Thankful Thursday~The birth

Tags

birth, epidural, life, stillborn, water

This weeks theme for Thankful Thursday is “LIFE”, so I thought I’d share the rest of the story of Brooklyn. I’ve shared before the faith dress story and then the scare when we almost lost her at 14 weeks . So now, I’d like to share her birth.

Wow….I don’t know if that is BRAVE or incredibly stupid to post that, but I loved being pregnant….even with the worst case of poison ivy all over my belly that the nurses didn’t want to measure me…I loved it. I enjoyed every roll, every kick, every hiccup. I am the silly Mom who would turn the bouncy seat music on and then lay close to it so she’d get used to it before she was born. We all talked to her. I remember both boys, but mainly Chandler would always hug me good bye and always say good bye to Brooklyn in my tummy as he went off to school. The boys would fight over who laid next to me on the couch with a hand on my stomache so they could feel her move. These are memories I always want to keep close to my heart.

We were all anxious for her birth and so excited to meet her.

Early on December 11, at 4:30 in the morning, I lay in the groggy in and out of sleep trying to convince my body I didn’t really need to pee again. When suddenly there was just a POP! And then a warm gush. My very first thought was: OMG I’ve WET the bed! How am I going to wake up my handsome honey and tell him I’ve just wet the bed?? And then I just had this FEELING….I don’t think I wet the bed. So I just kind of nudge him gently and call his name and get that grunt in return. You know the one I mean….LOL And I tell him the news by “Honey….either I just wet the bed…..or my water just broke.” Grunt grunt mumble Followed by the fastest movement I’ve ever seen; UP and out of that bed with the light on in ONE fluid movement!

In the light of “day”, things look a lot scarier then they do in the dark of half asleep. I was 36 weeks and I labor FAST. Like an hour and a half FAST. Small baby combined with fast labors does NOT make for a nice 30 minute drive to the hospital.

I call my dr who of course tells me to come in, and I call my Mom. Now I’m afraid. She’s early. All the what ifs start, mainly starting with, what if she’s born in the CAR!!

I remember standing and thinking how in the world am I going to GET to the hospital! And of course, the tears come. Lord, I’m scared….. OK, now, how am I going to STOP this constant leak of fluid? The idea comes to me to put on pajama bottoms under my nightgown and just stuff a towel…. ummm……there. So now I’m standing at the dresser, scared, crying, and looking utterly ridiculous when Egg #1 comes in to check on me. The look of absolute FEAR was all over his face. He came for COMFORT from his Mom and I’m standing here scared myself and crying. So then he starts to cry. It was a split second decision, but the right one at the time, I just burst out laughing. I look UTTERLY RIDICULOUS in a big ol’ nightgown, pajama bottoms with the mad hatter on them and a HUGE towel stuck between my legs. I said “Austin, do I look ready to you?” And the fear was off his face, tears were dried, and he helped me down to the car….laughing the entire way.

Fast forward to hospital, skipping all the mundane stuff….I remember laying in the bed listening to that little baby heartbeat on the moniter. Oh that sound…..and the butterflies you feel in anticipation of labor and delivery and BABY!

And then the heartbeat would get slower. And slower. And it’s definitely faint….When you’re a Mom in labor, you concentrate on these things. You time your breathing by them, so when things don’t sound the way they should, you NOTICE them.

I’d met for the first time, my dear friend John Q. Epidural, and he did not mix well with my blood pressure. I remember being so tired and seeing my blood pressure drop to 69 over 23…I don’t think that’s good….nurse rolls me over, wakes me up, gives me oxygen and then she notices what I am noticing: the baby’s heartbeat isn’t right.

I’m trying to progress as fast as I can, but when my amazing and wonderful Dr Aikman walks in when I’m only dialated to an 8 and announces I have to get this baby out NOW, I listen. Dr Aikman is a miracle man sent by God standing in his 6 foot 9 inch body, EVERYONE listens when he speaks.

I’m so tired and I sense the urgency, but I have no idea what to do. My Mom is crying and there is a scramble for equipment and a rush of people on my belly. The poking and the prodding and the moving of things and the listening. Internal probe is put on her tiny head to get a correct reading of her, and the urgency intensifies.

She’s dying.

The pushing…..and then Dr Aikman stands up holding my baby in one hand and does this large circular motion likes he’s waving in airplanes….only, he’s holding my very limp, very blue/gray baby girl that I prayed so hard for….and there is silence in the room.

What none of us realized was that the umbilical cord had been wrapped 3 times around her neck. A cord that normally should be big and fat and purple and throbbing….was paper thin and white, and choking my daughter.

I will never forget the words Dr Aikman said to us that day: “The Lord had His hands on your daughter today. If she were born full term, we would have delivered a stillborn child. If she had been born at any other time afterward, day, half a day, a few hours, 30 more minutes, she would have been dead. If your water had not broken when it had, she would not be alive right now. The Lord had His hand on your daughter, orchestrating exactly the right time to save her life. Any other time and she would not be here.”

Little Miss Brooklyn was bathed in prayer before her conception. She was bathed in prayer all during her growing in utero. And her delivery was bathed in prayer.

I believe with my whole heart that she will do great and mighty things in her lifetime. Satan fought awfully hard to keep her from being born, she will do something MIGHTY for God in her lifetime.

Our job as her parents, is to make sure she has that opportunity. We pray over her and with her. We read the children’s Bible as well as our own “big” Bible with her. And we try in everything we do and say to glorify God. She WILL know Him well.

He gave me the daughter I prayed for, and I gave her back to Him. Her life will glorify His life. And I am so thankful for that…

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