"We don't use Pitocin 'willy nilly.'"

We went to the Midwife Meet 'n' Greet and tour at St. Joe's last night. It was great. There was quite a crowd but Jon and I managed to get a couple of questions in. What were they? Jon asked about the accessibility of doctors/surgical staff if the natural birth plan goes awry for some reason. I asked about how the room/staff accommodate the various positions that women labor (I was envisioning kneeling on the cold hospital floor in a pool of blood and needed someone to help me with that).

The midwives all seemed great. They seemed to be very relaxed and had pretty great senses of humor. They also made it clear that if you had a conflict in personality with a particular midwife they would try to get someone else in. That amazed me; not that I have those...personality conflicts.

We learned that about 30% of women come in intending to have waterbirths (we're interested, but not determined) and of those, about half succeed. In order to get into the tub you have to meet a bunch of criteria and be dilated to 5 cm. Meconium is the most frequent culprit in preventing a waterbirth, according to Chris, our tour guide. We really dug her, so we're going to seek her birthing class[es] out when it becomes time.

Overall we are feeling pretty damned good about St. Joe's. I have my last appointment with my OB on the 27th and I'll go to the Mac/Groveland Healtheast clinic for my 24 week appointment and from there forward.

I felt really proud about being pregnant last night. I know it's their job, but they were very welcoming and calming and supportive. I'm not feeling freaked out about having this kid...at the moment.

Rookie Mistakes

Without embarrassing myself with the details of how I overreacted and had Jon bring me to the hospital last night, I just wanted everyone to know we had an ultrasound and everything looks great. I've got a five inch, five ounce baby up in there. That is a bit larger than an iphone.

I still haven't gained any weight and am in this weird place where I don't feel pregnant except some abdominal pain. And headaches.

We've got the Midwife Meet 'n' Greet on Wednesday night. I'll post about how that goes.

15/40...

Well, we're 15 weeks and 2 days today. The baby is probably a little better than 4 inches from crown to rump. I heard the heartbeat on Doppler on Friday, and everything sounds good. My blood pressure was a little elevated, but I'll blame a work situation that made me late for my appointment for that! I told my doctor that I was going to the St. Joe's Midwife Meet 'n' Greet and that we were sure that as long as things continued normally we were going with the midwives. He said that he may be able to be available if he is needed, but I'm not sure how that would work logistically and it isn't like I think he is more capable of doing the c-section if it becomes necessary than any other doctor.

We are trying to get organized at home so we don't feel so overwhelmed by the prospect of having someone else live here, but I've been pretty lazy and am getting hit with headaches and the occasional nausea, so that isn't going too well on my part.

I solicited some advice from an old high school friend on diapering. We are probably looking at some combination of pre-fold cloth diapers and chlorine free disposables. Both are expensive, but it is important to both of us, and ultimately, baby too!

We have THE appointment scheduled for 2/27/09 to do the Fetal Anatomical Survey to make sure all of the parts are where they are supposed to be and hopefully find out the gender. Maybe then we can start thinking about names.

Oh, and OMG! Barack Obama is the President of the United States of America!

Here's my current favorite pic of him...in the OVAL freaking OFFICE. I heart America.

Update: I was spotting a little last night; the first time in a long time. I seemed to have stopped, so we'll see.

Daring to be Optimistic

Here is our ultrasound from about 9.5 weeks.

I'm 13 weeks and then some according to the measurments at my last ultrasound. As of last Wednesday we had a fetus that measured 3 inches from crown to rump. It's probably a bit more like 3.5 at this point. The body is catching up with the head (as much as my offspring should expect) in coming weeks, so it will look more like a miniture baby instead of an alien before too long. Jon will have to post something about his reaction to seeing the baby stretch out and wiggle around for the first time, I can't even begin to describe his expression at the time.

It is apparently part of protocol to test for Down Syndrome during the first trimester, so I didn't realize what was happening until I was already being told that the indicators weren't there. The baby has it's nasal bone which is absent in about 60% of D.S. cases, and there was another measurement that was assuring as well. To be sure, they took a blood test and today I found out that we don't have any of the indicators for D.S.

I have a bump. Well, it kind of. My abdomen in firm and I can't suck it in. I still haven't gained any weight, which is fine by me. My appetite is much improved over the last week or two, but I occasionally get hit by nausea. And headaches.

I have a doctor appointment next week and I should be getting another ultrasound to check out the gender around 18-20 weeks.

Patty is in the hospital right now in LABOR!

Tanya