My Son -ESF

June 6, 2014 - The beginning of my day...
Stacey Frank Africa Missions wrote on June 6: What a day...it is amazing what you think of to do when you realize this is the last business day you have before you go have your BABY BOY yeah!! Home bills paid; Business bills paid, checkbooks balanced, business checks wrote out, business receipts filed, emergency consent forms and insurance cards packed, bags packed in van, car seat cleaned and ready to go in van, office organized, insurance paid, house somewhat cleaned, medical appointments re-scheduled for Monday, girls bags packed, and now I am off to take a nap before starting again.....3 days 18 hours and 50 minutes till I kiss my sweet boy's face.....



The Rest of the Day:

After nap time was over, the girls and I went outside and played hard, I cut the grass and weedeated (is that a real word?) the front yard, mom came over with her two dogs and we sat and talked, I attempted to drive the lawn mower across the spill way to get it into the back yard that needed cut badly BUT I ended up getting it stuck so I had to walk back and get the 4 wheeler and then push the lawnmower up the spill way and then hooked it up with a ratchet strap and towed it behind the 4 wheeler across the dam and back yard. It was pretty challenging with nobody steering the lawn mower but I did manage it with little adventures. I did manage to pop a wheelie on the 4 wheeler when I attempted to push the lawn mower up the spill way but that was all. Quite proud of myself and feeling like Xenia I drove my redneck towing entourage to the front yard. My mom wasn't to pleased but hey it was done. We went inside and she helped me give the girls a bath and then went home before the bad storm came in. The storm came in and it poured rain and we had some strong wind. The girls went to bed around 9:00 pm. I decided to finish up cleaning the house so I vacuumed the whole house, cleaned the kitchen, washed, dried and folded and put up 4 loads of clothes. I baked a whole tray of cookies since Mike was going to be coming home from a sound job later that night. I took a bath, ate a cheese pizza with NY Pepperoni on it and alot of parmesan and Italian herbs and decided to sit on the couch and wait on Mike to get home. I turned on the TV, laid down on the couch, got comfortable when all the sudden I felt a gush of fluid....excitement rushed through me. This was it; this was what I had been waiting on. I ran to the bathroom, tried calling Mike no answer, called Mom and told her my water broke and to head this way. I took a shower and changed clothes (completely pointless but I didn't know that), the contractions started at this point pretty strong, tried calling Mike again and got him this time. He started heading home and I went and laid on the couch till someone got to the house. Mom arrived and was super nervous (her water broke with my sister and she had her 20 minutes later). Mike finally arrived and we headed to the hospital. Got the hospital and had to wait in the ER waiting room, went through triage, the nice ER doctor came to the triage room and talked to me and then sent me straight back to OB. I got back there got checked out, they confirmed my water broke, admitted me to a L&D room and hooked up all the equipment to monitor me. However no dilation at this point. The contractions started getting worse but I kept saying Philippians 4:13 over and over in my head. There were times I wanted to cry but I didn't. I just kept saying Philippians 4:13 over and over and time went by SLOW. By 3am, I still wasn't dilating and the nurse told me if something hadn't happened by 6 that the dr would start me on pitocin. 6am came and no dilation or changes so the pitocin was started. The contractions got really really bad after this and I was completely exhausted. Around 7, the nurses told me that since my pain was so bad that the doctor said to go around and do an epidural on me. At this point I had gotten where I was grabbing onto the side of the bed and squeezing it, Philippians 4:13 still ringing in my head, I still hadn't yelled or cried, mike was snoring beside me, but I didn't know how much longer I could do this. I finally told the nurse that if I still wasn't dilating that I just wanted to go ahead and do another c-section. However this time I had dilated to 3cm so I told her I wanted to keep going ahead for a VBAC. I started dilating by 2cm per hr. Mike had woke up at this point, he said I was turning purple during each contraction. I got an epidural at around 9am, and wow what a difference that made, my pain was gone, my legs didn't work but I finally was able to get some sleep. By 10am, I was getting close. Around 10:15am, the baby's heart rate dropped down to the 50-60's so they rolled me around and his heart rate went back up, but they went ahead and called the Dr. He came in and said that he was going to go ahead and call in the surgical team, and get everything prepped just in case I had to have a c-section but we would keep an eye on it. Around 10:30 am, I dilated to 10 cm, but had to wait on the baby to drop down before I could start pushing. Around 10:45am, I started getting really cold and shaking uncontrollably but was told it was normal in labor. Around 10:50am, his heart rate dropped down again, this time they rolled me but it didn't come back up, they put oxygen on me and I had to start deep breathing, mike ended up having to help the nurse hold my legs over my head to try to get his heart rate back up. It dropped down to the 40's at this point and wasn't coming back up. My nursing knowledge started going into overdrive and I started getting really worried. I was given a shot of Narcan but that didn't help, by this time I had a couple of nurses in the room with me. The doctor came in and said he thought we needed to do a c-section, I said "Lets go" and started taking off my blood pressure cuff and oximeter. I heard the nurses tell mike they would come get him and he told them to take care of me first then come get him.










