"For this child, I prayed..."

9 years ago tonight, I finally settled on a name for my Boy. I had a girls' name picked out, but I hadn't found a boy's name that meant something. This task was made harder because we didn't know what brand of baby was inside my belly.

The Boy was a little more than 4 weeks early, born at 35w5d... but he had threatened to arrive much earlier than that. I had preeclampsia, and by the time he was born, had spent 13.5weeks on bedrest, driving myself to the hospital April 28th after gaining 8lbs in 48 hours. He was born at 12:56am May 8th.

When I went into the hospital, I still didn't have a name for him. All I could do was lay there, talking to him and praying that we would both survive. I was being pumped full of medications to keep me from having seizures, to keep my BPs down, to prevent labor from starting, steroids for his lungs once labor was imminent. All I could do was pray and wonder what I was going to call him.

As I was laying there having another ultrasound to check for doneness, I remembered Hannah and Samuel and the verse... "For this child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of Him." 1 Samuel 1:27. I wanted to honor my grandfather if at all possible, so I chose Walter as his middle name, as it was my Pockie's middle name.

I went into labor two days later... and remained in labor for 57 hours... but we both survived. And miraculously, he was healthy. They had prepared for a preemie delivery, and whisked him straight away once he was born. I didn't see him for several hours while they made sure he was stable. But when I was finally able to hold him, I whispered to him "For this child I prayed... my baby Samuel"

My baby Samuel will be 9 years old Saturday morning, and I will not be allowed to be there. He will be at his dad's house. We will be having another Lego Cake on Sunday when I have them back for Mother's Day. We will have a good time with just the four of us.