Midwife appointment

I arrived safely at the doctor's office where my midwife works, so no problems on the road. Found it perfectly! (Thanks for the good directions Superhubby!) After doing the preliminaries in paperwork and filling out my family medical history, they took me in and weighed me. I always hate that part, why can't they take your word for it? I weighed myself yesterday morning and of course in the middle of the day and dressed I'm going to weigh five pounds more!!! Yuck! I still say I haven't gained a bit since I got prego...yet. Then, they made me pee in a cup. POSITIVE RESULTS!!!! Guess what everybody? I'm pregnant!!! As if we didn't know before. Then they took me into a room with a table and three chairs, took my blood pressure and then the midwife came in with the student midwife that they're hoping to sign on by the time my baby is born. Both were very nice! They let me ask any questions that I had after she told me about her and the practice. They also said that my self-calculated due date was right. February 2, 2010. She said as of yesterday I was 8 wks 6 days. That makes me 9 weeks today! Then she left me with the student nurse-midwife for some "education". She went through the usual dos and don'ts of pregnancy and how to get a hold of them if it's not within regular business hours. Oh! Remember all the shenanigans that I went through to get a simple question answered at Mr. OB/GYN's office? Yeah, Mrs. Midwife said that if I call and don't get a call back within 10----TEN MINUTES!!!!!------to call back because there was a miscommunication somewhere! That is AMAZING! Soooo cooool! After the "education session" the fun began. They took my blood. I've never had blood taken before. I hate needles (I think I've mentioned that before). So, I didn't look at the nurse at all once I sat down. Thought it would be easier that way. Sure, we talked, but I never looked the way of the needle. It went in painlessly and when I realized she was taking blood, I told her thank you for being a good aim. :-) She said around about the third vial is when I said "I'm feeling kinda weird." (She only took four....THAT'S A LOT OF BLOOD!!!) So, knowing me (Mom) I almost passed out. I probably would have if the other nurse hadn't come in and put smelling salts under my nose. I also gagged a few times, and when I came out of it all I was sweating like crazy! She told me that it was the coolest room in the place and to me it felt like 100 degrees! Once I cooled down and wiped the sweat from my brow, face, neck and arms :-) I left. (Mrs. Midwife said that the next appointment will be the physical and all that usually goes with the first appointment. She said the first time she meets with someone, she'd rather not see them naked! I appreciated that!) And arrived safely (with a lightheaded feeling) home. By the time I got home I needed to lie down. Superhubby was going to be home in an hour and I told him when he called what the plan was and he said ok. I felt woozy all evening long! It's a good thing Superhubby was making supper! The steak, potatoes and salad were wonderful! We even had a couple slices of mom-in-law's homemade whole wheat bread with butter! Yummy! It made me feel better, but I still couldn't stand up quickly or I'd lose my balance. I feel better today. So, much to do! Much to do!

Miscellany

I'm going to my first midwife appointment today at 1:15. The one thing I'm really not looking forward to is driving to the Big City all by my little lonesome. I don't do that kind of driving...without much persuasion! Since my appt. is in the middle of the day, Superhubby can't accompany me either way (there or home). So, even though I'll be a few miles away from him, I probably won't even get to see him until he comes home tonight. BTW-Look at the pregnancy tickers! My baby actually looks like a baby now! (That is if my calculated due date is correct...I'll find out today.) :-)))

OH! OH! We're having marinated steak (that Superhubby does on his smoker grill---WONDERFUL!), baked potatoes (with butter, cheese and salt of course!) and salad tonight!!!!! I'm so excited! We really haven't done steaks on the grill and went all out for a nice meal like this in a while. Lately, the only things that have hit the grill are burgers and chicken...both of which are lovely, but nothing, I repeat...NOTHING beats a steak a la Superhubby! We've picked out some T-bones from the freezer and they've been marinading since last night. The plan WAS to start the marinading on Friday night, but we were so busy this weekend that we kept forgetting. :-(

