Micah turned 3 months old on February 16th. It’s amazing how fast babies change in such a short time. He has such a sweet and fun loving personality. Loves to laugh and play. We just love him!
On the 16th Micah still wasn’t keeping his head up much, but since then I’ve seen him holding it up for longer periods of time. His new trick this week is rolling over from his stomach to his back. He does this by sticking his bottom in the air and pushing his shoulder over. It’s really cute and he’s really persistent about it. The only problem is that once he’s on his back, he won’t go to sleep.
Micah’s biggest milestone of the month is sleeping through the night! The week before Micah turned 3 months he started sleeping from 10PM to 6AM. I was holding my breath, thinking it was too good to be true. But since then he’s continued to sleep all night, every night, occasionally getting up around 5 to eat. I’m so thankful for this development! As I tell my friends and neighbors here, it’s a very special gift from God to me. Our first three kids started sleeping through the night around 4 months. However child #4 & #5 didn’t sleep through the night until they stopped nursing. That’s exhausting. I was determined that we wouldn’t do that again (but sometimes it can’t be helped). I’m so thankful for the extra sleep! Of course, if it’s not the one it’s the other. I’m still awaken during the night by other kids – Ezra seems to be getting his 2-year old molars. But I have hope that I can start catching up on the past years of lacking sleep. Haha! Thankful!
The little girls enjoyed holding Micah. As long as they don’t move him around too much, he enjoyed it too!
Our kids woke up Monday morning, November 16, to missing parents and Aunt Ayra watching them. Ayra shared the news with them and they were all very excited. We called them once we got settled in the hospital room.
Our kids were very excited to meet and hold their new baby brother Monday afternoon. They were smitten. Clara was so amazed at how cute her new brother was.
Ezra was interested in Micah and said his name very nicely, but he was more interested in the massage chair in the room. All the kids made cards for Micah and me.
We’re very thankful to Sterling and MK Burke. They drove down from Ratanakiri as soon as they heard Micah was born to watch our kids. MK stayed for about a week to help us, and Sterling came at the end of a week to take her back home.
On Thursday we brought the Micah home and the kids made welcome home signs. The next morning they surprised us with a breakfast buffet. Aunt MK taught the kids to make breakfast.
We spent the next few weeks getting to know our newest family member! Ezra did really well with being replaced as the youngest. He really enjoyed going outside with the older kids and being a big boy.
And before Becca’s 11th birthday we took a special picture:
0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 year olds!!!
Whenever I had ultrasounds, the doctor could never see Micah’s face, since Micah always had his hand over his face. We found he still like the same position after birth.
Lastly – pictures of Micah on his due date – November 21, 2021. 5 Days old! Glad he came early, so we could start enjoying him!
Many precious days of holding our little infant and napping with him. So sweet. So peaceful!
There’s was a lot of uncertainty of how Micah’s birth was going to turn out. The main question was: would the doctor really allow me to have a VBAC, or would she end up pushing for C-section. There are very few stories of successful VBACS (vaginal birth after c-section) in Cambodia. I, for one, never felt completely at ease about having our baby in Cambodia. During the last weeks especially, I was really wishing I could be in Bangkok with my doctor there. But this was God’s good will for our lives. As the due date grew closer, I grew more anxious. And I was not looking forward to the pain in childbirth!
Micah in his birth-room.
Sunday night, November 15, I began to have back contractions very similar to the ones I had had the week before. I had a doctor’s appointment scheduled for the next morning, November 16, at 8:30 and thought it was great timing. I thought I was sleeping in between the contractions, and I was too tired and lazy to time anything, but I should have realized that it wasn’t that far into the night. I got up to use the bathroom, and my water broke — it wasn’t much, but I knew the doctor said my fluid was low (my water broke with Clara seconds before she was born). Then my body started getting ready for pushing a baby out and I knew that the time was truly at hand. The problem was I was stuck in the bathroom, with all those feelings of transition: nausea, hot and sweaty, etc. I lay down on the bathroom floor and waited until I felt better, then I made my way back into the room to wake up Josh.
Josh woke up to find me kneeling next to the bed and he sprang into action. The first thing he did was go downstairs to the 1st floor and wake Dr. K and his wife C, a veteran missionary couple who were staying at the guesthouse that weekend. When we talked to them earlier in the weekend, we had joked about their helping with the birth. They told us to get them up at any time.
Josh came back up and we moved into an empty room across the hall so the kids wouldn’t be disturbed. Dr. K checked me and I was at a 7 or 8. He really wanted to take me to the hospital, so he went to change clothes while I knelt at the bed. His wife, C (who is also a nurse), put a cold washcloth on my neck. She could tell I didn’t really want to go anywhere and also seemed to think I had progressed too far to make a trip to the hospital. When the doctor returned his wife told him she didn’t think I wanted to go — so then we needed to make the decision. To go or not to go, that was the question! I didn’t want to have our baby in the car, which looked like a distinct possibility. Nor was I too keen about a hospital birth. Dr. K really wanted to take me, but when he said they would have to carry me down three flights of stairs, I was thinking, No way! So we decided to have our baby in Room #8 of the C&MA Family Home.
