16 Weeks

Today we met with Tiffini, our midwife, for our 16 week check-up. It was pretty routine but we did talk a little bit about the hospital. The hospital I'll be delivering at is a baby-centered hospital. Which means they support a lot of my labor and delivery choices. This is exciting for me considering I really didn't feel I got what I needed last time.

Don't get me wrong. The hospital I delivered at in Tucson, Arizona is an awesome hospital. They do really great things every day. You might have heard everything they did for Congresswoman Giffords after that awful shooting. At the time I was a hospital employee and I have no complaints for them as an employer, and honestly few complaints about how everything operated during labor and delivery. The problem lied in their inability to listen to my requests for birth.

Rich and I have decided that delayed cord clamping is best for our baby. This means not clamping and cutting the umbilical cord right after birth, thereby letting all of the good nutritional blood in the placenta to flow into the baby. It's supposed to be very beneficial to the baby and I figure, why not? I wanted this with Braedan but apparently my doctor didn't think it was important.

We also decided that letting the baby be skin to skin for as long as possible right after birth is something we want to do. I believe this is called kangaroo care and it's supposed to help initiate breastfeeding. I've mentioned before that I didn't get the breastfeeding experience I wanted to have with Braedan. So I'm really determined to be successful at it this time. I'm willing to do whatever I can to increase my chances of doing it successfully.

The great thing? This is standard practice for my midwife (and happens often at the hospital) so I won't really have to fight for it this time. I can be comfortable knowing that even if I am as exhausted and out of it as I was last time, my midwife knows what I want and will advocate for that. Not to mention I have an awesome husband who knows what I want and will be there for me every step of the way. Can you get better than that?

In other news we scheduled our next appointment...which includes our anatomy scan. Yes folks, we know the date we will find out if Baby Liggett is a boy or a girl. Hold your breath for January 3rd!