Friday, April 20, 2012

"Just In Case..."

Yesterday I was having a nice chat with a good friend who is in the birth world and so when we get together, naturally the conversation moves towards birth. While we were talking, she mentioned that a friend of hers was planning to go to one hospital but after thinking through her options chose a different one because her original choice didn't have a level 2 NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) and so if her baby had any more serious complications she would be separated from her baby since she would be in one hospital and her baby would be in another.

One one hand that makes sense. On the other, as I have had more time to think about that - both as a midwife and a mom who delivered a baby in the hospital after planning my whole pregnancy to be at home (my daughter was born too early) I wouldn't plan my birth setting around a "just in case" scenario.

Ok - here is my opinion that could be contradictory. I believe that planning where you deliver around the "just in case" thought process is like not planning to get divorced from the person you are going to marry and are very much in love with, but getting a pre-nuptual agreement "just in case."

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Sometimes you just need a day off...

Last night was rough. Eleanor has been sick once before, but not teething at the same time and I guess both at the same time was just too much for her little body to handle. We went to small group last night and had a good time - she played with the other little girls there and stayed up way past her bedtime without being crabby even! Then, on the ride home, she feel asleep almost immediately. I thought to myself, "Great! She will transition to her crib easily and we can make it an early night!" Wrong. I rocked her to sleep when she woke up when we arrived at home, and it was a process getting her back to sleep but nothing unusual for a teething baby with a slight cold.

But then the real fun started at 12:30am - like it always does. I tried everything. Finally I brought her down to our bed (which I never do) hoping I could cuddle her to bed, but she just wanted to play. So - we went back up stairs. I laid blankets down and laid down myself on the floor thinking she would just fall asleep seeing as there was nothing to do. Wrong again. She found cords and proceeded to chew on them! Yikes. So I put her in her crib and again laid down on her floor. Screamed.

So, in desperation, we went for a car ride at 2am. She feel asleep before we had been driving for 10 minutes. I got her back in the house, carried her in her (not so light) car seat managing not to wake her up and set her on the floor in her room. Before I had the chance to close her door - the dog shook making his tags on his collar jingle. She woke up. So - again we went out. This time it took a bit longer to get her to sleep. But she finally did fall asleep and I opened the windows in the car, covered her with a blanket, brought her monitor out to the garage and went to bed myself feeling a bit bad at my unorthodox way of putting my child to bed.

She slept for 2 hours. Then I brought her upstairs, made her a bottle, tried a few different things and she seemed to be calm. She normally falls asleep on her own when it's the wee hours of the morning and in fact I slept for 1/2 an hour but then she woke up screaming. My husband then went up to try and try as he might she would only stay asleep in his arms.

So I went up and scooped her up and we both slept off and on in the papason chair in the living room. She threw up once but I think that was just from her overexerting herself and not sleeping enough so we got cleaned up and slept some more. At 7:30 am she was awake and crawled around playing while I slept for another hour.

Then my nanny arrived, and seriously I could have hugged her! She only comes over once or twice a week, but if ever there was a day I needed her it was today! I handed her the baby, explained the situation and that I wouldn't be going to my midwifery meeting that morning but back to bed and I was gone.

I slept for 2 blissful hours, showered, did a home visit for a client of mine, got a coffee and then got my nails done. Frivolous I know, but sometimes, you need to. Lucky for me I had a groupon for just that - a mani/pedi - that was expiring soon so I managed to sneak in an appointment. Now I have beautiful fingernails and toenails and came home to a sleeping baby. Bliss.

I have to admit that I have nannied for some SAHM's before and although I was grateful for the job and the extra cash, I wondered what they did that made them need a nanny when they didn't have another job besides raising their kids. Although I don't think I would have a nanny if I wasn't also doing midwifery part time besides raising my daughter - I was sure grateful to be able to check out for 8 hours today.