Here is our darling little girl born January 18th at 7:52 a.m. weighing 8 lbs 9 oz and measuring 20.5 inches in length. Quite a miracle in every sense of the word…After having mild contractions every 10-15 minutes from 2:00 pm onwards, my water finally broke at 11:15 pm. We arrived at the hospital near midnight and I was “a good 3-4 cm’s dilated”. After eight hours of labour, they checked again to discover I was only a full 4 cm’s dilated. The lack of progress was so discouraging and then what I feared most… my midwife looked at me and said, “We can’t make this a marathon, not with your water broken and risk of uterine rupture. We’re going to have to do a C-section.”
My greatest fear but at this point I just wanted the baby to be safe in my arms but the memories of the harsh recuperation after my C-section with Isabel left me in tears. I could sense Duane’s heart wrenching desire to spare this next step… and so we prayed. We surrendered and we prayed.By the grace of God, the anesthesiologist could not come and start my epidural because the hospital was in the middle of their morning rounds. Suddenly, contraction upon contraction began happening and the pain so intense I could barely breathe through them! I could feel the baby being pulled down but dared not say a word in hopes that God would work a miracle before they whipped us off for a C-section.
30 minutes after the dreaded news, I asked my midwife to check again and to her dismay she announced I was 8 cms and ready to have this baby!!!! Within fifteen minutes, Anika Joy was born and her beautiful eyes so alert and her calm demeanor so welcoming.She nursed beautifully and barely made a peep throughout examinations and pokes. She is perfectly and gloriously made!
Thank you for all of your prayers. The nurses in that room admitted what happened in that delivery room was nothing short of a miracle!