Things happened pretty fast after that. My friend Ayra, who lives at the Bible school a couple meters behind the guesthouse, found alcohol and some other supplies at the school. The towels that had been given to us “just in case” by the guesthouse manager were spread all over the bed. Document clips were obtained to clamp the cord. And I’m pretty sure Dr. K washed his hands and the clips 100 times!
After a few pushes, out popped Micah. In the middle of my last push Dr. K told me to “hold it” — not what you want to hear in the middle of pushing. It seemed like a long time before he told me to go ahead, but I’m sure it was only seconds. That pause kept me from having any tears, which I’m very thankful for! There was a little concern about clearing out the baby’s lungs and getting him breathing, but he was fine. Dr. K was very concerned about me hemorrhaging. The placenta was delivered and we got ready to go to the hospital. Dr. K carried me down the stairs.
I found myself laughing — another guesthouse baby! Josh had once joked that he knew it was my secret plan to not go to the hospital and have another guesthouse baby. I told him I wouldn’t do that to him again. But this time Josh didn’t have to deliver and said he felt completely relaxed once the doctor took over. Funny — Clara was delivered in the Bangkok C&MA Family Home. Micah in the Phnom Penh C&MA Family Home. Each was the first birth in that particular Family Home. Guess we need to find another guesthouse in another country to christen!
Once at the hospital we were put in the ER. The pediatrician on call was very concerned that Micah had been born in a non-sterile environment and that his cord had been clamped with document clips. I felt bad for the guy. Micah ended up being put on two antibiotics via IV. He had to have his port in for about three days — our poor baby kept whacking himself with the splint. I was given one run of antibiotics as well.
The hospital staff was very nice. An ObGyn came three times a day to check on me, and a pediatrician came three times a day to check on Micah. We were there Monday till Thursday.
Reflections: I couldn’t have asked for a better birth. It was something I couldn’t plan (home-births are technically illegal in Cambodia), but it was just like I would have planned. I didn’t have to be at a hospital with people I didn’t know. I didn’t have to have unnecessary medical interventions or mediations. I was able to do most of my labor in bed, while I thought I was sleeping. One of the best things was that I had a sweet medical missionary couple deliver our baby. I really like this couple. They have five children of their own. Their youngest is a 17 year old girl. They home schooled their kids. The last baby Dr. K delivered was his own daughter 17 years ago. It was so nice to have Christian, native English speakers deliver our baby who have so much in common with us. Dr. K and his wife C visited us at the hospital the day after Micah was born. Sidenote – Dr. K & C’s first grandchild was born a few days before Micah – they had the same due date. They weren’t able to be in America for his birth, but they were able to deliver an MK baby together.
After six births — all different — I still don’t know when it’s time to go to the hospital. 🙂 I’m very glad that I was able to have another “home birth.” Very thankful that Micah was born without any medical complications. Thankful that I didn’t have any complications. Thankful!
In closing I want to include Dr. K’s write up on the birth, which he wrote for his prayer letter update.
C and I had to make a run all the way down to Phnom Penh (a 9 hour drive for us). We stayed at the Alliance guest house. The only other guests were a missionary family with 5 small kids. They were expecting their 6th child within a week or two, and had come in from where they lived in the countryside in order to be within a 20 minute drive of the Cambodian hospital for delivery. When C and I arrived, the husband – a friend of mine – quipped that he was glad I was going to be in the guest house for a few days, just in case the baby came too fast for them to make it to the hospital. I laughed, but knew that that would never happen.
A couple nights later, at 0300 AM, you guessed it, a loud knocking at our door awoke us from a deep sleep. Turned out that things had developed quite suddenly and that they didn’t think she’d make it to the hospital. (BTW, she had had two prior C-sections, and absolutely needed to deliver in a controlled, safe hospital environment where a C-section could be done within minutes). With no other option, we decided to assist in a MacGyver home delivery. I found two strong paper clamps and a pair of office scissors to handle the cord. We had clean towels but no boiling water (isn’t that what they always ask for in the movies?). In a nutshell, she delivered after only 2 pushes. A healthy baby boy! We got momma and baby to the hospital, where, after a non-eventful inpatient experience, they were released back to the guest house 3 days later. May God use that baby boy in His service, just as his parents have done.
History day last week included the coronation parade of Queen Elizabeth. We had to do it three times, since we had three queens. And of course, we had to give the boys a ride too! 🙂
