Thank you for every prayer, every email, every phone call, and every note of encouragement from my readers!
We are happy to announce the arrival of John Francis Benjamin, born on October 11, 2014 at 10:19 AM and weighing in at 8 lbs and 4 oz.
The baby earned the nickname "Johnny Drama" for his crazy arrival into this world. It was pretty much the worse case scenario for us. My water broke at 8 AM on Saturday morning while I was at home. Within minutes, I developed a complication. My husband started driving me to the hospital in my nightgown. On the way, things got so bad that I called 911. Then I crawled out of our car into a waiting ambulance. I gave birth at a random hospital, one that we'd never seen before, which was on the way to my regular OB practice.
I felt so bad for the new OB because he had to operate on me totally blind. My regular OB doctors had been so careful to document multiple sonograms and tons of tests before my sixth c-section, but none of my electronic medical records were easily available when I most needed them.
Yet God is so cool! My emergency c-section went textbook perfect. My son was born with an apgar score of 9, despite being born before 37 weeks. He came out perfect and crying loudly. Within 10 minutes of my son appearing, the main surgeon was soliciting ideas about where to take his visiting parents to get good crab cakes for lunch. I couldn't believe it! My sixth c-section ended up being so easy that my whole surgery team started talking about food while they were still sewing my womb back together.
The baby and I are both under a microscope during these past 48 hours. So far, the baby has managed to dodge a trip to the NICU. He has some minor issues with being a born a preemie. I feel so patient with every hiccup he has because I know that the situation could have been much worse.
I'm actually having the easiest recovery ever from surgery. It's amazing how great my medical team is here.
My kids are totally in love with their youngest sibling. They held a pirate themed 0 Birthday Party for Baby John today. Yesterday, I nursed our baby in post-op, but then a nurse took him away after 30 minutes because he was having labored breathing. For about an hour, I assumed my son had gotten admitted to the NICU. Instead, he was taken back to our birthing room. Baby John was there with my husband and all his siblings when I called the nurse to check in on him. All the older kids were serenading him with the chorus of Frozen's "Let it Go!' I can't tell you what that background song track did for my heart! It's been warm scenes like that in our hospital room time and again.
Thank you again for all of your love and prayers!
(Pictures to follow when we get home.)
