Birth story

I have never written one of these up before, but I am going to give it a try with lucky number 7 :)

One of the reasons I want to share my experience of my seventh labor and delivery is that, from a practical sense, it was such a different experience for me and from a spiritual sense, it was balm to my anxious and weary soul. It was an unusual answer to a prayer I had prayed for many weeks before delivery.

Most of my pregnancy with Joshua was stressful. I had more morning sickness, aches, and pains than with my others, and as a family, we were under much more stress due to building and moving into our new home. Peter was busy with his full time career, and the contractor for the building of our new home. Both are full time jobs, not to mention a pregnant wife and 6 children, which is also a "job" in and of itself. He is amazing and works so hard for us and there is no doubt the whole process took its toll on him as well as me and the kids. As for me, I continued homeschooling our kids and doing what we do here, but it was much harder because, understandably, I had much less help from my husband than I normally do in pregnancies, and pregnancy is tough for me under "normal" circumstances anyways. As we approached my due date, our family as a whole was worn thin, and we were literally just surviving the days, one at a time. We officially moved in to our beautiful home when I was about 36 weeks pregnant. Still, there was and is, much to do. While we saw more of Peter, he was still extremely busy and stressed, and desperately wanted to have things mostly done, or at least at a good stopping point, before baby's arrival. At about 38 weeks pregnant, our family came down with strep throat. Almost the exact same scenario was beginning to play out as it had three years ago when I gave birth to Ezekiel (our fifth child), and became septic due to the strep throat that had been circulating in our family, but that I did not know I had as well. I had been tested and was negative, and yet, because of the fever and racing heart beat while I was in labor and which continued to worsen after delivery, the doctors and nurses knew there was something bad going on. I had a culture of the placenta and my blood done, which showed positive for strep A. I spent one night in the ICU, and then Ezekiel and I spent a week in the pediatrics side of the hospital treating him with antibiotics, to make sure he was healthy. Once we were both treated, we were able to go home, but it was not a fun experience, to say the least. That background set the stage for why I felt particularly stressed at the end of the pregnancy. My doctors/midwives decided that since things were so similar to that 5th delivery this time, it would be best to be treated with simple antibiotics, just to ward off an infection in light of my history. I needed to be given the medicine for 4 hours before delivery in order for it to be effective. That was a bit of a worry to me because I tend to have a lot of false labor and usually don't get to the hospital particularly early. Both Peter and I felt like we were on a deadline of sorts, both with the house, and also the fact that Peter's brother's wedding was the week after my due date; a wedding we all very much wanted to be able to attend, and that some of our kids were participating in. All of that on top of feeling like I needed to get to the hospital when I was in real labor but not too late, was enough to drive me a tiny bit crazy with the whole thing. The running monologue in my head became "Lord, I know Your timing is best..."
I prayed a novena to the Sacred heart of Jesus. Our baby was due June 12th, the Feast of the Sacred Heart. It seemed extremely appropriate and divinely inspired to pray to the Sacred Heart for all these worries that occupied my mind. I prayed for a peaceful, safe, and gentle labor and delivery and health for both baby and myself. I had a pretty good idea of how things would go, seeing as this was my 7th, and I felt a real and deep anxiety about it. I have a ridiculous fear of the triage experience, perhaps because every time before, we would get to the hospital when I would be in very active and painful labor, and I would be having trouble coping with the labor along with all the questions, blood draws, papers to sign, etc. I felt a great need to be blessed with peace about it all, this time.

I have never been late with any of my babies. But wouldn't you know, there is a first for everything :) On June 13th, I began having contractions again, but after 3 or 4 days of what felt like real, somewhat painful, timeable contractions for hours, and then fading away, I was getting more and more anxious. The contractions were familiar but different too, which is why I didn't want to rush to the hospital. Finally, after talking with my midwife, we decided that when contractions started up again, I should just come in and get evaluated. I really did not like the idea of being sent home, so I felt very apprehensive, but sure enough, when contractions started up on Saturday night, we called my mom to come be with our kids, and headed to the hospital. It was a very peaceful and painless drive, as my contractions had mostly spaced out and lessened, and by the time I was all hooked up in triage, I felt like an idiot because I was not contacting anymore than once every 20 minutes or so. And quite frankly, they were wimpy ones. However, in light of all my fears, I cannot complain, as this was the calmest most peaceful triage experience I had ever had. I felt ridiculous being that this was my 7th baby and I could not tell real from false labor and I was pretty sure we were getting sent home, but then my midwife checked me and said I was 5 cm dilated and that they would admit us to a labor and delivery room, get me started on the antibiotics,  let me walk around a bit to speed things up, and perhaps break my water if that was needed. To top it all off, they said I could get an epidural at any point. Things never got too bad after that. In fact, I got my epidural, and even rested for a couple of hours, as did Peter. We had incredibly kind and helpful nurses and a wonderful midwife. My midwife broke my water at 3:30 am, and 2 hours later, our perfect, healthy, beautiful baby Joshua was born. This was seriously the most peaceful and painless labor and delivery I had ever gone through. Like I said before, it was the balm to my weary and anxious soul. I was kind of shocked with how easily and well everything happened. I kept thanking Jesus for His mercy and His care for me and Joshua. He answered my prayers in His own beautiful and perfect way; a way I certainly did not expect. I felt so close to Him, knowing He was lavishing me with His love, and answering my prayers for a peaceful, gentle, and healthy labor and  delivery.

