meeting the midwife

yesterday, we finally had our first appointment at providence maternal care clinic - yay! from the minute we got in the office i knew our decision to go with a midwife, rather than my ob/gyn, was the right decision. the doctor's office was completely sterile, and the office staff was cold, unfriendly, and rude. at this clinic, they were warm, friendly, and helpful from the moment we walked in the door!

our midwife is linda - she was full of information, and was able to answer all of our questions in a calm and reassuring way. we will meet with her for the first few appointments, and then we will begin meeting with the other midwives so that we are completely comfortable with the person we get on the big day. the good thing about our midwife is that she will stay with us from the moment we start the birth, unlike a doctor that will just come in at the end of the process. linda also told us that the hospital where we will have the baby has a family philosophy, so the whole family will stay together. once the baby is born, we will all remain in one room. i am happy about that. they also really encourage breast feeding there and all of the nurses are trained as lactation specialists, so we feel good about that as well.

after going over all of the family history, financial details, etc, etc, we were able to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time - very exciting! it was right around 150, which according to an old wives tale makes the baby a girl. this completely goes against my maternal instinct telling me that there is a little boy in there, so we'll see! then, linda put some goo on my belly, hooked me up to a machine and voila - our little bundle appeared. for the first time, we saw the little body - i think paul and i both got a tear in our eye (even though he has a hard time admitting it)! The baby was extremely active - waving his arms and legs all about, and turning over a couple of times. he looked like he was having a little party in there! it was incredible...and way too short. we both were wishing we could have looked at him for hours!

our next appointment is in 6 weeks and will mainly be a check in to answer questions and hear the heartbeat. in 8 weeks, we find out what the baby is - so excited about that! we'll be sure to send updates as they come along.

xoxo, h&p

ps. For now, I will default to "he" when I talk about the baby - much better than calling him "it"!