Yesterday’s post referred to changes after about 4 years of the same routine in our lives. Another was an amazing gift from God; a baby on the way! We had always planned on having a lot of children and sometimes mulled over the amount of 6 or 7. Both of us coming from large families, we wanted to continue the tradition. Plus, the more hands on a farm made life easier.
I was so excited to start our family, but boy was I ever sick! To everyone’s question of, “Don’t you feel great being pregnant?,” I said, “NO”. I threw up so much I was dry heaving. Some foods caused my stomach to hurl and the smells made me gag! I took any and every advice and tried to ease the morning sickness but not many helped. What did help was trying to keep something I did like to eat or drink on my stomach so I wouldn’t heave so bad.
Once I got through that phase and thought I was on easy street, I began bleeding. The Doctor had me on bed rest and that was not my normal! I didn’t like that at all, but knew I had to behave to bring this baby to full term. I spent a lot of early spring months resting and taking it easy.
Then the Doctor gave me the go ahead to gently get back to living normally and I tried. My body was not up to what it was before I got pregnant and my muscles were not as strong after that. It amazed me how quickly you stop a regular activity, the quicker your body lost its umph!
I had to get back to my routine and help my husband with the work around the house. Spring was here and he stayed very busy with hay, planting, the dairy, and so much more. I set out one late morning to weed eat and wasn’t paying attention to my next step when I slid into an unsecured hole for our water meter. I was probably about 5 months along then and it didn’t hurt the baby, but my back went out and my whole right thigh ended up bruised. Our meter sits on a hill that goes up from the driveway and road about 3 feet. The actual meter door is level to our yard, but to read the meter, you look down a bit to read.
It took a bit to heal, but back on track I went. God kept me going through these struggles and I knew He would get me through that as well. He became my new found strength in a different way. He was adding to His will for me.
By this time, our baby was due in about 6 weeks and we were getting more anxious for it to arrive. We didn’t want to know the sex until it was born, so we picked out both girl and boy names for whichever God blessed us with.
As soon as I recovered from that slip into that hole, low and behold, I got really sick. I kept getting sick and throwing up. I had a fever that would spike to 102 or so and went back to dry heaving. It would come and go then seem like I was ok again. I kept the Doctor informed and when nothing helped and the sickness would not go away, he sent me to the hospital.
They admitted me and of course, when I went in I seemed ok. The Doctor knew what I had been doing and as they began testing, it came back full strength and the fever went to a bit over 105! I couldn’t keep anything down and they ended up only allowing ice chips, then not even ice chips. I was miserable and waiting for the results, but there was a peace in my heart that I cannot explain. I knew God had this. As worried as I should have been and was, there was a calm that washed over me.
About 2 days in, I started contractions. They gave me something called Breathins – however it is spelled – to stop the contractions and it worked. I want back to spotting and after about a week, I was released from the hospital with the diagnosis of listeria and a discovered Beta B Strep infection. As I left the hospital, one of the nurses came to me and said, “You know, when you came in here, we laughed at you thinking you were just a new worried mom. But, you were really sick. Really sick! I will never laugh at anyone again.” Perhaps there was a lesson for her as well.
There happen to be a baby born while I was in the hospital that was delivered to a mom who was unaware she had the Beta B Strep. The baby was transferred to a special hospital for babies but died. I still believe in my heart that God allowed my sickness and revealed the Strep. As much as I was miserable, sick, and off my feet again for the last 6 weeks, He kept our child alive and healthy.
Our beautiful little girl was born right at 6 weeks later full term. I discovered another lady I knew whose child was born without her knowledge of her having the Beta B Strep and her little girl ended up with brain bleeding and other complications but lived. When my water broke and we went in, I was immediately treated with antibiotics before delivery. I would recommend to any expectant mom to insist she be tested for this Beta B Strep.