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All contents copyright © 2006 by Colin & Marg Empke. All rights reserved.
Revised: 01 Nov 2008 20:55:03 -0500      

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Rebekah Sloane Empke

Born:  September 27, 2000 at 11:59 p.m.

At:  Mt. Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Ontario

7lbs 11oz., 19 1/2 inches

First question:  where did we come up with the name Rebekah Sloane?  We struggled a lot with names.  We purchased the usual baby name books and would lie in bed at night passing names back and forth.  Colin was much pickier then Marg, as he could not tolerate using the same name as a person he knew in the past, if he didn't like that person.  Eventually, the name Rebecca was mentioned and then the name Sloane.  Both were acceptable.  Then, we got to thinking about spelling Rebecca as Rebekah, in the biblical fashion.  That struck a chord and the name was born.

Of course, our daughter is known as Sloane and not as Rebekah.  This is a quirk of Colin's upbringing.  His middle name is Colin.  And throughout his life he has struggled with teachers, bureaucrats, etc. to make them call him by his middle name.  So he decided that his children were going to bear the same burden.  So, from now on, all Empke children will be known by their middle names and not their first.  Indeed, a naming convention has been developed in that all children will have a biblical first name, ending in "ah".  Thus, the second child's first name is Elijah.

Now, on to Sloane's birth story.  It was not an easy pregnancy.  Marg suffered terrible morning sickness.  But on Wednesday, September 27, 2000, Marg woke up about 5:00 am and told Colin he was not going to work that day.  Yes, labour had begun.  At this time, we were living in Minesing, just outside Barrie, which was an hour drive to Mt. Sinai hospital, where Marg's OBGYN was practicing.  So we were a bit nervous about labour - not wanting to have the child born in the van. 

We left for the hospital about 10:30 or 11:00 am and checked in at the hospital at noon.  We were lucky, we got to stay in one of Mt. Sinai's renovated birthing suites.  Very fancy - a t.v. for dad and lots of machines that go beep for the mother.  Labour was long.  Sloane was being difficult and refused to turn the right way for delivery.  The doctors used some medications to prompt Sloane to turn and that caused her heart rate to drop - causing Marg to freak out.  So they stopped the medication and gave us three options:  turn Sloane manually (a painful process with a low success rate); try to push her out (a long process); or C-section.  We chose the middle road and, thankfully, it worked.  Marg was psyched up for hours of pushing but, in the end, a long hard single hour was all that was needed.  Finally, Sloane turned and out she popped - literally, she came out pretty quick once she decided she wanted to.  Thus, at 12:01 (according to everyone in the room who looked at their watch) and at 11:59 by the official hospital clock. Sloane was born. 

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