Friday, July 2, 2010

It's Alright

It's Alright
Indigo Girls

It's alright, 40 days of rain/ My skin stretched out from the growing pain/ It'd be nice to have an explanation/ But it's alright

Okay, perhaps we haven't had 40 days of rain here in Seattle, but it has been a mild summer so far.  Yesterday LB and I took Olive on an early morning walk in the drizzle, which she loved and we found pretty refreshing, too.  It's been nice to feel more like moving around recently, instead of wanting to spend all of my time sitting and sleeping.

I've started having "round ligament pain," which is shockingly similar to pain after abdominal surgery.  When I cough or try to stand up quickly, I get sharp pains just above my pubic bone, which then cause me to clutch very gracefully at my stomach, or just grimace as I try to appear nonchalant.  According to the midwife, though, that pain is showing up right on time.

We had our first appointment with the midwives yesterday.  The new clinic we're going with has 4.5 midwives (one works half-time), and we'll be rotating through all of them.  When The Bean arrives, one of the midwives will be on call, so the plan is that we'll meet and work with all of them, and hopefully like them all, or at least be willing to tolerate all of them at delivery.  (I'm starting to think delivery sounds too passive.  Someone must have come up with a better word for this process!)

So, midwife #1 was a very cheerful, upbeat woman.  She is also shorter than me (uncommon, since I'm only 5'1"), and she reminded me of a hobbit.  So, let's refer to her as "Hobbit."  Hobbit introduced us to the clinic, and reviewed the test results from our OB appointment last month.  She was great about having LB there, and didn't stumble over words like "partner" at all.  This is important to me.  Hobbit did the usual physical exam (and why is it that now, when my breasts are more sore than they have ever been, that they get poked and prodded every month?), and pulled out the doppler.  Before she turned it on, Hobbit warned us that sometimes the heartbeat can be hard to find, and she doesn't worry until 13 weeks, which we are not at yet.  So, on with the cold goop and she's looking for the heartbeat...crackle, crackle...oh, there's my heartbeat, sounds good...crackle, snap...Hmm.  Let's try the other doppler.  Sometimes one works better than the other.  More cold goop...pop, crackle...That's your heartbeat again...Well, I guess this baby's just hiding really well today!

LB points out that someone in this family has to be shy, and since it's neither of us, perhaps The Bean is trying to fill that role.  I had really been looking forward to hearing the heartbeat, especially since that's pretty much the only sign I'm getting these days that things are going well, but I guess we'll wait until next month.  Hobbit didn't seem concerned, and although she offered us the option of going in today for an ultrasound just to check it out, I can't justify that extra expense when LB isn't worried, too.  So, I'm looking online for other people who didn't hear at heartbeat on the doppler and the baby was fine.  Luckily, they're out there, so I'm starting to feel better.

LB and I were waiting until after this appointment to tell the rest of our friends about The Bean, so of course last night we made our big facebook announcements.  Taking a cue from Butch...and Pregnant, we went for the simultaneous status update, accompanied by the changing of the profile picture to one of our ultrasound shots.  So now, I guess it's official!  It's been fun to see the shocked responses roll in, from everyone who didn't know we were trying.  We also went and told a few non-facebook friends in person, so LB's mom doesn't have to keep the news a secret from her neighbors.

All in all, I suppose, it is alright, just as the song says.