The Birth Story

You may have noticed that the posting date for this blog is July 2022. But let's turn the clock back eleven months and pretend that it's August and I'm writing this birth story!

Ruth is here! It was such a long process of drives to Savannah, terrifying doctor visits, worst case scenarios, and mentally preparing for her complex differences...but she's here. And there's great news, GODLY news, that I can't wait to share at the end!

We got to the Savannah hospital on the evening of Tuesday, August 17th. It was clearly a popular birthday for many couples and their new babies, because we had to wait FOUR HOURS for our room. I'm not complaining though, because even their waiting room had free drinks and a snack cart. Kane and I read, talked, and shook out all our nerves during this wait.

It was during this time that I realized just how much stuff we brought to the hospital, even as second time parents! But we were told to prepare for a 2-week minimum stint in the NICU, so we were as prepared as we could have been.

We finally got into my huge "observation" room. For those who don't remember, I had to have a huge room because of all the doctors, nurses, and specialists, and students who had to witness a Heterotaxy baby being born. I got hooked up to my hydration IVs and got a partial lobotomy, also known as a COVID test, from the night nurse. Then they started giving me my doses of cytotec to start the process of induction. Everything was going really well! My contractions were bad, but they weren't as bad as I remembered them being with Alora...and then my water broke.

I needed the epidural like YESTERDAY.

A nice man sauntered into my room to do my epidural, and I could feel it going in sideways. I told him that it wasn't centered, but he told me to lay on my side and let gravity do it's job and the epidural would work.

Okay ladies, if your anesthesiologist tries to mansplain your labor pains with a lecture about gravity, please just ask him to do it again.

My contractions were getting incredibly bad, and my epidural only worked on half of my body. I felt like I was going to rip in half. I called my nurses in and quite seriously began asking for a C-section. I was *sternly* asking for them to draw up consent papers for an elective cesarean because I could not stand the pain anymore. One of my doctors came in and she asked if I would be willing to try another epidural before we did major surgery, and I said that I would.**

**Actually, I asked if I would be charged for two epidurals or one, since the first one failed. Once I was reassured that I would only be charged for one, I agreed to try again.

THIS TIME, they pulled another anesthesiologist from the actual surgical floor to come and give me an epidural. An angel by the name of Dr. Thai came in to fix me up, and he even gave me a bolus button. I could not feel ANYTHING. If this is what an epidural is supposed to do, then my epidural with my first delivery did not work either!

About 20 minutes later, it was time to push. All of the nurses, doctors, residents, and interns came in and Kane asked them all to quiet down for a prayer over everyone. I pushed (at least I think I did...I couldn't feel anything) twice and Ruth was here! The room was so busy and at max capacity, but I didn't see anyone or anything but Ruth. She wasn't crying or breathing at first, but after what felt like an eternity, she let out a faint cry. It was the best sound in the world.

I got to hold her immediately for about 10 minutes before they had to take her away for testing, weighing, and scans. And here's where the great news comes in...

The pediatric cardiologist scans her first. Her heart is pumping a bit harder than normal, but this is what we knew and expected it to be. Her oxygen saturation is less than 90, but it is not in the 60s where they thought it would be. This is an answered prayer and a praise!!! She didn't have to be on oxygen at all in the NICU!

Then another specialist comes in and tells us the most baffling news. He looked at us and said, "So on our last prenatal scan, we knew she had three spleens. We'd talked about her having polysplenia, and how she'd be on antibiotics for most of her life. Well, now...she only has one spleen."

Kane and I looked at each other in disbelief. This was unreal.

I said, "Scan her again." Which makes me laugh every time I say it! But I was not believing what I was hearing. I asked them to scan her again and double check!! I know what I had seen just two weeks ago. The DOCTOR knew what was there two weeks ago. But now, she was healed. God healed her. It was not a shadow on a screen. It was not a gas bubble floating in the sonogram. It was three spleens, and now there was one. And because of this, she DID NOT have to be on antibiotics for life. The infectious disease doctor was stumped, but gave us the greenlight to keep her off of any prophylactic regimen. What an answered prayer. What an incredible Savior. What an incredible God - Jehovah Rapha.

So BECAUSE Ruth was breathing so well and keeping her O Sats up, and BECAUSE she was not sick with polysplenia, she DID NOT have to stay at the NICU for two weeks! She would get to come home much sooner! She was born on a Wednesday, and she got to come home on Saturday.

Four. Days. Later.

Not two weeks later. I am still in awe of our Lord.

He is good. He is here. He is Healer.