The Night Zephaniah Was Born

First let me start this by letting everyone know things have been crazy before the birth of my third child Zephaniah and this just added to the strange and weird experiences that seem to happen to me.  My wife and I have just moved to southern Illinois, Marion to be exact from northeast Missouri as I took a position of youth and children.  In addition to this I am presently enrolled in Seminary and during the move to Marion my wife was 8 months pregnant.  I seem to be one for adventure at times.  Anyway this blog post is not all about my move, me attending seminary, or starting a new ministry though they all could be valid blogs.  I originally started this blog to blog about life and though not many come here to read about my life (the actually come to find a resume example) some do like to come and read.

So I wanted to blog partially so I would have a record of this event while it is fresh on my mind and well to just share the story because it is crazy.  In fact all three of my children have now entered the world in their own dramatic fashion.  In every one of them we have seen God at work.  Here is the scoop

My wife was having contractions lastnight at church but they were far enough apart that really we were not all that concerned with them.  In fact  we went home thinking no biggy, she went to bed and I was working on a sermon for seminary.   Around 10:30 she got up and was in the bathroom and I heard her moaning but me being the loving husband I am was preoccupied with my sermon writing, so I let it go because this sermon was already a day late.  I finally decided I needed to check on her so I got up and asked her if she had been timing her contractions, and  she responded with no, but she did not know if she would get through night.  This was just after 11:00 pm. to which I posted on Facebook at 11:16 p.m.

“Well Tzigane is having contractions as far as we know the baby is still breech her Dr. appointment is Tuesday and her appointment for Insurance is late afternoon tomorrow not sure if she is going to make until tomorrow I hope so but I am doubtful.”

So I went back to my sermon and a while later she is still in the bathroom I think this is strange but she knows what she is doing. Finally I go in and start talking to her and I realize ok we have to go, we have waited to long.   Both of her labor times for our previous two children have been short.  With our first child  she was in labor 2 hours 30 minutes and the second 2 hours.  It was late at night so I call the pastor to get someone over to stay with our kids, he sent his wife right over, and we have it planned that  as soon as she gets there we will leave. I know we are roughly 7 minutes if that from the hospital.
I take off doing 70 down the main road with my hazards on, worried I am going to get pulled over or a citation, thinking this is a great way to make a debut in Illinois.   In my excitement between trying to get my wife to breath and driving fast I look up and say “look there is no wait in the ER” as there is a billboard that tells you this.  In reading the sign I drive right by the hospital wasting precious time I now have to turn around.  I speed to the next light thinking I have a red arrow but oh well I run right through it to turn around.  Finally we are there and I am relieved so I thought.

I run into the ER and let them know she is in labor and the response is “come in and go through the door” I tell them “no the baby is coming get someone down here now”.  I then rush back outside to be with my wife it seems like forever and finally I see a nurse come walking out casually I yell at her to hurry up.   When she gets there and takes one look and totally freaks out and tells me to run and tell them “we need a Dr. Now”. Seriously whose to blame her it’s not everyday someone shows up in the parking lot with a breech baby. I run back inside and tell them “we need a Dr. Now”. I then run back out and the baby is now half out breech in our van. I am literally looking at half of my child rear first while the other half is not delivered yet.  The nurse seems almost in shock I can see it in her face, I hear her yelling for the Dr. I see no one, all I see is baby and I am thinking “should I pull this baby out”  I have no clue what to do.  The nurse tells me to run inside because the Dr. did not see us.  I run inside the hospital and yell at the Dr. to come out.  Once again apparently no one trusted I knew what I was talking about the Dr. seemingly rather calmly comes strolling out as I am telling him to hurry.

After what seems like forever the Dr. gets to the van looks down and now he realizes the concern for the situation. For whatever reason I seem to be the only one calm at this point. The Dr. Begins to fly into action I am standing next to the him almost assisting him in this whole ordeal.  The baby had been in this breech state of half in and half out for a minimum of three minutes. He tells my wife to push and out comes Zephaniah in the front seat of our mini van.  It is at this point that calm went away and fear began to grip me.  It was at this point that I realized the time for any human reasoning was over, the time for science was gone, if we had been relying on anything but God we could do so no more, we now had no choice but to rely on Him.
I looked at my precious baby that we had waited so long for and he was lifeless, I remember in my mind crying out to God to let him be ok.  It literally seemed like and eternity My baby is blue he is not breathing the Dr. is wiping his little face, rubbing his chest doing all he can to stimulate him but nothing.  I see fear in the Dr.’s face, he is yelling for the nurses to help him but nothing, no breath, nothing.  Finally a breath, but that was it, one single solitary breath.  He is still blue he is still not breathing the Dr. is talking to him “breath buddy”  I am telling Tzigane not to look, my thoughts are “oh please God let him be ok”  it seems like another eternity a he takes a second breath. Once again he stops he is still blue he is still not breathing and finally I hear what every parent wants to hear that first cry.

We cut the cord suction him out wrap him up and the Dr. and I run to the labor and delivery.  I push the buttons on the elevator he cuddles my child in the blanket. I stay by Zephaniah’s little side the entire time.  We bath him, give him his shots, I even assist in drawing his blood. The nurse was great as she told me everything we were doing. Praise be to God that he brought us our third miracle He gets the glory, He gets the praise.