Isaac's Birth Story

As I mentioned in my last post, Isaac's birth story is one that could only be orchestrated by God. We are very fortunate that things happened just the way they did, and we know that our whole experience was the answer to everyone's prayers.

The story starts on Thursday, April 7. The day started normally. I went to work and had a regular appointment at Maternal Fetal Medicine after school. As I was walking out of school, one of the other teachers even said to me, "See you in the morning!" What ironic foreshadowing!

At the beginning of the appointment, I had my blood pressure taken. While it was still higher than normal, it was still in that caution range - something to watch, but not anything to act on yet. Afterwards, I had another ultrasound to check growth and other vitals. We saw Isaac's hair and his eyes blinking on the ultrasound. He even had the hiccups. The doctor came to talk to us after the ultrasound. He was concerned about my blood pressure and talked about our options, including being admitted to the hospital to induce labor. Before he made the decision, he wanted to check my blood pressure again. This time, it was severely high. He called to confer with the doctor that was on-call for my regular OB, since my regular OB was out of town until Monday. They decided I should be admitted to the hospital immediately.

Needless to say, I was not ready to be admitted to the hospital. I was not ready to start my leave of absence from work. I did not want to be delivered by a doctor I had never met before. And most importantly, I was not ready to say goodbye to my little boy. I was sick to my stomach as I walked across the hospital from the doctor's office to the admitting office.

The nurses immediately started medicine to lower my blood pressure. This medicine was the absolute worst! It made me feel very tired and at times, "out of it." I also could not eat or drink anything because of the possibility of a c-section. Plus, I had a catheter and medicine to help prepare my cervix for labor. It was not a fun night! I met the on-call doctor for the first time, and I tried to convince her to wait until Monday when my doctor would be back in town. She wasn't having any of it! At this point, the plan for delivery was to check my blood work in the morning, and if the results were not favorable, I would immediately have a c-section. Otherwise, I would start pitocin to naturally induce labor.

Thankfully, in the morning, my labs were still high, but not in the range for an immediate c-section. They started the pitocin at 8:30 a.m., but at this point, I was not dilated at all. I should mention at this point that details from here on out, especially specific times, get a little fuzzy. I also continued to have the blood pressure medicine and they were drawing my blood every four hours. Around 12:30, the doctors started talking about performing a c-section again. The labs were still not favorable and they didn't want to wait much longer to deliver Isaac. Then God intervened. After about 4 hours of contractions, my water broke and I was 9 cm dilated! We waited another hour and then I started pushing.

I was not prepared for this part of labor. We had not been to a child birth class or watched a labor DVD. I really did not read any books about labor either. I thought I still had a couple of weeks to prepare. After about 3 hours of pushing, the doctor gave me one more hour to deliver, or she was going to perform a c-section. I didn't go through all of this to end up having a c-section. I was determined to deliver Isaac! He was born thirty minutes later.

The next 25 minutes were the best of my life. Dan and I spend the time just loving our little boy. I couldn't take my eyes off of him! His daddy was holding him when he went to Heaven.

Because of the blood pressure medicine, I could not get out of bed. Dan did such a great job taking care of our little boy. He gave him a bath and dressed him. He shared him with all of our family that was there. The hospital allowed us to keep Isaac overnight. I was thankful for this because I had to stay on the blood pressure medicine for 24 hours after delivery. I was still a little "out of it," and I didn't want to let Isaac go when I was feeling that way.

The next day, the doctor came in during rounds and spent an hour with us. She asked if she could look at Isaac and we said okay. She spent time explaining his anomalies to us. Before she left, she asked if she could pray with us. At that point, I knew that God was watching out for us the whole time. While I saw that she was emotionally moved the day before, she hadn't revealed her faith to us until then. She also told us something that reassured my heart - her son's name is Isaac Daniel.

Looking back, I am so thankful that everything happened the way it did. Talking to the doctors and the nurses later, my initial lab work indicated that my blood pressure affected my liver and kidneys. Who knows what would have happened if I would have just went home that night? While I was initially upset about being delivered by a doctor other than my own, I know that God sent the perfect doctor to deliver Isaac. Again, I know that God was watching out for us that day and answered so many prayers.

Here's some more pictures of our little angel. Thank you again to Tanya Johnston Photography for these priceless photographs.

Look at all of that hair!

After his bath - I think he looks so sweet and handsome.