In case you did not know me when Vinny was born, I will explain. When I was 38 weeks pregnant with Vinny, we went camping and Marc got burned in a freak marshmallow accident (no, I am not kidding). He also somehow got something that he was allergic too (probably poison oak, maybe something else) in the open 2nd degree burn wound that weekend, because he promptly broke out in a crazy splotchy rash on his arms that also caused his face to swell. The next day, he went into urgent care, and the idiot doctor said it looked like he had the measles. Um... what? Who gets that any more? We definitely wanted a second opinion, but couldn't get an appointment with our primary care doctor for several days. Later that day, I headed into my OB to find out that I had preeclampsia. Joy. They wanted to induce right then. I cried and explained that Marc looked like quasimodo and they called another urgent care in our HMO and talked her into seeing him that night and gave me until the next morning.
The dr that saw Marc confirmed that it was not measles and gave him a shot of steroids to calm the allergic reaction, but she ordered blood work to prove to the hospital that he was not contagious, as scary as he looked. Blood work couldn't be done until the next day though, so I headed in to be induced sans husband. By the time Marc showed up several hours into the whole process, I was in active labor and crying for him to get there to support me, and he was looking less like quasimodo from the second shot of steroids, but still freaky. At least he made it in time for the birth, although he was so drugged, he sat in a chair by my side trying to stay with it enough to be of some support to me. Seriously... Vinny's first pictures are a funny sight. Here is a picture of Marc and Vinny. Note the puffy half swollen face and the splotchy arms.
Well, everything has just seemed so calm lately. I made it to my last day at work and am now on maternity leave with no camping trips planned any time soon. In fact, we plan to stay in town all week and there are no risky activities planned at all, so everything should go just as planned, right?
As Thomas LaMance once said, "Life is what happens while we are busy making other plans," and it just couldn't be truer. Back in June, I started to really question my decision to stick with the same OB office as I was with when I had Vinny. They have 4 doctors that they just rotate you around and you just get whoever is on call when it is time to deliver. The doctor I ended up with was my least favorite of the bunch, and frankly, as sarcastic as I am myself, I just didn't appreciate his sarcasm in the labor and delivery process. He actually said to me at one point, "Having a baby hurts you know..." when I was complaining about his lack of gentility in his frequent checks of my progress. Yeah, I am a bit of a whiner when I am in pain, but seriously... isn't he supposed to sort of expect that? There were other issues too, but I will not go into those. So... anyhow, about June I was starting to wonder, is this office really my only HMO choice? So I started to look around. I found a doctor in Moorpark and decided to switch.
He has been fantastic. Great bedside manner, very personal, and very attentive. I felt very comfortable with the idea of him delivering my child and certain that he would listen to my wants and needs and treat me with respect in the labor and delivery room.
Then I went to my appointment this morning...
Everything is great with the baby. I'm 2cm dilated and ready to go, nst showed lots of baby movement and steady heart rate, and the monitors showed that I had like 2 small contractions in the 25 minutes I was on it. Great, right? Oh, but, surprise. The doctor no longer has the ability to deliver at Simi Hospital. Uh... what? So does this mean that I need to switch hospitals? No, apparently my HMO does not have a contract with the one hospital that my OB now has rights at. What does this mean? This means at 39 weeks pregnant, I need to find a new OB. Well, to be more specific, this means going back to my old OB, because they are pretty much the only OB affiliated with my HMO and the hospital that my HMO has a contract with.
To be fair... this is not the worst thing that could happen. I like Simi Hospital and didn't want to have to switch hospitals. I like the other 3 doctors at my old OB, and the doctor I spoke to on the phone today even said that we could talk about inducing my labor some time this week on a day when a doctor I like is on call. I don't know that I really want to be induced, but I guess that is something I can throw around in my head. I have an appointment tomorrow, so we will see how it goes.
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