Josiah has a tooth! It’s just now breaking through the gums. We knew he was teething but thought it would be a month or two before it broke through…oh well…guess we were wrong.

Luckily, he slept 7 hours last night!!! Gotta love that sleep.

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.

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!