The Story of Paxton

  I am madly in love with this little man: 

    And there is not a day that goes by that I don’t scoop him up in my arms, bring him up to my cheek and just breath a prayer of thanksgiving for his life here on earth with us.  He is a gift straight from my Heavenly Father. 

  As with all our successful pregnancies, Paxton was a surprise.  I took a pregnancy test based on a gut feeling, and it immediately showed negative.  Ok, good, I was hoping for a bit more time to decide if we wanted a 4th.  After 2 babies back to back (Tylan & Avery) I had asked the Lord for a 2 year break.  I had started consulting Him about these things, as obviously Birth Control should be called Birth UNcontrol at our house. The 4 we have here on earth were all surprises, and the 4 I tried to plan, are all in Heaven! 

  I had to quickly set the negative test down to go deal with crying 1-year-old Avery, got busy and totally forgetting all about it.  When I came back much later, I swooped it up to throw it away, glad none of the kids had found a new “play thing”, Gross!  Just as I am an inch from the trash can, I glance down to see 2 very distinct lines and….

Gasp!!!

  Where did that second line come from??? It sure wasn’t there before!!!!  Woah, guess that’s a big YES after all! Good thing I hadn’t already thrown the test away!!!!!

  God sure has a sense of humor……

Remember my “2 year break” request? 

Guess who was due 2 weeks after Avery turned 2? 

Baby #4. 

  Dale said next time you should tell the Lord you want a 2 year break between PREGNANCIES, not a 2 year break between children! lol  🙂  After being pregnant so many times in a row, 8 in 8 years at this point, you just kinda run out of fun ways to tell people you’re pregnant.  This go around, we decided to announce it to the world via facebook like this:

“Apparently, the world is in need of another Ferguson.”

  People flipped out!  “What?! Does this mean what I think it does?”   🙂

Why yes, yes it does.

  It wasn’t long after this that the complications began;  like a week of big time bleeding.  Thinking I had miscarried yet again, we went in for an emotional sono…immediately they find our little peanut.  Praise God, healthy and thriving!!  I am curious if Paxton was a twin, but this side of Heaven, we just won’t know.  (I wonder the same about Tylan, I had 2 bags of water with his pregnancy!)

 By the 2 month mark,  I was contracting every day.  It seems each and every one of my pregnancies  was to be a complicated faith-walk the entire way through. Obviously this 4th and final little Ferguson was to be no exception!  

  By 14 weeks I was on light bed rest due to more contractions with severe cramping that felt like a miscarriage in process.  Thankfully that was not the case.

  Soon after this, it was time for the exciting sono…….boy or girl? Something fun to look forward to no matter how many times you’ve experience it! 

  ”It’s a boy!” the sono tech told us.

 

Then, she got quiet. 

  She kept going back to this one area of my placenta.  I don’t know if you can recall what it feels like lying there, tummy exposed, bladder full, heart pounding with anticipation, smiling and hoping all is well, watching your little one on the sono screen….asking “Does everything look ok?”  Waiting for that reassurance. 

None came. 

  Instead she handed us a slip and told us we needed to contact our doctor for another diagnostic sono.  Suddenly, our happy sunshiney day had dark clouds rolling in:  Fear.  Worry.  Anxiety. 

 

    See that spot that looks like a hole?  That was the area of concern.  We were sent home to wait the month it takes to get into a Fetal specialist for a level 3 sono.  Can  you imagine?  A MONTH of not knowing what was going on inside?! 

  Miracle of miracles, God moved as only He can, and we got in to the specialist 7 days later.  Just like the last time, the sono tech can tell you nothing, so again we waited for the phone call, just 2 days this time. (2 LOOOONG days)

We were diagnosed with a Complete Circumvallate Placenta. This condition can result in low birth weight, preterm labor (this explains all the contractions I’d been having!!!!), preterm emergency delivery and intrauterine growth restriction…aka baby not getting the nutrients or oxygen needed to grow and thrive.  

