Meeting the Midwife

This past week we had our first appt. with our midwife to check on our little tot. I had been anxious for this appt. to make sure everything was looking alright and to make sure we only had one little one in there, not two. After having one of my close friends have twins, I must say it crossed my mind often! My friends in my small group had used midwives for their deliveries and after learning much about the experiences they had with their prenatal care and labor, Matt and I decided we also wanted to see a midwife instead of an OB. A certified midwife is a masters prepared nurse. I have always thought I wanted to honor my profession by using a midwife when the time came but having friends with positive midwife experiences just reinforced that. There are a lot of misconceptions about midwives out there so to clear up some of the confusion I will address some of the main points. No, I will not be delivering in a kiddie pool in my living room, I will deliver at a hospital with a good NICU. Yes, I will have an OB on backup in case of an emergency like a c-section, there are two that work at my midwife's practice. Yes, interventions like pain medication and epidurals are still an option, just not the first choice. No, I will not have a doula, I have a supportive husband who is willing to be there through it all. There is a lot I am still learning about the whole delivery step in this journey, but from what I know so far my views align more with a midwife's train of thought than an OB's.

So here enters Rachel, our awesome midwife. I brought a list of questions to our first appt. to interview her and make sure she was a good fit for our family. Turns out she is awesome and I could tell right away this was going to work. Ironically enough her husband's name is Matt too. She went over a lot of general info that was good to hear or have reinforced. She then explained that the Ultrasound tech was out of the office for the day but she would like to attempt herself to get a peak at the baby. After calling in the other midwife for assistance and probing around a bit we got this...

Not the best quality picture, but a picture non-the-less! One baby who is good sized and moving around! And we got to see baby's heartbeat flicker on the screen which was also surreal. She put the print out pictures in my hand and it was such a weird feeling to look down and think, "That baby is ours." I have held so many friend's US pictures, it was just so crazy to be holding my own.

We scheduled our next appt. and left with tons of freebies and swag. To the point where I was a little overwhelmed. My coffee table already looks like this from books, gifts and information friends already gave us.

Now I have a whole bag of more pamphlets, workbooks, formula and vitamin samples and so on. So much stuff! I am thankful for all the gifts we have been given. We have some wonderful friends who have jumped in to celebrate and support us and it has been such a blessing.

On a bummer note, my sickness is back. :( It was so wonderful to have some relief but it almost hit worse than that first week this time around. I have been up at night unable to sleep because I feel so sick and then my whole day is just thrown off. Praying again for relief heading into the holiday week with family in town. Speaking of that, only 3 more days until we tell our families! I am SO excited! We both have siblings that live farther away and can feel left out of the the loop with things so it was important to us to tell everyone in person at the same time. Obviously if that couldn't have been arranged than we would have told anyway but we lucked out by having everyone of our siblings in town this year for Thanksgiving. This has not happened on Matt's side for years. So with that opportunity we are sharing the news with both sides on Thanksgiving. This has been one of the most hardest parts of this first trimester so far. We have seen both our families numerous times since we found out and have had to put on a happy face and pretend I don't feel like barfing every 5 min. But I know the wait will be worth it when everyone knows and there is no pretending anymore. So here is to celebrating and being thankful this year for the many blessings in our lives!