Mishaps and other Blessings

Life is a funny thing. Miracles are everywhere. If you listen closely, you can hear God talking to you. That was my experience this last week.

Everyone knows I've been sick. Sicker than I've ever been. This pregnancy took everything out of me. It just seemed as if things got worse every week. I knew there was no possibility of carrying Andy until Jan 29th (when he was due). My doctor had agreed to schedule my c-section for Jan 22nd but didn't even think I'd be able to wait that long. Secretly, I knew I only had to wait until Jan 9th and Andy would be considered "full term". It would be almost a 100% chance he would be born with no complications as long as I could hold him in until then. Needless to say, my Dr expected to see me in his office that day BEGGING for him to take Andy out. He was somewhat right. Here's what happened.

On Monday, Jan 5th I was due to see my Dr for my weekly check up. My appointment got postponed due to Ryan's surgery. My doctor wanted Ryan to have time to recover so he scheduled my appointment for Friday, Jan 9th. Great, I thought!! If on that day I can't stand my pains anymore, I'll just have the Dr deliver the baby. As it turns out, Jan 9th was a full moon. Every nurse in the world will tell you that more babies are born under full moons than any other time of the month. I heard this everywhere that day. Because my doctor was on call at the hospital on Friday, he literally had a full house at the hospital of women going into labor. Mid-morning, his office called me to see if I could cancel my appointment. I was in bad shape and was really worried that I needed to see my Dr. His office said he agreed to see me if I could be patient and understand that I might have to wait in his office a long time for him to be able to get away from the hospital for a minute. They left the choice up to me. I could go in on Friday or wait until first thing Monday morning. I felt I could endure until Monday but as I sat in consultaion with Ryan and my mom, I felt very strongly that I needed to see my Dr that day (Friday) and that I shouldn't wait. We headed to Reno and did have a bit of a wait for my Dr to be able to run back and forth from the hospital to his office across the street. When he finally saw me he said I was fine, the baby looked great (he did an ultrasound) and that we'd wait one more week to decide to deliver Andy. Before I left he said he was a little concerned that my blood pressure was elevated. "I'm sure it's all the stress you've been under" he said, but he wanted me to go across the street to the hopsital for testing just to make sure it wasn't preclampsia setting in. To make a long story shorter, I got to the hospital and after about three hours of testing, the doctor said I was fine and all the tests came back fine. He told me to head home and he'd see me in a week. As Ryan and mom started gathering my things, my doctor (who was in a terrible hurry with EIGHT women waiting to deliver babies in the rooms next to me) asked if he could do one quick exam of my cervix to see how I was coming along. I laid back down for the exam and in a matter of minutes my doctor stared at me and said "You are three cememeters dialated. You are having this baby tonight!". So about an hour after that, Andrew Aaron Vest come into the world. What a glorious gift from God! Not just Andy, but all of the blessings that lead up to his birth. What if I hadn't gone in that day? What if I had not followed my propting and waited until Monday to see my doctor? What if my doctor had sent me home and not worried about my blood pressure? What if he had sent me home from the hospital without checking my cervix (which he hadn't done during my whole pregnancy - they don't check that for women having scheduled c-sections)? What if...what if...? All of this testified to me, once again, that God is great and has everything under control. All we have to do is pay attention. I'm so thankful for my blessings. Here's a picture of my two greatest blessings: