Baby Benjamin's Birth Story

 

10 children was such a full and even number I was completely contented to have been blessed with throughout our 20 years of marriage! After struggling with an auto immune disease (rheumatoid arthritis) and turning 40 last year I was almost certain 10 was it for us! However, February this year I stood agasp staring at those all too familiar blue lines on a Dollar Tree pregnancy test.  Given my age and past high risk birth I right away booked into both my regular ob and high risk maternal fetal medicine office. Around 12 weeks I went in for the first ultrasound and was for some reason incredibly shocked to see a tiny baby wiggling around on the screen! A few days later blood work came back that we were having another boy! Most of the pregnancy went by without incident; normal lab work, good blood pressures, normal weight gain, and just overall normal pregnancy symptoms. 

 Towards the last few weeks my blood pressure readings were slowly going up. Nothing too crazy, but steadily rising after having completely normal levels the first 2 trimesters.  Fast forward to 36 weeks and 4 days: I wake up around 3 am to a warm gush of fluid. I walk over to the bathroom and am relieved to see the fluid is clear. I wake up hubby and tell him my water is broken and want to go to the hospital ASAP!  I was not experiencing any contractions other than the same braxton hicks I'd had the last month so I knew I had alittle time to pack the hospital bag! I went to my closet and packed just the bare minimum essentials into a diaper bag: blanket, hat, outfit to go home in, name circle, and a few things for myself. The hospital was a peaceful 25 minute drive. Once there we were checked in after waiting about 15 minutes in the lobby. The triage nurse hooked me up to the monitors and checked my cervix. I was discouraged to hear I was only 1 cm dilated and my blood pressure was the highest its been since my last birth (165/93). With ruptured membranes and elevated blood pressure I was admitted to labor and delivery, but feeling like a natural birth might not happen given the circumstances. I was given meds to help bring my blood pressure down and kept on the monitors 24/7. I was not able to move around much with all the wires and didn't have much progress with dilation despite trying a breast pump to stimulate oxytocin.  By the evening I reluctantly agreed to start pitocin, but thought in the back of my mind there was now a very good chance of getting another c-section.  I was given the option by my ob to get wheeled back for surgery or keep trying to labor. I was strongly considering just opting for c-section at this point,  but remembered back to how exponentially harder recovery is and decided to keep moving forward with the pitocin.  A few hours went by and I progressed to 7 cm, now there was no turning back. Around 5 am the contractions became undeniably painful.   Chris climbed into bed with me to put pressure on my back to get through them.  After about an hour of intense pain it was time to meet baby Benjamin. My placenta did detach just a bit early as it was time to push.  Thankfully this abruption didn't cause any harm as Benjamin was out after 4 or so pushes.  The relief and happiness to finally have our 7th baby boy placed on my chest is impossible to describe! He came in weighing 6lb 3oz and is absolute perfection.  I could quite literally spend all day just admiring each tiny part of him.

Glory to God for allowing us to be a part of a new soul being birthed into this world for the 11th time! Despite getting older ourselves the overwhelming awe and joy of beholding new life will never get old! Welcome to the world, Benjamin Joseph Logan ❤️. 

ECCLESIASTES 11:5 thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.