Speaking of being busy...Saturday we did both farmers markets in two different towns and pulled it off! Mom-in-law and I did the one farther away and Superhubby did the normal one. This last Saturday must not have been a great market week, because neither did well at all. But, that's how markets go...great one week and poopy the next. I love doing the new market, what I hate is the getting up at 5 something AM. If you know me at all, I'm NOT a morning person. And with Superhubby wanting to stay up late to get things done for the market after getting home from Friday night pizza at the in-laws, it makes for a very short night. When we finally got home in the afternoon Saturday, we both crashed for a 3----THREE HOUR nap! We were soooo pooooooped out! That basically left enough time to feed the chickens and go back to the in-laws for supper. We usually do Friday pizza and whatever Mom-in-law gets a hankerin' for on Saturday. Since we moved out here closer to them, we've pretty much been doing it that way. It's not like a set-in-stone thing, but we like it and do it as often as we can. Who can pass up Mom-in-law's cookin' anyway?!? Nobody I know of! Well, I may come back and blog this afternoon after my appointment. Either that or in the morning. But I'll let you know if I found anything out (due date wise, etc.) that I didn't know before. Love ya's!

Not morning sickness, but what is it?!?

I think I seasoned the beef to go into empanadas on Monday night a leeeetle too much. My tummy just didn't like it...my mouth, yes...tummy, no. I basically spent all day yesterday laying around holding my belly and running to the loo. Then, stupid me...I didn't realize until after the fact what it was and I ate another empanada for lunch yesterday too! It got worse, so much worse! It tasted great! But my belly just didn't like it.

I was supposed to go to my "Meet & Greet" with my midwife yesterday afternoon. About 20 minutes before I was to leave the house I get a call from her office saying she got called in to a delivery. I should expect that, right? So, I told them to just schedule me for my first OB appointment instead of wasting more time. So, I have my first appt with her on Monday (when my original OB/GYN appt was to be anyway).

Superhubby met with Mr. Insurance and got me more Dr. visits added to my policy. So, that's taken care of. Yay! Things are falling into place! I knew they would. Now, just if I can get my belly to feeling better, I'll be doing great!

Good news and Bad news...

So, I think I'm going to be able to go with the midwife after all! Superhubby is going to call Mr. Insurance man soon and get all that junk straightened out. I got ahold of the one midwife that I thought I was going to go with, but turns out, she doesn't deliver in hospitals, only at home. So, she recommended two. I called one who works in a doctor's office, she delivers at St. Anne's and it sounds like this is probably who I'll go with. I have a "Meet & Greet" session with her next Tuesday (which is a free session!). God love free stuff! I've got so many questions! And I think I'm going to cancel my appointment with the OB/GYN. The first midwife I talked to didn't really have a lot of good stuff to say about him. I really want to try to avoid certain things, such as: ultrasounds, amniocentesis, c-sections, induction, epidural, etc. I want to do this naturally, and she said that he told her to her face that he thought "women should be managed"!!!! He calls them "managed births". Something that happens naturally does NOT need managed!!!!!!! She said he had about a 50% c-section rate!!!! DEAR LORD!!!!!!!! THAT'S INSANE!!!!!! And I told her that I was overweight and she said that if he thinks I'm slightly overweight, he'll pressure me to do a c-section! NOOOOOOO! I want to avoid this as much as possible! It's just insane how much of that stuff goes on in the OB/GYN practice. So, anyway. After getting stressed out while talking to her, I got de-stressed and called this other midwife and she is going to see me next week! That's crazy considering that it's taking me a whole month to get in with this other guy!

