babynoah

This pregnancy, (like all my others) has been for the most part uneventful. I've been blessed by the Lord with easy pregnancies, and have always enjoyed being pregnant. For some reason, this pregnancy took awhile to become "real" to me. I think the reason for that is because for a couple years I had been wanting to have another baby, but my husband didn't have the same point of view. It became an issue between us for a little while. It wasn't that he didn't "want" another baby, he just was afraid that he couldn't provide for another child. He wants to put them all through college, whereas my biggest concern was that they had life. His point of view was totally understandable, when I thought about it. God knows it has to be rough being the sole provider for a family, and here I was wanting to expand upon that! So, I begrudgingly resigned myself to the fact that I would never have another baby. We even went so far as to get rid of all our baby things, even the crib.
In the bible God never blesses the "fruit of the womb" without also blessing the "fruit of the land", it seems to me that money often follows pregnancies. The bible says, I have never seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging bread. God provides, always has and always will.
A friend told me this, and I believe it to be true. God has always taken care of us, even when we weren't aware of Him.
Anyway, if I were to get down to the nitty gritty of how this baby was conceived (beyond the basics, that is!), you would understand, as I do, that this baby was meant to be. It happened for a reason, and God saw to it.

Our health insurance is Tricare, my husband is in the Marine Corps, and it is basically an HMO. So, we didn't have very many choices (aside of paying a TON of out of pocket expenses). My prenatal care would be taken care of at the Naval Hospital on base. My last experience at a Naval Hospital was horrendous, but I've heard a lot of good things about this hospital. Being that this is my 4th baby, and I've never had any complications with any of my pregnancies, labors, or deliveries, I qualified for the midwife program at the hospital. Being in the midwife program, I hope it will make my stay there less like a typical hospital stay. My first appointment with my midwife, Cmdr. Black, was when I was 14 weeks along. She couldn't get the baby's heartbeat, so she gave me a quick ultrasound. Turns out the baby was tucked way down under my pelvis, laying transverse. No wonder his heartbeat couldn't be heard! We didn't get a picture from this ultrasound, but it was really nice being able to see him for the first time!

When I was 20 weeks pregnant, my husband and I went in for my level 2 ultrasound. It's a regularly scheduled ultrasound for all pregnant women at the hospital. I had been thinking this baby was a girl, so I could have 2 of each. But, we found out that it is yet another boy! Was Brice ever thrilled, and of course when we told the kids later, the boys were thrilled too! Britney had wanted a sister, yet she was still glad to be having another baby getting ready to enter our home. Here is the first picture of Noah, he is sitting "Indian style" on top of my cervix. You can see his face, knee & leg and "waving hand" quite well here.

OR: