Phyllis was two weeks from her due date. For an entire week, I was in Nashville at a sales meeting. I arrived home on a Sunday afternoon. We went to church, Chili's afterwards, and then walked around the neighborhood. We were in bed, about to go to sleep, when I started talking to the baby while rubbing Phyllis' stomach. Incredibly, as I was talking to my future child about coming out, Phyllis' water broke.
We called the doctor and he said to go on to the hospital. Our expectation was that within a few hours, we would have a baby. Nothing happened, so they gave Phyllis pitosin to speed labor. With increased contractions came intense pain, so they gave her an epideral. The wait was on. For the next fourteen hours, we waited. Eventually, the baby crowned. We immediately went into the delivery room. Then, everything stopped. The doctor explained that our baby was stuck. He was going to use forceps. Phyllis asked the doctor if he had ever used forceps before. "A few thousand times," he said. The doctor told the nurse to push down on Phyllis abdomen, she didn't react fast enough, so he yelled, "Push Stat!" All of a sudden, doctors and nurses came from everywhere. I was already praying, but at that moment I felt the presence of God in the room. I prayed, "please God, let our baby live." The doctor collapsed the baby's shoulder, and pulled it out. It was a boy! A very blue boy! (His Apgar score was a 2 at this point).
The nurse whisked him away to an area where they began resuscitating him, trying to get him to breath. Finally, he began to cry. Matthew David Barnett was alive and well. Matthew means gift from God, and that is exactly how we felt. Matthew weighed 8 lbs 12 ounces and had very wide shoulders. This explained why he had such a difficult time coming out of the chute.
Matthew celebrated his 21st birthday on Sunday. He is a youth ministry intern in Sulphur Springs, Texas at the Shannon Oaks Church. Last Wednesday, he came back from spending eight days in Honduras on a mission trip, building houses for the poor.
About Me
- David Michael
- Katy, Texas, United States
- Being a husband and a father is the greatest blessing in my life. I am also a Special Educator to students with an autism spectrum disorder.
2 comments:
David,
As I read your story of Matthew's birth, my stitches from my recent surgery ached.
Thank God for Pitocin or I would still be pregnant!
Matthew is blessed to have you and Phyllis for parents. You taught, mentored and modeled well.
Were the other children's births as traumatic?
Ugh -- WHY WERE YOU IN NASHVILLE SO CLOSE TO THE DELIVERY DATE!??
Sorry. My husband did the same thing to me... had a two month trail in Eastern Kentucky while I waited on the baby.
So not cool, husbands.
:)
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