Benedict's Birth

It has been a long time since I posted! As many know, our baby was born on April 29th at 10:58 pm. It was a very long ( 21 hours) and difficult birth and I wanted to post the story for those I promised to share with and never have had the time.

On April 29th at 12:45 am I woke up and felt my water break. It is funny because I really thought I would just go into labor with contractions and not the water breaking, but I guess God had other plans. I woke up my husband and we prepared to go to the hospital. I took my time and showered because I had heard that there really is no reason to rush, especially with the first baby. We got to the hospital at 1:30am and they confirmed I was in labor at 1 cm dilated and 80% effaced.

We waited several hours for something to happen but the contractions were very slow in coming and I was not making any progress. We walked for awhile up and down the halls and finally I gave in and allowed them to start a very small dose of pitocen to move things along. Looking back I am hoping I will be able to avoid that with my next baby. Anyway, the contractions began to pick up soon after. I tried very hard to breath through them, but I just could not mentally handle the pain enough to relax and let them come and go. After several hours and at 5cms dilated I asked for an epidural. It was amazing...I am all for natural birth, but I do not regret my epidural for a moment, especially because I would have ended up with one anyway given he circumstance of the delivery.

  I progressed very quickly after the epidural but then stopped dilating at 9cms. For whatever reason I could not get past that last little bit and it took hours before I was ready to push. I tried for 3hrs to push him out but he would not budge. The doctor seemed to be getting nervous and finally he offered me the option of a c-section or forceps. My mind was in such a fog from all the pushing and sheer exhaustion and it was a difficult decision to make. We decided to try the forceps ( despite the urging of a very opinionated nurse who wanted me to do a c-section) to avoid the scarring and long term damage caused by a c-section. I had no idea how difficult the delivery would be with forceps..

 The actual delivery seemed to take hours. Several nurses and the doctor came into the room and warned us that the baby may have to be resuscitated after he was delivered and not to worry. I don't know why they thought that would make me less worried, but I guess they have to warn you. I was so dazed that everything seemed unreal to me at that time.I just laid there praying and listening to my baby's heartbeat on the monitor. I think this was probably one of the scariest moment's of my life. His heartbeat was slow and every few minutes it would come to almost a complete stopped. I just laid there praying I would not have to hear it stop completely. As it slowed the doctor would stop and reach in to rub his back and stimulate him until his heart rate rose again. It seemed like hours but finally they told me to push and he was born. They placed him on my chest and he started to cry. I was so relieved to hear him crying and to just have him out and alive!

 It took the doctors almost 3hrs to stitch me up and I had been given a large dose of medicine's for the pain. Benedict was 6 pounds 12 ounces and perfect to me :) The doctor said his head had been turned in the birth canal and that was why he would not come out on his own. He had several bruises from the birth and a large bruise on the back of his head which healed quickly but did cause some problems with jaundice.

'Thankfully he is now a normal little baby, and aside from a stay in the NICU for jaundice and some nursing problems, he is healthy and growing. It is amazing how much a baby changes your life and brings so much love and joy.

We are going to have a baby!!!

So I have been waiting for weeks to finally post this on my blog!!!

We are finally pregnant and everything is looking good!!!! Baby Menkhaus will, God willing, arrive in May!

I wanted to wait until I got a strong heartbeat to share the news with everyone. I had my first real ultrasound today and it was amazing! Of course this isn't a whole lot to see at 7 weeks but I was amazed to actually hear that little heart beating away! It was for a brief second but I was so shocked to hear it so early on, that I almost cried! Suddenly all the morning sickness and feeling awful didn't matter so much! There really is a baby in there!

For those who know me or have followed my blog, I have PCOS and it took us 14 months to get to this point. It was not easy , never knowing if we would have children or not, but the struggle made this pregnancy even more of a joy! We worked with a wonderful Catholic doctor and knew that God and His timing would be perfect. I know that we have Our Lady's prayers to thank, but also I think that a very special saint interceded for us as well.

Back in July a priest visited our parish who had known and lived with St.Padre Pio. He came to do a retreat at the parish and then blessed everyone with two first class relics of Padre Pio. One of the relics was his glove, the other we didn't know because the priest had a thick accent and was hard to understand. When the priest blessed us I brought to Padre Pio our special intention of having a baby. I went back to my seat with a true sense of his presence there and I was confident he had heard our prayers! Low and behold, next month we got our answer!

I could not be more grateful to God for this baby...and though we pray and feel confident all will go well...even if something went wrong we will be grateful for the little soul that God sent us for a time!

Please pray for us and I promise to post more now that the news is out!

We are moved in!!!

This past weekend was work! I don't think I have worked that hard since I left the ranch in Wyoming! Thankfully, everything is moved ( accept I realized last night I left a cupboard with cookie sheets in it at the apartment!) and I am starting to clean and unpack.

When we got here our hot water was off because there was a gas leak in the line. We were so worried it was going to be a major repair right away,and if the crook of a plumber who first looked at it had been right it would have been! Thankfully a nice man just came and repaired it for much less and we have hot water! Soon we will need to replace the tank but for now one worry at a time!

As we unpack we are noticing more and more of the work that needs to be done. Our family room carpet looked terrible when we moved in and we seriously thought it would need to be replaced, however after renting a rug doctor and giving it a good scrub it almost looks new! There is a red stain that would not come up but that is minimal compared to what it looked like before! God is so good!

Our little puppy was deathly afraid of the staircases when we moved in but it didn't take her much time to give them a try. Now she zooms up and down them and I think to her its a new olympic sport to see how fast she can scale them. We are waiting for the moment when she misses a step and comes crashing back down! She loves having so much room to run around and explore!

Anyway, so I have a long day of cleaning and unpacking ahead, but it is beautiful weather and a perfect day to open up the windows , air out the rooms, and get to organizing!