A month later... some reflections

Sweet, sweet boy. I Love him so much. All those long days of waiting seem pretty far away now.

I am really glad he is here. I was reading back over my posts from this pregnancy. I feel very, very fortunate that our best case scenario seems to have played out. He had the milder of the two antigens, and this was my first pregnancy sensitized to that one. He looked great, anemia-wise, the whole pregnancy. The fluid thing seemed to have resolved itself. He came a wee bit early for me.

I was so pleased with my care this time. Other than my the whacked out billing issues with their office (which I am hoping to get resolved this week), both of my doctors were really great to work with. I was really surprised how much I ended up liking the perinatologist. He was very understanding of my desire to be cautious and yet to keep things low-key if possible. He was encouraging of my choice to vbac and understood that it was important to me to go into labor on my own as long as things kept looking well. I felt very much like an equal partner in my care. I don't recall once being talked down to. My previous experiences and knowledge of my body were given weight in making decisions.

My experience with birthing in the hospital was overwhelmingly positive, also. Even Grouchy Nurse and Pushy Resident didn't really bother me. I felt so surrounded by Joe's and my support team's good... um, energy? supportiveness? (I am not sure the right, non-hippieish word I am looking for) that any negativity just bounced off me. I felt protected but I also felt the strength to advocate for myself. This was really important to me and something I had been concerned about. I got there at just the right time- not so early that I was messed with excessively and not so late that pushing out the baby was a chaotic experience. I was so pleased that everyone was really respectful of that time immediately postpartum, which happens so rarely. It was like everyone in the room really got it.

Oh, I could go on with my reflections about the birth and likely will in another post. But for now, I hear a little boy squeaking himself awake and 4 other littles that need to be directed to get ready for the day.