Midwife Misadventures

I knew I was right to worry about bringing Maggie along with me to appointments. But I've been forcing myself to bring her everywhere lately as a) I would otherwise be stuck home all the time, and b) she has to learn eventually what appropriate public behavior is.

Well, the first time you meet your new midwife is not the best time to bring along a restless toddler who doesn't listen to you. It was hard enough that the midwife I was meeting has a reputation for a not-so-great bedside manner at appointments (though in her defense, she's supposed to be phenomenal at the birth itself - which is, of course, more important than the appointments). But then to feel like you're being judged at one of your most vulnerable times because your child doesn't listen when you tell her not to climb on the rolling stool (and to have the midwife disregard what I said by telling her it's okay), only to have said child fall off stool and narrowly miss cracking her head open on the floor because mommy at least had enough reflexes to intervene in time... Ugh. I think that cut the visit short just when we were discussing my depression issues. I'm supposed to eat more vegetables and look for a support group. Sage advice, eh? The best part was when we were leaving and Maggie insisted upon wandering into every room, then tried to run up and down the hallway while we waited for our turn to check out.

At least the parking garage attendant was very understanding when I couldn't even scrape together $2 for parking. I don't normally carry cash, and since I've never had to pay for parking before for a doctor's appointment, I wasn't expecting to need any. That guy really made my day.

I have to go back next Thursday and I'm now frantic to find someone to watch her. I do not want a repeat of this. But you know what? I don't even know which midwife I'm seeing. I know I'm supposed to meet the others, but there was such chaos at checkout that I don't recall even being told which midwife my appointment is with.

I certainly hope the Birth Place is worth this. If nothing else, I did learn today that if I decide after having Sprout that I want a hiatus from home, I can transfer over to maternity and stay the standard 2 days - even with having my natural childbirth. After a day like today, 2 days alone in the hospital with the baby is looking really good to me. :)

Adventures in SAHM-hood!

I would have updated earlier but I forgot my blogger password. Yeah, my brain is gone.

In any case... let's see, where did we leave off? OH yeah, Margaret had her 2nd appointment with the naturopath on the 18th. We're trying to see if there's a food allergy that's the root of her ear infections and asthma. So this is the plan:

• We've had to eliminate these oils: sunflower, corn, soy, peanut, safflower, and canola. Most of those are pretty bad for you anyway (processing destroys the good stuff, makes them rancid, and there's hexane used often in the processing) but even many health food store finds have safflower oil, so that's been a difficult adjustment. This has resulted in me suddenly blossoming into Betty Crocker. More on that later...
  
• So next, we had to start focusing on foods that are high in quercetin - this is an anti-inflammatory that is purported to help ease allergy symptoms. These foods include: broccoli, apples, onions, garlic, squash, parsley, and spinach. Luckily, Margaret loves many of those and we haven't had any problems getting those into her on a daily basis.
• We have to ensure, in general, an adequate intake of protein. This is where the naturopath and I diverge because she recommends some soy products, and I feel those should not be given to anyone. Yes, we had Maggie on soy formula for much of her infancy. It was something I didn't want to do but it solved our problem at the time and so I chose to look the other way. Not smart, but that's what I did. Now, I do my best to keep soy out of her diet. It's only "healthy" when prepared properly (that is, naturally fermented) but I still avoid it because of the phytoestrogens. So instead, we focus on other healthy proteins and ignore the soy recommendations.
• I have to place her pillows in the dryer for 30 minutes on high once a week when I change the sheets. Yeah. I know I should have been doing that all along. I'm supposed to do that for me because I have a severe dust mite allergy. But I rarely find the time for it. Oh yeah, and when I change her sheets, I need to vacuum her mattress and window treatments. I actually managed to do this last Monday (in spite of her desperate fear of the vacuum) and am supposed to tomorrow. I guess I need to make this a routine for the sake of her health since Maggie very likely does suffer from a dust mite allergy as well.
• We're adding supplements. $65 worth of them. Woohoo, eh? Composition Essence (herbal concoction) twice a day in her water; HMF-Forte (probiotic), 1/2 capsule at bedtime; Nordic Naturals DHA Junior (Cod Liver Oil), 1/3 tsp daily with food (for immune function and as an anti-inflammatory); and lastly, a liquid Multi-Vitamin and -Mineral, 1 tsp daily with food (which she hates). I tried the supplement route with her before. It never went well. Yet somehow, she's settled into a routine and is willingly taking them now. She even likes the Composition Essence, as long as it's served in her Klean Kanteen.
• Lastly, chiropractic care. It turns out she had swelling in her neck, and a vertebrae out of place where asthma usually manifests. She's had 4 treatments so far and is doing very well with them. She has one this week (when we follow-up with the naturopath as well), and then they'll hopefully start spacing out a bit. The chiro did say that her spine is taking the adjustments well and that there has been progress made.

The next step is to remove dairy if she isn't improved, but I'm fighting that. I don't believe she is allergic to dairy and I feel that our recent introduction of raw milk is actually beneficial to asthma and allergies, if given a chance. But it could take a couple of months for her body to heal and for us to see a difference, so we need to wait that out first. I first learned about raw milk on a forum I frequent and it's turned into a huge learning experience about traditional foods and the Weston A. Price Foundation.

