God is Good!

I wanted to share some of the ways that God was good to us in regards to Samuel's birth. God is always good to us, I believe that with all my heart, but He was extra good to us this week. For starters, after a hard weekend, I had 2 days where I felt really good. I was able to attend church on Tuesday night to hear good messages on holiness. Much needed for me to hear.

I had looked into a birthing center closer to our home than the hospital and had tried to actually get in to switch during the pregnancy, however, with the busy summer we had, I was not able to do so and so we stayed with where we have had all of our babies. I have no complaints about the hospital, just was looking for something a little closer and with a lot less "hospital" feel to it. BUT GOD. He knew when Samuel was going to be born and He had everything orchestrated well in advance of Wednesday morning.

We arrived at 2 am on Wednesday morning and I was admitted without delay. This was God watching over us as the midwife I talked to did not even call ahead to see if there was a room available. She did not think that I was really in labor, I think. Turns out they had had 12 babies born on Tuesday and by the time Samuel was born on Wednesday morning there had been 6 more at least. There was a waiting list for scheduled inductions to be called in. It turns out that one of our nurses that night had been homeschooled and the other one was homeschooling her children. God gave us favor with them, because when we saw that we would not have a baby by shift change, one of those nurses assigned a nurse to us who just happened to be the midwife that delivered Emily over 10 years ago! (She knew this and pulled some strings for us.) At that point, I couldn't help but cry as I saw God's faithfulness to us. I had struggled so hard this pregnancy with whether or not I would be able to get through the pain of labor again without any pain meds and then I realized that I didn't have to do it, God was taking care of everything. Anne, our former midwife/nurse, was awesome. She had helped me through the hardest labor I had when I had Emily and so she knew that we could get Samuel here without any trouble. When things weren't moving along at the very end, she suggested the tiniest amount of pitocin to make my contractions just a little stronger so that we could get finished and it worked beautifully! Within 10 minutes my contractions changed and within an hour, Samuel was born. Not only did I have the best labor and delivery nurse in the whole hospital that morning, but her midwife training kept her in my room the entire time and she only left to get supplies. In fact, the midwife on call who was there to deliver Samuel didn't even come to our room except twice and then about 5 minutes before Samuel was born. But it didn't matter!

That brings me to the delivery. I had only met Katie, the midwife, once before. She was the one who discharged me when Hannah was born, so I was not sure what things would be like with her delivering. However, as time came to deliver Samuel, we learned that she was one of the best midwives for letting husbands assist in the delivery! Jeremiah had helped with Hannah's birth, but you all will not believe me when I say that with only a small amount of assistance, Jeremiah delivered our sixth precious gift and was the first one to hold him and give him to me.

I know I have probably bored many of you with our birth story. But, I just felt I had to publicly give God the glory for the birth of our precious son. I had prayed during my nights of working through the fear of another labor that God would get the glory and I believe that He did. In fact, we were all so focused on the Lord during the labor that I didn't even once ask for any pain meds (which is not usually the way it is with me!)!

Anne, our former midwife and nurse taking care of Samuel after birth. It was so busy Wednesday morning that the baby nurse had to leave without finishing her duties to go to another birth and Anne had to take over with Samuel. Unfortunately Samuel had a bowel movement before she could even finish up with me and get him dressed! She was having quite a time!

Jeremiah and Samuel.
I never would have figured on Jeremiah being such a blessing during labor. I haven't said a whole lot about how God used him to get me through another long night of labor because it would definitely get too mushy! LOL Let me just say that I have the utmost love and respect for my husband and I am so proud of him! God truly blessed me with a wonderful husband.