Baby number seven...

I have been blessed with the BEST family and friends!!!! It has been a whirlwind over the past week and a half but as the light at the end of the tunnel shines through, I am able to reflect on God's goodness and provisions, His trials and His mercies, and His steadfast love and faithfulness in answering prayers.

Last week, a major snowstorm was predicted for our area. I love snow storms, but being due with number 7 at any moment, and knowing how fast my labors can progress, we were concerned about baby picking such a weather pattern to make his/her appearance.  When I woke up Monday morning, it was evident that labor was going to happen within the next couple of days. Since the snowstorm was predicted beginning Monday night, we went to the midwife Monday afternoon who checked our progress and non-medically got our labor started at about 6pm.  Based upon past experience, we figured the baby would be born within a few hours and we could make it home before the snow and wind began. However, that was not to be. Overnight my contractions were 10 minutes apart, but lasted a hard 3 minutes each.... ALL NIGHT!  By morning, I was exhausted and only dilated to a 6.  Had I been in a hospital, I would have asked for an epidural and told them to wake me up when the baby got here. But that wasn't an option. The only option was to keep persevering in my exhaustion through transition. My lifesaver was the jetted tub. This was a new experience for me. The hot, jetted bath did wonders for refreshing my body and spirit and fairly quickly got me through the transitional phase and into the ready-to-push phase.

Then there came the pushing. Again, I am not used to having to push. Only on one of my previous 6 did I have to push and she was "sunny side up".  But pushing on this baby wasn't making any progress. Finally, at 10:26 A.M. on February 4th, Ezekiel Jon was born..... yep, he was sunny side up and he was also cock-eyed in my pelvis.  It just goes to show you what a difference mal-positioning makes on labor progress (15 minutes on baby 6 to 15 hours on baby 7)!  Zeke was 19 1/2 inches long and 6#2oz.

God was faithful in answering all of the prayers that went up for the little guy from the beginning of pregnancy through the birth.  We stayed at the birthing center for just a couple of hours before heading home. The snowfall was already significant, but at least the winds hadn't kicked in yet. It was a slow trip home, but we made it without any mishaps.  As you can imagine, we had quite the welcoming party when we got there: 6 older siblings to welcome the new addition home!

He is the perfect little baby, but unfortunately I wasn't able to fully enjoy his first week as I had hoped.

About day 4 I started having a tooth ache on one of my molars (on baby #5 I had the same thing a few days post partum but it got better).  I did salt water rinses, tea tree oil, thieves' oil, and just about every other home remedy I could research. But the toothache only got worse. By Sunday my lower jaw was swollen and it got worse by Monday. I was crying out in pain (FAR WORSE THAN LABOR)! I thought I was dying.  By Monday evening I wanted to die! I started antibiotics ad stronger pain meds Monday night and by Tuesday I was feeling great. The pain was better, even when the pain meds were wearing off, and I could at least enjoy my newborn again!  However, I looked awful as my jaw was swollen to the size of a baseball. My hubby made me go to the dentist (actually he made the appt. and escorted me there... I would not have called or gone as things were improving). The dentist pulled the tooth..... NOT A PLEASANT OR PAINLESS EXPERIENCE... but at least the problem is taken care of and my swelling is back to normal.

So after a whirlwind of a couple of weeks, life is back to normal! As I reflect, again, I'm reminded about the goodness and faithfulness of our God who has blessed us with great family and friends who have stepped up to help out during this craziness! We have been given great meals and lots of help around the house. Our other kids have also been awesome in pitching in when I was not exactly functioning at a high level.

So as we settle in to our "new normal" of seven kids, we dare not forget to worship and praise our Lord who has blessed us far more abundantly than we could ever ask or hope... even and especially in the midst of trials.

The Birth Story....

Now that Kaser is a week old, I have finally found time to sit down and write about the birth! We praise God and celebrate this new little life He has blessed us with. Each pregnancy is such a blessing that we do not take for granted. In the last 10 years we have had 11 pregnancies. Five of those pregnancies have resulted in our womb ushering a soul directly into heaven (two being back-to-back prior to child #5) and six of those pregnancies the Lord has seen fit to bless us with the opportunity to parent on this side of eternity.  We praise Him both for the good and the bad. We miscarried just prior to getting pregnant with Kaser, and the Lord used that experience to really speak to us about the preciousness of life. The Spirit enabled me to carry out what James tells us to do: Count it all joy when you face trials of various kinds.... Rather than feeling sorry for myself, I surrendered to God's will and used the experience to strengthen my faith knowing that I was becoming more like the image of Christ by not parenting that child than I would have by parenting him/her. That being said, God in His sovereignty opened up our womb shortly thereafter and Kaser's life began.

We found out almost immediately (at 13 weeks) that we were having a boy. I had a sonogram at the Pregnancy Center and yes, at that point in gestation it was pretty obvious...  I was blessed by PSC to have 3 sonos in those first weeks, what a wonderful thing to see his little heart beating when he was too small to physically feel moving around. It gave me great comfort!

