Breastfeeding Baby Jesus

A beautiful artistic rendition of a topic I'd never really considered before.....





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Busy, busy month!

My business partners and I have been extremely busy keeping up with all the "Snowmageddon babies" that were conceived during our back-to-back-to-back blizzards of last February! On November 10th and 11th, we did four births in under 36 hours! That might be a new record for our partnership!!

So...... my personal belated congratulations to the couples I worked with:

Jia and Matt, who gave birth to a baby girl, Leila, on November 11 at their home; it was a lovely homebirth for their second baby, and a personal victory for Jia, as her first labor two years ago had been long and difficult. This one was sweet and rewarding!

Kristina and John, who birthed their baby, Katherine, at our birthing center on November 16. This was their first baby, and Kristina did an AMAZING job of staying relaxed and calm all the way through the birth process! Good job, mama!!

And just yesterday, Ksenia and Adam gave birth -- after an EXTREMELY long labor -- to their beautiful little girl, Anastasia at our birth center in Virginia. I'm so incredibly proud of her; she was in ACTIVE labor for nearly 44 hours (71 hours total if you include early labor!) -- and she never ONCE asked to be taken to the hospital. This was a difficult struggle of a birth, and she did it!! Congratulations to this lovely family!

On top of all of this have been my interviews with a new childbirth organization to potentially be hired as a regional representative/teacher trainer. I had a first interview on Tuesday and was called back on Friday for a second, follow-up interview. I don't know when I'll know for sure whether or not I got the position, but I'm hopeful! More information to follow on that soon, hopefully!!

I'm being very bad today -- skipping church!! -- but after being away from my house for about 40 hours and hardly sleeping in two nights, I needed a break today!!

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2nd VBAC for Carole!

Congratulations to Carole and Ross, who welcomed baby Asher into their family this evening! This was Carole's second successful VBAC, and I was incredibly blessed to work with these two fabulous people. Getting to see their four older daughters (two biological, two adopted) arrive at the hospital afterwards to meet their new brother was absolutely priceless! What a joy! Welcome to the world, little boy -- and thank you to the whole family for allowing me to be part of such a special day.

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Happy Birth-Day......

....to baby Lorenzo, born this evening at 5:08 pm to parents Holly and Chris (and big brother Jake)!  Lovely homebirth of an 8 lb., 11 oz., 22" long baby boy! Parents and baby are happy, healthy, and doing well -- midwives and birth assistants could do with a bit more sleep!!  :) 

Welcome to the world, little boy!!

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Birth Announcement!!

We interrupt this series of Honduran posts to announce the birth of beautiful little Chesed Joy -- I was told her name refers to God's covenant kindness!! She was born Monday evening around 8 pm after only a four hour labor, and weighed in at 7 pounds, 1 ounce. Congratulations to the parents, Laura and Joel, and big sister, Grace. Welcome to the world, little girl!!

Welcome to the world!

With the beginning of the school year, recovering from the last wedding, and planning for my upcoming trip to Honduras, I haven't had much of an opportunity to write lately.  However, I just needed to say -- welcome to the world, baby Andrew (born at home Friday, Sept. 17, weighing in at 8 lbs., 14 oz.) and baby Zoey (born last night, Sept. 19, at the birth center, 8 lbs. 12 1/2 oz.)  Thanks to their wonderful families for allowing me to be part of their birth!

And now to get some of those postpartum visits done (and catch up on some SLEEP!!!)

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The dresses have arrived -- and so have all the babies!!

Such a busy, busy week -- no time for writing, just SURVIVAL!  I've had a birth last Wednesday PM into Thursday AM; another one late Thursday PM into Friday AM; and then another in the early hours of Monday!  So many babies!! 

While I was at Friday's birth, Morgan texted me to let me know that the wayward bridesmaids' gowns had finally arrived!!  One day, when I've got more time and I'm feeling a bit calmer, I will have to write in detail about our ordeal with House of Brides.  For now, it will suffice to say that they will NEVER get a good recommendation from me for future clients.  The order placed with them was by far the most stressful part of the wedding planning, and I can't believe how unhelpful they were. 

