Answers to Questions

A couple of people posted questions in the comments section of the last post, and I never know what to do about that. . .should I answer them in the comments? Will they check back?

So I'll answer them here.

Question 1: Is my midwife a guy?

Yes. His name is Pete. This caused a few double-takes on John's part, because we have a brother-in-law named Pete. It would throw him for a second when he came home from work and I'd tell him that Pete said my cervix was such-and-such. Pete is a great midwife though, very hands-off and not at all into interventions. I had to ask for my water to be broken, and scheduling the induction (that never happened) was my idea.

I did joke that ONCE AGAIN I had a healthcare provider who has never given birth - neither the female midwife who delivered Trea nor the female OB resident who delivered Adia had had children. And, since I had a male L & D nurse with Trea, and the nurse who assisted at Adia's birth did not have children, I was the only one in the room who had given birth. It irritated me a bit when they said, "You can do this!" I wanted to ask them how the &!#&! they would know, having never done it themselves! (I asked my L & D nurse this time around if she had kids, and she has one, and then I explained that at my first couple of births no one else did, and how I felt about it - and of course Pete chose that moment to grin and say, "You can do this!" I shot him the Look of Death.)

I originally had a female midwife, but she moved her practice to Park City about three months ago. She wanted me to follow her there. Ha! She was great and all, but are you kidding me? I'm not driving to Park City once a week for a month, and I'm DEFINITELY not driving to Park City while in labor - I HATE doing contractions in the car, you can't move around at all. Besides, as things turned out, if I'd had to drive another half an hour we would have really been cutting it close.

Question 2: What is SPD?

SPD is Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction. Basically, the body produces too much relaxin, and the hip joints start to separate. It hurts. A lot. Rolling over in bed was excrutiating, worse than all but the hardest contractions. Towards the end of my pregnancy, John would wince when I rolled over at night - because he could hear my hips grind and pop! Fortunately it has gotten a little bettter every day, and should be gone in the next month or so. It was one of the reasons I was considering the induction - it was painful to walk, to lay down, to get up, to roll over. I couldn't sleep at all, and I was just getting to the point where I wondered if I was even going to be able to cope with labor. . .SO GLAD that pregnancy is over!

Dylan is cute, though.