First Appointment

I found a midwife (certified nurse practioner) named Angela Detie who works with Women's Specialty Care. I had been a little nervous when I left Utah because no one was able to give me any referrals and lead me to believe the midwifery care in Las Vegas was slim to none -- not to mention rumor of poor healthcare employees in general.

Fortunately, my VT companion is a doula and helped deliver a baby where Angela worked as the midwife. I took her suggestion and had my first appointment with her at 9 weeks pregnant on August 1st. I love her already and feel very confident in her abilities. I have a tentative due-date of March 5th, however, I assume the ultra-sound will push that date back to March 12th-ish. The thought originally gave me some mixed feelings because of the potential for this baby to be due on March 10th. But I've decided it doesn't bother me anymore. Ty's death-date isn't the important date to remember and what better way to bring happiness to that day than to welcome his brother or sister into our family?

It's too early for the heart-beat to be detected by the dopplar but Angela was so kind and spent 10+ minutes with their old-school Sonogram machine, which is hard to do when you're looking for a baby the size of a grape sitting almost under my pelvic bone still. She saw the flicker of the heart-beat right away, which was good enough for me, but she kept working to find it again to make sure I could see it. So yes, there is indeed a baby growing inside me! It hasn't really felt real yet, aside from not feeling great.

What I liked about Angela is she seems sensible. She is all-for supporting an unmedicated birth, but she also would not hesitate to use necessary tools to assist in delivery, should the need arise. Her main goal and my main goal is to delivery a healthy baby, no matter what needs to happen, and I am flexible with that.

Some details I learned: 

• Centennial Hospital (about a 10-12 min drive from my house) sounds like it has the best options for  how I'd like my birth to go, even though Mt. View (5 minutes down my street where my baby appointments will be at) is a good option, too.
•  Angela said she would probably hook me up to a heplock when I check in for delivery so that I would have immediate access to IV if needed.
• No jacuzzi tubs to help with during labor, but I didn't make it into one during Aiyana's either.
• Angela seems to have more say in the intermittent-monitoring at the hospital than the midwives in Utah. That will be nice to give me more flexibility in moving around and positioning during labor.

Sickness So Far:

• Week 5: Had an inkling I might be pregnant when I suddenly craved and devoured two envelopes of crunchy, dried seaweed that my mom had brought from Thailand, all within 20 minutes. (Each envelope packet probably contained 8 sheets!) Positive prego test a couple days later.
• Week 6: Major fatigue immediately, like my other two pregnancies. Ridiculously tired!
• Week 7: Starting feeling that "bleh" sensation in my tummy, especially in the evenings, of very mild nausea. Super tired.
• Week 8: Suddenly starving and wanting to eat all the time! Or at least every two hours. As usual, first episode of vomiting here and there.Super tired continues.
• Week 9: Almost daily throw-up in the evenings (and other bodily functions out of whack!). Towards the end of the week, just in time for our Kiefer trip to Newport Beach, I was throwing up every meal. What the?? Sicker than I've ever been by morning sickness standards. Come to find out . . . I think I had a virus because Dan got sick a couple days later after I felt so much better, partially in great thanks to Carrie administering half a Unisom tablet + two Vit B12. Life saver!
• Week 10 so far: Feeling so much better, not needing Unisom-B12 combo. Tired but not crazily. What a weird, inconsitent pregnancy so far . . .