smell the roses and really enjoy her. I had great times with Angi, Frank and Joe; but I knew this was going to be the last one I would have, so I took special pains to make it a great experience.

We were doing foster care at that time; and the first thing I requested was not to place any babies with me, because I wanted to enjoy Emi exclusively. Well, since when did DFS ever do as was asked of them?? They asked us to take lots of babies while Emi was a baby, and I was never able to say no to a baby.