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January 17, 2004
Week 35: Maybe Dropping and Waddling?
I posted an entry on Tuesday talking about the house stuff that occurred during weeks 35-37 of my pregnancy. I'm sorry that I'm post-dating the preggo stuff this month, but enough is happening that I want to record it all. Let's just hope the baby waits long enough that I can catch up first.
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Something happened as I began week 35. I don’t think it was the dramatic belly drop that a coworker insisted on, but something definitely happened. Both my mom and Dan concurred with the coworker, but I thought my belly looked pretty similar as it had the week before.
Walking, on the other hand, became noticeably tougher. I’m a fast walker. I have a very difficult time strolling from place to place—if it’s worth going somewhere, I might as well go quickly. At week 35, that speedy walk was no longer an option. The three blocks from the bus stop to my office felt really, really far. I wanted to stop and rest every so often, but the thought of sitting down and somehow getting back up again was enough to keep me upright. All the pelvic achiness led me to believe that the baby is either just getting too big to fit comfortably in there, or is starting to make her way towards the big exit sign.
Along with the walking awkwardness, finding comfortable ways to sit became more of a challenge. I could last in a folding chair for about ten minutes before my squirming got ridiculous. Home Depot has energy sucking powers, too. I think it’s the concrete floors, but after twenty minutes in that store I feel lucky to be awake.
Sleeping wasn’t yet problematic, though. I have yet to wake up more than once a night to pee, and even that happens once a week at the most. I would lie down and not even notice rolling over before the alarm went off in the morning.
Baby Doctor
On Tuesday, Jan 13th, Dan and I had our appointment with the family practitioner we hoped to use for both the baby and I after his/her arrival. Keeping the doctors straight is a little messy because both our back-up doc and this doctor are family practitioners, not an obstetrician and a pediatrician. I’ll just call this doc Dr. S.
A friend from Mothering’s website recommended Dr S to me, and I know the friend does either selective or no vaccinations, so I had reason to think that the doctor wouldn’t push the AAP party line at us too hard. I meant to come up with questions to ask her, but never made a list. My feeling was that either she’d react violently to our homebirth plan or she wouldn’t, and that would be pretty much all we needed to know.
We arrived at the office as it opened. It’s fairly small, with three doctors, one of whom is leaving soon. They’re part of a region-wide health system that is only loosely connected to my insurance, so we’ll have a relatively high deductible and copay. Well baby and preventative care visits are covered 100%, so as long as we don’t get sick too often, we won’t need to shell out too much cash.
The waiting room didn’t separate healthy kids from sick kids, so the first thing I asked the doctor was if they did anything to keep healthy kids that way. She responded that they try to group sick visits at the end of the morning and end of the afternoon, but if I’m worried, it’s possible to bring a baby in through a back door to avoid waiting room germs.
She then asked us where we were planning to deliver, and we told her we were planning a homebirth so long as I remained low risk. She seemed pleasantly surprised. That wasn’t what I was expecting at all—I’m not sure what I thought she’d say—but I could have walked out then and been satisfied.
Dan asked her what standard well-baby care consisted of and she gave us a list of the usual visits, but added that the shots listed were only the recommended schedule and we were free to make our own vaccination decisions. That led into my asking what she recommended as far as a first baby check. She requested that we bring the baby in around one week, which was exactly what I was hoping to hear. We’re pretty sure we want to get the PKU test, and around one week would be the ideal timing. That way, the test is most accurate and we don’t need to bring our baby outside for the first few days. I’ve heard of other pediatricians who urged homebirthers to bring in their kids within the first day or two, and I’d really like to avoid that. The midwives will do a full newborn exam, and Minnesota in February or March isn’t ideal for bringing teeny tiny babies outside unnecessarily.
That took care of all our major concerns, so we didn’t ask much else. She was very warm and friendly and struck me as someone who’d treat children gently and make each patient seem important. Unless something comes up to make us question her, we’ll be using her as both the baby’s doctor and mine.
