It has now been about seven months since the most difficult day of my life. God has taught me a lot through this time. Once again he has always been there and shows himself faithful.
I have been going through a nine week Bible study specifically made for women who have had miscarriages or any type of death of their baby. This had been a wonderful practical way to work through my grief. The last stages are about letting go and finding hope. Jonah will always be my first son but I won't constantly dwell on what could have been, or what happened, or what went wrong. My hope comes from God and through his blessing of another little son growing inside me!
I was quite nervous for the first 20 weeks of the pregnancy. Well, more specifically I almost ignored the fact that I was pregnant until I started to show around the end of June. Then I became pretty anxious that I would go to the bathroom one moment and discover mucus or blood again. When I started to feel him move, I relaxed a little. Till one day when I thought he wasn't moving much and I was on edge and jumpy all day. But the next day and since then I've been feeling his little blips a whole lot, and it gives me great joy.
At my 20 week appointment I measured at 25 cm which is a whole lot bigger than normal. For those that don't know you should measure at 1 cm per week after 20 weeks. So that was strange. At my 24 wk I was at 26 cm so that was better. Tomorrow I will be 27 weeks along! I just praise God that we've made it this far! If he's born now its possible he could survive. Some people say I should hope for a 38 or 39 wk delivery because he might be a big baby, but I personally hope he goes the whole 40 weeks.
Staying home, I've had a lot of time to read (this will change in December!). I read all of the library's pregnancy books so now I'm on to parenting books. Some ways of doing things I have never heard of before, and I would like other Christians opinions on how closely they adhere to Gods standards for parenting. There are several so this will be the topics of my blog posts for a while. First is actually a decision I have already made up my mind about, but would like others experiences and opinions.
I am having a home birth. Seems like God designed birth to happen safely even if he did curse it to be painful for the woman. Hospitals are for medical emergencies. If I came upon an emergency during labor or birth, we live right next to a hospital and would go to the er, like we did for Jonah. So please give me feedback on your experiences, wisdom, and opinions of home birth. Thanks!
Mikala,
ReplyDeleteI had a hospital birth at which I used a midwife. It was a great experience. Since then I have watched several documentaries about home births and it looks beautiful. From what I understand, if they think you are a high risk pregnancy they won't let you do it. But if every thing appears good then it is supposed to be much better for the birthing process to be home in a safe and calm place. There is a huge success with home birth and God designed your body to do the job and the people who help with home births are usually excellent at what they do.
-Lissy Pixley (I am starting a weird blog, so I apologize for the weird blog name)
Thanks! Yeah, I don't know if I'm high risk or not. My midwife hasn't said anything about that, and I don't see a doctor right now. I definitely agree with you about home birth. Haha, your blog name is interesting! :D
DeleteHi Mikala. :) I don't think I ever met you but I went to school with Andrew for a year. I've been following your Facebook updates for a while and was so excited to hear that you're pregnant again!
ReplyDeleteI have two boys, one who will be two in October, and the other was born August 1, he's almost 2 months old now! My first son I had at home with a nurse midwife. I feel the same way you do about birth. Pregnancy isn't an illness, and pregnant women don't need to be "cured" of their labor! I loved my home birth experience. My midwife was so concentrated on ME and how I felt, not just the numbers from the blood pressure cuff, the tape measure, and the scale. I went 6 days overdue with my first, then went into labor about 7 one evening and he was born at 3:30 the next morning. We were asleep in our bed--me, the baby, and my husband Derrin--by 6:30 AM. The birth assistants stayed for a couple hours, then came back a few hours later to check on us. My midwife checked on us a few days later. It was awesome.
The only thing that was tough about the homebirth (and this varies state to state) was the legal red tape. We had to go 45 minutes to find a midwife who was legal in MD (CNMs only in MD, no CPMs or lay midwives), and she was the only one for hours. And the paperwork was a hassle, and insurance refused to cover it. But it was worth it for sure.
This time we went to the hospital only because we couldn't afford the homebirth. Our insurance plus state assistance covered the hospital 100%. It was a pretty positive experience, too, much better than I anticipated, but I would still love another homebirth if I ever had a chance.
I'm so excited for you! If you have any questions at all I'd love to talk to you some more. :)
Thank you for posting! All midwives are legal in Kansas, so part was pretty easy. However, the closest one I could find was 1 1/2 hrs away, but I'm not too worried about that. I'm still under my dad's insurance, and it only covers emergency medical attention that has to do with pregnancy and birth anyway. So yeah, those are good points!
DeletePersonally I love the idea of giving birth in the comfort of my home, but I don't feel safe at home myself because of the unknowns, especially the first time I give birth. Also the closest hospital to our house is 20 minutes away.
ReplyDeleteMore importantly, I think this is one of MANY parenting decisions that is covered by grace. There isn't one right way to do pregnancy, to give birth, to feed your baby, to teach your baby to sleep...there are a lot of ways that God uses to grow our babies up. That doesn't mean we shouldn't pray about them and consider what God wants us to do, but I don't believe there is one right way for these kinds of decisions.
By the way, I was measuring ahead, too, 28 weeks at 24 weeks. My dr ordered another ultrasound for my next appointment to check on her growth...so excited to see her again! :)
DeleteYeah, that's understandable. Yay about seeing her again!
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