The rest of the pregnancy was quite normal and uneventful. Finally on child #6 I got a little more assertive about what I wanted the birth experience to be like. I told my OB that I would like to wear my own clothes (not that horrid hospital gown), I didn't want to be hooked up to an IV, I didn't want a bunch of cords monitoring me because I wanted to be more mobile during labor.  He was very accommodating: my clothes would be fine, he was good with a hep lock IV, he wanted continuous monitoring but they had a cordless monitor we would use... then he said: "I know how you are anyway, you will come in dilated to an 8 and have the baby in minutes..."  Oh yea, did I forget to mention that i wanted to deliver my own baby??????  Guess I forgot to ask him about that point...

I typically deliver at around 37-38 weeks, and true to form, at 37 weeks I started to have strong, regular contractions with a little bleeding. Normally, I would have gone in and they would have broke my water and we would have had a July baby.  But my husband was fairly under the weather battling some weird sickness (possibly from a tick bite since it was responsive to doxycycline) and I didn't want him to feel bad during the birth. So my thoughts were to labor at home possibly overnight and head to the hospital in the morning.  I had regular, strong (but not necessarily painful) contractions all night, but when I got up in the morning they went away.

It was another week before the contractions fell into a regular pattern again. On Tuesday, August 7th, my husband went back west (an hour away) to get some things done with water wells and cattle. (I have figured out the secret to starting labor... forget castor oil, just send my husband an hour away and it is sure to put me into true labor. With child number 5, my neighbor had to drive me to the hospital because Byron was an hour away. He did make it back for number five's birth, though.) Anyway, at about 5 pm I began having contractions. They were strong, regular, but not painful. I called Byron and told him that he might think about heading back, although I did not want to cry "wolf". After about 30 minutes they stopped. Then Kaser kicked and my water broke. I called Byron again, he was about 20 minutes away. I was not having contractions, but I was a bit scared to move around for fear of getting them started up. At this point, I was also really praying for strength for labor as well as for the baby to wait just a bit before being born. I do not take pain meds during labor but for whatever reason, I had been feeling really scared of the whole upcoming process of birth. I know I had people praying for me, but I was still not feeling as capable this time around.

Anyway, as I waited for Byron to arrive, I called the hospital and told them we would be coming in, but it would be close to an hour since my husband wasn't home and we were a 30 minute drive from there. My neighbor came over to stay with the kids until my mom came (she was an hour out too). When Byron got home, we grabbed the few last minute things that the kids hadn't already loaded in the car and were on our way.  Once we got going on our little dirt road, the contractions started to kick in and this time, they were painful. Let me tell you, laboring in a car isn't ideal, but it is better than being on your back in a hospital bed tied up with IV's and monitors.  I'm not sure at what point I came to realize that we weren't going to make it to the hospital. I recall looking at the speedometer and seeing that Byron was driving 90mph. I remember Byron calling the hospital informing them that we probably weren't going to make it in time. The lady told him to come as fast as he could, the cops were very accommodating and would likely escort us if it came to that.... I remember Byron reminding me to get a focal point. I looked up and saw an overpass and thought by the time we get there, this contraction will be over. I don't recall reaching the overpass because at that point it became clear to me that this baby was going to come... now. I debated about whether to take my shorts off yet, (how embarrassing that would be if he really WEREN'T coming). By the next contraction, there was no debating going on... he was coming.  I delivered our 7# 20" son at about 6:30pm, no more than 15 minutes after the painful contractions began (and about 45 minutes after my water broke). Everyone has asked if Byron delivered him... no, Byron was driving. He pulled over shortly after he was born. Byron had called 911 somewhere in the midst of all the excitement and the paramedics met us within a few minutes of pulling over.

It all happened so fast and seemed so surreal. After he was born, I remember thinking that I didn't even check if it was a boy or not. So I took a peek: yep, it's a boy!  Is he breathing? Yep, he's breathing. Now what do I do?????? Why weren't we taking pictures at this point????

The paramedics arrived and cut the cord. They assessed both of us and couldn't believe that Byron and I were so calm. (Well, even though it is our first "car" birth, it IS our 6th child and being veterinarians, it isn't like we haven't seen/experienced worse things...) So, yes, we were calm, cool, and collected. They transported Kaser and I in the ambulance to the hospital and Byron followed in the car. It was probably about 7 or shortly thereafter when we got there.

Look at that bruised face? Guess that happens when they come fast.

At least he didn't have a cone head!

At the hospital, they did all of the routine newborn checks. They kept asking me if I wanted pain meds (this line of questioning continued throughout my 24 hour stay at the hospital). OK, I just delivered my own child... without pain meds, mind you. Do you think that I need an ibuprophen?

All in all, the Lord was faithful! Remember how I was feeling anxious about the "labor" part? Well, it all happened so fast, I didn't have time to focus on any weakness I was feeling. This was my favorite labor and delivery and I loved the absence of medical poking and prodding. In 15 minutes the pain came and went and it was over. That's the way to do labor! He was a much easier and less painful delivery than number 5 was even though he was more than a pound bigger.

The whole gang!

Kaser catching some sun while we were hanging up a deer feeder for hunting season.

Look what Great Grammy and Papa Floyd sent us... YUMMY!!!!!

Now that we are all home and settled in, life is returning to the new normal. School has resumed, chores have resumed, and even though we haven't quite settled into the routine I would like yet, each day is a blessing and the Lord grants us new mercies each morning. I have lots of wonderful "helpers" and so many wonderful friends who have provided meals for us. We have truly been blessed.