 Joshua Benedict was born June 14th at 5:29 am, 8 lbs. 8 oz. and 20 inches long. We are so in love with this new child. He has so many hands holding him all day long and so many people loving on him. He is blessed... as are we to have him in our lives. Thanks and praise be to God!!!

Some things I have learned during this pregnancy

Each pregnancy for me has been an opportunity to grow, stretch, and change as a wife, mother, and daughter of God. I can't honestly say I have taken advantage of all of those many opportunities I have had to grow spiritually, but they have always been an invitation for me.  Pregnancy is a perfect illustration of growth because it is a literal growing, stretching, and changing of my own physical body.
This pregnancy has been different for us. God called us to a deeper faith and a deeper reliance on Him this time around, than He ever has before. We began building a house around the time we found out we were expecting a new baby. Needless to say, it has been a very very busy and stressful 9 months. I was about 36 weeks when we finally were able to move into the new house. My due date is June 12th. Today! And yet, no major sign of baby making his debut. I have never ever been late in all of my 6 previous pregnancies. Always on time, or early. We have many things going on this summer, particularly in June. A wedding, a camping trip for the kids (not me!), getting our old house on the market and hopefully sold by the end of the summer...and of course, a baby due. For us, this is a lot! I feel like I have spent most of this pregnancy, especially the third trimester, in a completely exhausted state, both physically and mentally.
So now that I have given a little background, I really want the heart of this post to focus on the things I have learned from this rather hectic time in my life.
First, is that God's grace is always sufficient. Many times this pregnancy I have wondered how on earth something would work out. And yet, it always has. God is an ever faithful and compassionate Father, who provides just the right amount of grace for each and every wave we must ride in life.

Secondly, Peter is the greatest husband and father in the world. He really is, and lucky for me, I got him :) He provides for me and our kids so well. He is patient, kind, and hard working, I often think, there is no problem he cannot tackle and conquer. I have no idea how he handles a full time job, a full time family with 6 kids, and a pregnant wife, and building a house (like literally building it with his own two hands at times, and the rest of the time, directing the whole project as the contractor). I really have been quite useless in this whole process, requiring more from him than I have been able to give. And yet, he keeps on giving. Sometimes it is the little things that mean the most...when he comes home from work and offers to give me a back and foot massage, or cook dinner so I can go lay down or take a relaxing bath. I am not sure where he is getting the energy for all of that, but I sure am grateful.

Thirdly, my kids are amazing and much more capable than I ever gave them credit for. They have become quite good at seeing what needs to be done, and doing it. From doing dishes and laundry, making simple meals, cleaning bathrooms, taking care of the little boys, and changing poopy diapers, I really do have some great helpers here. And what touches my heart the most, is that they really have compassion. They (at least most of the time), truly want to help.

And last but not least, I have learned a great deal about myself and my role as a mother. I do my children no favors by always doing for them. I tend to take great pride in myself when I get all the things done without having to ask anyone else to lift a finger. It sounds great really. Let the kids be kids! Give them no responsibilities so they can spend all day long doing whatever their hearts desire. They will have plenty of opportunity to have responsibilities when they are older. But the thing is, if that is really the way I were to raise my kids, they would get all the responsibilities of an adult but probably with no life skills about how to handle them. They will be obligated to serve others, but perhaps without a servant's heart. They will be called to selflessness and charity, but maybe the roots of selfishness will be too hard to pull out by then. Virtue takes time to grow. It must be gently tended to again and again over the years of one's life. I have learned that the best way I can mother my children is to lovingly and tenderly teach them to serve others. Thankfully, in a large family, that is not too hard to do. A family is a unit that is designed to work together. Thankfully, this time in our lives as a family has literally  forced me to rely on the help of my kids on a daily basis. Perhaps the hardest thing for me has been to accept that I need help; to ask for help; to allow and teach my children to help.

God is good. All the time. His steadfast love endures forever! He shows me His faithfulness again and again as I struggle through the waves of life. I want to be done with this pregnancy and finally get to hold my new baby boy in my arms and kiss his little face. I find myself getting anxious and impatient for this. I want to be on the road to recovery so that I can be more helpful to my family. But then I turn my eyes to God and remember just how faithful and good He is. His timing is always best.
Please pray that our baby would be born soon and for safety and health for baby and me, but even more so, that my family and I would learn to trust God more deeply and rely on the grace He offers us each and every day.