Week 16: Change up

As happy as Tom and I have been about the soon-coming arrival of a new little one there has been one rain cloud in the whole matter.
My dearly beloved midwife, Diane, (without whom I’m certain Jacob would still be stuck in my birth canal—or would have exited via c-section) is no longer at her practice. She went MIA about nine months after Jacob was born. When I heard the news, I promised not to procreate until I found her. I got news in late December that she would be practicing again within a reasonable drive from our home.
Not entirely coincidentally, I found out we were expecting three weeks later.
But, THEN, the saga continued when I found out Diane had changed practices yet again, and this one would require a 2-and-a-half-hour drive (plus the actual waiting and appointment time).
As silly as it might sound, I was positive I was incapable of childbirth without her help and resolved to make the drive. Then, I remembered it wouldn’t just be me making a sacrifice. I imagined the toll it would take on Tom’s schedule (we only have one car) and on Jacob (we wouldn’t be able to leave him with a sitter for that long for financial reasons) and remembered that women had been birthing babies for thousands of years before Diane came along.
A couple of friends recommended a practice that was just around the corner from our house. I booked my first appointment and after hearing good things, I had high hopes. It didn’t go quite as planned. The practice was so large it felt cold and clinical. We were shuttled into three, yes, THREE, different waiting rooms before finally being shown to a room. And, the ultrasound tech was so snotty, that even before I saw our little baby on the screen, I was in tears. Our appointment ended three hours—and one very unhappy toddler and mama—later.
Needless to say, I started my midwife hunt again. Ironically, I have now ended up where I started a couple of years ago when we were searching for a midwife for Jacob’s birth.
Though this gal doesn’t have the same quiet spirit that I loved so much in my first midwife, she has two decades of experience in water births and is as friendly as can be.  She’s the gal who will be birthing our new baby come September, and I couldn’t be happier about it.
Oh, and did I mention, her practice has just one waiting room.