Midwifery and a Birth Center

*Disclaimer- I may spell some things incorrectly. I don't know how to use punctuation correctly all the time. I may include many run on and on sentences. And I may write in circles and loose you a bit. BUT you'll learn something new either about someone or someplace. :) 

 Hopefully you have read the previous post. If not than go there now. :) CLICK HERE

 In my previous post I mentioned that I had a midwife..... 

....and I will be giving birth NOT in a hospital but at Trillium Water Birth Center.

I first heard about Trillium Water Birth Center when they opened in January of 2011. And "liked" their page on facebook. I wasn't even thinking about my future births because I was in the moment of just trying to get knocked up! It wasn't until I read more and spoke with a friend who delivered with Trillium and their team of midwives that I decided I would consider midwifery with my next pregnancy. This same friend is Melissa Cate, the main birth photographer at Trillium Water Birth Center. I am her backup photographer. 

I went to Trillium and had a tour of the facility and was able to meet Augustine. She has such a warm and gentle spirit about her and most of all relaxed but bubbly. She's a person who you can't help but just feel like her friend. We chatted for a bit and then left. I was on call in March for births while Melissa was out of town. One of the mama's went into labor. It was a long labor and I was at the birth center for quite awhile. Being at the birth center gave me hours upon hours of firsthand observation on how Augustine and the midwives at Trillium work through Labor & Delivery. WOW! Talk about incredible. The support these 3 women gave to this mama was great! All of them were so calm and collected and knowledgeable. The atmosphere at the birth center is calming and the way these women interact with the mama makes it even more peaceful and respectful for the mom in labor. They talked with her about what her body was doing, made sure she was comfortable, had a warm bath drawn for her, candles lit, and her music playing. The baby was monitored with a hand held Doppler and the charts were kept. When not in the room the midwives were very communicative as to how the mom was doing, the labor itself, and how each one of them was doing. The laid low and let the mom and dad have their space and let her labor get further along  on it's own. :) Once labor progressed to the point of "the baby is coming soon". The midwives were in the room present but not "up in the moms face". They spoke softly, they monitored gently, they were present. Once it was time for pushing Augustine stepped up to the plate and helped the mom and dad deliver their healthy and beautiful baby girl. It was beautiful on SO many levels. And I knew then that this would be a huge consideration for me when I become pregnant.

(Let's pause for a moment. I want to throw a few bullet points out there) ☺

*If you love hospitals... I still love you.

*If you love being drugged up and laughing your way through your labor... :) We're still friends for always. 

*If you think this birth center approach is too "crunchy" sounding for you. I still love you but I think you should read into it a lot more. :)

*I had a great pregnancy with my son and his birth was an all natural hospital birth and I loved everything about it. I wanted an all natural birth with him and I want an all natural birth with this baby too. And I feel the best place for me is OUT OF THE HOSPITAL.

*I have researched both the hospital/OB-GYN route and the Midwifery/Birth Center route. I feel for me this is the best route.

Okay back to the "story"