Other wedding plans are going well; food is selected and will be ordered shortly; Solomon's mom has the plans for the rehearsal dinner well under control; we're working on lots of little tiny details, but all in all, I think things are going OK.  Either we're pretty well-organized or I'm missing something major that will come crashing down soon!!!  I don't feel terribly stressed about anything, so that is GOOD!!!  I still need to find time to go dress shopping for ME, but other than that, things are going pretty well!

Bryanna texted yesterday and sent pictures of her apartment in Abilene.  It sounds like they're getting settled quickly and making some new friends, so it's all good.  Hope their cat Patches is settling in, too -- that cat does NOT like change in her life.

And I think I need to be off and hitting the road...... need to get to the library today, need to take care of ordering some items, need to meet with Solomon's mom about some things -- AND Vacation Bible School is going on this week at our church in the evenings.  Never a dull moment!!

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Busy, busy days

I keep thinking I need to post, but the days just keep getting away from me...... So much going on and so little time!!

On the wedding front:  the gown fitting scheduled for last week had to be postponed due to an "emergency" at the bridal store!  So we're re-scheduled for next Thursday; hopefully, this will work out.  The invitations are being printed by my brother-in-law (a professional printer -- nice to have talent in the family!) and should be done any day now.  The invitations Morgan chose are a bit of an "assembly project" and are going to take some time to put together and mail, so I hope we can get started on them ASAP.  I'll post pictures of them after we get them back..... Other preparations are going slowly, but surely.  I'm feeling strangely calm about all of this -- so why do I get the feeling that I'm either forgetting something very important or it's all going to hit the fan at the last minute???

In addition, our 2nd daughter has decided to get married to her boyfriend.  He's in the Air Force and will be transferred to Texas sometime in mid-to-late July, so it looks like there's going to be a small, rushed wedding in the next few weeks as well...... Just when I thought life couldn't get any crazier....

I needed to have some bloodwork done (complete with fasting..... sigh.....), so I got up early on Wednesday to get to the lab.  It was a quick in-and-out, as I went first thing in the morning.  By the time I came home, it was only about 8 AM, and I was WIDE awake and motivated to get things done.  So I started tackling my office/junk room.  Of course, when you start to de-clutter, you make more of a mess by opening boxes, moving stuff around, trying to re-organize...... you know how that works.  I was right in the midst of this chaos when I got a call from another gal who works at our birth center.  She'd already been at one long birth this week, and was now in the midst of another very long birth, with no end in sight -- and she was beyond exhausted.  She was looking for someone to come in and take over for her.  Even with my disastrous mess, I couldn't say no -- I know that feeling of being drop-dead tired all too well!!  When I arrived at the birth center in Virginia, I found that since we had spoken on the phone, the midwife and pregnant couple had made the decision to transfer to the hospital, so I ended up just staying for a bit more than an hour, cleaned the birth center, and drove back home to Maryland.

Fortunately, I left before rush hour, so the drive home was uneventful.  I was still full of energy and went back to tackling the room and making dinner......... UNTIL........  I got a call that one of MY couples might be in labor!!  Off to bed I ran, hoping to get a short nap -- but the phone rang and rang, and next thing I knew, my couple was calling back, saying I needed to come NOW!!  Yikes -- another drive back to Virginia -- why didn't they do this a few hours earlier while I was still in Virginia???  Fortunately, it was an extremely short birth for a first-time mom; baby was born by 9:45 pm.  We did have a lot of issues with bleeding after the birth, but nothing we couldn't handle; just ended up having to stay for a few extra hours to make sure all was well.  I got back home about 3:30 AM, now VERY tired (sure used up all that energy!!) and collapsed on the sofa, falling asleep immediately.  Only to be wakened........

....... at 7:00 AM by the phone ringing again!!!  This time, another local midwife, one I don't normally work with, was at a nearby Army base doing a homebirth and her birth assistant was tied up at another home with another client -- and she needed someone NOW!!  Fortunately for her (unfortunately for ME!!), I was so tired, I agreed to come, and it probably wasn't until I was several miles up the road that I found myself questioning what on EARTH I was doing, heading out yet again!!!  It was fine in the end; a lovely birth for a 3rd time mom; third son, family very nice and VERY happy.

