“Your baby is the size of a large eggplant,” it read.
“This thing always compares my baby to food,” I always say as I scroll through the interactive BabyCenter app. Weekly, it displays the signs of growth I should expect and provides tools to prepare me, as my due date slowly approaches. My favorite feature of this app is the interactive diagram showing the physical changes happening to my body and the rapidly growing little one inside me. At 28 weeks and wrapping up my second trimester, I reflect on the last 14 weeks.
During the early part of my second trimester, my patience wore thin with my current physician and the short, impersonal appointments. So my boyfriend and I buckled down to interview and choose a midwife. We were both comfortable with the role and practices of midwifery — a natural, even and holistic approach to birth, and we didn’t have to put much thought into the decision to use a midwife. It, ultimately, boiled down to convenience. We discovered and interviewed two extremely knowledgeable midwives who had rave reviews.
In the end, we decided to hire Lindsay Huckabee (@huckabeebirth on Facebook) from Gulfport, Miss. She is a traveling midwife who makes in-home prenatal visits, will lead the labor and delivery at home and also makes postpartum visits. She booked my prenatal appointments in the evenings when I needed, and we’ve had a few appointments that have lasted up to two hours. When I was seeing a physician, we barely met for 30 minutes over the course of several visits. Our experience so far with Lindsay has been ideal. Each of our sessions is informative; we have unwavering trust in her, and she has shown much love for our new family.
In addition to hiring a midwife, we needed to find a new obstetrician. My previous physician didn’t support midwifery practices. After we informed her of our decision to give birth at home, she immediately dropped me as a patient. After receiving suggestions from Lindsay, I found a new OB, who, in the event that I would need a hospital transfer, would then take the place of Lindsay, and Lindsay would become my doula. Now we’re prepared and feel confident in our approach to caring for our first child prior to his “birth day.”
On October 31st, we made our first visit to our new physician. We would learn if the little one I’d been carrying for 19 weeks was a young king or a young queen. We opted for a more intimate reveal over the newer party, confetti and smoke clouds of pink and blue. We assembled the crib for our little one, sat down in front of it with a propped up phone, and hit record. (See gender reveal video here)
Now we are in the homestretch! As I enter the final trimester of my pregnancy, I not only reflect on this journey of becoming “Mommy Queen,” but I am emotionally full. I have cried several times, sat in deep thought, struggled with what foods actually fill me up, remained physically fit, still have not thrown up (*fist pump*) and have that different kind of glow going on. “You got this, Mommy!” is still on my dry erase board, and I still look at it and nod believing, “I know I do!”
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