And the Other Doc
I meant to arrange this sooner, but I finally made an appointment with the midwives’ back up doctor. I wasn’t sure of what to say when I called the clinic, so I waited until after I talked to Kim (who has worked with her in the past) before making the appointment. It turned out that I had nothing to worry about. The only irritating part was that I was on hold for 25 minutes waiting to speak to someone. This doctor is only 10 blocks down the road from my house, which is awfully convenient since I would have seen her even if she was located an hour across town. Having a back up doc that I can be honest with and is truly willing to be available should we need to transfer care is worth any drive.
I don’t live in the city’s ritziest area, and the reason this doctor (Dr. B) is located so close by is that her clinic is geared towards serving women with low incomes, and Spanish speakers in particular. Therefore, everyone in the office is bilingual, and some of the receptionists have fairly iffy English. When I finally got ahold of someone, they just wanted my name, phone number, and maybe my due date. It was quite different from the baby doc’s office where I might have signed my life away with all the personal information I had to spew. The midwives tell me that Dr B is wonderful, and that she’ll palpate my uterus and get a good feel for the baby just like they do. I won’t need to have an internal or anything. They think Dr B will have homebirths herself when she has kids. I’m anxious to meet this woman and see what she’s like. Apparently, the deal she has with the midwives is that so long as she meets a mom around 36 weeks and has a copy of her records (which they’re faxing over), she’ll transfer care before or during labor. Sounds good to me. I switched my insurance to make her my primary care doctor until after the baby arrives so I shouldn’t need to pay any money out-of-pocket for this visit, or any part of the birth if we do transfer care. The first available appointment wasn’t for three weeks, so I’ll have to wait until I’m just over 37 weeks before meeting her. Hopefully I won’t go into labor early, since I don’t know if she could accept me before that initial appointment. I’m guessing that if anything develops, we could get that prenatal bumped up.
Sorting, Sorting
In my never-ending attempt to rid the baby’s room of random gizmos, I finally went through all the toys and feeding thingies and stuffed animals. For now, everything needs to get put in the basement because the plan is to store anything we’re actually using on the bookshelves that aren’t built yet. I’ve got a net from my old bedroom that we’ll put all the stuffed animals on, but not until the walls are painted. I tried to keep together the things we’ll bring back upstairs in a few weeks—the really simple toys, some books, and the stuffed animals, mostly. At last, the baby’s closet is cleared!
The older kids’ toys and books, plus the bottles and sippy cups and safety latches will stay in their Target bins until fall, at least. I’m hoping to not use bottles at all and I don’t plan to make them easily accessible or have formula in the house when the baby comes. I know too many people who got out the formula “just once” at 3am and found themselves weaning entirely within a week. It won’t be that hard to go out and buy bottles and formula if it comes to that for some reason, but I don’t want to make it any easier than I have to. Some people might think I’m screwing myself over by not keeping formula in a hidden corner or whatever, but I don’t care.
Not Your Standard Hospital Bag
Ever since we got the list of homebirth supplies from the midwives, Dan’s been antsy to obtain everything. The Saturday that I hit 35 weeks, we went on a Target rampage and bought all the supplies they sold there. We did pretty well, buying everything but the herbs, a fish net, cheesecloth, and towels. Technically, we could have bought the towels, but I’m hoping to get them as hand-me-downs from our families. We were able to combine three Christmas gift cards so we only paid $5 of our own money for all this stuff.
I find it amusing to hear people talk about packing their hospital bags. In some ways, we don’t need to deal with things hospital birthers must carry along—no toothpaste to pack or coming home outfits to plan. But hospital birthers don’t need to order chux pads from Texas or decide whether to get a birth pool. Rather than pack a bag, I need to put a whole lot of supplies in a big box so the midwives can find it all when the time comes.
TTM: Were there any surprises with your baby’s doctor that you would have preferred to know beforehand? When did getting from here to there become a big pain?
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