Josiah's story (pre-birth)

Josiah was quite the little surprise to us to begin with, and I love that he already has such a powerful story before even making his grand entrance into this world.  

I went for my regular check up (38 weeks) week before last and assumed it would be in and out as usual.  After being there all day...an ultrasound, concerning results, heart monitoring for Josiah, seeing a high risk specialist, another ultrasound with no concerns except him being breech, two OBs offering to go ahead and do a c-section....I finally got to come home.  The good news was that Josiah's heart rate was healthy, my amniotic fluid was normal...the bad news was that Josiah was breech, and at 38 weeks, it's extremely unlikely for him to turn on his own.  I asked the high-risk OB if he could turn him (the other two OBs had already told me "no, it's going to have to be a c-section"), and he confidently said, "Sure.  I have a 3 out of 4 success rate with this procedure."  I was already so thankful to have been sent to him and that he was willing to try the version to turn this fella.  We scheduled it for 7:00 a.m. Monday morning, which meant I went home determined to try every single googled at-home method for getting a breech baby to turn.  So all weekend....I'll let you look up all the methods and leave the details off the blog, but I sure tried.  Sunday night as I was sitting on Noah David's bed while he was falling asleep, I still felt Josiah's head pushing into my right rib cage.  I was anxious and dreading the possibility of having a c-section and these two other energetic boys to care for along with a newborn.  But by Sunday evening, the Lord had sent people all weekend...through facebook messages and conversations who had either been through the same thing or had medical experience...and I was encouraged.  Not encouraged that it would definitely work and I'd get my way but that He really was in control and really does care and really is going to take care of me and take care of our family.  Why do I ever forget that?  

I slept well that night, and I was completely unaware that my Daniel had stayed up praying with his hands on my belly much later.  

Monday morning came, and sweet Noah David crawled in bed with us in the wee hours...and there's nothing the Lord knew my heart would enjoy more than starting off that pivotal morning with this sweetness breathing deep in dreamland right there next to me.  We got to the hospital before seven, and I was greeted by a wonderful nurse.  She did all the prep...an IV (yes, in case of an emergency, which wasn't likely but a definite possibility), drew blood, and got all of my information into their system.  The high risk OB and his nurse practitioner came in later to get this baby flipped.  As he was getting the ultrasound machine plugged in, the nurse gave me an injection of some medicine to relax my uterus to prevent the procedure from sending me into labor (and it's main side effect is to make you feel very jittery and anxious and heart beat increase...nice).  Dr. Gonzalez did the ultrasound, laughed, and said, "Yep, this is why we always check, he is already head down."  And sure enough, his head, clear as day on that screen was no longer in my rib cage but down where it needed to be.  I was so extremely excited and thankful.  This was absolute best case scenario!!  

Later that Monday evening (the medicine made me feel like I had been hit by a train, but I'll take that any day over the other options!), Daniel shared with the boys and me....

"Boys, I want to tell you about what God did for Josiah and Mommy.  Last night when Mama was sleeping, I held my hands on her belly, and I prayed and prayed.  I asked God to turn Josiah.  I asked him to then use Josiah to turn the hearts of people to Himself, the same way that God used King Josiah to turn people to Him.  And He did!"  

Wow, seriously?  How amazing.  I had no idea.  I mean, we were all praying.  Our wonderful new church family were calling and praying with me over the phone, texting their prayers, assuring us with their prayers.  Our family and friends were doing the same.  I was begging the Lord.  But I knew when I went to bed Sunday night, there was still a baby head in my rib cage.  And I just didn't know what His plan was.  And then He did something even more amazing then I would've thought to ask.  Apparently, a baby that's almost 8 pounds in the womb would be a very obvious feeling for him to turn.  And I never felt him turn...perhaps because I was sound asleep, fully relaxed and resting while Daniel asked the Lord to turn him.  

I love that the ruler of the universe is knitting together Josiah in my womb...that His hands are literally on him.  I love that the King of Kings knows and loves my boy and turned him.  I love that the Almighty Father is going to use this precious life for His Names' Sake and that his story began before he even knew it. I pray Josiah and all of our children will not go a day without knowing Who to turn to and Who to live for.  

(And a side note:  Noah David demonstrated for Josiah several times what he needed to do.  ND would stick his bottom up in the air, head down, and talk loudly to my belly saying, "Look, Josiah!  Turn!  Put your booty up and your head down like this!  Just do what I'm doing, Josiah, okay?!"  So ND, while he appreciated Daddy's story, definitely believes that he played a key role in helping Josiah figure out what to do.  I love him.)

(Another side note:  Apparently because of all the baby positioning talk and prayers, it's been on the minds of both of our boys.  When I went to Daniel Isaac's school for his parent-teacher conference last week, which happened to be awesome and I'm super proud of my kindergartener, DI repeatedly patted my very lower belly declaring to his friends, "See?  Right here!  This is where his head is!  Waaaay down here!  Isn't that funny? He's head down with his booty way up here!"  Thank you, DI, and to any of the parents of kindergarteners in his class who weren't quite ready to answer baby positioning/delivery questions, my apologies.)