A "Full Course" Delivery

      First off let me just say that I am overwhelmed by God’s amazing mercy and love. In this post I will detail (mostly) the events of February 7^th and how Samuel Philip Cook came to join us in Japan. Stephanie’s water broke around 4 am and the doctor told us to go ahead and come on in. We got to the doctors office around 6 am and learned that Stephanie was probably going to have to go through at least 8 hours of labor before the baby would arrive. After about four hours of labor we decided to go ahead and get an epidural. The doctor was concerned that Stephanie might have trouble with a natural birth and he also said Stephanie still had at least 6 hours of labor to go. Because of these and other factors we decided to go ahead and have an epidural. Around 5:30pm they attempted to vacuum Samuel out but his head became lodged on Stephanie’s hips. The doctor then proceeded to perform an emergency c-section because they were concerned about low oxygen levels for Samuel. The c-section went smoothly but Samuel swallowed a lot of fluid and was having a very hard time breathing and was not crying at all. They had already called in a second doctor before they began the c-section and then proceeded to call in another doctor that would take Samuel to a nearby hospital where they have a Neonatal unit. Samuel was stabilized but still struggling to breath before he was transported by ambulance to the hospital. After about 2 hours at the hospital the doctor explained that they would need to keep Samuel for about a week to monitor him and make sure there were no lingering affects of the low oxygen. After a week in the hospital Samuel received a clean bill of health and we were allowed to take him home. It is truly a joy to have Samuel home with us and we praise God for his continued health.

     The Title of this post came from a statement that the doctor made about Stephanie. He stated that it was a very difficult birth and that Stephanie was a "full course" patient. Stephanie was in labor for several hours without an epidural, labored for about 8 hours with an epidural, attempted to have him without the c-section, and then had an emergency c-section. Even though Stephanie had a "full course" delivery we praise God for both a healthy baby and a healthy mom.