Yay! UMaine is in the Frozen Four. As the most unlikely hockey fan, ever, this makes me happy. Of course, watching the game the announcers from the regional ESPN channel that was being fed to the local station were obviously incredulous of Maine’s victory — they beat the #1 East seed, Michigan State, but really, when the score is 4-3, the right words are "Maine is leading" not "Michigan is almost tied up!" Maybe it was like "oh, shit, our script is all fucked up, this was supposed to be All Michigan!" Anyway, yay, Frozen Four, and we got to watch the victory with time left to spare to get to the hopsital for our last CBE class.
This class had the much-awaited tour, and that was neat. I was really surprised to see that the L&D rooms were so …. small. Like, that’s all the room you need for bringing forth a new life? Wow. Our bedroom is certainly bigger, and we have a small house. Saw the ‘shower unit,’ which they hype on their website, and seriously? It’s a closet they turned into a shower that they stash wheelchairs in. If I want it, I’ll ask for it, but I was really hoping that their mention of the word ‘showers’ on their L&D FAQ meant that each ROOM had a shower… not the case. Hopefully, if I want a shower, I’ll still fit into the cubby that holds it. The L&D rooms overlook the Penobscot, and the Waterworks (yay!, well, what’s left of them) but like I’ll give a rat’s ass what the view is when I’m there for real. They have birth balls, and squat bars, and there’s at least a bathroom in each L&D room. We walked by the nursery and saw a brand new baby with lots of dark hair and heard about that, and then we visited a postpartum room. Unfortunately, all of the single rooms were occupied, so we saw a double — they put women into singles first, then start putting women in doubles, and only when all the doubles are occupied with at least one person do they start with roommates, so that’s good. I guess it’s fairly rare to have a full house, though. Postpartum rooms seem to have a view of the parking lot, and the Standpipe.
In the core of the floor are the operating & OR recovery rooms, and the NICU. The NICU is literally right outside the L&D stretch of rooms, and from the postpartum side, it’s all glass windows with curtains, and the eerie blue glow of what I assume are UV lights? coming through the fabric. Knowing what a NICU is intellectually, and peripherally of people who’ve had kids in it, it just made my stomach clench a bit in fear for myself and empathy for whoever was certainly in that eerie blue light behind the curtains.
I also felt, again, totally validated that I’m in the right practice. A woman due a few says AFTER me has already been scheduled a C-section, because the baby is breech. Well, so what? She’s 33 weeks pregnant, almost, was scheduled LAST week at 32, and given the option of delivering at 38 or 39w. She also talked about the other things that really bugged her about her doc, like that he never had time to answer her questions so she was always calling a friend that’s an NP to get clarification. and even said "I’m an educated person, and I can’t imagine what it must be like for someone who doesn’t have the resources I have…" I mean, scheduled C! by 32 weeks! In the discussion of breech babies, it came up that my practice is the only one that does external version, and I feel QUITE confident that I would never be scheduled for a C for a breech at 32w baby.
In other news, the hallway is doooonnneeeee. Pics soon, but the paint is up, the trim, the finish nail holes filled in, tape removed, etc. Next steps are to clean (de-dust) the hall closet, and de-dust the baby room and work on getting the last of my crafty/not-baby related stuff packed up. Dave will put together the changing table this week, which will relaly be key in getting everything to fall into place, I think, because then I can get my diapers set up and all of our little health and beauty stuff (lotions & creams & stuff) sorted.
Tomorrow I present my seminar, which is, err, in progress. The deal is that I do my presentation, and then write a paper (due in May, like everything else!) with more details, and I definitely have enough for my seminar presentation, and have lots of great articles for my paper, so I at LEAST have that. I also find it fascinating, because I have found internet social connections so natural to create and maintain, and it’s not that I don’t think I am too shy or otherwise incapable of forming local social connections, but that it’s certainly hard to find like-minded people with my geographic limitations. Especially when it comes to the advent of new motherhood — I’m sure, or hoping, that that experience in and of itself is enough to have a common ground, but all of our CBE classes have only really reinforced that we have pretty different beliefs than most of our peers — even the pregnant ones. Not that breastfeeding, or wanting to have the least interventions possible, or being anti-circ or any of that makes us BETTER or WORSE, it’s just … it makes me feel very much like I’m one of Them and they aren’t. Or vice versa. I do plan on going to the local support groups, like the postpartum and breastfeeding ones, or LLL, but I wonder how many people actually go to THOSE, you know? Anyway.
Childbirth Education — check. Hallway done — check. Nursery arrangement on deck, shower next weekend, and it’s all downhill from there, right?