Birthing Story

I know many of you have heard this story but for scrapbooking/documenting sake I need to get it down in writing:)

Well Canon Matthew Braun arrived earlier than expected-apparently he didn't want us to tell him when and how to come into this world. I woke up at 12:59 Wednesday morning and thought "wow that was a weird dream". I had dreamed that I was having contractions and then whoa....contraction! Yes, ladies I now know what a contraction feels like-and must say I prefer the non contraction way much better:)

So the contractions started but I was thinking that I would be calling the hospital at 6 anyway so I just laid in bed and they kept coming so I thought I'd better see how far apart they are and they were 8 minutes but the little sheet of paper said not to call until they were 3-5 minutes apart so I thought okay I can deal with this. So around 4:30am I decided to get up and get ready b/c I wasn't getting any sleep. Doug got up around 5 b/c he heard me getting ready and I told him I think he should probably get ready b/c I was calling the hospital. I talked to the nurse to make sure the induction was still on and she said it was and then I casually mentioned "oh by the way I've been having these contractions since 1 this morning and they are 7 minutes apart and really kind of hurt". Since we live about 40 minutes away and they had been going on for that long she thought we'd better come in early. So off we went-contractions 7 minutes apart, lasting about 30-60 seconds-and really not feeling very nice. We get behind "Mr. I-don't-need-to-be-at-the-office-this-early-so-I'll-go-slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwww" on HWY 12! By then I had lost a few minutes somewhere and was at 4 minutes apart.

We got to the hospital and my nurse, Denise just happen to have checked in early (thank you God!).(Denise has been there for all 3 of my deliveries and told my dr she wouldn't miss it) She got my IV hooked up (first try-wooo-hoo! I have a tendency to "leave my veins at home" when I go in for any blood work. They have a very hard time finding them), she got my epidural ordered and started to hand squeeze the fluids into me so they would get in faster. The the pain relief man came in soon after-same guy who gave me my first epidural with Caden. I started to relax and feel that tingling feeling. Doug got a chair and was about to sit down and relax. We thought we could have the baby out by noon or so. Well....Canon had a different plan-my water broke soon after the epidural (most expensive epidural ever-only had it hooked up for about 30 minutes) had done it's magic. I pushed the nurse call button and Denise had joked with other nurses my water had broke-little did she know that she was right! She came back in and checked me and I was a 9 (she wished she had checked me when I came in to see how far along I had been but had decided to wait for the induction b/c I couldn't have been that far b/c I wasn't screaming at the contractions-but I did tell her that they really, really hurt!). She thought that I was probably a 6 at the time of check in. Terri happened to be in the parking lot and came up. She was a little confused as to why I was all hooked up already and Denise was holding a scrub coat thingy (technical word, I know)and told her we were ready. Terri thought we were joking but little Canon decided that this was the time. After 5 pushes and 2.5 hours after I checked in Canon was born. And the best words I heard that day came from Terri as she delivered and said "He's perfect, he's healthy"

"He's perfect, he's healthy"
As most of you know we had a level 2 ultra sound at 18 weeks. This is were they informed us that the baby had a marker for Down Syndrome- the nuchal fold (neck thickness). This of course shocked us. The neck marker gave us a 1 in 200 chance of Downs but my age moved us up to a 1 in 12 chance. And basically the first thing out of their mouths was "how do you feel about an amnio?" They gave us a 1 in 500 chance of miscarriage with an amnio. So home we went. Can I say that God uses trials in our lives to strengthen our faith. He broke me down and slowly started building up my faith little jagged piece by little jagged piece. Smoothing out the spots to make my faith stronger and whole again. That night I was in the bathtub with tears streaming down my face asking God "do I do an amnio? I need to know" and once again I heard His voice and felt his presence. "Trust in Me. Believe in Me." Well I guess I had my answer. I had 5 months of waiting on the Lord. Trusting in him and believing in him instead of drs and medicine. A few days later I was in my small woman's group at church and told them the story-with tears of course. That day we had a wonderful speaker who talked about waiting on the Lord-she wasn't scheduled to speak that day but I think the Lord knew what I needed to hear. I was also met with many stories of how people had the markers and their kids came out healthy, how markers where wrong, how in Europe they don't even do that measurement anymore because of the inaccuracy, etc. God was giving me what I needed to survive. Ahhhh, but the enemy wasn't going to let that stop him. The last few weeks spiritual warfare started. I began to notice children with Down Syndrome, adults with Downs Syndrome, an old friend came back into my life and her 2 year old has Downs-could the enemy be working any harder? I saw a quote awhile back that said something to the effect that "The enemy doesn't work on those he has" so I should be glad that the Lord has my heart and not the other. But I am human and it is so hard not to let these thoughts creep into my mind. But we waited on the Lord, we trusted, our faith grew stronger and as my faith grew stronger I saw God's work through many of the prayer requests I prayed. He gave me calmness and peace for the last 5 months. I read Matthew 18:19--20 many nights. "Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name there am I among them" We were blessed to have many people praying for the health of Canon and we are so thankful. My small group at church is wonderful. They are some strong woman that when we get together it's amazing at the grace that God has given each and every one of us. The night before I went in I sent a prayer request to these wonderful women and I half jokingly requested a "fast and easy delivery and recovery." These friends must have went right to work because I was checked in at 6:30 and had Canon at 8:18. Everything went as smooth as possible and recovery was great-the nurses couldn't believe I didn't' want any Motrin afterwards. They kept coming into my room asking if I was in pain and wanted anything. Nope I have everything I need-a perfect, healthy little boy laying in my arms and 2 more at home. Ahhh, life is good-God is great.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above
James 1:17