Having a baby in India

           
                By now most of you have heard the good news that our little boy John Emmanuel has finally made his arrival!  He decided to arrive on Valentines Day of all days, which seemed so fitting as we are totally in love with our little man!  I wanted to share our experience of having a baby here in India from start to finish to show some of the similarities and differences between here and America.  I also wanted to share the testimony of God's grace and faithfulness to us throughout this entire experience; from John's conception to his arrival.  There are a lot of things that I want to put down into words, more so that I can look back some day and remember the hand of God in each aspect.
              Lets start from the very beginning.  Many of you know that we struggled with infertility and a couple of miscarriages in between Molly and John.  After having 2 miscarriages in less than a year, we looked to fertility treatments to try and get pregnant.  Luckily after our first fertility treatment we were able to conceive through IUI (intra-uterine insemination).  Most people like to keep quiet about their struggles with infertility, but I decided that for me it was easier to be open with our struggle.  By doing this I was able to receive so much support from many friends and family throughout this difficult process.  If any of you have gone through infertility you know what an emotional rollercoaster it can be.  In June of 2013 we found out we were pregnant.  I tried not to get my hopes up as I knew there was no guarantee of maintaining the pregnancy, but at 6 weeks pregnant we had an ultrasound and it showed a beating heart!  It was such a relief to see that beating heart for the first time.  At 9 weeks we got another quick glance at our little munchkin and again it showed signs of growth and progress.  The pregnancy continued without complications and I felt many of the pregnancy symptoms that most women feel.  We were so grateful to God for this wonderful gift!

                                         6 weeks                                         9 weeks

20 weeks

                Then out of the blue, we received a wonderful text message from a close friend of ours in Kansas City.   This friend has spoken and prayed many words of encouragement into our lives over the years and is very prophetically gifted.  I was 13 weeks pregnant and we had not shared with him yet that we were pregnant.  He asked us if we were pregnant, because God had shared with him some information about our baby.  Kris replied that yes we were pregnant and we would love to hear what God had been speaking to him about our baby.  God told our friend that we were having a boy and that his heavenly name was John Emmanuel.  He encouraged Kris to look up the meaning of those names to see what God was saying to us about our baby through those names.  So Kris looked up the meaning of the names:  John means "God is gracious" or "God's favor," and Emmanuel means "God with us."  From that point on I just knew that God had a special plan for this child.  It touched my heart that God could love us so much to share these very specific details about our child.  My faith grew in that very moment and it brought me to tears.  From then on whenever I referred to the baby I called him John.  At our 20 week ultrasound, again we received such encouragement.  The baby was healthy; every system and organ was developing as it should.  Of course the ultrasound confirmed what we already knew; we were having a baby boy!  Praise God!!  We could not have been happier.
            We had moved to India by the time I was 25 weeks pregnant.  Many people thought we were crazy to move to India while pregnant, but God assured me over and over that he would work out all the details of John's birth.  I cannot honestly say that I never doubted God or questioned him.  I still question God about why John would be born here.  I may never know the reason until I get to heaven, but I do believe that God has a purpose and a reason to him being born in India.  Hopefully he will reveal that reason to me in this lifetime.
             We faced many challenges and struggles in choosing a doctor and hospital.  In America I was under the care of a midwife and I was hoping to find a good midwife once in India.  I soon discovered that midwives do not exist or practice in this region.  They have many nurses that are called midwives, but they are simply just nurses that have had a lot of experience in helping to deliver babies.  They are not trained or certified by the standards that we would expect in America.  I also found out that a home birth was not possible due to this fact and is also illegal within the city limits.
           This left me with no other option but to have the baby with an OBGYN physician in a hospital.  Most of you would think, isn't that what most women do?  Yes, in America this is a very great option for having a baby.  Here in India, most of the doctors think they are God and do not listen to what the patient wants.  I heard horror story after horror story about how the doctors have treated women during their labor and delivery.  They won't allow you to move around during your labor, and they only come at the end for the delivery.  They also push for inductions and c-sections; both of which I was very opposed to unless in an emergency.  So far, I was not impressed with this information.
           Second of all, most hospitals do not allow the husband in the delivery room.  This was not something I had thought was still practiced, but apparently most couples would prefer it this way.  I of course was insistent that Kris be present for my entire labor and delivery.  That narrowed down quite a few of the hospitals in our area.
            The third challenge was finding a hospital close enough to our apartment that could be reached with enough time through rush hour traffic.  Bangalore is a city of 9 million people and rush hour is a nightmare when you get caught up in it.  My labor with Molly was only 6 hours, and I figured with this baby it could be a bit quicker, so I wanted to find a place fairly close to our apartment.
            Thankfully Jude and Roopa put us in touch with a wonderful lady named Tina.  She is a doula, and is one of only 2 doula's in the entire country.  We met with her and hired her to help with our labor, and also to act as an advocate for a natural delivery in the hospital.  She recommended Dr. Geeta Vinekar at Ideal Nursing Home to be our OBGYN.  (A Nursing Home is a small hospital/clinic where patients can receive treatment).  Unfortunately Dr. Geeta developed Dengue fever so I was unable to meet with her until I was 36 weeks pregnant.  We really liked Dr. Geeta once we met her, but I was unimpressed with her facility/nursing home.  The place was very old and looked as if nothing had been updated for 50 years.   But she was a proponent of natural labor and assured me that she would not consider induction or a c-section unless absolutely necessary.  She also would allow Kris to be present for the entire labor and delivery.  After praying about it we decided that we would choose a good doctor over a nice facility.  I figured if Jesus could be born in a barn, then John could be born at this old nursing home.

