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Thursday, April 30, 2009

Josiah Neal {24 Weeks and 4 Days}

I went to the doctor today and I am thrilled to say that everything is progressing as it should and without any complications.  I cannot believe that six months have flown by so fast! Jordan and I get more and more excited about meeting Josiah everyday. It's hard to believe that he is going to be here in just three months!

As far as the appointment goes, I have gained three pounds this past month which puts my total weight gain at 16 pounds.  The thing that we found most interesting is that Josiah is already measuring 24 cm long.  Our doctor said that this is above average in length for babies at 24 weeks.  So it looks like Josiah may end up with his daddy's long legs...That explains his feet always ending up in my left rib cage!

And boy, has he been super active lately. I absolutely love feeling him wiggle around and Jordan is constantly putting his hands on my tummy to feel the movements himself.  I even think that Josiah is becoming accustomed to Jordan's voice because he starts punching and kicking like there ain't no tomorrow when Jordan starts talking to him.  We are both enjoying this experience so much!

I also had a long conversation with Dr. Nguyen about having a natural child birth.  For the past couple of months, I have been doing a lot of research on having a natural birth with as little intervention as possible.  The main thing that I want to avoid is being given an epidural.  This means that I will have to endure a ot of pain, but there won't be any loss of sensation or alertness.  I would be completely awake and active during labor and the birth.  Plus, I would not be at risk for nerve damage from the epidural.  Also, many times when women are given an epidural, their labor slows down and stalls.  In reaction to this, Pitocin is given which intensifies and makes the contractions much more painful and longer.  This often causes the baby's heart rate to drop.  Sometimes, the drop is so low that the doctor will opt to do a c-section.  To me, this just seems like a downward rollercoaster of un-needed interventions.  With all that said, I am very happy that my doctor said that he would do whatever I wanted and that getting an epidural was completely my choice. We also discussed inducing labor.  I told him that I felt like you would come when you were ready and that I didn't want to be induced.  He said that he would only recommend an induction if I got to be 43 weeks without any progress or if another complication arose before then that required delivering Josiah early. 





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