Midwife Visit & Baby's Heart Beat

I officially have a midwife! I never did interview any others, or even make more phone calls like I originally set out to do. Honestly, after meeting Kimm I just knew in my gut that this was the woman that would help bring my child into this world in the comfort of my home.

Michael and I went to see her today so that they could meet each other and to ensure that the three of us were on the same page. It was a quick meeting at the end of which we all agreed that we'd work around my pending insurance application and start prenatal visits with her as soon as possible.

My next (and last) prenatal visit at the free clinic is on Tuesday the 12th where I'll ask them to release my medical records to my midwife and finally be done with that place. I already caught a glimpse into the comfort of my visits with Kimm, since her home is her office. She sits on these cool pillows on the floor and I loved the fact that she checked for peanut's heart beat on her own couch.

Today was the third time I got to enjoy hearing peanut's heart beat but it was the first time that I got to record it. Strong and healthy and 145bpm I got overly emotional (as I usually do) and couldn't stop mumbling the words "There really is a baby in my belly!"

Needless to say, today was an amazingly spectacularly magical day. :) I couldn't be more pleased with how everything is turning out and hope that things will continue along the path of the peaceful home birth that I have envisioned.

Here is a sound clip of Baby's Heart Beat 4.8.11 :)

MIdwife Meeting #1-possibly my last!

Today's meeting with my first prospective midwife went so much better than expected. I am still giddy and warm inside from how much I connected with this woman!

She became a midwife after having a negative experience birthing her daughter in the hospital and she has been advocating for women's rights ever since. She is vegan which is just the best news ever, I thought it'd be impossible for me to find a vegan midwife. In fact, that was my Hubby's only requirement! She only takes on a handful of clients at a time so that she is always available to them and she just relocated within walking distance of where I live. How perfect is that?!

She's willing to work with me while I wait for my insurance to go through which is great because I am extremely eager to make the switch. She seemed to really click with me too and at one point even said I had balls and that I would do great in my pregnancy. I am telling you, I love this woman!

I will still meet with at least 2 more midwives because that is what logic dictates and Hubby won't have it any other way. Plus I learned that she isn't a package deal so I'll also have to start searching for a doula and that might be an out of pocket cost for sure.

All in all it was a gorgeous spring day to spend walking around in Manhattan with dreams of the blissful, peaceful natural birth that I want at home. :)

Midwife Interview Tomorrow!

I am so fed up with the runarounds that I'm getting at the clinic where I'm currently going for my prenatal visits. I still have not received word about Medicaid application and I feel like I'm in limbo. Unhappy with my current doctors (they change every time I go) and unable to start seeing a midwife without insurance (I'm looking at an out of pocket bill of anywhere from $5k to $12k).

I've decided to be proactive and in the meantime I am going to start "interviewing" midwives who do accept Medicaid to see if any are a good fit. Ideally Hubby would be participating in these little meet and greets but he feels we should wait to hear from Medicaid. However, I have been told it could take up to 90 days from when I applied to get an answer and that leaves me with another 62 days of waiting.

I have my first meeting tomorrow and I'm very excited. Below are the questions that I plan to ask, some of which I found here thanks to twitter friend @twopinklinez. I've organized them in the order that I feel I'll actually ask them.

If anyone has suggestions of what to add or things I should be looking for in a midwife I'd love to hear them. This will be my first midwife experience and I'm excited but a little nervous because I don't quite know what I'm doing!

I will of course blog tomorrow about how my first interview goes. Wish me luck! :)

QUESTIONS I'LL ASK MY MIDWIFE

Why did you become a midwife?

What does your fee include? Prenatal, birth, postnatal care? Postnatal for how long? Lab work, sonograms?

What kind of Medicaid do you accept? What is your fee if paying out of pocket? By when would it have to be paid in full?

Will I ever need to go anywhere besides your office for lab work, sonograms or other testing/consultations?

How many patients do you usually have at a time?

When would I start coming to you? How often will we meet? What can I expect at our visits?

How many births have you attended?

Have you ever lost a mother or a baby at a home birth?

Do you work with a doula or birthing assistants? How many? When will I get to meet them? What role do they typically play?

If you don't work with a doula or birthing assistants, how do you feel about me hiring one outside of your practice?

What are your normal guidelines for weight gain or do you just stress good nutrition?

What do you normally do while I am in labor? 

During labor, how active would you be in checking me and the baby? What do you use or how do you check us? 

How do you feel about me eating, drinking or showering while in labor?

How do you help manage pain?

What medications, if any, do you bring?

What supplies and equipment do you bring? What should I have ready at home? Birthing stool, birthing ball?

