January 7, 2003 : 23 weeks

I had my first midwife visit today! Some of you might remember we fired our OB/GYN since he wasn't interested in us or our questions. I LOVE our midwife! We spent almost an HOUR with her and she made everything wonderful for me.. all is understood and is no problem! I am really considering having the baby at home if we have our own place by then. If I have him at home there's NO possibility for drugs, vaccuums, forceps, etc. And it's pretty much certain that I won't have an episiotomy which is important to me. The baby doesn't get bathed for 24 hrs. Only dressed after I've held him for 15 min. I'm so happy that I get to do all the things for him and not someone else. The only part that bothered me was that once you start pushing you have less than 2 hrs to have the baby. In the US shows I've seen, it's at least 3 hrs. So I hope I manage!!

This woman was so nice! She looked at my records and all the ultrasound pictures and we told her about all aches and pains and movement and she seemed genuinely interested in everything. I was concerned about my weight gain and she told me that if it would help me be less paranoid, she doesn't EVER have to weigh me. She said she can tell if everything is ok by just feeling the baby on the outside. I had only gained 2 lbs (1kg) so far since I got pregnant and I am willing to bet that I'm the same weight as then or maybe a little teeny bit more but not a lot. All the books say I should have gained 10-15 by now or more! Well I don't have to worry about it anymore, because she won't check that. One less worry.

I also explained how the baby has NOT stopped moving for like 3 days. Last night he tried to kill me I swear. He got on the side I was laying on and like pulled on some organs or something for about 30 min. I rolled to the other side and he did it over there too! I ended up on my back and tried to ignore him but he wouldn't stop. I fell asleep after 6:30am!! She didn't seem alarmed by it at all though. I also told her about my left side lower back to thigh pain. She had a dutch word for it but I don't know what it is and apparently it's pretty common. She says it can stay for a long time or go away any second! Hmm I hope for the latter!

So overall I'm really happy we fired the dr. This woman is what I really need. I didn't ask if she has any kids herself but she knew how to make me feel better.

So I thought you'd all be interested in that! You were all probably tired of reading my sob stories! So I am back there in 4 weeks and then after that it's every 3 weeks and then every 2 and then every 1!

No matter what when I go into labor the midwife comes to the house and waits till I'm 8cm dilated before going to the hospital so I made sure to leave my option of staying home open. Who knows how I'll be by then.. maybe I won't want to get up and go somewhere else.