Life In Our Quiver

To Mikaya,

March 25th came and went, I am 40 weeks pregnant, carrying you inside me, a little miracle.Even though this is our 10th pregnancy, every moment of it has still been an adventure, wonder,a testimony that our God is amazing. From the time we knew you were coming into our family until this point, we have been excited to meet you. Today the anticipation of our family rises as they wonder when that day will be. But today is not the day. So we will wait.

March 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th, 30th ....We are still waiting. I have had contractions all week that have gotten stronger near evening and many times we thought this would be the day, but God said 'Not today'.We are trying to be patient, knowing that God's timing is perfect. We trust and rest in Him. I feel good, probably one of the best pregancies I have had yet. So we will wait. Your brothers and sisters look at me with that question? Today? But, not today!

April 2nd. We got a call from Marla, our midwife today. We made an appointment for tommorow to have a stress test done to check you and make sure everything is still alright inside there. You are very active so that is good. We are wondering if you will be born on your brother Nathan's birthday. If you are a boy we could celebrate your birthdays together, but if you are a girl? Tea parties and car themes don't seem to go together. We will cross that bridge when we come to it. I still feel verygood, anxious to meet you, but not anxious to get this pregnancy over with.
9:00 p.m. I am starting to feel some slightly stronger contractions, and they don't stop when I lay down! I think this is the time, I tell Daddy and we decide to try to get some sleep. I wanted to be rested as much as possible for when we finally meet you.

April 3rd. Well I was able to get some sleep. The contractions kept up all night, so we let Marla know that things were moving forward. I was supposed to go to the hospital today and get a stress test done.We were able to cancel it, I was glad about that. Grama Rowley called, she was very excited to know I was in labor. We said our good byes to your siblings and told them that Lord willing, next time they saw us we would have a new baby in our family. We went to town and met Grama & Grampa Rowley to give them milk.Grama prayed with Mommy, for a safe delivery and that everything would go fine. Then off to Winkler we went. I did what I like to do best during labor. Shop, shop, shop. It keeps my mind off things, and I think the walking around helps everything go faster. We had lunch at Boston Pizza. We got settled into the room you would be born in. Then we had a visit with Marla. Everything seemed fine, We told her we would keep in touch. Then we did some more......you guessed it....shopping. We went back to our room throughout the day and rested a bit. By late afternoon things were starting to get more intense.

Your Birth
At 5:45 pm we talked to Marla and decided we would call her over when contractions were 5 minutes apart, and 1 minute long. Marla chose to stay at the office to be close by for when we called her over. We decided to get some supper so that I could eat before things got too intense. We brought supper back to our room. After eating I got in the tub to relieve the pain of the contractions. They are getting stronger all the time. I try to focus on the end result, a precious baby that we will meet very shortly. My love for you grows stronger, the reality of seeing you for the first time brings more emotion every minute. After a couple of contractions 5 minutes apart Marla called and we decided that she should come down. She arrived at 9:20 pm. By then things were really moving fast and by 9:30 I was 6-7 cm dialated. Marla called our 2nd midwife Karen, and in the meantime got everything set up. We had worship music on and that helped me focus on God's strength. I kept repeating the scripture, 'I can do all things through Christ who give me strength' and that 'children are a gift from God', and I thanked Him for this precious gift that He had given us.By 10:10 pm I was fully dialated and you were ready to begin your decent into this world. I focused again on meeting you, it would be so soon! At 10:15 I started pushing, Marla said your head was coming down, then your head was out, and by 10:28 pm you were in my arms.
I held you close, you cried right away. At this point I still didn't know if you were a boy or girl, so I checked, a girl, a daughter, a sister!Wow, you are here, in my arms, my love for you is overwhelming. What a precious gift from God. We called your siblings at home. They were suprised you were here already, they expected not to hear from us until morning.We tried to get you to cry into the phone, but you refused. They would have to wait until they met you face to face. After you and I were checked over and Marla and Karen felt we were all good they packed up and Daddy, you and I cuddled and tried to get some sleep. You are here, we have finally met you, you are beautiful. I said to Daddy, it is so amazing how you can't remember the exact pain, even minutes later, after you have a baby. You remember there was pain, but the joy is so real and overwhelming that anything else pales in comparison. The 10th time I have birthed a baby, and it is remarkable everytime. God is so good!