Do you perform water births? Will you provide the tub? Where can I rent or buy a tub?

Are you affiliated with a hospital and/or a medical consultant? What is your recommended hospital to transfer to?

How often have you had to transfer a mom to a hospital?

Under what circumstances do you transfer?

Do you stay with me after the transfer and offer support for my decisions the best you can? 

How familiar are you with procedures in the hospital? 

What conditions make me high risk ? How would you treat these conditions before they make me high risk? 

If I develop a condition that makes me high risk, do you have a doctor you normally use to transfer my care to? 

At what point would placenta previa make me high risk?

Do you also try to use this doctor for transfers during labor? 

What is your cut-off for considering a baby to be premature and requiring a hospital birth? 

What happens if I go past 42 weeks? 

How do you feel about episiotomy? Under what circumstances do you do them? 

How do you work to prevent tearing?

How long are you willing to let a client push, or do you base it solely on the baby's stress level? 

If my water breaks before labor starts,  how long will you wait before trying to start labor, or transfer to the hospital?

What would you consider to be urgent or an emergency? Do I call you first or go straight to a hospital? WIll you meet me there?

Have you ever performed a natural, vaginal breech birth? What is your method of turning the baby?

What happens if you are unavailable to meet me? Who will attend to me?

Are you ok with someone video-taping and/or taking pictures throughout the entire birth?

What do people do with the placenta and the "mess" after giving birth at home?

What procedures do you do after baby is born? Weighing, mucus suction, cutting the cord, fingerprints/footprints?

Can daddy-to-be "catch" the baby and/or also cut the umbilical cord?

How soon after giving birth do you re-visit?

Listening To My Inner Mom Voice

My mom and I have a wonderful relationship. We talk every single day, sometimes for hours if time permits. I share pretty much everything with her and she is the first one to know about 98% of what goes on in my life. We don't always agree on everything, but we are able to listen to each other's opinions and agree to disagree if in the end that is what it comes to.

That is not to say that our relationship is perfect. We do have heated conversations, especially now that I am pregnant. She doesn't fully understand why I do certain things, like why I'm still vegan now in my pregnancy, and I always do my best to explain it to her, but since it's not the "norm" she continues to not be 100% on board.

Right now there are a few things that I am really trying to get her to agree with me or at least leave me alone about:

1. I won't stop being vegan in my pregnancy or after I give birth (or ever).
2. Our baby will be raised a vegan until he/she is old enough to form his/her own opinion.
3. I will breast feed exclusively for as long as I can.
4. I will co-sleep with our baby and not use a traditional crib. (disregard "dream crib post!)
5. Our baby will use cloth diapers. No ifs, ands or butts. ;)
6. I will have a natural birth with as little medical intervention as possible. 
7. We will use a sling with our baby.

I can probably think of more things but these seem to be the ones we touch on the most. Since my mom and I are so close, I do seek her approval a lot and I really need to stick to my guns now more than ever. I can't start compromising how I want Mike & I to raise our baby just because my mom has a different point of view. The most I can do is allow her to voice her opinion and then share mine and let her know I won't be changing my mind.

After talking for hours about the crib (which she even hated our "dream crib" because it was oval shaped), I finally got her to stop pushing the idea of a traditional crib on me. When I showed her a picture of the Arm's Reach Co-Sleeper that I like, she actually offered to be the one to buy it for me.

That's the great thing about my mom. At the end of the day, I know that everything she says, she says out of love. She means no harm because she really just doesn't know any better. I really can't wait to see her when she comes visit me with my Grams for Mother's Day. I haven't seem them in almost a year. My mom's love for me is unconditional and I know she will always support me no matter what I do. I just need to have a little more patience with her and more confidence in my decisions and we'll continue to be just fine!

Extra Long Weekend 02/17-02/22

Last Thursday when I started this blog, I had a horrible toothache. It was a pain so severe that I had to be extremely creative to keep myself from crying. I couldn't eat, I could only drink water at room temperature and there was no getting me to sleep.

I paced back and forth for almost 2 hours just rubbing my belly and speaking to peanut, holding back the tears. I didn't want peanut to worry that mommy was in so much pain. From exhaustion I managed to fall asleep with a bag of ice on my cheek only to be woken up with the same intense pain.

I called my doctor who conveniently does not work Fridays. I asked for the dentist who works at the same clinic and she happened to be on vacation for the next two weeks. The receptionist offered the emergency room as my only option. That's when I couldn't hold it in anymore. Hubby held me as I cried hysterically, not from the pain, but from fear. Without speaking to my obgyn, I was worried about getting x-rays, anesthesia or any dental procedure period. I'd rather endure the pain than do anything that might hurt peanut, but with this pain I wasn't able to eat and I knew that wasn't good either.

