[Cindy]

A little background......

I had my first two in the hospital, both induced, and thankfully the outcome was good for both. My 3rd was a planned home birth with a midwife that ended in a c/s. My 4th was then a planned home UP and UC which also ended in a c/s because I developed the HELLP syndrome.

My 4th child is now 3 years old and has been diagnosed with a genetic disorder, 6p21.1 microduplication. Thankfully he is just learning delayed, which is most obvious in his speech, but physically he seems fine! Praise God! :) I am quite confident though that his abnormal genes is what caused my pregnancy to be so much different and made me so sick.

I am now 37 weeks pregnant with my 5th child, and it is one of my best pregnancies!!!! Other than just being generally out of shape, I feel really great! My BP is good and I have only gained 21 pounds so far. :) Also, my last two were both breech (which is why I had my first c/s but not the 2nd), but a friend of mine told me about spinningbabies.com, and this baby is head-down! I figured out that, because I was having hip pain during my previous 2 pregnancies and slept in a recliner, that was why they were breech. Makes total sense!

Anyway, I would prefer to see a midwife or UP/UC, but for THIS pregnancy I am okay with an OB. My family is more at ease, which makes my own stress much lower. If I have a successful VBAC with this one though, I will probably pursue a UC if we have another in the future. I have joked over the last few years that I keep planning for a natural birth, but they all keep getting worse, so this time I will plan for a c/s and maybe I'll have a home birth! LOL!

I learned through my last experience though that we live in a sinful world. Nothing is perfect, and we can't just expect everything to be perfect simply because we were designed to do such-and-such. Our bodies are not perfect, so they will not always work perfectly. I also learned that I was so prideful! Wow! I knew that there was nothing wrong in and of itself in what I was feeling and saying about my whole experience, but I couldn't figure out what was wrong with the picture until a good Christian friend lovingly mentioned pride. That was it! I thought I "deserved" a perfect birth and it was stolen from me, but really, we don't deserve a thing! Every good and perfect gift is from above..... (James 1:17), and all the rest is a result of a fallen world. We cannot control natural things, and we certainly cannot blame God for anything less than perfect!

So this time around, I am hoping and praying for God's very best, for me, baby and the entire family. But I am going into it with much less to be expected. Whatever happens, happens. It is out of my control, which is probably a good thing. LOL!

I guess I didn't really have any questions, I just wanted to say hi and give an update! :)

[luvrbbs]

Thank you for sharing your story Cindy. I especially appreciated your sharing how you came to realize pride was in it. That struck a cord with how I was feeling during my pregnancy as each week another turn to keep me from home birth, UC and UP would occur. But in the end after Hayden was born and home ... I realized that the pregnancy and birth and even his being ill at birth was the perfect birth for him, for me and for our family. God's plans were far better than mine... even thought I went kicking and screaming along the way.

Prayers for continued "best pregnancy" so far :)