This was NOT the(my) plan - The Story of Matthew's Birth

But it was obviously God's.

Matthew Douglas Goldner was born via c-section at 6:13am on Tuesday, October 25, 2011, exactly 6 weeks before his due date. It all started Monday the 24th. I noticed very few movements from him and was constantly praying all day that I would feel him move. I think I remember two certain kicks and possibly some hiccups from him prior to admitting myself late that night. His first active time every day was between 6-7am but since Jonah was at Grandpa and Grandma's house this particular morning I figured I'd sleep in and then have my quiet time when Molly was napping instead. So for most of the day I figured I just missed out on his active period and that he was probably fine. I waited for the next active period which is between 9 and 10pm every night. Notta, nothing. And when he's active you can see it, elbows, feet, whatever, moving across my tummy. This is when I knew I had to make a call to my doctor to see what she would say, for my own sanity. Hubby kept telling me "don't worry, he's just relaxing today" but I couldn't relax. I showered and shaved, you know, just in case. I picked up the house a bit, you know, just in case. You know, when you're prepared for something to happen it probably won't. My mistake was not waking my parents at 12am so that Burch could go with me.

Anyhow, after I showered I called my doctor's office and waited for her call. Which was another huge blessing because my doctor was actually the doctor on call that night - a HUGE relief. Although all the doctors at my OB office are great I just really really like mine. She said that I needed to come in and have a non-stress test done. So, I got up, got dressed again, told hubby to go back to sleep even though he wanted to come with me. I figured they'd tell me everything was alright and I'd go home feeling over paranoid but relaxed.

Needless to say, baby boy didn't pass the non-stress test so I was given an IV to sort of "perk him up" but that didn't work so I had a biophysical profile ultrasound which he failed with a score of 4 out of 8. My doctor came into my triage room, looking not so happy and

"Well, the ultrasound didn't look good. we're going to have to deliver him."

"Today?"

"He only scored 4 out of 8 which means deliver."
"How about in a week?"

"I could ask a high-risk doctor but I know what they would say."
"Alrighty . . ." sounding so very unsure that this was the best plan.

I called Burch, who had to call my parents so they could stay with the kids. This was around 3am-ish. They were getting everything ready so that as soon as he got here we were ready to go. And that's how it happened that our next little blessing was born. He came out crying and peeing and well, just beautiful! :) His right leg was completely white and swollen and had three open blister-like wounds. This was and remains the main concern with his health. The two small holes that the prenatal ECHO picked up were not there. Praise The Lord! He was only on the CPAP machine for about a day. Praise The Lord! He's starting to nipple a bottle. Praise The Lord!

But keep praying for his right leg. The color is normal now, there is blood flow, but he hasn't moved it and that's probably due to extensive muscle tissue damage that the MRI picked up. He has all kinds of specialists watching him. No one knows why or how this happened, or what can be done about it right now except to just watch and see and make sure it doesn't get worse. The worse case scenario at this time is amputation if it doesn't improve, infection sets in, or the kidneys start to get damaged as a result of breaking down and flushing the body of all the protein enzymes from the damaged muscles. We're praying for a miracle!