Emma Clair Furey made her entrance into the world at 6:46 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 9, weighing 4 pounds, 4 ounces and measuring 16 ½-inches long. She has a lot of dark brown hair and blue eyes.
This year’s first Jewish baby, the daughter of Amy Ravis Furey and Brian Furey, was born at Shawnee Mission Medical Center. But the Fureys never thought she could be 2011’s first Jewish baby of the year because she arrived almost six weeks earlier than planned. Ravis Furey’s “due date” with Emma was originally estimated at Feb. 19.
Needless to say the hours leading up to Emma’s birth were more than a little stressful for the Furey family. Emma’s older brother, Michael, who is 2 ½, was also premature, so the Fureys and their doctors thought there could be another early arrival.
“My water broke with my first pregnancy at 34 weeks,” Furey said. “We hoped it wouldn’t again, but in the back of my mind I always knew it was possible again with this pregnancy too,” she said.
The shared vision/individualized Jewish path coordinator at The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah, who also serves as the youth group adviser, Ravis Furey actually attended worship services and “a really great youth group program” just hours before her water broke. When that happened at 2:30 a.m., they proceeded to the hospital.
Once there, the medical team decided to inject Ravis Furey with two steroid shots. The steroids are expected to provide benefits for the lung development in premature infants as well as reduce the risk of respiratory distress syndrome and other potential complications.
After Ravis Furey received the steroid shots, the medical team began inducing labor. Just a couple of hours later little Emma was born.
“It was crazy, it all happened so fast,” Ravis-Furey said.
Mom was feeling so well after Emma was born that she left a message at The Chronicle just 30 minutes later to report the birth, hoping her baby was the first Jewish baby of the year.
“Once we knew Emma was healthy and well, it was just too cool to pass up trying,” Ravis Furey said.
As her older brother was named after his late grandfather Michael Ravis, Emma received a family name as well. Her middle name, Clair, is the maiden name of her paternal grandmother, the late Glynis Clair Furey.
At press time little Emma remained at SMMC’s Neonatal Intensive Care unit. Mom reports Emma’s health continues to improve, but they don’t know yet when she’ll get to go home.
“Emma is wonderful. We feel very blessed knowing that, since there are many other babies in the NICU who aren’t doing as well. She is nursing well and she is really alert. We are just taking it day by day, waiting for her to get bigger and stronger, but she is for sure taking steps in the right direction,” Ravis Furey said.
Coincidentally, last year’s First Jewish Baby Leo Covitz was also born on Jan. 9.
“We’re really good friends with the Covitz family,” Ravis Furey said. “We were actually supposed to be at his birthday party the day that Emma was born.”
Family receives gifts
As 2011’s First Jewish Baby, Emma Clair Furey and her family received the following gifts from Chronicle advertisers:
• $25 gift card from BRGR Kitchen + Bar
• $25 gift card from Cosentino’s Price Chopper
• One free night stay at the InterContinental Kansas City at the Plaza
• A Shalom Baby gift basket from the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City
• Two tickets to the Feb. 26 performance of the Vienna Boys Choir at Johnson County Community College
• ‘It’s a Girl’ cigars from Cigar & Tabac, Ltd.