Josiah’s Four Months

Josiah had his 4 month check up on the 29th. Here’s his stats:

16 lbs. 14 oz. (85%)
27 3/4 inches tall (79.7%)
17 1/2 inches head (94%)

Maybe a big head means big brains!!! Just like his daddy. Anyway, he was doing good. She upped his reflux medicine based on his weight and since he is still spitting up she didn’t think it was a good idea to discontinue it until the spit up slows down. He averages about two to three spit ups a day…or more depending on what’s going on and what I’ve eaten. Not much else to report. He laughed a lot at Dr. B and barely cried through his shots. Such a brave baby!

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Just a Josiah Picture

He really enjoys his swing because of the animals that await him. He’s starting to reach out more and today, I put him on his belly and he quickly rolled over. I’m enjoying watching him grow and smile so much. He loves his brothers and sister and will smile at them in a heartbeat. They’ve figured out that he’ll smile almost instantly if you “cluck” your tongue. I caught him trying to “cluck” his tongue today. Facebooktwittermail

Josiah’s Three Months

So, Josiah is now 3 months old. I would have posted some of his cute 3 month pics on Friday but I completely forgot that was when his 3 month birthday was. Before you judge me as a bad mama, Liam’s birthday is the 29th of December and I just got them confused thinking that Josiah was born on the 29th not the 28th…opps! He is now rolling without complaining from his belly to his back. He still loves one of our cats, Champ, and he thinks mom and dad hung the moon. He also loves to look at other babies. He’s dropped down to nursing like every three hours. And that’s three hours because I don’t want him to go any longer. He has one long stretch in the early evening of about five hours and then goes to three hours after that. I’m posting this because a lot of people want to know how he sleeps/eats…like you can’t tell he’s getting enough 🙂 Nah, I know there are just curiosity seekers. Keep scrolling down this post and you can watch a video clip of him talking. This is in quicktime so I hope everyone can see it.


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Josiah’s Firsts

Well, Saturday completed Josiah’s first month. He’s had a lot of first this month…including, being sat on by big brother Liam, getting to see all his grandparents, christening a church pew with (well you know), and smiling!

Yep, this past week, Josiah has graced us with a few “social” smiles. One of which went to Papa. He smiled at me on Saturday and then I passed him off to Mark and he started smiling at him. Such a sweet smile.

We also headed to the doctor today and he’s now on zantac for the reflux. He was just getting so fussy and acted like he was in a lot of pain. A friend also suggested I cut out dairy. While cutting it out isn’t an exact possibilty, I can cut back on it and I am going to try that, too to see how he reacts with it.

Josiah after his first smiles on Saturday.

Just pondering life with Ge!

Taking a snooze with Granddaddy. I can’t believe I got a picture of my dad smiling so big…but he does that with babies. He had a blast with a friend’s baby during Ace’s party.

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Josiah’s Visitors

Josiah had lots of visitors his first week…

Granddaddy getting some cuddles in.

Ge couldn’t resist holding him.

Tracy, our most loyal and awesome babysitter, with her friend, Kevin, stopped by and got some good snuggly time and also provided the kids with some one on one playtime…they loved it!

Miss Stephanie and Miss Katie Bug visited with Josiah. Stephanie was ultra concerned about him crying. Stephanie is around Ace’s age and Katie is close to Liam’s age.

Uncle Jay finally held Josiah at a not so happy moment for him.

Aunt Yaya (Abbie’s sister) during one of her many holding times. She’s a baby cuddler! About the name Aunt Yaya…My “aunt” name is Aunt Sister after a favorite Aunt Sister in some books that we (mom, Yaya, and me) enjoy by Anne Carroll. When I became a mom we were stumped in a search for an equally cool “aunt” name for my sister. Divine Secrets of the Yaya Sisterhood was very popular and we had all read the book and watched the movie and so, Yaya stuck! For anyone interested…

Cousin Jacie loved checking out the new baby.

And Cousin Ethan couldn’t resist holding and loving on Josiah.

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Could it be???

It looks as though we have our first brown-eyed child! Yippeee! I’ll keep you posted as further alertness develops.

I’ve got a call in to Dr. J about the hives. Hopefully, we’ll know soon whether he’s going to call something in.

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Josiah’s Birth Story

I don’t think any of this is too graphic…just brutally honest! So, all who are interested, read on!

We scheduled an induction for several reasons…first, we felt that if I was progressing, then my body was ready for labor and he was ready for birth. Second, I had PUPS, to give the horribly painful and itchy rash on my stomach a scientific name. The longer I waited with the rash the more it would spread and the longer it would take to get rid of (by the way it’s still there and should be gone in three weeks or so). Thirdly, when we went in last Tuesday, my uterus measured smaller than it had not even a week ago, which could have meant that he had dropped or my amniotic fluid was low (which is not good for the baby). So, those were some of our main decisions for induction. I also felt a peace with God about it too.

We got to the hospital about 6:30 a.m. and got set up in a room, etc. I was checked about 7:30 a.m. and had progressed to 3 cm. My contractions before pitocin were about 5 to 7 minutes apart so I was excited that, hopefully, my labor wouldn’t be too long and he would get here before lunch.

