Because in this day and age, you only love your children if you bore the rest of the world with blogs about them and the stuff they do. Shit no one else cares about.
Today we had our first official appointment with Maggie. The actual exam lasted about 15 minutes ... with ten of those searching for the Gypsy's allusive heartbeat ... and the other hour and 15 minutes consisted of us making making fun of BA and talking about nutrition. Maggie, Carol (her apprentice) and I agree we heard like 5 nano-seconds of the heartbeat. She offered to let me come back next week (12 weeks) when the uterus starts to turn up and move out of the pelvis ... making it easier to hear the heartbeat. But I said no, that I feel confident everything is going as well as can be.
Maggie and Carol did challenge us to try and stop shopping at the commissary and regular grocery stores and start going to the farmer's market and local farms to get our produce, milk and eggs. That nutrition I get now (or in a few weeks when I can stomach more things) is very important to the future health of the gypsy. And both BA and I have always agreed that we are going to try raise our children not on the standard American diet. So I guess we need to stop saying it and start doing it. As soon as we got home BA made us some fresh vegetable juice ... which I couldn't force myself to drink :(
I can't wait until I look pregnant and not just fat ....
Maggie using handheld Doppler to try and let us listen to the heartbeat. What I didn't know was the sound you hear really isn't what the heartbeat sounds like. It is the noise the machine produces from the returning sound waves.
Using the fetoscope to try and feel and hear the actual heartbeat.
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 10-13weeks, 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 ....
BA and I watched this documentary recently and it was really very interesting. I attached the trailer, but you can watch the whole version on Netflicks or in parts on YouTube. But I highly recommend it, even if you don't agree with midwives or home births.
I do believe the act of birthing has been taken away from women. My personal opinion (and only that) is why would you spend 40 weeks not drinking, eating certain foods, taking medicines, or drinking caffeine to pump your baby full of toxins right as they enter the world? Seriously take 20 minutes and do a little research of the possible side effects of an epidural to both mother and baby. No thank you.
I also understand that labor is one of the most painful things you will ever go through but why would you want to numb yourself and not wholly experience one of the most beautiful processes in life? Or be the very first person to hold that baby? I am the one who had to give up my beloved Old Spice deodorant and switch to a natural one (which doesn't work half as well). I am the one whose ass is expanding by the minute ... so why would I chose NOT to be the first one who gets to hold the baby?
Now I will step off my soapbox ... for this post anyways ...
2 days and a wake up until our Dr appointment. I really really hope everything is okay. If it is we have decided to tell everyone at 12 weeks. I talked to my bestie ... Christain ... and she is going to help us make our announcements. So keep your fingers crossed :)
Last night we went to dinner and a movie with Josh and Molly. BA met Josh through rugby. Super sweet couple and guess what ... Molly is one week more pregnant than me. Before we met them for dinner BA asked if he could tell them. I felt a little weird about it, because I don't want to have to un-tell them if anything happens. But I could see BA really wanted to, so I agreed that if an opportunity came up in the conversation he could tell them. Well of course 3 beers in, he awkwardly kept trying to "casually" bring it up. Finally I had to tell them, "what Francois is trying to say is I am also pregnant." Insert embarrassing exclamations of excitement and congratulations and a gross high-five (between BA and Josh ... NOT Molly and I).