In any case, since we removed these oils from Maggie's diet and I've had to make food from scratch, it's really been a launching off point for learning more about traditional foods. I've tried out numerous recipes using whole foods in the way we should be eating them, and it's been fun even if sometimes only Maggie appreciates the effort (like the vegetable soup that I tried making, even though I've never even eaten just vegetables in soup before). Heck, I even have a sourdough starter on the counter in which I used a cup of rye flour and a cup of water to catch a wild yeast and let what should happen in nature, happen. I'm looking forward to my first loaf of sourdough bread in a few days! I've also really enjoyed what I've read so far in Nourishing Traditions. It really opens your mind to how the last century has dramatically changed the way people have eaten, and how those changes are much to blame for the health problems we have today. So I'm gradually incorporating what I'm learning into our daily lives so that we all will be healthier.

All this cooking means that I've been washing a lot of dishes...but not much else. The decluttering has sort of gone to the wayside for now. At least until I get into more of a routine with the cooking and baking. You don't realize how much convenience food is interwoven into our lives until you remove it entirely. Not that we used a lot of it before, and we always used foods that were free of white flour, refined sugar, and artificial colors/sweeteners. But this is a whole new ball game!

Maggie is probably pretty happy I'm not decluttering anyway. She hates it enough when I wash dishes, and I usually try to wait until she's napping (though she doesn't nap every day either). She's having a lot of fun requiring me to read the same book repeatedly, or playing with things that she shouldn't be playing with. She's learned some new signs now that I've had the time to devote to learning them myself, and while she normally does not watch TV, she has grown to love her 2 Baby Signing Time DVDs. She even signs "baby" when she wants to watch it. She also enjoys our frequent trips to the post office and grocery store. We haven't made it to many playgroups yet, but she has had a chance to hang out with some new kids a few times now.

As for the baby on the way, s/he's been kicking away. Growing stronger every day, and taking up more room. I actually lost 3 lbs since I became a SAHM (due to the lack of time to eat and not having convenience food available) but I'm definitely having more difficulties bending over and doing the things I was used to doing. I also no longer have the stamina to hold Maggie for a long time, which upsets her greatly. But she is, last time we checked, over 31.5 lbs so that's a lot of stress on anyone.

Money has gotten really tight, especially with few parties on my calendar, but we're making due. This was to be expected. Hubby is a bit disappointed because now he has to work at his part-time job (he works at a local ski area and often would get off early and ski for a couple of hours for free), but he's making up for it by going out to ski with friends once or twice a week anyway. I'm rarely seeing him these days. So far I've managed to not lose my mind, but I'm looking forward to the end of the winter and (hopefully) better financial times for me. We'll manage, one way or another.

Catching Up

It appears I've fallen behind, once again, in my blogging duties.

My illness that I last left you in suspense about culminated in several hours of vomiting and diarrhea overnight. What fun! Seriously, it was the pits. I was sure I'd end up at the hospital for dehydration.

In spite of my night-time "fun", I had my tour of the freestanding birthing center later that day - something I had planned for that day specifically since Brian would be home from work. So I did my best to make myself presentable, upped the fluids (though avoided the food still due to lingering nausea) and we drove on down to the birthing center. I LOVED it! Brian - well, he didn't have an opinion on the matter. So I took the reigns and decided for him. We will now be having Sprout at a birthing center that is about as far away as the hospital where we had Maggie - and I'm planning on a waterbirth!!!! Something I wanted so badly with Maggie! So far, I've met 2 of the 3 midwives and I love them. I know this is the right decision!

Friday, January 5th, will be a momentous day for me! It's my Trifecta: 20 weeks, my mid-way ultrasound (though we are not finding out the gender, so too bad, so sad! ;) ), and my last day of work. At first, I was a little mixed on that. Especially as I got closer to the event. I've always had a steady paycheck - I'm terrified of not, even though I still need to bring in some income! But days like today confirm my decision to leave. 8 years there, soon to be over. Wow.

Sick!

How is it I spent my last pregnancy healthier than usual, and this one I keep getting sick. :( I feel like someone ran razor blades down my throat while I was sleeping, and I have a lovely collection of snot stuck in my sinuses. Wonderful. I also have 2 parties this weekend, so the timing could not be worse. I think I'm staying home today, which would change it from 15 work days left to 14....

I also have an appointment tomorrow at a freestanding birthing center. Hopefully I will feel well enough to attend. It's a tour and a talk with one of the three midwives who run the center. I really wanted a water birth with Maggie, but Brian was not open to a homebirth (still is not) and the hospital where I delivered only allowed you to labor in the tub - and only if they could keep the baby's heartbeat on the mobile monitoring equipment (which they could not). I have a long list of questions to ensure that I will qualify as low risk, and therefore be able to use the birthing center. It's about as far away as the hospital where I had Margaret, but I like the idea of not being chained to the place for days afterwards and less interventions. At this point, I'd be happy to just stay home until the day this baby comes. I've had enough of the medical community and I really don't need them giving me contradictory advice every 4 weeks, and having to drag myself out to their office every 4 weeks for a pee test, fetal heart monitoring (which I can do at home), and a Q&A session (during which I have no questions). It's a waste of my time. So we'll see how this goes. I have high hopes that this will work out! Especially with the changes in insurance coming up...

...it turns out that the costs for DH's High Option insurance plan have increased $120/month. So instead of $50/week, it will be roughly $80/week - of which we are currently spending $0 since I get health insurance from my employer for $14/week, and it's far superior insurance. Now we're stuck with Low Option, which only covers 80% of costs. 80%. How crappy is that? $20 copays for doctors visits, they don't even cover all of well-baby visits (still 80%), and I'm not even sure if we can go to the Medical Walk In Center with his plan. I'm also not sure if they'll consider me a pre-existing condition and blackout coverage for me. DH won't ask. Wouldn't that be a wonderful addition to the situation?! SIGH.