The husband of a member of a message board I'm on wrote a really great entry on their blog about homebirth. http://ronrothman.com/public/leftbraned/is-home-birth-courageous I highly recommend reading it. It's a lot of what I wrote in my "hombirth soapbox" entry but a lot "nicer"!

I'm organized!

I emailed my payment plan to my midwife yesterday (because I, um, forgot to print it out before my appointment on Tuesday) and she emailed me back thanking me and saying I was very organized. Ya see that?! I'm ORGANIZED! Ha! I think I'm going to print that out and hang it on my cubicle wall so I can show people when they start griping about how cluttered my desk is.

Oh, and so far this little bean is taking after his/her big brother and really liking Mexican food...

And now, my homebirth/midwife soapbox

Being the "odd" one of the family, I'm sure people are wondering why the heck I'm using a midwife and having a homebirth (if you didn't know before, you do now!). Well, for one, I'm not sick and don't need a doctor. Second, I don't like being told what to do and really don't want to worry about having to tell some random nurse to get their hands out of me when I'm in the middle of a contraction, or to stop yelling at me to push, or be put on a timetable from the moment my water breaks, my first contraction, how many centimeters I am, etc. Third, I like being treated like a person instead of a paycheck. When I was pregnant with Adam the longest my OB ever spent with me during a prenatal was 15 minutes, and after I got married she didn't even notice that my name had changed on my chart. At my prenatal with my midwife Tuesday night she was there for almost 2 hours and knew I'd just had a birthday. Just a random prenatal, nothing special. I don't have to worry about taking off work or sitting in a waiting room for an hour to spend 10 minutes with the doctor. My son and my husband get to be at all of the appointments and be involved in my care (the highlight of Adam's day is getting to squeeze the ball to pump up the blood pressure cuff when Rachel takes my vitals). I know when I go into labor Rachel will be the one to help me deliver my baby, not whichever OB happens to be on call that day. I know that by having my baby at home there is a decreased chance of needing any interventions like episiotomy (which you know was created by a man), epidural, or C-section, and the risk to me or the baby isn't any greater than birthing in a hospital (check out http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/330/7505/1416?ehom_ if you don't believe me). I don't have to worry about the baby catching some infection from the hospital (MRSA, anyone?). I will know exactly what procedures are done to my baby and why they're being done. I will know exactly what procedures are being done to ME and why they're being done. My midwife will actually listen to me if I want to decline something or ask questions instead of citing "it's procedure" ad nauseum. I won't have to bring my baby into a germy doctor's office for a checkup, Rachel will come right to my house for all of the postpartum mother and baby visits. Basically, I am in control, which is just better for everyone :)

Well, the midwife appointment went well last night. Mostly talked about my medical history and how the pregnancy is going so far. We did attempt to hear the heartbeat but the little bugger didn't want to cooperate, we'd get a blip on the Doppler then s/he'd swim away, so we never really got a good "bump-bump-bump" rhythm going. Rachel warned me that we might not be able to hear the heartbeat, and I had to promise not to freak out if we didn't before she'd agree to trying out the Doppler. All in all everything is going well, my uterus is starting to peek out over my pubic bone and growing into my abdomen more, and I'm officially in the 2nd trimester now, so hopefully I'll start looking pregnant soon instead of just fat. Grow, baby, grow!

Our midwife Rachel called last night, we have our next prenatal set up for Tuesday at 6. Should have some nice updates after that visit.

On a lighter note, my gag reflex has fully kicked in. Nothing like almost making yourself puke just by brushing your teeth!

Baby News

So, I'm 12 weeks 1 day. Nothing going on. No sickness, no movement, no belly bulge. Boring. I should be having my next midwife appointment next week, so if anything fun happens I'll let you know (we should be able to hear the heartbeat!).