This is part 3 of 3 in my Thankful Thursday series. Instead of sharing one quick thing each day in November that I’m thankful for, I’m taking some extended time to share some amazing stories of thankfulness from my own life. In case you missed it you can check out part one: Thankful Thursday: My Home and part two Thankful Thursday: Affording To Be A Stay At Home Mom.
Today I’m remembering two times in my life where God intervened and did something miraculous.
Every child is a miracle. Every entrance into this world is a miracle and my children are no exception.
I had the picture perfect pregnancy with both of my children. No nausea. No crazy off the wall cravings. No morning sickness {please don’t hate me!} But unfortunately, both of my children wanted to come into this world too early.
Miracle One: My Daughter’s Birth
My daughter was born during the hardest time of my life. In May of 2009, I lost my father to cancer. The week before my father’s death a horrible storm hit our area that did lots of damage in our town and left us without electricity for almost a week. I was pregnant during all that chaos and tragedy.
Overwhelmed was a major understatement for me at that point in my life. God was clearly walking me through those days because I didn’t have the strength to do it on my own.
A couple days after my father passed away, my water broke unexpectedly. My due date wasn’t for another 4.5 weeks!
I wasn’t ready to be a mom yet—I needed to grieve losing my father. My stomach sank as I realized I was going to be a mom of a premature baby.
How in the world am I going to handle all of this?
I was induced that afternoon and had some good contractions going by the evening. I started pushing around 11:30 PM and the doctor said “we’ll have a baby before midnight!” The doctor was wrong. I pushed. And pushed and pushed–for over three hours.
I’m a former collegiate track runner. I knew how to push my body to the limit. I was at my limit and had nothing left. I was exhausted. I kept praying God would give me the strength to birth this baby.
At the same time I tried to prepare myself for what was surely ahead. Babies born at 35 weeks almost always need intense medical help the first few days of life.
My baby would spend the first part of her life in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). She may have major health issues. She’ll struggle to breathe. She’ll have breathing tubes going in her nose and monitors all over. She’ll be in an incubator and I won’t be able to hold her. We won’t be able to bring her home with us.
Or so I thought.
The miracle was that none of those things happened!
She was finally born at 3:08 AM in perfect health!
She was breathing fine. She didn’t even go into the NICU at all!
The doctor was floored. So were we!
Being born so premature, she should have gone into the NICU but by the grace of God she didn’t. He helped me give birth when I had no energy or strength left. I’m so thankful He helped her entrance in this world to be a blessing during a time of tragedy and trial.
Miracle Two: My Son’s Timely Arrival
When I was pregnant for the second time, we were concerned about having another premature baby. When we found out it was a boy, I was even more concerned. Boys that are born premature tend to be at a higher risk of having breathing problems. The doctors can’t really explain why.
Bottom line: since I had a premature baby the first time, the odds of my second baby being born premature were higher. Plus with him being a boy, his lung development would be a concern.
When I was 33 weeks pregnant, we had a scary experience. I started having pre-term contractions. It was way too early for my son to come and I was scared. God intervened when I had my daughter prematurely.
Would He do it again?
Unfortunately the contractions didn’t go away. I spent the weekend in the hospital trying to prevent going into labor. I was put on several medications to try to stop the contractions to no avail. Then I was put on magnesium and thankfully that worked. I was also given several steroid shots to help advance my son’s lung development in case we couldn’t stop labor from progressing.
That weekend I spent a lot of time praying. I prayed God would intervene and keep him from being born early. I also prayed that if he was born premature, God would help him overcome the struggles that surely awaited him. I prayed specifically that God would give him strong lungs.
Thankfully the labor stopped and after a couple days the doctor was ready to send me home if my son’s ultrasound passed the test. During the ultrasound, the staff would be looking for my son to complete 8 specific activities. If we were able to see him do these activities, the outlook for my son would be much brighter and I would be able to go home.
It was amazing literally seeing God answer our prayers. The ultrasound tech and I watched my son do all the things we were looking for. After a long weekend of stress, worry, and heaviness it was so relieving to see God come through.
God came through and protected my son from being born too early. He was born one day before his due date and was totally healthy!
Remember how I prayed God would give my son strong lungs? God answered that prayer too. Maybe a little too well.
My son has VERY strong lungs which makes him very LOUD. He doesn’t know how to be quiet. Instead of talking, he screams.
I prayed he would have strong lungs and that’s what I got!
So in a funny sort of way, I’m thankful my son is loud. I may be losing my hearing but my son is healthy & for that I’m thankful!
Today I’m thankful for my two big miracles. I’m thankful that God took the situations in my life and turned them into something miraculous!
“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb” Psalm 139:13
What are you thankful for today?
This post linked to Inspire Me Please.
Those are wonderful stories, Carrie! It’s such a blessing that both of your children were born in perfect health despite your worries. God certainly does come through. 🙂
I’m so glad you enjoyed them! It’s fun sharing the stories of what God’s done!