Low and behold I became pregnant at the end of March. I was so early so there was no need to make my decision of where I was going to seek care. So I prayed about it for several weeks. I continued my appointments at the OB/GYN office I had been attending for the last 7 years. But something just didn't feel right. I didn't feel comfortable there. Don't get me wrong there is an amazing staff there and I owe a lot of thanks to them. (I'm going to have a Grammy award thank you moment for a sec) A HUGE thank you to my infertility doctor Julie, she is amazing and I love her dearly for helping me in the fertility department, for delivering my son in 2008 and respecting my birth plan to have it all natural. (She no longer delivers babies, enter sad face here) Dr. Kim Larsen and her nurse Toni for helping me get knocked up! (They administered my IUI) :) And for Carrie for doing such a great job in drawing my blood SO MANY FREAKING TIMES. :) (and end speech) :) Knowing that none of these people would be my OB/GYN and delivering my baby left me feeling a bit lost. I knew out of all the doctors there that were delivering babies I wasn't to keen on being their patient. (For my own personal reasons, nothing bad, just my choice) My mind kept going back to Augustine and the birth center. Knowing that this is possibly my last pregnancy I was interested in trying out the other end of the spectrum (spectrum not speculum) ha! I wanted to know what it felt like to not wait for 30 minutes in a waiting room, to have an hour long appointment with women who really want to get to know YOU and YOUR desires for your pregnancy. I gave into my curiosity and scheduled an "interview" with my husband and I and the midwives at Trillium. Ron, Dillon and I (Yes I said my 3 year old son Dillon. They have in their meeting room a whole play area for the kiddos. He was in heaven and we had a great meeting with no screaming) We met on comfy couches and were served hot tea and crumpets. (joking about the crumpets, but I did get a great cup of pregnancy tea) We met with Augustine and Amy and a small handful of other midwife students. We met for a little over an hour and chatted like old friends, talked about the birth, talked about other births, my previous pregnancies and so much more. Ron was able to ask questions that were of concern to him and we both left feeling like this was the place. I canceled my appointments at my OB/GYN office and had my records faxed to Trillium Waterbirth Center. :) :) I continued some research, continued to pray that I was making the right decision, and watched the movie The Business of Being Born (I suggest everyone watch this who is interested or curious even the tiniest bit about midwifery) And I can honestly say that I am so at peace with my decision. Yes I miss a few of the ladies at the OB/GYN office but thankfully we are friends on facebook so I can still stay in touch with them! :)

It's 11:30 at night and I am so tired so I feel like this post is rambling on and not making much sense. So forgive me because I am not going to proofread it before I hit publish! ha!

Before I sign off for the night I want to go through my first two prenatal appointments with Trillium.

I know that I have forgotten some things I wanted to put into here. But please go to this link and there is a huge amount of Question and Answers and I found it very helpful when considering Trillium! 

Please know that if you would like to ask my ANY questions regarding my journey with infertility, birth, this choice I am an open book. You can email me at lacied07@hotmail.com or comment here. 

Thank you for reading!!

♥Lacie

Late Night Pilgrim

Don't ask my about the title of this post. Basically it's 1AM (1:01 to be exact) I feel like I haven't posted in quite sometime and I had writer's block for the title. I grabbed the first thing I found on my desk. (It was a CD Booklet and one of the song titles was Late Night Pilgrim. And there ya have it.

So I find myself throughout the day coming across and thinking up incredibly fun and interesting posts. And then I re-enter The Real World and when I go to type I get nothing! It's slightly irritating. I am just glad I didn't promise my followers a schedule posting throughout the week. So I suppose I can't say I'm a failure... right? Just to forewarn, this post may be lenthy as I try to remember the things I was going to write about.

It has been an exhausting and emotional 3 weeks. My brother-in-law's father passed away 2 weeks ago. He was a wonderful man. He seriously had the most joyful smile ever!! Check it out below.. (this picture was taken at the sock hop I planned for my MIL 60th!) :)

No matter how ill a person gets and how you know that their time on earth may be limited... nothing prepares you for death. I had never experienced death until 7 years ago. Ron's grandpa died. I had met the man only 2 weeks prior. I love him instantly. When I walked into the living room to meet him. He said "Are you my new grandaughter-in-law?" and gave me a hug. I was sad that he had died, but I didn't have the emptiness. I did however feel true sadness and helplessness for the family I was becomming a part of. After Grandpa Ralphs passing it was years before the next horrible phone call. It was around 5 or 6 in the morning and my cellphone rang. Now I don't know about you, but if my phone rings after 10pm and before 7am... I get a sick feeling in my stomach that something bad has happend. So that morning I see the caller ID is my dad. I pick up the phone and say hello. There was a pause... and then my dad says "My dad died". It was not expected, I was half asleep. We weren't super close with him, but it still hurt. It felt so wierd. Since then and just this past year, we've received 3 more of those calls. Each one gets harder for me. Though I believe in heaven and I believe that the family member's that passed are there. Death is a reminder to me that life is short. That we're all getting older. I can go on with some more personal depressing thoughts but I will stop. So I guess I wrote all of that just to say that I want things to change. I want to spend more time with the ones I love and cherish the most. I want to spend as much time loving my family learning more about each person and connecting with them on a level that I haven't yet. I encourage you to do the same. 