At this point I was already extremely worried about my baby, and knew it wasn't good. I just laid my hands on my belly and started praying. I won't lie, I was scared to death. I hadn't told anyone this but a few weeks before Elikai was born I had dreams that I had him at the hospital and that he was stillborn. Every time I had the dream, I would wake up and just start praying. Now, I was living that dream, something was wrong with my baby. Not only that the same thing that happened with the girls was happening again, low heart rate, emergency c-section, but this time I was awake for what was happening. Mike came in and stood beside me, I could hear the doctors and nurses. My thought was God please let my baby be ok. Then I heard someone say everybody push. The anesthesiologist leaned over my head and pushed hard on my stomach from the top, and I felt intense pain at that point. Then everybody stopped pushing on my stomach, and I waited to hear my baby cry but he didn't. I couldn't see anything so I looked up at Mike. I could tell it wasn't good. Mike rarely looks scared but he did. I asked him if he was ok and he said I don't know. I immediately started praying God please no please no, please save my baby. I heard alarms go off and Mike got down beside me, held me hand and together with our hands raised, we started praying aloud. I asked again about the baby, and the doctor told me he had to get me fixed up, that my uterus has ruptured and my stomach had filled with blood. I just started back praying for my baby. I heard the staff working on the baby and talking but couldn't make out what they were saying. At some point during all this and the doctor working on me, I guess I fell asleep or something.....because I had a dream. All the sudden I was standing and looking into the most beautiful garden I had ever been to, there was sunlight streaming down through the trees, it was so beautiful. I was standing there wondering if I should walk forward when all the sudden an orange and black butterfly came flying from behind me and flew right in front of me, and I started walking towards it and it was going towards the beautiful light streaming from the trees...then I woke up. Mike was still standing beside me and the doctor was still working on me. I got taken back to my room and mike and I waited for the baby. His doctor came in and told us, that they had to intubate him but he was stable and ok. Praise the Lord! We later found out he had a pneumothorax but that was healing and was better within a day. I got to hold Elikai for the first time a few hours later. My son, my only son, who God used to save his mommy. Mike and I talked to the doctor and he believes that the first time Kai's heart rate dropped that it was the umbilical cord being compressed that my uterus hadn't ruptured at that time. Which was a miracle but with that happened it caused the doctor to go ahead and prep the OR room and call in the surgical team so that when everything started happening the second time that we didn't have to wait for anyone which ended up saving mine and Kai's lives.






I am so thankful for my son. I hold him every day and thank the Lord for sparing his life and saving him. Elikai means God is my Savior and God truly did save him. The Lord has given me three beautiful miracles. TRUE MIRACLES and another testimony to share to others about what an awesome God I serve. The devil tried to kill all of us but God has plans for my children's lives and he has plans for my life still to be lived out. I am so thankful for all the staff and doctors that took care of me and Elikai that day, and for the care we received while we were there. I am blessed to have a perfectly healthy son that I get to hold every day and one day I pray I live long enough to see what his calling in his life and see what the devil was so afraid of that he tried to kill a baby before it was born...yes I pray I live long enough to see all three of my children gives their lives to Jesus, sell out to Jesus, and serve him with their whole heart.