Micah

Micah has been full of surprises from the moment we found out we were expecting her. As we started discussing baby names, we chose Micah Benjamin for a boy name but struggled to choose a girl name. Brad suggested we keep Micah for a first name and use a more traditional girl middle name.  Around that time I read the book Yearning: Living Between How It Is & How It Ought to Be by M. Craig Barnes. The message of the book really spoke to me and from that, I knew our daughter’s middle name should be Grace. The evening of September 11, 2009 I finished the book. There were several discussions in the book that reminded me of a friend’s son, Alex, who had been battling cancer for 14 months. The next morning I found out that Alex had passed away the day before. At his funeral, his mother told me that Micah’s due date (February 19) was the same due date she had when she was expecting Alex 4 years prior.  She said maybe Micah would be born on Alex’s birthday: February 15.

Five months later, I checked in to the hospital on February 15 for an induction. I thought I knew what to expect after 2 prior inductions. Immediately after getting an epidural, I knew something was wrong. My legs felt extremely numb, and I couldn’t move them at all. Soon I realized the numbness was moving higher and higher up my back. My blood pressure bottomed out, which caused the nurse to run in. I recall someone saying that the pump for the epidural was indicating it had given me multiple doses of medication. By now I was losing sensation in my arms. I remember squeezing Brad’s hand over and over to reassure him I was still conscious— my fingers were the only thing I could move at this point. I was having trouble speaking and turning my head and was using accessory muscles to breathe.

In trying to determine what went wrong, I knew I’d either been overdosed or that the anesthesiologist had placed the epidural in the wrong depth in my back, causing the medication to travel higher than it should. I remember the nurse telling me that Micah was okay and listening to the reassuring rhythm of her heart beat on the monitor. As long as my baby was okay, I could wait for the drug’s effects to wear off. The nurse later told me that it worried them because I was so calm.

 I had done a clinical rotation in PT school working with spinal cord injuries, so I started trying to figure out how high up my spine the drugs had reached. I was afraid that my diaphragm (C-4) would be paralyzed, and I would lose the ability to breathe on my own, which was a terrifying thought. I knew the drugs had at least partially affected higher levels as I could not speak above a whisper, hold my head up, or feel someone touching my face. For a brief period of time, I was unable to swallow. I was in and out of consciousness for several hours.

Slowly, my mind became clearer, and I regained upper body function. Before long, I could feel Micah moving around, which is not something I remembered with my prior deliveries. Then, came the pain of contractions. I felt horrendous back labor about the time I learned I was 8 cm dilated. I was told I could get more drugs through the epidural catheter, but they couldn’t guarantee I wouldn’t have the same results. I wasn’t mentally prepared for a painful delivery, but I was not going to risk accepting more pain medication!

Labor hurt. It took an hour of pushing before Micah was born. She entered the world pink and screaming and hungry! When our family came in to see Micah, I overheard my dad ask why there was a crash cart outside my room. Apparently the drugs also caused a worrisome abnormal rhythm in my heart as well.

I was so happy to have a healthy baby that I really didn’t have a chance to process all that had happened. A few weeks later I did a continuing education course for my PT license about treating pregnant and post-partum women. The study discussed the positive effects of exercise during pregnancy. When a pregnant woman exercises consistently, her body learns to divert needed blood flow to the placenta for the baby instead of sending it all to the working skeletal  muscles. I had trained my body to keep my baby nourished even under stress, which kept my baby stable during the daylong ordeal.  It was then I realized how much God had protected me and Micah that day.

Micah’s name means “Who is like God?” Although a small book in the Bible, Micah revealed that “Bethlehem Ephrathah, though small...” is where Jesus Christ would come from. I’m seeing a small theme, just like our Micah. It takes spunk to handle a traditionally male name, and Micah is most definitely up for the challenge. Micah has always had a special gift for sharing her faith. She has even reported trying to hold Bible studies on the playground at school in first grade! Her middle name is also fitting of the little girl the Lord knew we needed:  Grace—an undeserved gift.  Her verse was a favorite from the prophet whose name she bears: