are my two front teeth!

We went to the circus the other night and Calder’s favorite part was the clowns. And that’s when it hit me. That’s like his perfect career! I can totally see Calder becoming a professional clown. Or being a class clown. Or doing something clown-ish.

May I present my evidence:

Gangsta Clown?

At said circus. Animated–that’s a good word to describe this little boy.

Picture of the Year winner. Clearly, Amelie’s at that posing-gracefully-even-if-you’re- sitting-on-top-of-a-giant-elk-in-the-store-photo-opportunity-spot age. And, clearly, Calder is not. “Here I am. Just me and my elk. Sigh.”

I’ve written before about how he’s always pulling these silly faces when I try to take his picture.

Wonder where he gets it from…

Ready for a long post about something that may interest no one other than myself? A super duper long post? Since this is my blog, after all, and since I want to remember some of this down the road, here it is.

When we first found out we were pregnant with this baby, I hurried and got in touch with my wonderful midwife from Easton’s birth. I love her and loved everything about my experience with her. So, you can imagine my disappointment when I found out that she is taking April 2013 off from attending births. She does this every year–picks a month to take a rest from deliveries. She still does her office visits, but she makes sure not to accept clients due in that month. She runs her own practice and does everything herself (scheduling, prenatal visits, deliveries, home visits), so I completely understand the need to take some time off. I was just so sad that it happened to be during my due date month. She posts her plans on her website well in advance and if we had been planning this sweet little surprise, I would have planned accordingly. But, as I’ve told Bryce, this baby just has his own plan.

In the aftershock of my disappointment about my midwife (I’m not even exaggerating–I cried about it!), I planned to just go back to the midwifery practice I went to with Amelie and  Calder and deliver at the hospital. I knew the care would be rushed, I’d often have to wait a while for my appointments, and that I’d be back in the hospital where I find laboring difficult. Something about all the people and poking and checking and strangers. But I was okay with it. Then I had my first couple of appointments and all the things I’d remembered were just made so real. Appointments were hurried, I often waited 20-30 minutes just to see someone, and I found out that I wouldn’t be able to deliver at the same hospital I’d been to with Amelie and Calder because of our insurance. The hospital thing was another bummer because the American Fork Hospital (where I delivered before) is known for being a little more friendly to moms trying to birth without pain meds and has a jetted tub in every room to help during labor. You can’t have a waterbirth in a hospital in Utah, but at AFH, you can at least labor in the water. The hospital I’d have to go to this time only has one room with a tub and it’s first come first serve. So, not only would I not be able to have a waterbirth, but I might not be able to labor in the tub at all.

See, I told you this would be long….

Anyway, I basically realized that the things I’d loved about Easton’s birth–the tub, the waterbirth, the intimacy of the environment, the trust I had with my midwife–none of those would be possible at the hospital with this practice of midwives. So, I switched my care to a group of midwives in Orem called Better Birth (www.betterbirth.com). This practice has a birth center and although it wouldn’t be with the midwife I had during Easton’s birth, I felt it was a step in the right direction. My care with them has been awesome so far. I never wait for an appointment, they are attentive and caring, their office is beautiful and calm, and the know their stuff. I never feel rushed. Ironically, since most people assume midwives are less technical than doctors, I’ve found my care with them to be much more modern than anywhere else. They take my blood pressure with a digitized wrist band, swipe a cool thermometer device across my forehead, and my glucose screening was a simple finger prick. These are little things, but they’ve been nice. I’ve had my ultrasounds right there in their office with an ultrasound technician. And the cost is the same as our minimum cost through our insurance if we had stayed with the hospital plan (we have a high deductible plan). You can see pictures of the birth suite here. Sorry they’re such small images. And if anything were to go wrong or if they decided the birth center wasn’t the best  place for me anymore, I’d be transferred to the hospital right away. They are very cautious and careful.

So, anyway, that is the very long story of how I ended up with Better Birth.

The End

I had another ultrasound today to check where my placenta is. At my 20-week ultrasound, it was lying a bit too close to the cervix, so they wanted to check it again now (almost 29 weeks) to see if my uterine growth had pulled the placenta away from the cervix at all. And it had! We needed it to move 1 cm and it has moved over 4 cm, so everything is looking great. It’s amazing how 1 cm can make such a difference in birth matters. So, that was great news. It was also really fun to see the baby again. He looked pretty happy in there–just hanging out.

His profile. I just want to kiss those sweet lips!

So, hello from baby!

We’ve had Little Dinah for almost 16 months now. I thought it was time for a little tribute. First of all, a reminder of what she looks like:

Exactly like a little cat toy that I have from when I was a little girl.

This cat is crazy. First of all, she never just lies around. She has to lie on her back.

Just lounging around.

More lounging.

Even more lounging.

Gotta hand it to her. She knows how to lounge. If she’s not lying on her back, she’s assuming strangely human postures.

Pretending she’s a human child.

Little Dinah is the most affectionate cat I’ve ever met. She is always on our laps and insists on being noticed and admired even if you were trying to read the book she is now sitting on. And then, mid-pet, she’ll nip your hand. She likes to pretend to play hard to get. She alternates between sleeping and running like a race horse through the house, usually back and forth between the master bedroom and the kids’ bathroom. Back and forth and back and forth. And, of course, if she’s in the same room as you and you start to leave, she has to prove she’s the fastest by racing out the door ahead of you. Sometimes I’ll be walking and I can sense she’s coming. Best defense mechanism is to just stop walking until she blurs past. She’s nutty, but very sweet and has been pretty great with the kids.