Micah Salvador Bolanos

On November 9, 2010 we counted our 11th boy. Micah Salvador Bolanos came into the world 10 weeks ahead of schedule and just two and a half hours after we landed at SeaTac airport. Two months later I finally have a bit of time to write how his arrival came about and what it was like.

The plan was to go to Washington to celebrate Thanksgiving and have some much needed rest. However, the Lord and Micah had another plan. Our travel day had gone really well. We'd left Oaxaca in the early morning and were excited to be going to visit my family and have some time away from all the hubub of our daily life with ten sons. Our travels had gone without a hitch.

The last hour we were in the air, I had felt uncomfortable, but just thought it had been a long day and I would feel better once we got home. That was not going to be the case. We got down to the baggage claim about 5: 45pm, and I started feeling really bad. Looking back, I was starting to have contractions, but didn't really think that at the time.

So we got our bags. My mom and grandparents picked us up and I was still feeling really uncomfortable. We were heading to my grandma's house in Everett for dinner. No one in the car really pin pointed it down as labor pains. Though the "pains" were a minute long and two minutes apart. I could still talk through all the pain and move around. I don't think I could even have said they were contractions because it was just too early. He couldn't  be coming. I mean I had just gotten off an airplane.

We arrived at my grandma's and the "pains" got more intense. I couldn't sit still and was in a lot of pain. My mom called a friends midwife and she said, "Get her to the hospital. They will stop the contractions." My mom thought, "Contractions? She's not having contractions. It's too early."

But we made our way to the car again and my mother drove like a crazy woman to Providence Regional Medical Center off of Pacific Avenue in Everett. These fifteen or so minutes were the longest minutes of my life. The contractions were coming really close together and the pain was really really intense. She passed the Emergency Room entrance and had to turn around using precious time. As she pulled to a stop in front of the emergency room warm water started running down my legs. Scared to death, I told my mom that my water had broke. I got out of the car without my flip flops on and made my way barefoot into the emergency room lobby. It was about 8pm.

I yelled and cried at the receptionist that my water had broken and I was only 29 weeks pregnant. The lady and everyone else in the lobby just kinda stared at me. It took them a minute to snap into action and even then they weren't moving fast enough for Ricardo's liking. Once I was sitting in the wheel chair he just started pushing me quickly down the hall, though he had no idea where we were going, and he'd barely said two words through the whole evening.

So we were moving toward the Women and Children's Pavilion, the building where women have babies. We came to a curtained off little room where they had me put on a gown and wanted to get my vitals. My mom was parking the car. The nurse was taking my blood pressure when a gush of water from my body.  I told her I felt like I should push. She said, "no, you don't need to push." She continued with the blood pressure cuff. I told her again, " I feel like I should push."

"No. You are going to be fine. Don't push." Mind you she didn't check to see how far dilated I was or anything. She wanted to take my blood pressure and hook me up to a fetal monitor. Apparently I couldn't possibly know what I was talking about in wanting to push.

Within my body things were moving extremely fast, however the people around me didn't seem to realize this. Ricardo was there the whole time, though he didn't really say anything. He appeared scared to death and unable to speak.

Finally, (well it could have only been a minute or two) they started moving me toward a birthing room. We didn't even make it to the elevators. We pulled out of the hallway into the "delivery 'em fast room," and it quickly filled with people, though still no doctor. I would come to find out there were three nurses and the neonatal team of a couple nurses, a nurse practitioner, and respiratory guy. The neonatal team was setting up the recessitation cart and finally the doctor appeared.

Upon his arrival the nurse who I'd been trying to work with said, "She says she thinks she should push," like I had no clue what I was talking about. The doctor took a look and replied, "Well your baby is crowning so go ahead and push." I knew it had been time. So in three short pushes of 10 seconds each Micah entered the world at 8:15pm.

Before the last push, the doctor said he would cut the cord quickly and I wouldn't get to touch him or even really see that much of him so they could make sure he was ok. They took him quickly and cut the umbilical cord and laid him on the recessitation cart and went to work. Micah didn't make any noise and was really purple. It took a few minutes for him to get stable, but he was alive. They rushed him upstairs to the NICU, the Newborn Intensive Care Unit where he would spend the first 52 days of his life.

So that is the crazy story of the evening of Micah's birth. The Lord knew precisely when he was going to come into the world and had it been anytime earlier that day he would not have lived. He's our little miracle and we're so glad to say that today he is thriving, gaining weight every day and getting to know all his big brothers and friends around the mission.

I'll continue to write about our NICU experience and all the ways that the Lord provided for our every need. We are truly blessed.

The first time I got to hold Micah, the day after he was born.

Micah's first Christmas.