It has been a over 10 years now since we lost Emily. Barely a day goes by that I don't think of her. Emily Renee McCormick was born on October 2, 2002. We discovered that she died when we arrived for the induction on October 1, 2002. Emily died somewhere between September 30, 2002 after Rachel's doctor appointment and October 1, 2002. But I'll tell the whole story.
Rachel's Pregnancy seemed to go normally she was retaining extra fluid and the doctors were a little worried about her blood pressure. But both ultrasound she had were fine.
Rachel had a Doctor's appointment on the 30th and Emily was fine. She was to begin the induction next day. But When we arrived at the Hospital Tuesday afternoon they could not find her heart beat. Two Nurses tried and then they brought in a ultrasound machine to check but her heart wasn't beating.
After that they took us to a more private room further away from the rooms with crying children. We began calling friends and family to let them know what had happened. At this point we didn't know why we would have to wait until she was born.
The induction took about 23 hours unlike Sarah's birth which took longer but I think they tried to rush Emily along since their was not chance of hurting her now. Rachel's mom was their and allot of people I didn't know very well and even a few that I didn't know at all. Rachel's sister Trish and her husband Mike were out of town so they didn't get to see her at all. They checked Emily they wanted to do autopsy but we said no. Their was no physical appearance of anything wrong with her except for the knot in the cord which we believe was the cause. We only kept her with us for a little while Rachel was exhausted and wouldn't be able to sleep if they left her in the room.
After they release us from the hospital we went to the dental school to talk to a few people and drop off some paper work. Just telling people that didn't here about what happen was hard. Then we decided that we needed some things for the funeral the next day So we went to Wal-Mart. We ran into my sister and her family. We also ran into one of the preachers from a church Rachel went to a few times.
We decided to have Emily buried next to Rachel's twin brother. Who was also stillborn. Since Rachel always wanted to be buried next to him it seemed proper to put her their. Rachel's grandmother is buried their and also many other of her family is their as well. Rachel's Dad had purchased enough lots for their whole family.
We decided to only have a grave side funeral and we chose Joe Weaver the same pastor who married me and Rachel 2 years before. I was actually surprised by the turn out their was allot of family and friends that came some people came over to our house after the funeral.
I decided that we needed to get away from everything for a while. Being at home reminded of everything the past week was too much for the both of us. We decided to get away for a few days so we went down to Virginia Beach, VA. We had taken our honeymoon their and it was a place to get away to and just cope.
We would like to extend our thanks to the nurses in Labor and Delivery at Ruby Memorial Hospital, All the Doctors from Family Medicine in the Health Sciences Center and my coworkers at the WVU School of Dentistry in the Health Sciences Center for collecting money to help pay for Emily's headstone. We appreciate all their help during this most difficult time.
Also a special thanks to all the family and friends that supported us and took care of us through out this ordeal in the months after we lost Emily.
© 2013 by Tracy McCormick. All rights reserved.
