I’m happily back in Toronto after my week away at the cottage. It was a beautiful place, and it was lovely to see my father and brother.
But…
Everyone besides MFH and myself were the worst combination of locus and mess makers. I’d wake up in the morning and there’d be half-eaten food and trash everywhere. It took MFH and me a good hour every morning to clean the main living area. That gets old fast and certainly makes for a less than relaxing vacation. We’ve both decided we probably won’t stay the whole week next year. (It’s one thing to clean up after 3 grown men in general; doing it with a six month old seems like a whole other ordeal all together.)
But…
In the middle of the week, we drove back into Toronto for a series of appointments. The first was meeting my other midwife, M2. (I’d like to take this moment to explain the M1/M2 thing. My midwives and I all share the same base variant of a name. M2 and I actually have the exact same name. It’s confusing, and a little hilarious. So M1/M2 isn’t me being an ass by not giving them their own distinctions…it’s actually the easiest way to keep them separate and confidential.)
M1 was super zen and really helped chill me out. M2 was more excited and really solid energy-wise. I still left there feeling happy about the status of the Spawn, but it was more empowerment than calm. The two of them have never worked together as a team, but I feel like the combination is perfect for me.
M2 spent most of the appointment asking me questions about my history and health. We had a long talk about my past with eating disorders, and a little clarification on my OCD. After that she had me lie down and got out the doppler.
I’d heard so many women describe the sound of the heartbeat as “galloping.” I don’t know if it’s because I’ve done so much actual galloping in my life, but it didn’t sound like that at all to me. It was a rhythmic, wet whooshing nose, a bit like mixing cake batter by hand. It was also a lot slower than a gallop. (But still fast at 144 beats per minute.)
It was such a great moment for me. It was the first actual proof of life I’ve had in this pregnancy, and without the expected morning sickness and what not, I found that I really, really needed it. In the brief moments before M2 found it, I was panicking that there was no heartbeat, and this would be the end. Luckily, just as I started to worry, the whooshing started. I couldn’t stop laughing.
MFH and I had a bit of a break after, but I had to drink something like 6 cups of water before my ultrasound, so I got to work on that. I wish I could properly define the agony that holding all that water was like. Alas, I cannot. I can tell you that at one point I started sweating from needing to pee so badly. That was a neat trick. It occurred to me that the six cups was probably a general average and not a good idea for someone of my stature. Sure enough, when I finally got called in for my appointment, the Ultrasound Technician was like, “Nope, you’re too full. Go pee.”
I could have kissed her.
So, after peeing for what felt like fifteen minutes, I went back in and got to see the Spawn. I didn’t cry, but it was a really moving thing to see the actual little baby inside me. After she took all the required measurements, the Tech went out into the waiting room and got MFH. With MFH in the room, she took the time to show us all the parts. She was a bit offended that the Spawn had his/her face turned away from the Ultrasound wand, and kept trying to get the Spawn to face us. She asked me to cough, and every time I did, the Spawn did this:
It was HILARIOUS.
After that high, we went off so I could get my blood and urine workup. Again, the blood taking was quite easy. I didn’t even bruise. It will be awhile before I get the results, but I’m fairly unconcerned. Any information we get back is simply information to arm ourselves with, and I intend on treating it as such.
With M1 and M2 on our side, it’s hard to imagine something we couldn’t handle together.
Made in Toronto 