  Another thing that occurs is a white band forms around the perimeter of the placenta, causing further blockage of minerals and oxygen as well as preventing the toxins to be removed from the placenta as the baby goes to the bathroom.

  If that wasn’t bad enough:  Pregnant women who experience circumvallate placenta are at a very high risk to deliver a premature baby or have a miscarriage. The “hole” we saw was the curled placenta, which means it is not properly attached.  Often circumvallate placentas continue to curve and curl throughout most of the pregnancy, creating a chance that the placenta will detach and the baby will need to be delivered immediately (like within minutes) by Caesarean section. If the placenta detaches before 25 weeks of gestation, there is a significant chance of miscarriage.  

    As I mentioned before, we had lost 4 babies at this point, so this was a HUGE point of fear for me already.  I began pleading with God for His hand to protect our little Paxton and keep him safely attached in the womb.  The Lord gave me this verse through a dear friend, which I personalized and CLUNG to the whole remainder of the pregnancy:

Psalms 112:7  “(She) does not fear bad news, nor live in dread of what will happen. For (she) has settled in (her) mind, that Jehovah will take care of (Paxton).” 

Oh wow, this was JUST what I needed to hear!

   This is already longer than I had intended, so I am going to fast forward and sum things up a bit.  Basically, we were without a doctor until 32 weeks pregnant.  No one wanted to take a patient with a CV placenta and allow vaginal delivery, I was considered too high risk to deliver at the Birthing Center of my choice, so we waited, doctorless.   Do you know how awful that felt?  How scary it is to be contracting and wondering, what happens if this kicks into full labor? Do we just show up in ER praying a Doctor we can tolerate is on call?  So we prayed and waited and prayed some more.

  With CV placenta, 32 weeks is a monumental turning point in the pregnancy.  It is the determining gestational age for whether or not the compromised placenta can handle the increased demands for food and oxygen from baby or not.   There were 2 scenarios:

 1) Do a Level 3 sono and see his growth had stopped and/or his oxygen supply was compromised and go in for an early C-section and live up in NICU with a premie for a while.

  Or 2) Do a Level 3 sono, and find out he is growing just fine. I am then released to the doctor/midwife of my choice with a free and clear bill of health. 

  You better believe we spent those 32 weeks PLEADING with our Heavenly Father to feed our child since my body was not able. To give him oxygen so there would be no problems later. 

  Mostly, I felt betrayed by my own body, which was supposed to be the safest place on earth for my litte one, yet it was the reason he was in such danger. 

  I spent a total of 6 1/2 months on the recliner in my living room, cramping, contracting, crying at times, praying and trying to be Mommy to a 6, 2 and 1-year-old.  I relied heavily on Dale, family and friends for the day-to-day tasks.  Even back to school shopping was done via cell phone from my living room, as my mom walked up and down the aisles describing items to me.

    During this time, prayers were going up constantly from family and friends and church prayer chains.  We were so blessed to find out an elderly lady from Dale’s aunts church, after hearing of our situation, committed to get up at 5 am every morning to pray for Paxton and I for 2 hours.  She doesn’t even KNOW us, but felt led to intercede on our behalf.  I had tears in my eyes and goose bumps all over when I found this out. 

FYI: I want to be JUST like her when I grow up.  Wow.

   So our 32 week appointment day arrives and with it the big “Make it or break it” appointment….the one that determines whether I could have the natural birth of my choice, or if they were going to need to take him early by C-section and put him in NICU.

    Hearts pounding, we enter the sono room, pleading with the Lord for all to be well  And you know what, 30 minutes later, we had our answer:

Paxton was doing just great!!!!!!!!

 In fact, MORE than just great.  He weighed in at 4 pounds 5 ounces already!  The average size for 32 weeks gestation….3 pounds 3 ounces! 

 Praise the LORD!

Not only was God feeding him for me, he was feeding him WELL!  Look at those fat cheeks:

  We were released from the fetal specialist to our midwife with their blessings and no substantial fears of further complications from this condition.  Praise Jesus!