So in less than 12 hours, I did two births of two nice large baby boys -- both of them were 9 lbs., 8 oz!!

Mackenzie leaves for camp in only a week and a half, so I need to make sure she's got enough summer clothes left that still fit (kid's been growing like a weed) and I need to get busy with packing her stuff.  Additionally, my parents just made arrangements for her to fly back to Florida with them after Morgan's wedding and spend about 1 1/2 weeks at their place, and then fly back solo -- she's going to have a BLAST!!  What a good, busy summer for her!!

Speaking of growing -- just a few weeks back, I took Kenzie out to get some new sneakers; we ended up buying a pair that was a bit large (size 6), but I figured that would be good to cover her for the summer.  Then this week, we went out to find some flip-flops and start looking at shoes for the wedding....... and now she's wearing an 8 or 8 1/2!!!  YIKES!!!  This child may end up with bigger feet than me!!

We have bought wood laminate flooring to replace the ancient carpeting in our house, and had planned to rip up the carpeting and have the flooring installed soon -- probably the weekend of July 9.  But now, daughter #2 wants us to have a family barbeque soon at our place with all her future inlaws -- why do I have the sinking feeling our "destruction period" will be right in the middle of that?  Yup, I just LOVE bringing guests into a torn-apart house -- is THAT really my idea of fun???

I'm still hoping to go to Honduras this fall for my nephew Russell's wedding...... guess I need to start working on those plans as well........

And life doesn't slow down.........  busy, busy, busy......

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A nice, big baby!!

Congratulations to my client, H, who gave birth to her third child (first daughter) last night.  This gorgeous "little" girl weighed in at a hefty 10 pounds, 12 ounces!!  Mom and baby are doing very well!!

Yes, the female body can do some pretty amazing things!!!

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The most UNNECESSARY cesarean section ever

Just when I think I've heard all I can about unnecessary c-sections, along comes a story of a woman who was not even PREGNANT, and they tried to induce, then did a section on her.  Unreal.......  Yes, I understand this woman was dealing with a mental/emotional condition and may have truly thought she was pregnant -- but why couldn't the DOCTORS figure this out during the course of the supposed induction??

http://www.fayobserver.com/Articles/2010/03/31/987295

Doctors cited in handling of false pregnancy

By Jennifer Calhoun
Staff writer

Two Fayetteville gynecologists were issued public letters of concern by the North Carolina Medical Board after a woman who was not pregnant was induced for labor and given a cesarean section.

Dr. Dorrette Grant and Dr. Gerianne Geszler received the letters in January regarding a patient suffering from pseudocyesis, a disorder in which a patient has a false pregnancy that can be caused by emotional factors, tumors or an endocrine disorder.

The incident happened at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center in November 2008 when a woman exhibiting signs of pregnancy went to the hospital with her husband asking for a cesarean section, Geszler said Tuesday.
Geszler was the attending on-call supervisor at the time. A resident in her charge made the pregnancy diagnosis, Geszler said.

As a result, Grant attempted to perform a C-section on the patient after a failed attempt at inducing labor, the board letters said.

The letters said the resident did not have enough experience to make the diagnosis and that the board is concerned that Grant and Geszler's management of the situation had "fallen below the standard of care."
Dena Konkel, a spokeswoman for the Medical Board, said the letters to Grant and Geszler amount to a formal notice expressing the board's concern about a practitioner's conduct.

The two doctors will be allowed to continue practicing, with a warning from the board that similar complaints could lead to formal disciplinary proceedings, Konkel said.

Geszler said it is not uncommon to see women with false pregnancies, but she was surprised the resident was not able to make a correct determination after examining the patient.

"It wasn't something I thought I'd have to check behind somebody on," Geszler said. "The bottom line is the woman convinced everybody she was pregnant."

In pseudocyesis, a patient can have all the signs and symptoms of pregnancy, including abdominal and breast enlargement, nausea, food cravings and cessation of menstruation.

Some patients have even tested positive on pregnancy tests, experts have said.

