Our miracle baby

Just felt like writing about Ben's birth as it's an amazing story and i am still so overwhelmed by how blessed we have been.

Ben was breach early in pregnancy but flipped around at the end. However, he tied his umbilical cord in a knot when he did this. Cord knots only occur in 1% of pregnancies and of those only 1 in 2000 will tighten. Well guess what happened? It tightened.

Labour was smooth and quick, only five hours total. I had taken measures to have him born early as i was tired of being pregnant and anemic. I was planning a totally natural birth so i could go straight home after. With midwives you can leave the hospital right away if you want but an epidural would mean staying the night to get my legs to work again.

The last hour though i got overwhelmed and asked for the epidural. I felt pretty disappointed in myself until i learned that this act was one of the reasons ben survived. By the time they gave me the meds it was time to push so i still got to feel the full fury of everything. However after two pushes the nurse and midwife grabbed me and started urgently saying to push my hardest and not to stop. He had to come out that minute they said. I didnt question it, i just pushed till i nearly fainted. He came out in 8 minutes, arm up and cord wrapped around.

Now here's the crazy thing. He was only a few seconds from being still born. There would have been no time to use other means to get him out or save him. It had to be me pushing him out. The knot tightened and cut off his oxygen and his heart rate plummeted suddenely. If i hadnt asked for the epidural, i wouldnt have had a heart rate monitor on which is how they knew as soon as his heart rate fell. It would have also been harder to push him out.

He had his arm up and the cord wrapped around him too, making it seem impossible that i could push him out so quickly. The midwife and nurses thought he was going to die. And if he hadnt come early he would have been bigger and harder to get out.

So basically my son should not be here but he was saved. If he ever doubts his purpose i can tell him that God spared him for a reason. That all the little details surrounding his birth fell into place because of God's goodness and for a set purpose. And we just marvel at him every day because we know how close tragedy came to our family and we are so grateful for him.