The best of both worlds ...

So its official, we have a midwife.  Her name is Maggie Bennett (http://www.gentlebirth.net/) and I feel really relieved.  We met with her Thursday to ask her questions about her practice ... questions like what would disqualify me as a patient, how many babies has she lost (which is ZERO in over 30 yrs of practicing), what scenarios would she send me to the hospital for, etc ... and both BA and I really connected with her.  Although I think he was won when we first walked in and her cat jump directly into his lap (for some reason he LOVES cats).  2 hours of chatting later, we hired her on the spot.

I also found out that Tricare will cover part of midwife care.  Maggie said that her past military clients have gotten almost half of her fee back.  So when I went to see my regular Doctor (not my OBGYN) on Friday he put in a referral for midwife care.  So cross your fingers it gets approved.  My first official appointment with Maggie is next Thursday.

BA and I have decided to do the prescreening blood test.  This testing provides a risk assessment for open neural tube defects (NTD), abdominal wall defects (AWD), down syndrome (trisomy 21), trisomy 18 and SLOS (Smith-Lemli-Opitz Syndrome).  The first test is done between 10-13 weeks, so this upcoming Tuesday I have an appointment with my OBGYN to have blood drawn.  You don't get the results back but they are added to the second round (15-20 weeks) and then a 'how likely the baby is to have any of these diseases' numbers are given to you.  The scary thing is there can be false positives.  I haven't even really thought about what we would do.  And surprisingly I am not going to :)


My next OBGYN appointment is in four weeks.  I am going to continue to see both him and Maggie through-out the pregnancy.  So I am being greedy and getting the best of both worlds ... because I can.  :)


As I was doing my hair last night before our friends, Marty and Amanda, came over for dinner, BA came into the the bathroom and said:
"I can't wait until the baby gets here"
"Why is that?"
"Because didn't you see the awesome bathtubs in the Babies 'R Us flier?   They even have spa baths with little showers.  Its going to be so cute giving the baby a bath."


Who knew men lose their minds over babies too ....