Geszler said the hospital has instituted new guidelines for cases such as this.

"It will never happen again," she said.

Grant practices at Women's Health Haven Obstetrics & Gynecology, according to her profile on the Medical Board's Web site. She could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Geszler practices at Breezewood Family Healthcare. At the time of the surgery, she was practicing at Women's Wellness Center.

Geszler said Tuesday she has since stopped practicing obstetrics and now focuses on anti-aging medicine at Breezewood's Center for Health and Restoration. Both doctors maintain their admitting privileges at Cape Fear Valley, according to the Medical Board's Web site.

No previous infractions were reported for either doctor on the board's Web site.
Staff writer Jennifer Calhoun can be reached at calhounj@fayobserver.com or 486-3595.

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Two babies and a nasty saleswoman!

My day in a nutshell.....

I got called to CH's birth shortly after midnight; this was a fast birth of a baby girl born at 1:45 am, weighing 8 lbs., 11 oz.  The whole thing would've been great if it hadn't been for normal hospital stupid policies......

While in postpartum with her, my cell phone went off again. This time, it was ES in labor. She was absolutely WAILING in the background. Said goodbye to C, turned on the GPS and headed over to the birth center. Arrived around 5 AM (???), baby girl born at 8:31 AM, 7 lbs., 11 oz.

E left the center at 11:40, we finished cleaning by 12:30!!! We were MOVING!!!

I got home around 1:15, picked up Mackenzie and headed to Columbia to go to a bridal shop. Morgan was SUPPOSED to call and make arrangements for us to go; unfortunately, she didn't do it. So I showed up there and was met by a VERY snooty, nasty saleswoman who wanted absolutely nothing to do with us because we didn't have an appointment. Now keep in mind this store has only been open three weeks and there was NOBODY in the store..... This gal couldn't be bothered at all to help us. In fact, she kept giving us the evil eye, as if we were there to steal all her dresses. Right -- like who can march out of a store with a bridal gown or bridesmaid dress hidden under their clothes????

Finally we left there and went to Morgan's friend's house to use the computer and see if there was another bridal store in the area we could check out.  Unfortunately, almost everything was closed on a Monday..... sigh again.....

I finally gave up, bought food at Boston Market, came home and ate dinner, and have done almost nothing since then. I'm basically killing time until it's late enough to go to bed.

Finishing up some paperwork and then time for some zzzzzzzzz's........ G'nite everyone!

Reducing Infant Mortality and Improving the Health of Babies

I just saw this fascinating, informative video on the web a few minutes ago and felt the need to share.

Reducing Infant Mortality from Debby Takikawa on Vimeo.

So, so, soooooo tired.........

Working as a birth assistant or a midwife is never easy under any circumstances -- long, unpredictable, irregular hours, limited sleep, births full of euphoria, births full of stress.  It's a constant whirlwind of driving, sleepless nights, and extremes in emotions.  It gets hard physically as I get older, and it makes me wonder how much longer I'll be able to do this job.

Just in the last five days:

Thursday AM, I was picking up carpool kids to go to our homeschool co-op (where I also co-teach two classes) when one of the midwives called and said we had a client in labor.  I told her I'd send my partner Lori, since Thursdays are a difficult day for me, and also because I already had a car full of children!!!  Just about the time I got to the co-op classes, the midwife called back and said, "I need somebody there now!!  She's starting to push!  Where are you?"  Fortunately, I was only about 10 miles or so away, so I dropped off the kids, called Lori and told her to head back home, I was taking this one!!  I arrived at 8:38 AM; the midwife arrived at 8:43 AM; the baby arrived at 8:47 AM!!!  Wow.........  followed by a hemorrhage and a baby who needed just a bit of help in getting started.  All really was fine, it just was a long, tiring morning.  And we still had violin lessons that afternoon and other errands to run..... a full, busy day.