Dr. Geeta (our OBGYN)

Tina (our doula) with John

            The last thing I want to share is John's birth story.  Every mom has a birth story for each of their children.  All birth stories are unique and John's is especially unique considering the circumstances.  (Feel free to skip this portion if you are grossed out or uninterested in labor stories...this warning is for men mostly).  On Thursday Feb. 13 I started having contractions.  They were quite irregular and not extremely painful.  I had these sort of contractions when I was pregnant with Molly for nearly 3 days before I finally went into real labor, so I didn't really take them too seriously.  Then at midnight I started to have more painful contractions.  I had 3 really painful ones that were about 15 minutes apart.  So I decided to get up and move around.  Then they immediately went to 3 min apart.  Thats when I knew I was going into labor.  So we started packing our bags and making phone calls to have Molly taken care of.  We called our doula and headed for the hospital.  Thank goodness it was in the middle of the night so that we didn't have to deal with the traffic.  Oh, but the ride to the hospital was absolutely miserable.  Roads here are full of potholes and speed bumps...you get the picture.  It was almost unbearable.  Molly was in the back seat just chattering away about how excited she was to finally get to meet her little brother.  At the time I was really annoyed, but now I look back and think her excitement was so sweet. By the time we got to the hospital it was 1:45am.  The doctor checked me and said I was 4cm dilated, which nearly devastated me because I felt like I just had to be at least 7cm.  But 15min after that she said I was a full 10 cm dilated.  By 2:30 am he was born.  The labor was fast and furious...extremely intense.  He weighed 6.6lbs and was 20.5in long.  He was absolutely perfect!  I can honestly say that I fell in love from the very moment I laid my eyes on him.  Molly decided to stay up for the delivery and was able to meet her brother soon after.  It was so amazing to see our family literally grow from 3 members to 4.
               After about 1 hr in the labor room I was moved to a postpartum room.  They asked if I wanted to take a wheelchair or walk because it was up 1 flight of stairs.  I said I would take the wheelchair, but they were unable to locate one, so up the stairs I walked.  I also had to bring all of my own towels, sheets, blankets, toilet paper, etc.  (You learn in India to always carry a roll of toilet paper with you...most bathrooms do not have it).  The nursing care was also much different than in America.  Once we reached the postpartum room Kris quickly became my nurse.  The nurses didn't come to our room to check on us until about 9am.  The entire time I was there I never had one set of vitals taken on me, but they did check my weight before I left.  We also didn't know John's height/weight until the child specialist came the next morning.  He was checked over and deemed to be a healthy, normal baby.