Oh, and I didn't tell you the best part! I decided to call Mr. OB/GYN and find out if I don't want an ultrasound if he would be willing to work with me. I first called last Thursday, they said he'd call me back by the end of the day...nothing. So, I gave him most of Friday and called back in the afternoon. Do you know what they said? Here, I won't keep you guessing: "I'm sorry, the office is closed for the rest of the day, can I have him call you on Monday?" So, I sighed and said "Sure." Monday came and gone, nothing! I called back yesterday and guess what they said this time? "You mean they didn't tell you he's been on vacation since Friday? Yeah, he won't be back until Thursday this week!" Whaaaatt?!?!?!?!??! I'm not very happy about this! This just shows me how incompetent that office really is! They don't care about you! All they care about is the money! Grrrrrr!

BUT, that's okay, because I've got a midwife! I'VE GOT A MIDWIFE! :-) I'm pleased with myself, because I didn't think I'd find one that worked out of hospitals! Yay me!

Dreams...

A couple of ladies at the church have told me of their dreams they've had about me:

1) I had twin girls and named them Tanya Ann & Tiffany Jo! (YUCK!!!)

2) I had triplets!!!! (HAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!)

And I know this sounds funny, but since I'm not going to have an ultrasound and find out what the gender of the baby is...I've been praying about it! No, really! The last few nights when I can remember, I prayed before going to sleep that God would give me a dream about my baby and that I would remember the dream. Here's the results so far...

1) Very vague dream that I had a healthy, happy baby boy. Man was he cute!!!!

2) Last night's was strange! I was in the hospital, having the baby--no pain! Baby pops out, they take it, don't tell me anything about it, say something about busting an aorta and run away. Superhubby and I are there speechless, they bring the baby back in a diaper and leave again. Superhubby and I are like "Boy or girl?!?" I open the diaper and there's NOTHING there! It's flat! There was no gender identifiers there! I said, "Girl?" :-) I have no idea what that one was about! Weird!!!!

Soapbox Rantings

So, many of you don't know and will soon...and probably will try to talk me out of many things (it won't work) having to do with this pregnancy...some of which you'll find out about in the next couple minutes. But I really want to go with a midwife--at the hospital. The county I live in, the hospital does not allow you to use a midwife in said hospital. So, I must go to a neighboring county's hospital to use said midwife...not really a problem. They are all three pretty much equidistant from our home. But the insurance company does not cover midwives. Okay, not a problem...but when I called said insurance company to ask that question, Mr. Insurance Man tells me that the MASSIVE amount of moolah that we fork out for medical insurance only covers 2--TWO doctor's visits per year!?!?! Excuse me?!? When we signed up for this "Wonderful Medical Insurance" we were told that if I do get prego, all prenatal visits will fall under one visit because of a reoccuring condition. So, Superhubby is going to call said Mr. Insurance Man and chew him out! (At least I hope so.) I would do it, but I'm not near knowledgable enough about insurance to really do a decent job of knawing someone's head off. I might try to gum them to death, but that usually doesn't work. Teeth are really needed for that job! So...I'm thinking that this midwife that I'm wanting to go with might be a better option for multiple reasons.

1) She works around your income as to how much she charges.

2) I could drop my medical portion of insurance for the year after my first appt. on the 29th with my OB/GYN because all of my TWO allotted doctor's visits are used up...making for less of a monthly insurance payment.

3) I'll keep the hospitalization portion of insurance so that I'll be covered when going into labor.

4) And she's a woman!!!!! Definately a plus for me, because I really don't feel comfy having another man doing whatever they do down there. Ask my mom, I've always been modest! And it's not because I'm Pentecostal! I've been modest from birth! No running around the house naked as a jay bird for me as a toddler!

Ok, now that I'm off my soapbox about the insurance--YUCK!--I'll jump to the next one. It's called "I've made up my mind, and you won't change it, no matter how hard you try!"

Issue #1: I'm not getting an ultrasound as long as it's medically possible. If there is a desperate need for one, maybe...but I would really rather not. Reason: (If you're pregnant and agree with ultrasounds you might not want to read this!) There has not been any significant research done on ultrasound machines and their safety. They were made, and since then, no one has really checked to see if there are any long term problems that pop up from having one or many on your baby. One also doesn't need to have any kind of certification to man an ultrasound machine. There are celebrities that buy u/s machines to use in their homes!!!!! How rediculous is that?!?! There are many other reasons, I've done my research, but really don't think you want to read them all. But I do have my reasons. Thank you for listening!