Friday, I was supposed to take Morgan to college for her class.  However, she woke up with a migraine and decided to stay in bed.  Fine by me -- I needed some rest and a day without so much running around.  However, that changed when my hubby called in mid-afternoon, said there'd been a change in work schedules, and he would be flying in that evening from Georgia.  While it was nice to hear he was coming home, my house was a disaster, I had an already scheduled six-hour meeting with the midwives the next day (our annual training, OSHA review, practicing emergency drills, etc), plus I'd scheduled Morgan's appointment for the new hairdo -- AND Mackenzie was getting sick.  Didn't matter -- Nelson still wanted to come home.  So I spent the rest of the afternoon/evening cleaning house in preparation for his arrival.

His flight was supposed to leave Atlanta around 10 PM, arrive at BWI shortly before midnight.  However, it had been snowing heavily up north all day long, and the previous leg of his flight had originated in Pittsburgh.  His plane ended up leaving Atlanta nearly an hour and a half late.  There was no way I could sit up and wait for him -- I needed to get up at 7 AM for my meeting, and at this point, he probably wouldn't be arriving home until 1:30 or 2 AM.  When I woke in the AM, he was asleep.  I gave him a quick hug, said goodbye, and told him I'd see him in the evening.  I left for the meeting, came back in the late afternoon, swapped cars with him (got a quick hug!), and took Morgan for her 'do.  As I was coming back, I got a phone call from my partner -- we had TWO clients in labor and we both needed to get going..... sigh........ I got home, swapped cars with Nelson again, and apologized for all the craziness -- but what could I do about it?

The birth I went to turned out to be long, slow, tedious.  I arrived around 8 PM; the midwife, the student midwife and I took turns sitting with the client most of the night and trying to catch catnaps when it was our turn to rest.  I got very little rest, because I was trying to curl up and sleep on a small love seat!!

By mid-morning on Sunday, I knew there was no way I was going to be home before Nelson flew back to Georgia -- his flight was leaving at 1:30, and my client was nowhere close to birthing.  I had to call and regretfully tell him that I wouldn't get to see him, and I hoped he would have a safe flight back to Georgia.  He wasn't too pleased, but what could I do??  Plus Mackenzie was now home alone and getting sicker..... sigh......

My client's labor just kept stalling, and by late afternoon, the decision was made to transfer to the hospital.  The client, her husband, their extended family, the midwife and the student midwife all headed off to the hospital.  I stayed behind to clean the birth center -- a long job, mostly because I was exhausted at this point.

I couldn't sleep in Monday AM -- had to take Morgan to college, so I dropped her off and went to Costco to buy a few necessary items (mostly dog food!!) and do some pricing on possible wedding foods.  During this time, I got a call from the midwife that our client had finally birthed around 2:30 AM (Monday morning) and she'd had a TEN POUND, SEVEN OUNCE baby boy!!  Wow!!!  I also spoke with my client who'd birthed on Thursday about all the nursing troubles she was having.  I tried to offer her some ideas and suggestions -- I hope something will help.

I came back home, did some school work with a now very sick Mackenzie and tried to get some things done around the house.  Tired, tired, tired, moving too slowly.  I took a short nap in the evening, which was the wrong thing to do -- then I couldn't get to sleep at bedtime!!  I stayed up doing things around the house and finally told myself that this was ridiculous around 1:15 AM.  I NEEDED to be in bed.

So of course, what happened?  At 2:30 AM, one of the midwives called me.  She had another client in labor and the birth assistant was sick -- could I come help?  Uh...... yeah, sure, I guess.......... I'm DYING, but I guess that doesn't matter........!!  I drove all the way to Falls Church, VA (nearly 50 minutes non-rush hour) and by the time I arrived, the "labor" had slowed WAY down.  Thankfully, we only stayed a few hours before deciding this wasn't the real thing, and headed back home.  I arrived at 7 AM, and was able to sneak in quietly enough that I didn't disturb the dogs too much.  I just plopped on the sofa and went to sleep for two hours until the dogs and Mackenzie got up.  Later I slept about another hour, and right now, I'm so tired, I can barely see to type!!  I think I'm going to set Mackenzie up with some independent schoolwork and go take another nap......

And I'm back on call again at 10 PM -- pray for me!!!  Oh, to be 25 again.......!!!

A GREAT nickname for a New Year's Day Baby!

