Eliza Joy Essig

Just a couple of weeks after giving birth to Emerson I was holding him on my couch thinking about how much I love newborns. I realized that even though I don't enjoy being pregnant, given some time, I was ready to do it all over again. I love my babies.

In that moment I had an overwhelming feeling that my next child was so excited to come to our family. It was as if I could feel her say, "I'm next!"

Around the time of the two year anniversary of my Dad's death I was contemplating his life and his passing. I was wondering what my dad was doing right then. And the feeling came to me that my dad was getting ready to send off another child to our family. He loves her very much and was getting ready to say his goodbyes. (or however they do it in heaven, knowing my dad it was probably something like, "see ya, love ya, bye!" :)

Once Emerson had turned one and the timing felt right, we decided to start trying to have another baby. It took a couple of months to get pregnant with Emerson and Eva. But not with Eliza. This girl was seriously excited to come to earth. We got pregnant with her right away.

 My pregnancy with Eliza went really well. In fact, it was the least stressful pregnancy yet. With Eva I was nervous about being a mom and I wasn't sure what I was going to do about work. When I was pregnant with Emerson I was nervous about having more than one child, and I really wanted a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After C-section). Plus, I broke my foot while I was pregnant with him. And he was born right around the one year anniversary of my dad's death and I was just really emotional. But with Eliza's pregnancy, I had already accepted that three kids was going to be chaotic. By now I am used to chaos. Who needs a clean house all the time anyway? And I knew that I would most likely be able to have another VBAC. I really wasn't stressed at all. Just excited to hold another little newborn.

When Lincoln and I were dating, he proposed to me on November 1st. We were then married on March 1. Three years later, Eva was born on June 1st. Two years after that, Emerson was born on April 1st. Eliza was due at the end of Feb. So when I started having contractions on Feb 28th, I had the feeling that she wanted to continue the tradition and also be born on the 1st of the month.

 However, I really didn't want her to be born on March 1st. I didn't want to her to have to share her birthday with our wedding anniversary. Plus, that Sunday (March 1st) Lincoln was getting released from serving in the bishopric of the singles ward. A responsibility he had been serving in for almost 4 years. And I really wanted to be there to say goodbye to everyone. But, in the afternoon of the 28th I was having regular mild contractions. Lincoln and I had already planned to go to the temple, and we decided that we still had time to go before the contractions were too intense. I was so bummed that this baby was most likely going to come on March 1st. But while in the temple, I prayed and turned my will over to God. I told him that even if I had to share my anniversary with this baby, I was just grateful for the opportunity to have a baby. She is a blessing. 

And wouldn't you know it, soon after saying that prayer, my contractions stopped.  Lincoln and I were able to go to church the next day and say our goodbyes. We also enjoyed a wonderful anniversary together. 

The next night I decide to drink some Caster Oil to help trigger contractions. I was ready to have the baby, and since Eliza is the 3rd child, I thought that it would be neat if she was born on the 3rd day of the 3rd month. Four hours after drinking caster oil I was at the gym with Lincoln walking uphill on the treadmill when the first contractions started. It was around 8:45pm. And they were pretty painful right away. We left the gym a little after 9pm. It then took me 2 hours just to pack and get ready to go to the hospital. I was in so much pain and having regular contractions throughout, so I wasn't very efficient or productive. But, we finally left after 11pm and arrived at the hospital around 11:30. After checking in, I met the Dr. on call and she suggested that if I wanted an epidural that I ask for it then since my labor would most likely be pretty fast. So I did, and another hour and a half passed before the anesthesiologist was available. He gave me the epidural, but it didn't work. By then my water had broken and I was in a LOT of pain. I could literally feel Eliza moving down. Along with the painful contractions, I felt sharp pains in my hips. I began to understand why you see women screaming in the movies during labor. So the anesthesiologist took my epidural out and put another one in. That one finally kicked in just in time for the Dr. to check me and tell me it was time to start pushing. I pushed for 15 minutes and Eliza came. Labor was just under 6 hours long. She was born at 2:36am on March 3rd. Weighing 6lbs 3oz and 20 inches long.

With each of my babies I always have a special moment with them in the hospital. It isn't right when they are born... (I am usually too drugged up to feel normal, and there are too many people around.) It is usually the next day or two when I am finally alone in my room with my baby. With Eva it was the moment when I realized that she made me a mom. With Emerson I felt so much love from my dad, I imagined him sending off Emerson to us. I also realized that Emerson had been an angel in heaven helping me deal with the grief of losing my father.

With Eliza I had a similar experience as I did with Emerson. I felt the love of my father sending her off to us. And in that moment of peace I recalled the memory of feeling her spirit telling me how excited she was to come to our family. She had been looking forward to this time with great anticipation. I also had a feeling that she would be a very spiritually strong woman. 

Eliza Joy Essig is named after two very faithful women. Eliza R. Snow and my mother Joy Abegg. I hope she can pattern her life after these women by always putting the Lord first in her life, despite what circumstances she is given. I hope she remembers to "Chose Joy" in her life. We don't get to chose what challenges we face in life, but we always get to chose how we deal with them.

Oh how we love sweet Eliza Joy and we are so excited that she is a part of our family!