God Heard...

Without further ado, here it is: our baby story.

As you may well know, Kevin and I did not find out if the little one taking up residence inside was a little man or another little princess. We also did this when we had Laurel. So, when Laurel was born, we were prepared with a little girl name and a little boy name. Since the boy name didn't get used, it got carried over to this time, and we found another girl name. But, you need to understand, that names are very important to us. Both Kevin and I feel very strongly about having a name with deep meaning. Laurel, meaning "a crown of honor and victory" was exactly what a wanted my daughter to exude. Samuel was the name Kevin had wanted for as long as I'd known him for a son...again with strong meaning: God Heard.

This brings us to the story of our second child. I went in for my check up and an ultrasound on Tuesday the 15th (my due date). The ultrasound showed over an 8 pound baby, and I was dilated to somewhere between a 3-4. My doctor decided it was time to get me in and prod this child to come out. We were instructed to come in to the hospital at 5 AM on Wednesday and get this party started.

Kevin's parents came in that night to take care of the princess and be there to meet the new little one. We got up dark and early and made it to the hospital. After starting some pytosin, my doctor came and broke the ole water, and the contractions started coming. I was told that the anesthesiologist was very busy that morning, so I needed to give ample warning of when I wanted the epidural. So about 9:30, I decided it was time. We go the epidural, and as my nurse said "he did you right." By that I mean, I could not feel the entire left side of my body from the waist down. Every time the nurse told me to change positions, I literally laughed at her because I could not, no matter how hard I tried, move my left leg. This temporary paralysis brought many laughs throughout the morning. I got to a 7 pretty quickly, and then it seemed as though little one was a bit "stuck". By this point, the nurse had started calling the baby a "him", because she said he was handling labor like a boy;). His heart rate started dropping with every contraction, so they started moving me into all kinds of crazy positions to make little one a bit "happier". My sweet doctor came in and figured out what was going on with him, tilted his head a little, put me into "runner's pose" on my side, and viola! 10 minutes later we had our little man. At 12:56 PM, we met Samuel Kenneth Parker for the first time in person. He was perfect. The first thing I remember the nurse saying though, was "Look at that...he's a little miracle". She then pointed out to us a tight little knot in his umbilical cord, which would hinder blood flow/nutrient exchange that needs to take place and explains the dramatic drops in his heart rate during labor. We have no way of knowing how long this knot had been there, but we are incredibly grateful for the wisdom of my doctor in going ahead and starting the process. Most of all, though, I'm grateful that even though we had no idea what was going on inside of me with our little one, that we do serve a God that knew and was very much in every moment. I was reminded this morning of Romans 8 where Paul talks about how the Spirit intercedes for us when we don't even know how or what to pray...and in that moment, God Heard.