I attended the birth of a beautiful baby girl today, born at 9:21 AM. As the midwife and I were filling out the paperwork afterwards, she commented on the great birth date -- January 1, 2010 or 01-01-10. Dad thought about it for a second and said, "We can call her the 'Binary Baby'"!!

Welcome to the world, little Lily Marie!!

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The count is rising......

It's not the end of the year yet, but I decided to do some quick tallying anyway. Here's my baby count thus far --

January -- 2
February -- 3
March -- 3
April -- 2
May -- 4
June -- 5
July -- 1
August -- 2
September -- 3
October -- 7!!
November -- 2 (thus far!!)

So I'm up to 32 births attended for the year, and we've still got quite a few left for November and December. It's been a busy year!!

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ANOTHER birth this week????

I was called to another birth last night, and unfortunately, this one didn't end up going as smoothly as the others from this week. The mom got to 9 cms. rapidly, then just couldn't seem to get to 10. After the midwife helped her eliminate ("reduce") the last bit of cervix, she started pushing -- and she was a pushing CHAMP!! But this baby would NOT descend, and after she started passing a lot of meconium and the baby's heart tones started dropping rather low -- AND the baby was still not descending -- the decision was made to transfer to the hospital. So -- outcome is a healthy baby girl, 8 lbs., 4 oz., delivered by c-section this AM, presenting in a posterior position with the cord around her neck twice! I'm very grateful that God made is quite obvious that this baby NEEDED to be born via c-section; there's no second-guessing on this birth. The right decision was made at the right time, and everyone is healthy and happy. (Well, maybe not the midwife and I, who are exhausted and punchy!!!)

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Babies, babies, and more babies!!

My partner Lori left for vacation this week. I was more than a bit concerned, because we had FIVE clients due in a 9-day span -- due dates were the 11th, 12th, 15th, 19th and 20th, I believe. However, all but one were first time moms, and they usually tend to go overdue, so Lori thought that it wouldn't be TOO bad while she was gone..... HAH!!

She left Friday afternoon. By Saturday mid-morning, I'd received calls that TWO of our clients might be in labor -- uh-oh, not a good thing. By nighttime, they were both contracting about every 3-4 minutes, and it looked like I needed to make a decision. I could be at one birth or the other, but not both. I called my friend and former partner, Audrey, to see if she'd like to attend one of the births. No good -- the hospital she's working out was SWAMPED with people in labor, and they'd asked her to come in and help on her day off!! (Babies popping out there too!!) I called another birth assistant, but she didn't return my calls. Finally, one of the midwives started helping me make calls, and we managed to find someone who could go to the other birth at the birth center.

Around 11:45, the midwife called me back, and said that she hoped she hadn't made a bad call, as the 2nd client had phoned and said it seemed like her labor was slowing down. At that point, I really didn't care. I figured I'd go to sleep and they'd call me when they needed me. So I was absolutely shocked to be awakened by a call at 12:25: "Hey, Pam, this is J....... the baby is OUT and we can't reach the midwife.... what do we do?" Holy cow -- is this a JOKE?? Not funny!!!

But it was true! The client had tried to lay down for a while, but couldn't get comfortable; got up and walked around a bit, then decided she needed to use the bathroom -- and 10 minutes later gave birth to a cute little baby girl!!! Unbelievable birth for a first-time mom!!

The midwife and I arrived within the 1/2 hour, checked on everyone, cleaned things up, made sure all was well, and helped with breastfeeding before leaving around 4:30 AM.

While there, the midwife told me that my first client had gone to the birth center, been checked and was only 2 cms., so they sent her back home. I called the client's husband on my way home to check in and told him I'd be available for them now. So I was surprised (and not very pleased) to hear later that the clients returned to the center around 6:30 AM, and the midwife had the back-up attend instead of calling me in. I hope the client was OK with working with a birth assistant she'd never met before......

It turned out to be an extremely long, drawn-out birth, and it was probably a good thing I didn't go. The baby was not born until 5 AM Monday, meaning she'd been in labor over 30 hours. The baby's head was positioned very crookedly (called "asynclitic") and it took a lot of position changes and a lot of labor to get her head to move. However, ultimately, it did, and the client gave birth at the center to an 8 lb., 9 oz. baby girl!! Good for her!! I hear she's quite proud of herself, as she should be -- what a good job!

