A Dizzy Day

This morning I stayed home while my family went to church. I felt normal when I woke up except that I was very hungry. Instead of eating though, I took a shower and got ready for church. I went downstairs, feeling weak and in a hurry to get some food to my stomach. But the food tasted funny and I could hardly eat. I stood up to make coffee so we could drink it on the way to church, but I started feeling dizzy and lightheaded. I hurried to the sofa and laid there awhile, puzzled about what was wrong. I still don't know what happened, other than I must have waited too long to eat!

While I was resting on the sofa and my family was at church, I picked up the book I've been reading, "Diary of a Midwife," by Juliana van Olphen-Fehr. It is an excellent book, and I could not put it down. Juliana tells many stories of the labors and births of her clients, and she shares candidly her experiences with hospital births. I know I could not be a midwife, though I find their work extremely interesting and valuable to the lives of childbearing women. I wish there were more of them and that the medical community would accept them for the professionals that they are.

I am feeling better now, though my stomach feels all tight and stretchy today. Maybe the baby is having a growth spurt! I took a nap when Clara slept and I haven't felt dizzy anymore. Just hungry and thirsty all the time. It is truly amazing how much food a pregnant woman can put away!

It's a Beautiful Place

Birth and Women's Center in Dallas, Texas is at the top of my list of most beautiful places to have a baby. You should look at some of their pictures! It is an old home with wood floors that squeak when you walk across them, antique furniture, lovely black and white pictures of pregnant women and babies, and an old staircase. Embraced by a midwife who views each pregnancy as normal until proven otherwise, a woman can enter motherhood with peace and the knowledge that thousands of others have walked that path before her. Here, there were no sterile lobbies with padded blue chairs and coffee tables with magazines, and 30 expectant women waiting their alloted 3 minutes with the doctor. There was no glass window with a busy secretary hollering your name behind it. Pregnancy and birth are beautiful, and so should be the place where she hears the heartbeat of her little one, and where she works to bring that little one from her womb and into her arms.

In the pictures of the Exam room, you can see the patterns on the wall. Before I went there, I didn't realize what those patterns were, but it turns out those are actual footprints of babies that have been born at the center! It is amazing to see all those little prints walking on the walls. Their names and birth weight are listed next to their footprints. Siblings who were not born at the center are encouraged to put their thumbprints next to the baby's footprints, so that sometimes there is a nice little row representing a whole family that used the birth center. It is one of those special touches that you just won't find at any hospital.

I am thrilled that we are going there for my prenatal appointments and for the birth of our baby!