Issue #2: I'm not going to get an epidural...PERIOD. Many may say that they're the best thing since sliced bread, but I don't want one! Reason: It is known that there are risks that go with putting a large needle in your spine. AND I DON'T LIKE LITTLE NEEDLES, WHY WOULD I WANT A BIG ONE IN MY BACK?!?

Issue #3: I want to go with a midwife, not an OB/GYN. Reason: The above two issues are usually pushed (especially Issue #1) when it comes to OB's. I don't want any undue pressure on me when it comes to decisions I have made. I want the person helping me to be understanding and follow through with what I want and need. Not trying to "pull the wool over my eyes" and give me something that I don't want, or don't know what it is.

Issue #4: I want to use cloth diapers. Reason: Disposable diapers don't deteriorate for like a million years! When Superhubby took Environmental Science in college, he talked to me a lot about what helps and hurts the environment and it really stuck. Am I a "Tree Hugger"? No, but I think the less trash I put out there, the better this world will be. By the way, Mrs. Lemon, can you make any suggestions? Or anyone else with input for that matter, as to what brand to use, etc, etc.?

Issue #5: You know, I really don't enjoy being "teased" or what have you about having multiples! Twins...triplets....whatever! I love you all, but please...PLEASE?!? Don't talk to me about having multiples! If we find out that we are, fine. But it scares the bejeebers out of me and I don't think the baby needs that kind of undue stress right now. Thank you.

Okay, I think I'm off the soapboxes for now. I just really had to get all that off my chest. I feel better now...really, I do!

Pregnancy symptoms & VBS don't mix!

So, we have VBS at our church this week (Monday-Thursday). I was supposed to be in charge of the "Choir class" and we also had a "Praise singing class". I'm not entirely sure why we had both, considering that we both do basically the same thing AND we have to compete with classes like: Clowns, Puppets, Cooking (my mother-in-law does choc-chip cookies in that class!), and Crafts! Monday I went to help out (as an obedient Godly woman would) and I had 1--ONE child sign up for my class and there were three that signed up for praise singing. How can you have a choir of ONE? So, we decided to combine classes that night. We had five adults to three registered children that showed up. I think the odds were good that with me feeling the way I did (stomach feeling like a rock and heartburn like crazy and more tired than I had ever been), I really wouldn't be needed the rest of the week. And I'm glad I talked to the guy in charge and asked him if that was ok, because last night it got worse! It was to the point that, if I would have waited any longer to eat, I would have vomitted (don't ask me what, because there was nothing in the tummy!). My back was killing me and so was my foot (which for some reason decided that a bone was going to displace itself in the top of my foot on Saturday) and I couldn't stand for long periods of time. So, there I was with Superhubby trying to help me make supper (my mexican feast of chicken and cheese enchiladas, rice, beans and guacamole) because I got really desperate. He saw me almost doubling over from the stomach pain (nausea?) and leaning against the freezer from the foot and back pain, I guess he felt sorry for me and decided to help. So, needless to say, I'm really glad I backed out of VBS for the rest of the week. I don't think I would've lived through it.

Speaking of Superhubby...he has been so good to me. (He always has been, but even more so now.) Last week I had a craving something fierce for onion rings! It started on Tuesday, but we didn't have them and he was going to the store on Thursday. So, I mentioned it again to him while at the store and he really didn't say much. He DID, however, show up at the house with a huge vidalia onion and he made me HOMEMADE onion rings!!! I don't remember what we had them with, but those onion rings were sooooo gooood!!!! We made them again at mom-in-law's on Saturday with hamburgers. Then I made one comment yesterday while he was at the grocery store that I'd like some Oreos with milk. He came home with a pack of Oreos! Now, mind you, I'm not (yet, and hopefully won't be) the pregnant woman who scarfs down everything she sees, or eats a whole pack of Oreos by herself in one sitting. But I do enjoy these cravings as much as I can while still being conscious of my weight and what I should and shouldn't be eating and how much. But I have also found that no matter what I eat, it's going to give me heartburn, just since last week. I hear that if you have a lot of heartburn during pregnancy, your baby will have lots of hair at birth. We'll see.

