Three Times Blessed
Dec 29, 2024 | by The Fellowship
Christmas is a time when we celebrate newborns! This most popular of all holidays commemorates the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. All the details of this Son of God being born in a stable and placed in a manger, the choir of angels who announced His birth, the shepherds who came to worship Him, and the Wise Men who brought Him gifts become very familiar to us from early childhood.
I am so blessed to have three wonderful granddaughters in their 20’s who are sisters and by God’s grace, all three of them became pregnant just months apart. It was the first baby for each! From the first moment we learned of each pregnancy, my husband and I began to rejoice and to pray for God’s protective hand on the mothers and the precious babies that would be joining our family.
Each of the pregnancies has been traumatic. The first baby was born on July 30. This granddaughter has Type 1 diabetes, so her pregnancy was very high risk for both mother and infant. She was monitored constantly and induced at 37 weeks. (Full term for a pregnancy is 40 weeks.) After she had been in labor for 24 hours, the baby’s heart rate dropped, and an emergency C Section was needed. The newborn boy, who weighed 7 lbs. 12 ozs., went immediately to infant ICU (NICU) for constant monitoring and because his blood sugar was too low. He and his mother were in the hospital for a week since each of their blood sugars had to be regulated before going home. Both mother and baby are doing well.
The second pregnancy was even more difficult. This granddaughter developed pre-eclampsia, which caused extremely high blood pressure. A potentially very dangerous complication, pre-eclampsia requires constant monitoring. Many trips to the ER occurred during the pregnancy when her blood pressure would skyrocket. During an ER trip on a Friday night when she was at 37 weeks, the doctor decided to induce labor for safety reasons. After 30 very long and difficult hours, on Sunday morning, December 1, the baby’s heart rate dropped dangerously low and the mother’s blood pressure shot up. An emergency C Section was rapidly performed, the baby boy was snatched out of the womb, and the mother passed out. To get the baby to breathe, immediate chest compressions were started along with oxygen. The husband and father was present and extremely frightened that he was losing both mother and child. Then the baby began to cry and the mother regained consciousness. The immediate crisis was over -- to everyone’s great relief! Unfortunately, my granddaughter’s pre-eclampsia continued postpartum and kept her in the hospital for a week. Her son was the largest of the three infants, weighing 9 lbs. 2 ozs. Both mother and baby are doing well.
My last granddaughter to deliver is a size 1 and the smallest of the three sisters. She also has advanced scoliosis which can cause excruciating pain and premature labor. And if the baby got too big in the womb, her back could break during delivery. She went into full labor at 30 weeks. Physicians strive to keep the baby in the womb until 38 weeks when the baby has the best chance of being born without problems. The doctors were able to stop the labor, but before long, it started up again. This granddaughter was in and out of the ER multiple times trying to get relief from the excruciating pain of prolonged, full labor (very rare) and to keep the baby from being delivered too soon. It was finally suggested that she not come again until her water broke. But on December 10, she went back to the ER and declared to the staff that the horrific pain had become unbearable and she was not going to leave until the baby was born, even though her water had not broken. Fortunately, she was at 38 weeks and dilation had begun, so she was admitted. The first thing done was to give her an antibiotic shot because she is a carrier of Strep B. This bacteria can pass to the baby during birth and become life-threatening. Things were progressing nicely – until very suddenly delivery became imminent. An epidural shot to numb the pain was administered, but the drug takes 15 minutes to become effective. The baby was born five minutes later -- so my granddaughter experienced natural childbirth. Her water did not break until the moment of birth! This latest grandchild was also a son! He weighed 5 lbs. 14 oz. Both mother and baby are doing well.
Our hearts are overflowing with thanksgiving to the Lord for answering our pleas. We were constantly bombarding heaven, and He brought all three new additions to the family safely into the world and poured out grace on their mothers. What a joy it will be to watch these cousins, all born within five months of each other, bond and treasure each other while growing up and sharing life’s experiences. In this holy season, these baby boys are living proof of the goodness of our God who sent His own Son that we might have eternal life and who gifts us with children, a blessing beyond measure!
… Call upon me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you and you will honor me.
Psalm 50:15