Great and Hidden Things: Welcome to the World Roman Finley

Roman Finley Arant
8lbs 13 ounces
Born 5:22am 22 September, 2013

Our little man has finally arrived and boy was he worth the wait. Although we were really hoping he would come in his own time, I did have to go in to get induced on Saturday. Saturday afternoon we went into the hospital at about 2pm. We went up to the labor ward and waited for a couple hours before we were told or given anything. At about 4pm I was given my first dose of medicine to start the induction process although it didn't do much. At 8pm Ben had to leave and I still had no signs of labor. The midwife came in at 10pm to give me my second dose than told me to get some sleep because contractions would start soon. It was a weird and scary thought knowing the pain was coming but exciting knowing our boy was coming soon. At midnight my contractions started and things progressed quite quickly from that time on. Ben was allowed to come back at 2am and stay the rest of the night. Roman made his arrival at 5:22am on Sunday the 22nd. We say he has two birthdays the 22nd in Scotland and the 21st in America! I'm sure he will love having two birthdays growing up.

Right after Roman was born I only got to hold him for about 30 seconds. The midwives soon realized that I was loosing too much blood. About 10 doctors came rushing in gave Ben the baby and whisked me away to the theater (operating room). I had to have an emergency surgery because my uterus wouldn't contract and I lost about 3 liters of blood which is about half my supply. There was no time even to fear or be aware of what was going on for that matter because everything happened so quickly. Daddy got lots of one-on-one time while I was away in surgery. It took all of Sunday and most of Monday for me to recover from the blood loss, I had to have a transfusion and was under heavy anesthetics. Sunday was difficult because I wasn't even able to hold Roman for the first day and was on complete bed rest. However we had great care during our stay in the hospital. I was in the high dependency ward and had a midwife looking after me the entire time with doctors popping in constantly. The midwives took great care feeding, changing, and comforting Roman during this time, since Ben could only be there during visiting hours. Although the doctors kept telling me we had a very traumatic experience, all I could think of was how thankful I was to have a healthy baby, a super supportive husband, and great doctors and midwives who acted quickly to take care of me.

Saturday night I was reflecting on Isaiah 55 and God's ways being higher than our ways. I had so many ideas and plans for how I wanted the delivery to happen, but God knows best and he is sovereign. Even though we had a "traumatic" experience I wouldn't change one second of it, because it is what God planned and we have such a beautiful boy as a result of God's perfect plan. Roman is definitely our precious gift from God and I pray we will remember that throughout all the sleepless nights!