His Name Shall Be Samuel

When we announced to our children that we were expecting our fifth baby, our oldest son excitedly said, " Oh, I know something, but I'm not going to tell you!"  We finally convinced him to tell us what he knew.  He said that he had been secretly praying ever since his sister turned one that God would bless us with a baby boy!  Wow!

Now move up about 5 months to the week that we were to have an ultrasound done.  I was sitting at the computer-of all places! My then three year old son came in and sat next to me and said, " Mommy, God just spoke to me and said this baby is a boy."  Hmmmm.  My only response was, "He did? Wow!".  Now mind you he had not been read the story of Samuel in the Bible yet and did not have any friends by that name.  The next thing he said was, "Mommy, God just spoke to me again and said this baby's name is Samuel."

Well, a few days later, it was confirmed that Samuel was to be our fifth blessing! 

During that same week we discovered that our original midwives were not the ones we needed for this delivery and had switched to another one.  Our new midwife found that I was in need of some health help and began giving me some much needed advice. We had switched to this midwife only because a woman in our support group just "happened" to call me up to talk and shared the name of this midwife.  She said she had felt compelled to call me.  Then we felt compelled to go to this new midwife who was of great help.  I did not know that I was in need of help as the other midwives had not been testing my blood.  Then the day after we met our new midwife the lab called and said that I had a hematoma on the placenta and that I needed to come back in a few weeks for another ultrasound.  We couldn't believe how close we had come to me being very sick and possibly harming or losing Samuel! But it was by the grace of God that we were led to our new midwife!  We changed some supplements and eating habits and began the long road of waiting and praying that all things would go well.

The second ultrasound showed the same thing-a hematoma in the same spot.  At least, the doctors felt that it looked to be one. 

Then about 3 weeks before Samuel was born, late in the afternoon I realized that I had not felt Samuel move all day!!! I panicked and began eating lots of food, pushing on him, talking to him, sitting still and waiting for him to move.  He did not move!  Nothing! I called Steve and my midwife.  Steve started rushing home and the midwife called her friend to have her start praying for me and the baby.  She hadn't ever lost a baby before she said and I scared her when I called with this news.  I sat there praying and talking to Samuel.  So scared.  Finally, just a few minutes before my midwife arrived I felt a tiny move!  My midwife was relieved, but wanted to check things out.  She could not get him to respond to her pushing or moving either.  She had me eating and drinking juice, but it took awhile before he started to move.  She said he was telling us he needed to be born right then.  But, I felt a calmness and peace from the Lord that he would be all right.  We continued to monitor him and wait and he started moving regularly again.  Praise the Lord! 

When he was born three weeks later, it was discovered that he had had a bowel movement in utero, possibly 3 weeks earlier?  And the hematoma?  It wasn't there! 

We had planned a homebirth for Samuel (our first homebirth) and I had told Steve how I thought it would be neat if it was just the two of us there when Samuel came into the world.  That thought scared Steve and he said he did NOT want to be there without a midwife.  So, I prayed that the Lord would bring the midwife in time to deliver this baby as Steve wanted.  Well, God is amazing and so good!  Samuel's head was delivered by Steve before the midwife arrived!  She was there for the rest of his delivery!  9lbs. 14oz.!!!!

Another story will come about Samuel's deafness.