Walter's Story

On December 20th i had a doctor's appointment in cheyenne and got the ok to head home to Star Valley for Christmas. I was beyond excited. Jason and I started making big plans for our vacation time. Jason had taken 10 days off of work to get in a whole winters worth of snowmobiling . He packed up his xbox 360 with his 2 new games he had gotten in november and hadn't got to play yet. And started dreaming of my moms cooking for 10 whole days. My big plans were simple to enjoy all of the family parties and visit all my sisters and their families. Because I knew it would be our last trip for awhile, when we got to back in cheyenne i would be getting the baby and not want to travel . On December 23rd we headed out at an early hour, and was in Star Valley 8 hours later!! We stopped and had lunch with Jason's family on our way in and ran a few errands, and then spent the evening with my family We went to bed around 10:30 and 4 hours later i was up for a potty break. I went downstairs and got a drink, stoked the woodstove, and then admired my moms beautiful Christmas village. All was normal or so I thought. I hadn't even fallen back asleep when i had a very intense pain in my back and my water broke! I hurried and woke Jason and told him not to freak out i hadn't peed the bed but I did need his help. He got woke up and had me call my doctor's in jackson who handled my pregnancy while we were living in Star Valley and they told me to head up to be checked. They informed me over the phone that where I was only 34 weeks if my water had indeed broke we would have to be flown out for the babies sake. So we headed to Jackson extremely nervous and praying for the best. We went through emergency and it took about 2 seconds for the doctor to confirm my water had broke. She hurried and did an ultrasound that showed the baby weighing in aprox. 5 pounds 9 oz. With that information she called our pediatrician, and he said he was willing to keep us in Jackson as long as we understood the very high chance of the baby needing to be flown out. We decided to stay in Jackson. And as soon as we made our decision I called my Dad to come give me a preisthood blessing to help us. After chores him and Brian came to Jackson and performed it. As soon as they left to get to grandmas christmas eve party, jason came and took my hand and told me that no matter what was about to happen that our baby was going to be ok. Wonderful Feeling. 20 hours after my water broke at 10:42 on December 24th we welcomed Walter James Martinz into our family. Dr. Little was present and took him instantly to evaluate him. What a beautiful sound to hear his first cry. Jason was by his side, and after a few minutes the doctor came over and told me all looked well and let me give him one quick kiss before he wheeled him down to ICU. What a miracle he weighed in at 6 pounds and 6 oz and was 19 inches long. He only required some blowby oxygen for about 20 minutes. They put him on an IV with antibiotics because they were concerned that an infection was the reason he came early. It seemed like forever later Jason came back for me and took me to see our son. By this point it was for sure him and his dad wasn't headed out to Idaho Falls. He stayed in ICU for a few days for observation. On the 3rd day his IV was taken out. He had to spend a day under the lights for jaundice, and on the 5th day much to everyones amazement we took him home( well to grandma and grandpa's) He left the hospital weighing 6 pounds 2 oz. He never showed any sign of infection, after my OB convinced everyone that my due date was indeed correct and he was that developed at 34 weeks he was officially declared our CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!