The Long Wait

Yes, we've made the announcement that Elena Rose has joined us in the world. However, many of you don't know the whole story...

It all started the Sunday before, having felt bad, achy and just blah all day, we decided to go in and just check to see what was going on. After a brief conference between doctors, they decided to admit me. Of course, we got all excited as it looked like the long wait was over. Unfortunately, around 11pm, the contractions stopped and the rest of the night passed by.

In the morning, the doctor on duty decided that since I was already admitted, to activate the contractions again with oxytocin, so I was taken across the hall to hooked up the IV around 8:30am. Nothing. At 1:30pm, the doctor (a different one this time) asked me what I thought and I asked to just go home. She said, okay, but if nothing progressed before Thursday, that I would have to go back in to be induced. "Okay", I thought, "that gives us two more days to make this baby come out".

The next two days were spent intense with this expectation of any minute. To keep us busy we did lots of different things...

Gera and Katy did some crafts.

We broke out Risk and played with a long time friend of Gera's, Daji.

We walked, we stretched, we did pretty much everything even remotely related to naturally inducing labor, except drinking castor oil! The contractions from Sunday continued on and off, but were very mild. Of course, I just assumed that God would not let me go so far as to be induced; that just didn't cross my mind.

Well, Thursday morning arrived and still no Elena. We woke up early to get to the hospital at 7am to start the oxytocin nice and early. The process of inducement here is to try to start contractions with the oxytocin and then, as the contractions progress, they reduce the amount of oxytocin to make it as natural as possible. However, that process often takes a few days. If nothing gets started after that, then the water gets broke. This was not what I had wanted. In fact, I was convinced that this was totally wrong and not for me!

So when the nurse tried to put the needle in, it wouldn't stay in the vein. After the second attempt failed, I began to feel dizzy, so they had to stop and I had to calm down. Again, they tried on the other arm, but after 15 minutes, that one too did not work. I was ready to just buck the system and just go home. After talking and praying with Gera, I was calmed down enough to go back and try again. This time the doctor was there and she was able to clear up some of my concerns. This time, they were able to get the needle in successfullly and start the treatment.

While I was just sitting there, waiting for the oxytocin to do its work, I opened my Bible to the book of Phillipians and began to read. I thought, "this it the book of joy and I desparately need some right now." As I read, I realized that Paul was in a situation that was out of his control (as was I) and yet he chose to be content. There were two verses that really stuck out to me as I read...

"Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all tings I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to sufer need."
Phil. 4:11-12

Upon reading and thinking about these verses, I realized that I had been trying to control the circumstances of labor, when they weren't mine to control. God was the one in control and my only job was to be content and do my best within those circumstances.

After coming to that realization, I was a lot more calm with the whole situation. I spent all day Thursday with the oxytocin pumping in and, although the contractions were regular, they never increased in intensity. At 2pm, I went home and we spent one last night together as a family of three.

What better way to spend it than eating ice cream!

Friday morning (May 14th) dawned and once again we were at the hospital at 7am. Since they didn't take the needle out from the day before, they just hooked me up to the oxytocin and we waited for the contractions to start. It was slow going, so that finally at 10 am they were able to break my water and that is when the ball really started rolling. After two intense hours of increasing contrations and about 6 minutes of pushing, Elena Rose came out with a lusty cry and a beautiful head of dark hair. She weighed a surprising 8 lbs. 1 oz. and measured about 20.5 inches long.

Gera went to his parent's house to visit Katy after Elena was born. She was very content passing the time coloring.

After he shared the pictures with his parents and Katy, they gave me a call and I got to talk to her. She is slowly developing her phone etiquette, but the concept of talking on the phone is nothing new to her since she see's mommy and daddy talking to most of you frequently.

Praise the Lord, we only had to spend one night in the hospital and were discharged at noon the next day. Katy and my mother-in-law came with to pick us up. Here was Katy's reaction to meeting her baby sister for the first time.

These first few days have gone by in a blur. Partially because somewhere during the week in and out of the hospital, I picked up some kind of virus (fever, sore throat, cough) which has made recovery a little bit longer. Today is really the first day that I'm feeling more like myself again.

Thank you to all for your prayers over these past few days and weeks. God has truly been faithful and through this whole experience both Gera and I have been able to really see God's hand taking care of us.