              By 1:30pm I was allowed to go home.  I couldn't get out of there fast enough...all I wanted to do was go home and shower!  (There was no shower in my room, just a spigot and a bucket...oh and the water heater didn't work either).   Before we could check out we had to pay our bill and replace the items that they used for me in the labor room.  Kris had to go to the pharmacy and replace 3 items that they used: gauze, gloves, and a cotton roll.  To replace those items it cost us $6.  Since we do not have insurance we had to pay cash for my 12 hr stay.  It cost around $575.  We also had to pay for the child specialist consult which was about $12.  So all in all, I would say we got by for a pretty good price, but considering the facility itself, I'm glad we didn't have to pay any more.  Then we were on our way home and I held my new baby the entire way! (Carseats are totally optional in India, plus we don't have one yet).  I wanted to share all of these specific details to point out the differences between a normal delivery in America, verses the Indian delivery that I chose.

Our postpartum room

Heading home

            Now looking back at the entire story I can see the hand of God in each aspect.  God truly answered every single one of my prayers for John.  He has been so faithful to us and for this I am extremely grateful.  Our faith has definitely grown through this entire process as we have had to trust in God for so many things that were out of our control.  After about 1 week, John is doing all the things a normal, healthy baby should do...he is eating, pooping, and sleeping well.  We thank all of you that have prayed for us and through this entire process.  We are so grateful to God for our little miracle baby!!  We ask for continued prayers as we adjust to having a newborn again and transition into our family of 4.

January in a nutshell

I thought I would try to post a few pics at the end of each month just to show what we've been up to throughout the month.  Yes, while most of Kris' time is spent in the clinic treating patients, we have had a little bit of extra time for some fun things too.  This post is mainly for the grandparents, aunts, and uncles as you will see lots of pictures of Molly :)  

We opened Christmas presents on New Years day because we were on vacation for Christmas.  Molly received a few gifts from us and as you can see, one of those gifts was a bike.  She was so excited to ride bike again!  We have a small street behind our apartment that is a dead end road.  Molly and Kris are riding/running along the street to try out her new wheels.  She also loves to ride her bike inside the house, as we have no carpet here.  

Molly was invited to a friends' birthday party.  We went to a really fun place called Mothers Sanctuary.  The place was filled with swings, hammocks, trampolines, a petting zoo, and all sorts of fun activities for the kids to do.  They even had a tug-of-war competition.  We really enjoyed our day spent here with friends.

Since living here we have had the chance to try all sorts of new produce.  Most of the things we have tried have been very, very tasty.  Here Molly is trying out a fig for the first time.  I had never seen a fig growing on a tree before, nor have I eaten a fresh fig.  I've had fig newtons and dried figs before, but never one picked off the tree.  We all actually really liked it.  

 

Just to make all of you jealous back at home that are enduring the worst winter ever... I thought I would post a pic of us catching some rays of sunshine.  We decided one day to go out onto our rooftop and enjoy the sun.  It gets super hot up there so we couldn't be out for long, but it sure felt good to have a swimsuit on and sit in the sun.  Sure wish we had a swimming pool to go with it :)

We received some wonderful care packages in the mail.  They were filled to the brim with fun activities for Molly and I to do while at home.  Thanks to all of the Grandparents for sending us these packages!!!  We love to get mail!

Molly has become quite the helper around the house.  She helps me hang up all of the laundry on the line, and then once dry, she helps me fold it all too.  I love this age because she gets excited to help.  It'll be a sad day once she realizes that this is actually a chore.  

We had such a fun day meeting our friends' new baby.  Our kids are the same ages, so we always have a good time together!  It was so much fun to get to hold a newborn again.  It made me very excited to meet our new little one soon.  

I already dedicated a previous post to getting our new car, but it was THE HIGHLIGHT of the month for sure!!  Some people wanted to see how we actually fit in this car, so I thought I would post a pic of me actually sitting in the drivers seat.  I still can't technically drive the Nano, but Kris has given me about 5 driving lessons so far.  I could get somewhere if I had to in an emergency.  For now that'll be good enough until the baby comes.  Kris on the other hand has navigated through some of the worst traffic that Bangalore has to offer.  He has done such an awesome job!!  I think I can officially say that he could drive anywhere in the world if he wanted to.  

