3rd Midwife Appointment

19 weeks

Stats from the appointment:
I am 19.3 weeks along and measuring 21 weeks. We both think the baby is just high and I'm not really further along. Although that would be nice
The baby's heartbeat was about 140 bpm and strong.
I've gained 11.2 pounds.
I'm a little anemic but not enough to worry about too much so the midwife advised me to try to correct it with diet before thinking about supplements.

Everything is going great! I feel awesome (except more tired and spacey for sure), can feel the baby kick/move constantly and sometimes Jerad can feel it too. We have the anatomy scan ultrasound on Jan 7th and hopefully will find out girl/boy then.

In the beginning we both really wanted to do a homebirth. For the last 2 years we've both done so much research and just decided that it was the better fit and safer choice. There are basically 2 midwifes in our area that will attend home births. One moved, and the other is on vacation around my due date. So... that option was out. I've been seeing the nurse midwives at Creating Harmony in SLO as the next "best" option and planning on delivering at French because they have lower intervention rates than our other hospitals and a nicer birth center than doesn't
feel as "medical."

Lately I've been having second thoughts about Creating Harmony. A homebirth is something that was really important to me and something that we had talked about a lot. Even though this is my first (viable) pregnancy, I have no fears or reservations about labor, or the ability of my body to birth a child. I loved the idea of having my appointments at home and not being just one of the many people the provider saw that day. Hospitals are so sterile feeling (yet full of germs) and everything about them makes me nervous. Deciding to birth at French was not a decision that we arrived at easily. After my second appointment I felt that although I was seeing midwives, the office still felt so OB-ish. They still offered tests and screenings that Jerad and I don't feel are necessary and had to turn down. Maybe I should just switch to an OB that is closer to home so I don't have to travel as far to appointments, and would cost less money?

We decided to bring up our concerns at our 3rd appointment, and if we weren't happy with the responses, to find another option. I am so glad I spoke up, I feel sooo much better now!

Their practice only performs about 1-2 episiotomies per year. Instead they bring a crock pot with warm washcloths to the hospital to encourage stretching and do perineal massage with olive oil to prevent tears. Most patients don't require any stitching.
They don't artificially rupture membranes.
They only augment labor with pitocin in extreme circumstances.
They don't induce you if you go over 40 weeks (which almost ALL of the OB's in our area don't let you go past 41), and once you get to 42 weeks they do a non stress test and as long as baby is fine and there is enough amniotic fluid, they will let you continue pregnancy until you naturally
go into labor.
Their c-section rate is 7-9% and only that high because the OB sees high
risk patients. In case you didn't know, our national average is 32% (the World Health Organization recommends 5-10% and says anything over 15% is completely excessive) and SLO county is at almost 40%.
There are no restrictions on movement during labor or delivery and they encourage different positions for pushing.
They also encourage eating and drinking during labor.
There are no time limits on labor or pushing as long as the baby isn't under stress.

That's just the ones I remember. Basically the midwife we talked to had research based answers that were completely in line with what we want for every concern that was brought up. I have a better attitude now to say the least. Our next appointment (besides the Jan 7th ultra) is January 14th. I'll be 24.5 weeks.

In other news, we also started our Hypnobabies classes, decided on a pediatrician (Dr. Bravo in SLO), and I think we found a Doula. She is about my age, married, lives in Paso, and loves crafting. So we have a lot in common! Besides that, she is also a photographer! So, she offers maternity pics, labor and birth pics, and newborn photos. This is awesome because we had wanted a birth photographer and would have probably gotten maternity and post natal shots as well. I feel like everything is coming together.

In another month or so we'll start on the nursery, I am VERY excited about that!!! Jerad wants to surprise me, so he asked me to get together some pictures of things I like and he'll put it all together and do an "unveiling." The themes we are thinking about are a Johnny Cash/Western theme for a boy (then we could hang all Jerad's guitars on the wall and keep the stand-up bass in there), or a sparrow/bird theme with distressed furniture, mostly in teal. Either way Jerad wants to build custom paneling and put up crown molding which will look amazing.