To Midwife??? DUH!

I am a midwife. 

I love midwives and truly believe they provide the best low risk OB care in the United States. 

So when it came to my yearly well woman exams, I wanted to be with a midwife. 

I have seen my friends go thru their prenatal care and just knew that a doctor for me was not the option unless something high risk came up. 

Unfortunately, in the Northern VA area you are quite limited when it comes to midwifery care especially if you want a midwifery practice.  I had only a couple options: 

1)      Loudoun Community Midwives in Loudoun

2)      Wisdom Midwifery at George Washington in DC. 

3)      A Practice in Alexandria which was not an option as it was a previous place of employment.

So I started my well woman exams at Loudoun Community Midwives and was happy with my care. 

So after that second line appeared on my pregnancy test, I waited two weeks before calling them to set up my appointment.   Joe and I went back and forth whether we should at least interview with Widsom Midwifery but after an afternoon of trying to figure out metro schedules from both of our jobs to get down, we said forget it.  Loudoun is an easy drive for us and my parents live 5 minutes from the hospital so we will have good support. 

The reason I picked them:

1)      It is a MIDWIFE practice- all midwives! 

They do have 2-3 backup physicians which I like.   But it is a midwife practice- not a collaborative practice with midwives and doctors where the doctors really call the shots.

2)      Low C/S rate- 

15-20 % which compared with the national average of 35 trending upward to 40% is amazing!

3)      Loudoun Hospital is smaller, more private which was a big appeal to me.  

All private rooms with both showers and tubs for labor.  As Joe constantely tell me- "You should have been born a fish!"  Hydrotherapy is my friend. 

Very low intervention friendly. 

4)      Large focus on prenatal education. 

I knew that I would not need this but I knew Joe would want it for him.  They are so good at answering all his questions and making sure even though I know what is going on that he also knows. 

5) Level 3A Nicu at Loudoun INOVA Hospital

This means that their neonatal care center can take care of a baby if born at 28 weeks or later in the pregnancy.  This is hopefully not something we will need but always good to have in your back pocket. 

Yes it is a little bit of a drive (20-30 minutes in no traffic) to my prenatal appointments but the Prenatal Assessement Center has been so willing to work with me on my Ultrasounds and screening that I have been able to schedule both on the same day - so I kill two birds with one stone.

Furthermore, I have decided to schedule most of my appointments on Mondays I have off at 1300 so I am the first appointment after lunch. 

OMG .... too cute!

So I have not purchased anything for bug and for the most part do not plan to.  

However, yesterday while I was at work and waiting for the IT person to come fit my computer so I could actually do work I was browsing the internet!  

I owe the IT guy big time!!!  

You know it is bad when he gives you his personal email and cell phone because your computer keeps sucking!

Anyways, I was browsing the internet and came apon this site for 

Portuguese Water Dog Baby Clothes.

OMG!

KiniArt Studio

So cute and the dog on there looks exactly like Clemson. 

Facial expression and all!

 I emailed it to Joe, and he comment was "We are going to have to get one!"

So last night I came home and sat down to purchase a Orange Portuguese Water Dog Infant Creeper!

OMG so cute!!!

 

One of our first baby purchases.

How appropriate on the weekend we are going to Clemson to cheer on the Tigers!

Coming down with a "bug"

Each day, I talk to women about pregnancy discomforts. 

I could site off treatments, remedies etc. 

So when I threw up in my trash can at work for the first time at 6 weeks I knew that this was both a good sign and also a challenge.  It meant that the little bug inside of me was growing and that my hormones were going crazy.  But it also meant that if I am throwing up, it is going to be a long 1st trimester.

I made a couple promises to myself when I found out I was pregnant and the number one promise I made to myself was :

1) I will not complain about being pregnant or anything that comes along with it. 

That begin said for the next two weeks I had Nausea and Vomitting.  According to me- it was mild, according to Joe is was terrible.  I ate, I threw up to the point where I just stopped eating.  I tried everything that I recommended to patients with little sucess. 

Ginger did not work

Gingerale did not work

Sprite did not work

Salty foods did not work

Crackers did not work

Supplements did not work.

As my husband worried I constantly reminded him this was normal, and we were not going to complain.

I tried to stay active as much as I could and when I could not run because I was too weak I did 2- two mile walks a day.   I was definetly not running at full steam and any one that asked I just stated I had stomach bug... and that "bug" is how you got your name.  

Then I walked in for my 8 week visit to discover I had lost 7 pounds since May. 

Joe looked at me and said- "Can we now talk to the midwife about the N/V?"

I laughed and said "Yes"

He has turned into the worrier and not me- I LOVE IT!

