First Prenatal Appointment

Guess what we had today!?

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches?  No!

A trip to Kmart?  Nooo!  (Seriously, who goes to Kmart anymore...?

Our first prenatal appointment?  Yes!!  How'd you ever guess!?

We've chosen to be patients of the Women's Birth and Wellness Center in Chapel Hill.  It's a free standing birth center about 25 minutes away from our house.  It's staffed entirely by an amazing group of midwives (and a few nurses and NP's).  They have a pretty cozy, home-like environment.  I am excited to hopefully be able to bring our baby into the world into their loving hands.  In the event of an emergency, we'll get transferred to the hospital - about 4 minutes away.  The midwives have privileges at the hospital so they can continue to care for me and the baby if we do need to head to the big house.  And yes, birth center = no epidural.

It was an interesting first visit.  I didn't get the warm and fuzzies I was hoping for.  I have a friend who works there as a midwife who I met many moons ago my sophmore year of college - the ripe ole age of 19.  She since has gotten married, had 3 beautiful children, and has recently reestablished residence in NC.  I am so excited she's working at the birth center.  Anywhoo, I sent her a message asking if the midwife who did our visit attended births.  To my relief, she does not.  Whew, there will be lots of warm and fuzzies from the other midwives.

She commented on how I was borderline obese (yeah, I know I could lose a little weight but I'm not super fluffy), how "one more tick on the BMI scale and you'll earn yourself an early diabetes screen", asked Jessica three separate times if she had a flu shot (and each time the answer was yes), and how she lectured me about self breast exams and how I was not doing them.  Little did she know that I learned just last year, whilst taking midwifery classes of my own, that self breast exams aren't exactly recommended anymore (create more fear, create more unnecessary invasive testing).

And she changed my due date back to the LMP date.  Boo.  So now the due date is back to the 10th of July, not the 7th.  Oh well - just a little matter of three days.  And, truth be told, the baby will come when it darn well wants to, not on a certain date.  I wanted to be almost 11 weeks - not barely 10.

BUT!  The best part of the visit - we got to hear the heart beat!!  She piled the gel on and smooshed around the doppler...and all we got was a whole lot of my heart beat.  Sounded pretty healthy...for a fatty ;-) It was taking a little while to actually find it.  I was playing it cool, trying to remind myself that the baby is itty bitty and is hard to catch on the doppler.  But inside, I was starting to get a little nervous.  What if my fears were true?  What if the baby was gone?  And then, there it was.  The best noise in the world.  Cranky midwife kept it there for as long as she could but, just like that, the munchkin swam away.  A brief moment of bliss :D  'Til the next appointment!

And then I completely forgot that I had a haircut appointment and stood my gal up...oops!