The pitocin was started at 7:30 and my contractions settled into a 5 minute pattern. They became strong but I was able to breath and talk through them which made my nurse, Debbie, very anxious and she kept cranking up the pitocin. I knew that the contractions wouldn’t stay just uncomfortable as the labor progressed, however, and kept reminding myself that so I wouldn’t be surprised when I was screaming or crying in pain. We watched tv, listened to the iPod and then Dr. J gave the okay for me to walk around. So, we walked around for about 30 minutes and got to see the kids coming in and visit with them. They were very curious about all our get up and the ivs and everything.

After lunch, Dr. J came in and broke my water. That was around 1:30. I had progressed to (drum roll please) a four almost a five…phew! This “quick” labor that we thought was going to happen wasn’t! Contractions started picking up and after about an hour they had made it to my back…which is where my pain usually comes from. Instead of just lying in bed or sitting up I turned around and draped myself on the back of the bed and Mark went to massaging as best he could to ease the discomfort. The pain did get progressively worse and I found myself completely zonked out between contractions and unable to talk through them. We used several positions and still kept progressing at a snail’s pace.

It was around 4 when nurse Debbie came in and introduced me to nurse Maria. Debbie checked me one more time and then handed me off to Maria as she was working with another patient as well as me. I was at 7 cm dilated. Maria suggested using the birthing ball and so she got it out and showed us how to use it. Lots of pressure was relieved as I used it, listened to my iPod and listened to Maria remind me how to breath. I kept feeling pressure to push, so I moved onto the bed and Maria checked me…still not there so she used another position. The pressure kept getting stronger so she moved me to another position.

By this time, the pain and the pressure and everything was so intense, that I felt that prickly feeling you feel when your leg is going to sleep in my face and hands and couldn’t even move them. I guess that was my muscles working overtime.

It got to where I couldn’t even move so she and Mark manuevered me between positions. While I was on my side, she suggested I roll on my back but to wait and let her call Dr. J because I could go really fast if the baby slipped into position. However, I guess she thought we’d have time because she flipped me on my back and then I started to try and push.

At this point, I became very “un-Abbie-like” and got into a yelling match with her. She wanted me to blow a candle out and I and the rest of my body wanted to get the baby out. Then I started hyperventilating and she threw the oxygen mask on me. As she and I were yelling she managed to call Dr. J and in three words (I think they were “get over here”) got him coming in our direction. He had been waiting in his office which was in a building next door. She also managed to call the nurse station and yell for them to come and get on the surgical gloves in case she had to catch the baby. As Dr. J came in I remember yelling at him that he had better hurry because I was pushing. Dr. J in his calm manner said, “Okay, go ahead…” Which I had already been doing involuntarily. We all managed to get my legs up and I pushed through two sets of contractions and out Josiah came.

Was it painful!? OF COURSE! The most painful part was not the contractions but the actual delivery. Very, very painful. Because the delivery happened so quickly, focusing on anything but letting my body do what it had to do was impossible…no iPod then! After delivery was pretty tough too. Lots of pulling and pushing on my stomach with no break from delivery left me very sore.

Would I do it again that way?! Considering that this will probably be my last “birth.” I would guess the answer is no. If, God chooses to bless us with another pregnancy, then yes, I would consider it.

However, I did notice a lot of differences in not having an epidural and having one (by the way, I received no pain relief throughout the day…including iv narcotics…those really were just needed at the end). The differences included that Josiah was a lot more alert. His heart rate didn’t dip after receiving the epidural like it did with Ace and Liam. I also was able to get up and go as soon as I was patched up and free from the iv!

To sum it up, it was worth it…of course all healthy labor and deliveries are worth it because of the blessings that we receive. I feel closer to Josiah because of the effort I placed in getting him here (I feel close to all my little ones but the bond between us was stronger faster than with the others). He is a beautiful gift from God and we are so blessed to have had not one but four healthy pregnancies, labors, and deliveries each in their own unique ways.

On and on his size…when I saw Josiah I was soooo shocked at how big he was. He’s huge for a newborn. Dr. J was doing his thing with me and guessed his weight right on! Very impressive. Dr. J and I were both very happy that we had made the decision to induce this week rather than wait for next week…he would have been over 10 lbs! Yikes!!

A note on our wonderful doctor. I kept wondering why, when the office had closed, he hadn’t made his appearance and staked out our room. He told us afterwards that he was trying to let us do what we needed/wanted to do. Which explained why he waiting so long to break my water…usually he does it first thing in the morning but he had waited until afternoon with me. He said it was really hard for him not to come in and “speed things along” but he knew we wanted to try it without a lot of intervention. He is a great doctor who really tries to take our best interest at heart. We praise God that He brought Dr. J into our lives to help bring all four of our children here.

I could keep writing but I know it would bore some people to death, so I’ll just leave it at that and to also say that Mark was a real trooper and worked so hard to help me and encourage me throughout the labor and delivery. I’m glad that my nurse was so helpful and okay with us yelling at each other…and yes, I asked for forgiveness for yelling at her. And no, I didn’t let any “bad” words escape during the whole thing!

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