Birth Story

Here is the official story of Harris's birth. I went in to see my doctor on my due date, and had an ultrasound which showed a very large baby, or so the ultrasound lady estimated. She guessed based on measurements, that he would be about 9 lbs. 14 oz. She also said it is really difficult to get it right at 40 weeks because the baby is so squashed in there. So I sort of got this nervous feeling in my stomach (i.e. I freaked out), but really tried to discount the estimate as an inaccurate way high estimate. But we did decide to go ahead and induce the next morning since he wasn't getting any smaller and I was miserable. As I started laboring, Harris was having multiple decelerations, which means his heart rate would drop with a contraction, and not come back up for several contractions (I think this is right) which means he was not handling labor well. I made it to 4 cm and based on the decels and his estimated weight, my doctor basically said she had a low tolerance for letting me labor, but I could try, or we could go ahead with a c-section now. Jay and I talked it over and prayed and really felt like going ahead with the c-section, based on the doctor's recommendation. I also kept thinking about a friend of mine who had really been seriously, permanently damaged by pushing out a huge baby. I am so thankful for the Lord's direction in this, based on the fact that Harris was so big. I remember hearing my doctor say, "Oh my gosh, Merrill, he's huge!" several times as I lay there and she pulled him out- it was so hard to believe. His head was right under the incision point, which means his head was not even down near the birth canal. This meant I probably would have gone through hell trying to deliver vaginally, and would have most likely ended up with an emergency situation. I breathed so many sighs of relief, and I am thankful for the skill and wisdom of my doctor, and the awesome anesthesia man, who is one of my favorite people ever. Praise God for his sovereign control over all things (I mean God's control not the anesthesia man)!

(This picture was taken the evening we were heading to the hospital to be induced the next morning. It was a wonderful reminder of the Lord's love, provision and care of his children!)