So on Tuesday at 3 AM, my phone rang again -- this time from the clients having baby #2. They wanted to give me a heads-up that she might be in labor. Good -- I'm going right back to sleep until you call again, thank you!! Around 5 AM,, they called again, said labor had continued, and the midwife wanted to get there before the AM rush hour traffic. So a quick shower, change my clothes, grab my bags, and I'm on my way!! I arrived around 6:30 AM, and we had a cute little baby boy at 10:30 AM! Nice, easy, straight-forward birth with clients who were very self-sufficient!! What a nice way to begin a day!!

So the total is 3 babies in 58 hours -- not bad!! Now, if at least one or both of the remaining October clients will wait until Lori returns.....

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Pray for Baby Oliver

My job, while usually fun, exciting and rewarding (though often exhausting!) does have its share of nail-biting moments, moments of despair (such as the loss of baby Logan this past summer), and times of worry. Right now is one of those "times of worry".

We had a client give birth on Monday night -- a very straightforward birth for the most part, especially for a first-time mother. Mother and baby left the birth center and went home about 5 hours later. Therefore, I was quite surprised when the midwife called me the next afternoon to tell me that the baby was in the NICU. He was EXTREMELY jaundiced, especially for being less than 18 hours old. Most pediatricians don't start to really worry about the bilirubin count until it's hitting 16 - 18; Oliver's was 26. That's terribly high by any standard.

Oliver was immediately sent to the hospital, and last night underwent a complete transfusion of all his blood. It turns out he and the mother had a blood incompatibility issue which set all this off; hopefully with the very quick treatment he received, he will have no long-term damage from this. But what a way to start off life with a new baby....... Please be praying for parents P & M and their new baby Oliver.

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A big, bouncy, baby GIRL!!!

Thankfully, after returning from NYC, I got a full night's sleep, only to be awakened at 7:30 AM with a call from a client in early labor. I headed off to her house about an hour later -- no rush, because things were just getting started. Her first two children were being watched by grandma and grandpa, who were wonderful with the children, and were also wonderful about making sure that the midwife and I were well-fed and taken care of! Great folks!!

The client's first two babies were both in the 8 pound range, so were we all surprised when out came a NINE POUND, TWELVE OUNCE baby!! Gorgeous baby; great, smooth birth; happy parents; loving siblings; hours spent in a lovely house with a beautiful view overlooking the Severn River; fabulous weather -- what more could we ask from such a fantastic day??!!

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Babies, babies, babies!!!

It's funny how often my partners and I seem to have "clumps" of births. You'd think the births should spread out randomly over the calendar, but it rarely seems to happen that way. This week has probably been the busiest week we have ever experienced in our partnership.

Baby #1 -- (and the longest of the births) -- Monday at midnight until baby boy was born at 4:17 AM on WEDNESDAY!!! (and I was the birth assistant who got to attend this marathon!!)

Baby #2 -- client came into the birth center around 4 AM Tuesday, and baby was born around 4:45 AM!!! WOW!!! My partner, Lori, got to attend a birth that was speedy!

Baby #3 -- client called for midwife and Lori to come on Tuesday evening. Lori and midwife were there about 40 minutes before baby was born -- another quick one!!

Baby #4 -- client called for midwife and my partner Audrey to come on Tuesday evening. I don't have exact times, but I know the client called around 6 pm and the baby was born by 9 PM -- so yet another speedster!

Baby #5 -- While I was sleeping off my exhaustion on Wednesday afternoon, another client called!! Audrey went to the birth center and baby was born about 1 1/2 hours after arrival.

So.......... FIVE babies in less than 40 hours -- I think that ought to be some kind of record! And I just got off the phone with Lori, who is on her way to yet ANOTHER home birth right now. If this baby is born before midnight, it will be six babies born in less than 3 days.

Did somebody forget to pass out the memo that the full moon was two weeks ago??
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