Have you heard the news?

Well, most of you now know. I'm preggers!!! Here's what was SUPPOSED to happen. This was Superhubby's plan. We were supposed to have mom-in-law put "Missy & baby" on the prayer list in last night's service. (Thus the poll on the side asking about prayer lists!) And then we were going to wait and see who came up with the information...........Well, it didn't exactly happen that way. Yesterday MORNING, Superhubby (y'know, the one with "THE PLAN") writes on his Sunday School kids' papers "Missy's pregnant, Don't tell!" and expects it to not be told by a bunch of teenagers between the ages of 12 and 15!!!!!! The nerve?!?!?! So, a nice young lady that is in his class comes up to me and says "Missy, is this true?" and points to the paper. Immediately I recognize my traitor of a husband's handwriting and say, "He wasn't supposed to tell! I'm gonna kill 'im!!!!" So, I head up to his classroom and he's already gone. I call him and say "Where are you? Cuz I'm gonna kill ya!" And he laughs and says "I'm in the sanctuary, come right ahead!" So, I go to the sanctuary and he and my mom-in-law are standing in the back of the santuary with what Superhubby calls a "'possum eatin' poop grin" on their faces! I get back there and he of course says "I put DON'T TELL on the papers! Nice Young Lady, you weren't supposed to tell!!!" Mom-in-law proceeds to say, "I told Nice Young Lady's mom this morning!" I said, "You weren't supposed to tell until tonight!" Then, it happened. Pastor's daughter-in-law overhears and says "Tell what?" and I knew it was over! Mom-in-law says "She's pregnant" and I turned away, knowing that I--who was trying to uphold my own traitor of a husband's wishes to the death--had just lost. While I was turned away, some kind of agreement went on between mom-in-law and Pastor's daughter-in-law and I felt my whole head turn bright red as P's D-in-law YELLED ACROSS THE SANCTUARY.........."HEY EVERYBODY!!!!!!!! MISSY P IS PREEEEEGGNNNAAAANNNNT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" And the hundred or so people left at church fell silent and looked our way. I was so embarrassed! Glad it was out, but embarrassed! So, I figured it was time to notify everyone else that I had cell numbers for and began texting people the wonderful news. So, Mrs. Lemon knew before I even posted this time.

So, here are the answers to your questions. I'm due probably in early to mid-February, which puts me at about 4-6 weeks. I have my first appointment with my OB/GYN on June 29th, but I'm really thinking about using a mid-wife if my insurance covers it. I'm really interested in doing this thing as naturally and without technology as much as I can. Since sis-in-law passed on, we as a family have really tried to clean up our act. We try to stay as natural and organic as possible. So, sorry peeps, but that means that we probably won't know what it is until he or she comes out. Speaking of "he or she"...I have had 3 or 4 people already call it a "HE". Is that prophetic? I don't know, but I think everyone is sick and tired of the lack of little boys running around the church. I feel sorry for all the little girls that have been born in the last 3 years, because their youth group is going to be much like mine was...boys few and far between. It wasn't fun or easy trying to find a knight in shining armor in that crowd! Many of us had to go elsewhere to find ours. Turns out mine was there most of the time and I didn't even realize it! Ok, well...I have TONS of things to do today. So, I'll stop rambling and let you comment. Love ya's!

Hi Y'all!!

Welcome me back!!! I'm going to try to be more faithful to you. Do you forgive me for my unfaithfulness over the past year? I'm sorry! Become my follower and I'll be better, I promise!