Tender Mercies

The following is a beautiful birth story that demonstrates the Lord’s goodness and kindness and His knowledge of our individual fears and worries. God is good. Enjoy! -Lani

Tender Mercies

By Heidi

A scheduled cesarean. Finally! My doctor said it would be a “boring” delivery compared to my first two birth experiences. My first little babe was an emergency c-section and was born within minutes of arriving at the hospital. With my second little one, I tried for a VBAC. After hours of pushing and not making any progress, we decided to do a repeat cesarean. Both deliveries ending up being so different than what I would have planned, so to think that I would get to schedule my cesarean and prepare for the day seemed all too perfect.

At 37 weeks I went into my doctor’s office for a scheduled appointment. They did the basic checkup and took the Strep B test. While doing the test, my doctor checked to see if I was dilated. I was shocked. He said I was dilated to a 1. I know that isn’t a big deal, but I never dilated early with my girls. They were both born within a day or two of my due date and I didn’t dilate until I was in labor, so the fact that I had 3 more weeks to go didn’t seem quite right.

After leaving the office that day, I called my husband and told him the news. We both felt like our little boy was going to come into the world earlier than our scheduled delivery date. Come on, after our two previous experiences we couldn’t have a “boring” and planned delivery, right?

A week went by with more mild contractions, and I went in for another doctor’s appointment. I was becoming more convinced that this little one was going to come early. I talked to my doctor and he told me if I felt like I was in labor to head to the hospital and whoever was there would perform my cesarean. As my eyes filled up with tears of the unexpected, he walked me through the whole process of what would happen when I arrived at the hospital. Yes, this was going to be my 3rd cesarean, but it was going to be a whole new experience compared to the previous two. I was nervous. My husband was anxious.

I left the office feeling at peace, but still unsure of what was going to come our way. You see, I was sent home from the hospital when I thought I was in labor with our first babe. I had contractions through the night and went back to the hospital in the morning. They immediately saw she was in distress and not moving so they preformed an emergency c-section. The experience was terrifying. Because of that experience, I was afraid I wouldn’t know when to go to the hospital with this new little one. I was afraid I would be sent home again. I was afraid I would arrive and there would be complications with the baby.

So, I prayed to my Heavenly Father. I prayed that if this little one decided to come early that I would know when to go to the hospital. If we weren’t going to have our scheduled, “boring” c-section, I prayed that it would be obvious when I should head to the hospital and all would be well.

As the day passed, my contractions began to get a little harder, but were still irregular so we went on with our day to day things.
The next day my contractions were much harder and deeper. We had tickets to a Diamondbacks game in the evening, and I decided to go with my family. I realized it would be one of the last outings as a family of four. My contractions, however, were getting to the point where I needed to lift up off the chair when they came and had to stop while walking. It made the game all the more exciting! I felt like my baby boy was going to come soon. Very soon.

We got home around from the game around 10 p.m. By then I was timing my contractions. They were about 9 minutes apart, but coming harder. We got ready for bed and tried to sleep, but I just ended up timing each and every contraction. They were more intense and every 6 minutes as time went on. I was so unsure of when to go the hospital. As I laid there wondering when would be the right time… gush! My water broke… or I should say burst at 12 a.m.! Time to go to the hospital! My Heavenly Father made it very clear for me. That was tender mercy number one.

As we arrived at the hospital I knew my doctor was not the one on call. I had butterflies in my stomach of not knowing what was going to happen. When checking in at the front desk of triage, my husband and I asked which doctor was on schedule that morning- it was Dr. M. My eyes filled up with tears! Dr. M was the one who preformed my last cesarean. Tender mercy number two.

All went well with the delivery, and we delivered a beautiful and healthy baby boy two weeks early! He was 8 pounds 12 ounces! Even though I didn’t get to have my “boring” scheduled delivery, everything went smoothly.

I know that our Heavenly Father knows each one of us. He knows what we struggle with and how to give us peace during those times. He answered my prayer. He made it as clear as He could as to when I needed to head to the hospital. He gave me comfort with having a familiar doctor perform my cesarean. I know He is involved in the details of our birth experiences.