They ended up putting me on Zofran which I only took when I needed to make it thru a clinic full of patients and when we had plans with friends where I could not spend the night next to my friend- porcalin. 

I am not a fan on medication but some times it is needed. 

So even though I am a midwife and knew everything, in the end I needed a little help!

Baby OH!!!!

Hello!

Joe and I are happy to announce that we are expecting Baby OH aka "The Bug" in March 2013.

 Joe is thrilled over the moon while I remain in shock! 
Joe has been counting down the days till he could tell everyone and he has been so understanding with my requests. 

I was not really exactly ready for this journey, but that is life =0). 
Yes Laura Oliveria just said that- it is my new zen state that I am trying. 

While I am still in shock it has been so cool and so amazing every step of the way. 
From seeing Joe's face light up at our first U/S to me crying the first time I heard the heartbeat. 
Nothing can prepare you for when you are actually pregnant!
No matter how many times I have done an US on a pregnant woman, nothing compares to when you see your little bug inside of you! 

I have had a pretty easy first trimester according to me, according to Joe it has not been so easy. 
Nausea and the other fun stuff hit about 6 weeks and lets just say that I have spent a lot of personal time with an old college friend Porcelain.
I came down with a "bug" and it kind of stuck!   I have been totally ok with it because I am just trying to enjoy this journey. 

We had our nuchal translucency and genetic screening and everything is going as expected!. 

We plan on finding out the sex during our US on in mid to late October and will let people know however we will not be revealing the name until Baby OH arrives. 
Do not worry- Clemson will not be in the name at all =0) 
We will also not be sharing the exact due date because it is just a best educated guess and only 3-10% of people actually deliver on their due date- depending what static you quote. 

I am currently planning on delivering at Loudoun Hospital with a group of private practice midwives. 

We look forward to the next couple of months and expanding our family.
Clemson is also super excited but is not really sure how this whole baby thing is going to affect him.
He thinks it means more toys for him =0). 

We thank everyone in advance for all their love and support!

Love,

Laura and Joe

and Clemson Puppy!

What to do with tons of tomatoes?

OMG

As stated previously we have tomatoes taking over our back yard.  I can not keep up with picking them all.  One Monday I was home looking at my counter full of tomatoes and decided I needed to make Marinara sauce with all of them.  

So I headed to the internet to find an easy Crock Pot Recipe from Food.com.

Crock Pot Marinara Sauce

I gravitated towards this recipe because it was easy and I had everything.  

Ingredients

2 (28 ounce) cans Italian-style crushed tomatoes -  I used 10 medium sized fresh tomatoes chopped
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1 large onion, chopped - I used purple onion
8 garlic cloves, finely chopped - I only used 2 because we are not huge garlic fans
1 tablespoon olive oil or 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 teaspoons Splenda sugar substitute
1 teaspoon oregano leaves - I used fresh oregano and used 2-3 sprigs
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
12 cups whole wheat spaghetti 

**I also add some fresh Basil from our garden cut finely and fresh mushrooms

Directions:

1 Mix all ingredients in a 3 1/2 to 6 quart crock pot

.
2 Cover and cook on low 8 to 10 hour or high 4 to 5 hours.
3 Serve over spaghetti.

It was amazing and I froze enough to have for dinners during the week over the next month or so.  

Gray and Yellow...

You may remember with the start of summer, I decided to re-do our room down stairs into an additional guest room.  Basically we had be using the room for storage and I decided it was time to make it into an useable room.  

We discussed what and decided it should be another bedroom.  

So in May Joe went to work on painting the room for me a light grey!

Over the next could pf months I purchased odds and ends from various places.  

Last weekend we started to put the room together and I am loving how it turned out.  

The area is small so we opted for a tall/skinny dresser which we found on sale at Pier1 earlier in the summer.  

The bed we actually purchased on Craigslist and was a steal!  

The chair Joe had previous belonged in our room and was green.

A couple coats of Rustoleum Spray Yellow and it looks great!

The linens I purchased from a variety of stores (basically wherever I could find the cheapest price for what I wanted.)

Bed skirt-  Target

Sheets with 4 pillow covers included-  HomeGoods

Quilt and Euro shams- West Elm during their big bedding sale!

Pillows for bed and chair-  HomeGoods and Bed Bath and Beyond

New Ipod dock station with alarm clock- Costco

Now I still have a couple things to do-

1) Curtains.  I am thinking something simple like white.  I found a curtain rod at HomeGoods.  

I heart HomeGoods!

2) Something over the bed.  I want to place something decorative about the bed.  I want something yellow that will pop but have not found anything that I have loved yet.  So I will keep looking.  

All in all it is coming together quite nice-

I wonder who will be the first to sleep here =0)