My mum keeps wanting to know how things are going with the midwives. This post is supposed to answer that request.
I keep everything I could possibly need in the next 24 hours (and beyond) in my car. That means I can sleep, eat, do homework, shower, change my clothes, attend a birth and go dancing or running or skiing anywhere at a moment's notice.
Friday I was waffling between driving 2.5 hours to contra-dance in Belfast or driving 1 hour to have dinner with friends in Portland. Before I had a chance to make up my mind I recieved a call from Dr. Sarah and got on the 1.5 hr. stretch to Topsham: Somebody was having a baby. On the way, I realized the comfy birth-appropriate pants I was wearing were pink- a big nono (wearing pink or red is said to encourage bleeding....). Not wanting to spend the night in jeans (my other option) I ran into Target to buy me a pair of pants on the way.
We arrived at the mama's house with all our birth supplies at about dinner time, so started with that- the family had made glorious pulled pork, and we had brought salad and frozen pizza. To make a long story short, it was a lovely dinner date, but the mum was not, in fact, in labor (just uncomfortable and anxious). Her cervix was so far posterior I couldn't even reach it.
Unfazed, off I went to Portland for a sleepover (my second unplanned sleepover in as many nights) with classmates Lara and Teresa (Portland is nice and close to the mum in question's house, in case she decides to go into labor after all that cervical stimulation from the vag exam). Saturday morning dawns, no baby.
I decide to hang out in the city and do some homework, maybe some shopping. Then I get a text from Jen, my landlady reminding me I am running a sauna that afternoon at the house. Shit. I get back in my car, thankfully the plows have cleared the worst of the snow that has turned to rain.
As I drive up my road with minutes to spare, I swerve to avoid a pothole and....plant my car firmly in a snow bank. Shit. Shit. Shit. Let's just say that I can dig all I like but nothing beats a friendly person with a pickup truck and a rope.
The sauna went very well, in the end, but I was a mess by the end of all that jazz.
Today is Sunday. Stitch and study day. Lauren and Andriana and all three Buhlers are here. Baby B is being very chill. I'm still out of soup ideas so we're having apple basil cheese quiche and molasses-rye bread. And I am walking on eggshells because mama number two for March may or may not be in early labor and I may or may not have to run off with bread half-baked only to miss her birth becuase she lives two hours away and has had 3 babies already.....
asi es la vida de las parteras...
As usual, photos courtesy of Lauren Romero: http://www.flickr.com/photos/larlar1286/
 |
| baby B is a ladykiller. |
 |
| Andriana, me , Lauren, Babe |
 |
| The most snow we've had all winter. In March. Classic. |
 |
| Spurr-of-the-moment too-much-snow-to-drive-home pizza-fun-club sleepover food. |