  As I approached the end of a 9 month-long miracle, I breathed  a sigh of relief; all the fears, prayers, hours and tears from months of bed rest were coming to a close.  Only God Himself knows the extent of His covering over Paxton this pregnancy.  His power was made perfect in my body’s weakness. Hallelujah!

  So when they let you off of 6 1/2 months of bed rest, designed to keep your baby in, you naturally think your baby is coming out as soon as you are up and about again. 

Nope.

Not mine. 

  He was cozy in there and he wasn’t budging.  In fact, he made me wait until the morning AFTER his due date.  Stinker!

 

 

 

At 4 am, August 17th, I woke up to a POP-POP noise.  That was weird, I thought, did Pax just kick my tailbone?  Nope. I had just heard my own water breaking.  Holy cow. Craziest sound/feeling EVER!

 

 

 

  It was show time, FINALLY!  I always have evening babies, 2 of my 4 born at exactly 7:11 pm, so I figured we had a LOOONG day and evening ahead of us. 

  But by 9:32 am, after only 2 hours of being at the Birthing center, I got to meet my little (BIG) man.  Apparently, the look on my face when they said he was crowning was priceless…..Like popped my eyes open, dropped my mouth open in shock, mid-contraction.  I seriously never expected it to go that fast, envisioning spending the afternoon in labor yet!

  And just like that, 16 minutes of pushing, and he was here, safely in my arms!

Paxton Clay Ferguson, my miracle, fed by the hand of God for 9 long months. Not only did God feed him, but He fed him WELL, like super charged God-food. 🙂

  This kiddo weighed in at 10 pounds, 3 ounces, 22 inches long, and although he was much more blue-grey in color than my others, seemed to be doing fine. Praise be to God!

 

  This 4th and final birth, was the most laid back, hands off experience I have ever experienced. And soaking in the tub during labor? AMAZING! Totally takes the edge off contractions and helps you to relax. If you get the chance to birth at a Birthing Center with a midwife, I highly recommend it! It is a beautiful, peaceful, natural process!!!

   

 

 After everyone was all settled in and cleaned up, they did an examination of the placenta.  It was found to be 95% covered around the perimeter by a white cord, as is common with CV placenta.  To have an over 10 pound baby off a compromised placenta is nothing short of a miracle………

 

……..A precious gift sent from Heaven above.  Praise be to God for His provision and His hand on Paxton, caring for him in the womb when my body could not.

Guess what?! Tomorrow is Paxton’s 1st birthday!

   How is it that the first year takes us from helpless newborn to walking, jabbering, little mini-person? 

 Can’t we stretch the 1st year out over 2 years or something? Pul-eeeeeeeeeeease?

{Sniff sniff}

~T

 CVP moms:  Besides tons of prayers and petitions to my Heavenly Father, I also was on several homeopathics.  They were Hyland’s brand, and one of the was to help with oxygen levels for the baby.  The other was a magnesium one to help slow down the contractions.  I could TOTALLY tell when they kicked in and wore off.  If you have CVP and are comfortable with the use of a natural, homeopathic remedy, despite what your doctor may have to say about natural things, this was very helpful to us. 

Ferrum Phos. 30X & Magnesium Phosphate

Hyland’s Ferrum Phos 30x — 500 Tablets
This product can help the lungs to distribute oxygen throughout the body. It helps carry the oxygen in the circulatory system.

Hyland’s Mag. Phos 30x — 500 Tablets
Hyland’s Magnesium Phosphate is the homeopathic version of the magnesium they give in the hospital to stop labor.

  I took about 10 of each of these 3 times a day.

  I give all glory to God for this miracle, and these homeopathics are one of the ways He allowed us to have the healthy baby we did.  I believe that with my whole heart.

 If you are Kansas local and are looking for a natural, laid back, incredible, natural, birth experience, please go to http://www.yoderbirthcenter.org/ for more info.