First of all, the ice and I are decidedly NOT friends.  I slipped and fell for the second time in as many weeks, on the way into the doctor's office, no less!  I'm seriously considering locking myself in the house until the weather is consistently 50 degrees or above.

The babies look great... they're both head down right now (that doesn't mean much at 21w for a singleton, but when there's two in there, they already have less room to move around, so good chance they'll stay that way).  Sexes are confirmed... definitely the same as what was under the cut in my last post.  :-D

And finally... these babies will NOT be born in the hospital, barring pre-term labor (before 35 weeks) or some other true emergency situation.  Otherwise, HELL no.  Wanna know why?  Lemme fill you in a little conversation I had with my OB this morning...

(To note, this was not with my primary OB, Dr. J.  I'm now officially being tag-teamed by him and Dr. R., the practice's "high risk" doctor.  This conversation was between me and Dr. R.)

So we look at the babies and my cervix on the ultrasound, and everything looks great.  He actually described my cervix as "just fantastic," which I gotta say... it's a little weird, but whatever.  He finishes up the exam, sits on the stool and says, "So, what else to you want to talk about?"  Since he appears to be in no hurry, I decide to dive in.  "Well, I was hoping you could tell me a little bit about what the births will look like... I've had easy labors and births historically, and certainly have never been classified as high-risk.  This is all new, and I'm not real big on interventions."

Him: "Well, when you get to the hospital, we'll do the usual things... start the IV, get the monitors hooked up, etc."
Me: "What's the IV for?"
Him: "To give you fluids, since you won't be able to eat or drink, and so that we can administer pitocin to make sure your labor progresses."
Me: "Ok" (I decided I wasn't going to argue anything at this point, because I wanted to just gather as much information as I could)
Him: "Of course, you can almost never get a good read on external monitors with twins, so we'll do an internal monitor on Baby A."
Me: "So, I'll be confined to the bed?"
Him: "Well, you'll probably be able to get into a chair, but yeah - that's pretty much it.  And I don't know if you've had epidurals with your other babies..."
Me: "I did with Jonny - I'll never do it again."
Him: "You're going to have to this time around."
Me: "Why?"
Him: "Well, your babies are both head-down, and assuming they stay that way, you can certainly try to deliver them vaginally, but even if you manage to get the first one out, a lot can happen between delivering Baby A and Baby B.  It's incredibly likely that Baby B will have to be delivered by C-Section, and if you haven't had an epidural, there's no choice but to put you to sleep for the surgery."
Me: dumbfounded, blank stare
Him: "Look, there's really just a whole host of things that can go wrong, and we have to be prepared for all of them..."

He said a bunch more stuff, but I had all but tuned him out at that point, and was trying hard not to cry.  On the other hand, it was all just so CLASSIC "birth is scary, and you don't know what you're doing, and I'm the expert" OB bullshit that I wish I'd recorded to play it back for anyone I could get to listen.

So yeah - no way in HELL I'm walking into a hospital to birth these babies if they're full-term (or close enough to count).  Yes, here, let me walk right into your gauntlet of interventions that will all but guarantee that these babies will have the worst possible entry into this world, possibly put them at serious risk, and ensure that  I'll have a horrific recovery.  Please, I'm all about that!

Fuck the machine that goes PING!

I called Lee as soon as I left the office, nearly sobbing I was so upset.  He responded perfectly... "Baby, settle down.  We can do whatever you want."  He may be a total shit along the way, but he always comes through.  :)

Of course, he followed that with, "When exactly did you become Grizzly Adams?" and something about giving birth out back in the woods.  Yes, no serious conversation can be had without a little ribbing, but that's ok.

So, we are now on a serious hunt for a midwife.  I already have the appointment scheduled at CHOICE for 3/26, and I've left a message for Kathy Mitchell.  If any of you have additional recommendations/contact info, I'm all ears!