Another thing I was going to blog about: RUDE and COLD people. They really piss me off. I will be going through my facebook friends and removing those that I feel are fake friends, on my list because they just want to .... well I really don't know why. But their gonners. I would also like to start kicking people who are rude. What happened to good ol' fashion customer service. It seems as though every grocery store I go to the checkers don't say Hi anymore. I walk to the little counter, he/she starts grabbing my items and quickly scan them while throwing them in a bag. They don't look at me, I stare at the screen. (watching the small amount of groceries create a list that I know will soon deplete  my checking accounty- another post, another day) Somedays I'll just act like a crazy happy person. That's always entertaining. I went to a friends son birthday party a week or so ago. "someone" who is on my friends list was there and did not greet me until I said hello and as she sat in the same room (only 4 of us in there) did not make any effort to strike up a conversation and was as cold as ice. Here's the deal. I feel that I am a kind and friendly person. I feel that I have always been able to strike a conversation with most people. But within the past year. I'm over kissing ass. (pardon the french) I hate the feeling of trying to talk to someone, as cold as ice, and feeling like you have to "get on their good side". I'm done. Over it. I don't need to waste my time or energy. I know.... I'm soooo mean.   Thank you for letting me rant. I'm all done now. On that topic.

Let's change the mood: Let's do funny. Only some people will understand this section.

So today I had to assist in the collection of a sample that needed to be taken to the hospital to be tested. (Another fun part of the journey of infertility) The "sample" needs to be at the lab within 30 minutes of collection. I live 25-30 minutes from the hospital. I left my house in a mad rush and drove 65 (in a 45) honked at one person, hand flipped another, and wished I had a huge flashing sign on the top of my car explaining me crazy antics. I made it to the hospital with only 5 minutes to spare. I walk in and of course was attacked by the pink ladies. (No, not the ones from Grease, that would have been fun!!) The ladies started giving me directions to the lab. I explained I need to get there NOW. I think I walked away from her as she was still talking. I stopped at Patient Registration (that's what the pink lady told me to do) The lady told me she would be with me in just a few moments. I explained to her that I did not have a few minutes. She looked puzzled. I grabbed the brown paper bag that was tucked under my arm, under my sweatshirt and explained what the sample was. It was at that moment that I realized I said it really loud and there was a whole waiting area full of people. I booked it down to the lap drop off window. At this point I was now kind of embarrased. Anyways, the sample made it in time and the results were good. :)

Food: Tonight I made two dishes of homemade (from scratch) Macaroni and Cheese. It is SO good. I will be posting the recipe next week with some pics.

Festivities: Tomorrow I will have 40+ people at my house for my annual Easter Egg Hunt and Potluck. I am looking forward to it and praying for good weather. I am making homemade Jalapeno Poppers (recipe to follow), Macaroni & Cheese, Lasagna (okay, I bought it frozen at Costco. I didn't feel like making a lasagna tonight so I cheated.) I will definately be on a "healthy lifestyle change" (fancy name for diet) tomorrow.

Excitment: I am planning my best friend Maria's bridal shower and I am really excited!!

It's 1:45 now and I think this post is pretty pointless. If you read the whole thing I think you're pretty freaking amazing. :) Sometimes a blog post is a cool way of getting things off your chest. (I wish I could get a lot more off my chest, but that would require surgery and a LOT of money) :)

Anyways, Have a blessed Easter Weekend. It's not about the candy, a bunny, and eggs. (though that's fun) It's about Jesus, he died and rose again. 

Also, Sunday marks the start of National Infertiltiy Week. Stay tuned please!!

Goodnight!