We celebrated Republic Day with all of the neighbors from our apartment complex.  The kids got to play musical chairs and they each got a prize.  The adults played a game that is very similar to BINGO, but they call it Housey.  It was a nice time to get to know more people from our apartment.  

We spent a lot of the month getting ready for baby boy Isakson to come.  His 2 Indian uncles (Jude and Kingsly) came over to hang up a hook for the baby hammock.  We plan to use the hammock as the baby's bed for the first few months.  This is how most Indians have their baby sleep, so we thought we would give it a try too.  We've also been able to borrow a pack'n'play, stroller, baby-carrier, and highchair.  We purchased a rocking chair on the Indian version of Craigs List.  It was quite a site to see us actually fit the rocking chair into the back of the Nano.  I'm telling you, that car is bigger than it looks :).  As most of you saw from Facebook, I was also thrown a surprise baby shower.  This was also a huge highlight from the month.  I don't have any pics yet from the event, but I'll try and post them as soon as I get them.  I felt so blessed and loved by all of the women who attended!

I have been able to receive a few Indian cooking lessons from a friend at church.  She has graciously come to my apartment several times to teach me 5 different recipes.  Each recipe has been sooooo tasty.  I can't wait to try them on my own to see if I can pull off these complicated dishes.  Indian cooking is tiring, messy, and sooooo good.  I hope to learn a lot more dishes while I'm here!  

Well those are a few highlights from the month of January.  Stay tuned, because February promises to be an exciting month as we look forward to the arrival of our baby boy!!  We'll keep you all posted on his big debut!!

Testimony Time

            It has been about 1 month since Kris' last testimony from the clinic, so we thought it would be nice to share another awesome story about one of Kris' patients.  In the month of December Kris saw 364 patients, and in the month of January he was able to treat 384 patients!!  It seems that each month he gets busier and busier and we are praising God that he is being used to the fullest potential.  I don't know if he could get much busier!!
           This story is about a 19 year old guy that is currently living about 350km away attending college.  He came to the clinic with an impressive MRI showing extremely bad disc herniations at L3, L4, and L5.  (Basically his entire lumbar or low back region was in really bad shape).  Kris was surprised to see such a bad MRI for somebody that is so young.  Since he travelled such a great distance just to receive the chiropractic treatment, he and his father stayed in Bangalore for the entire week.  His complaints were low back pain, numbness in one of his legs, and extreme pain with walking. He had been told by medical doctors that surgery was his only option for pain relief.  Given his age, the patient was not quite ready to choose surgery as an option for treatment.  Kris performed adjustments and stretches with him two times a day for 5 days straight.  This is somewhat unusual for Kris to treat a patient this aggressively, but since they had travelled from such a great distance they wanted to get in as many treatments as possible.  At the end of the week the patient reported that his pain and numbness were 90% improved!!  We were definitely praising God for such a remarkable improvement in this patient.  At the end of the week Jude and Roopa (the owners of the clinic) were able to have him and his father over for dinner.  They were able to clearly present the gospel message and pray with them.  This was also such an amazing thing as we believe they are Hindu.  As they returned back home they were given a DVD that also presents the gospel message of salvation.
             Over the past month we continued to pray that they would receive Jesus into their hearts, and that God would heal his back;  then he returned to the clinic for another week of treatments.  This time he complained of a slight return of the numbness, but overall was doing really well.  Kris adjusted him one time per day for 4 days straight.  On the last day of treatment the patient said that all of his low back pain was completely gone, and all of the numbness in his leg was completely gone.  Wow....PRAISE GOD!!!  The healing power of God truly is amazing.  Kris also was able to pray with him once more before he left for home.  The patient was extremely grateful for all of the adjustments and also thanked Kris for praying for him before he left.  We continue to pray for this patient frequently, that God would continue to heal his back, and that he would accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior.
           That truly is our prayer for each patient that walks in the clinic.  I feel like sometimes we are praying the same thing over and over again, but God is listening!  We ask that you would also continue to pray for all of the patients that Kris interacts with on a daily basis.  We hope to be able to share with you an amazing testimony each month.  We want to see miracles happen, but more importantly we want to see souls come to know the Lord.