doctor, baby, etc

Yesterday we finally had an appointment with our new doctor here. It's taken forever to get everything settled so we could do so. Since my insurance through my school district ended, we had to get on Medicaid because no other insurance will pick me up and cover the hospital fees. So it took about a month for everything to get all taken care of. Anyway, we finally met with him yesterday!

It was pretty great. Both Scott and I feel really comfortable and confident with him. It was nice because we asked about his philosophies on epidurals, natural birth, c-sections, episiotomy, and moving around during labor. Essentially he told us that he believes the less work he has to do, the better. Because that means that everything is progressing as it should. He also said his c-section rate is below normal and he only does one if it is necessary. Also, he rarely ever does episiotomies. He said he's totally for natural childbirth and said there are things you can do to help alleviate and cope with the pain that are not drugs. And he said if I decide not to do an epidural but think I need one, he'll be fine with that too. He also basically told us that childbirth has been around alot longer than he has, so he prefers to do less interventions and let things happen as they should. Another thing we talked about was the hospital and the facilities. He said they're very conducive to having a relaxed labor and delivery room. There are showers, tubs (in most) and birthing balls in all the rooms and that they don't require you to be connected to a constant IV. They do require a (something)-block that is on your hand so they can quickly get an IV in during an emergency. And I guess you can give birth in the shower if you really want to, but not the tub (hospital policy). And the hospital is pretty much the biggest and most advanced in the St. Louis area. They have a level 3 NICU and can do pretty much anything and everything on site at any time. In fact, it's the hospital they life flight and transport to in big emergencies. So it's very infant and child friendly. I think they said like 80 pediatricians/surgeons are on site every day.

So overall we are very pleased about it. The only thing we were unhappy with is the ultrasound tech. I haven't have an ultrasound since 16 weeks and they didn't do the anatomical one. I'm now 24 weeks and the lady is never in the office so the next available appointment is Oct 5. Ugh. The doc wanted us to have one done this week. I'm gonna try and call tomorrow and see if there's any way to be moved up.

Other than that, things are still going well. Scott's birthday was alot of fun. We enjoyed a huge storm that night. In fact, it actually caused our power to flick out twice. And the thunder sounded like things were exploding outside. Kinda scary.

I'm ready for Fall to come back. We got teased a couple weeks ago, and this week it's back in the upper 80's and 90's but with a TON of humidity. I'm slowly getting used to it, but I prefer to be in air conditioning. Maybe sometime in October it'll cool down enough to actually comfortably wear jeans and sweaters.

Speaking of, I feel like I keep getting huger each day. Some days I'm fine but other days I have a really hard time. I've gained more weight than I had anticipated so that's pretty hard on me. Pretty much none of my old clothes fit, and I hate spending money for maternity clothes. But it's so uncomfortable to wear my old stuff. It's just hard.

At least there are moments that help make it better. Like when the doctor is looking for the heartbeat and our baby keeps moving around. When he finally found a steady beat, he kept kicking the wand so it would mess up the doctor's count. I could feel him moving like crazy during that whole time and it was quite funny to me so I kept giggling which didn't help. It was very cute. Scott could hear the kicks too. And the doctor said "you guys have an active little guy in there." So fun. :-)