I wound up getting a root canal. The dentist was very understanding of my situation and managed to calm me down. Hubby stayed with me as long as he could but he was already late for work. Once she numbed my gums the worst was over. She prescribed me some painkillers but I didn't feel comfortable taking them and luckily have not had the need to take them either. The discomfort after the anesthesia wore off lasted about two days. I'm still only chewing on the left side but I'm grateful that I can eat again. Even though I gave in to the crying, I kept telling myself that things would work out and everything would be ok. I'm so thankful that it's all over and that Hubby was there to comfort me.

On a brighter note, yesterday was a delightful day. I spent some time with Louis, Jessica & Renesmee, as they were nice enough to take me to Fairway to buy some groceries. We made a pit stop at Toys R Us to look for a walker for Renesmee and instead of helping Jessie, all I did was drool over nursery sets and the adorable spring outfits they have for girls. If our little peanut is a girl, Hubby is in so much trouble!

I came home with a ton of energy and cooked enough food for the next three days. I reorganized our pantry and fridge and surprised Hubby with some hot cocoa when he came home from work. Whenever I have a doctor's appointment, I'm not able to fall asleep the night before unless it's from exhaustion but at least I get to be productive.

This morning I find out my obgyn, Dr. Love, is being moved to another clinic. Today was my last visit with her. My next appointment in 4 weeks will be with another doctor but I am really hoping to have a midwife by then to avoid all this inconsistency. All of my tests came back normal and I learned that my blood type is A positive.

I came home and took a nap which resulted in me sleeping for over 3 hours. I dreamt about my first sonogram which won't be until tomorrow but to say I am excited is an understatement. Hubby will be meeting me there so I just hope he is able to get there on time. I've never been to this hospital so I hope I find it ok by myself as well. Luckily the appointment is at 3pm which means I'll have time to catch up on sleep in the morning because I'm pretty sure I will have a hard time falling asleep tonight as well.

Once they do the sonogram they will give me a more accurate due date so it's possible that I am not 9 weeks pregnant. I could be earlier along. I doubt that I am further along but I guess we'll find out either way for sure!

After the sonogram we will grab some dinner and wait until 6pm when they are holding a tour of their birthing center. It will give me a chance to see the rooms in person as opposed to the cheesy hotel-like pictures they have online. I would love to make a firm decision about where I'll be giving birth before I enter my 2nd trimester but we may need more time to research and ask questions.

Tomorrow I will be logging on to give all of the wonderful details from our first sonogram. I still can't believe it!

19.5 hours and counting! <3

Our first prenatal visit 2/8/11

Our first prenatal visit was on my auntie's birthday. Hubby went with me and helped me pack snacks. I was warned that the first visit is the longest and that I would be seeing several doctors, taking up to three hours. I took a bottle of water, grapes, cashews, cranberries, a banana and had a nice breakfast of oatmeal with toast before leaving the apartment.

Since my appointment was the first of the day I didn't have to wait long between doctors. I took my "peanut journal" where I had listed all the questions I had along with the multi-vitamin capsules I was already taking to make sure that would continue to be enough. The obstetrician that met with me that day was Dr. Love. Her name could not have been more perfect. :)

They did lab work, I met with a counselor and the office manager to help me apply for financial assistance as well as a nutritionist to talk about my eating habits. The visit with the nutritionist was nothing like I expected. I was concerned that they'd freak out about me being vegan and tell me I'd have to change my new lifestyle (which I am not about to do). But she was great! She's a vegetarian which is why talking to her was so easy. I was able to speak freely and got all my questions answered.

Hubby was by my side the entire time and even participated with the question asking. Sadly the clinic doesn't have the equipment for sonograms, which is what we were looking forward to the most. I was told I'd get my referral appointment in the mail in a few days. Luckily it didn't take that long for me to receive it and I know now that my first ultrasound will be on the 23rd. I'll get a more "accurate" estimated due date but for now Dr. Love told me the baby is due September 26!

I still shared the poem with Hubby after having filled in the due date month despite the fact that we didn't get to see peanut. The days that followed have been filled with me researching midwives, birthing centers, scheduling tours and consultations and following up on the paperwork they submitted for me at the clinic.

My next doctor's appointment is on the 22nd to get my lab results, followed by our first sonogram on the 23rd. I signed up for a free weekly prenatal yoga class that I hope to start on the 21st, so next week will be a busy one! I'm looking forward to it all. :)