On Dec. 28, 2017 I spent the day taking care of business with my mama. I finally met the OB who will deliver Baby Chachere. I currently live 4 hours away from home so I’ve been doing all my prenatal work so far with an OBGYN here in the Bay Area, whom I LOVE! However, because I will be moving home and delivering in Bakersfield where my mom is a Registered Nurse, a different doctor will be delivering the baby. My mom has known her for years, in fact, she’s my sisters’ OB haha. We have the same religious views and thats also very important to me. She was very informative and down to earth. Having a mom as a an OG nurse also guarantees that the nurses will be on their best behavior hehe (:
Funny story, I have been so adamant about typing up a detailed so-called “birth plan.” Which is basically a document with all my wants and needs listed for all the nurses and doctors so I don’t have to repeat myself. For example, a statement making it clear I want an epidural lol, immediate skin to skin, delayed cord clamping, and things like that. But my new OBGYN made it clear that I DO NOT need to bring any sort of thing, in fact, she told me not to. She said birth plans are for OCD control freaks and I’m like uuuhhh “hey that’s me, over here! Type A mom probs.” She also said that nurses and doctors hate that, so I’m glad she said that. I don’t want to start off on a bad note with the people who have my life and Baby Chachere’s life in their hands lol.
She also made another interesting comment: “Hurricanes are ‘natural’ sometimes nature is destructive so go with the flow and make decisions as they come. You don’t get an award for having a natural birth and you don’t get some huge discount because you decide to have a drugless birth.” Which leads to my next point, I had a financial meeting with my doctor’s office and hospital and I am so blessed to be able to say that my hospital expenses and doctor expenses are 100% covered under my family’s health insurance, which is extremely rare, once again, my parents are the best & I’m just so blessed. With that said, my parents are also trying to get used to me paying for my own copays and little things like that and it’s kinda cute/funny, but I just keep reminding my dad that I’ve been working really hard and saving my money so none of my expenses come out of their pocket. I mean, I chose to have a baby and all this stuff is MY responsibility, that’s kinda how I look at it. It’s really hard for them not to pay for things but like I said, they’re getting better at it. In fact, as soon as Andre and I found out we were pregnant we began saving entire paychecks for our little guy and all of his needs and putting it into an account strictly for him; I must say, this was the smartest thing we’ve ever done.
During my hospital registration appointment I decided to pass on birthing classes because Andre will be away and I feel like YouTube has done the job. The only thing I’ll for sure request is to see a lactation specialist. Because let’s face it, breastfeeding is TOUGH. All the stuff about, it comes natural, is somewhat BS to me.
Because my mom is a well-known RN in our town, she was able to give me a detailed tour of the Delivery Ward. The labor suite is very spacious, there are two couches, one is a pull out couch, the bathroom was a little small but that’s the least of my worries. I had no idea labor beds were so narrow lol, I was looking at it like “how is my huge self going to fit comfortably on that thing?” haha. I also got a feel for the pillows, definitely bringing one from home.
Needless to say, I got really emotional before I even got to the labor room; I just felt so many emotions all at once: fear, realization, reality set it, excitement. I was expecting to hear people screaming and see little newborns everywhere but it was so serene, quiet, clean, and peaceful; and the all little babies were tucked away with their mommies.
All my other visits to hospitals have been really traumatizing and I feel like I’ve never really been to a hospital for a good reason so that feeling of emotion overwhelmed me also: the feeling that for once, I would be going here to be given the greatest gift on Earth.
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