childbirth | Flamidwyfe's Blog

Been a busy 24 hours and wanted to get a post out before bed.
Weight: 149, bloated and well, more on that later in the post.

I have a wonderful midwifery student with me here in China, Aisha Al Hajjar. Aisha is from the States, but is married to a lovely Saudi man and has 8 kids! I met her in the UAE last year when she came to interview me about water birth at my previous hospital job.

At the end of the day yesterday (433 pm to be precise), my personal assistant came to let us know that there was a lady in labor wanting a normal birth, so upstairs we went to the birth room. First time momma and she had her baby at 533 pm… Nice, quick, fast and an easy delivery. Here’s the little guy a few minutes after I caught him…

Today was packed with working on skills that Aisha needs to do for school and working on a PowerPoint presentation about International Standards of Care. I started my day out with a yummy breakfast…

I am in Consolidation and I’m eating more Paleo like. Still low carb, but added fat. This is pork chunks, onion and garlic powder. Two eggs fried with low fat mozzarella. I cooked it in Macadamia oil… Mmmmm!

I’ve only run twice in the past week. It is very difficult to do in a city of 17 million! Too many people milling about, but I’ve made sure I walk 5K every night. I also haven’t had any yogurt with flaxseed meal (I use that instead of oat bran, zero net carbs, 4g fiber per tsp, same as oat bran but has a nice nutty taste). Anyway, I’ve been a bit ~~bitchy~~ grumpy the last few days, as I’ve been gassy (never gassy on Dukan!!!) and the plumbing isn’t working as per usual. You can’t buy yogurt here in China at the shops and I usually get it in Hong Kong, but I haven’t had the time to go down there.

So today I kind of ~~barked~~ at asked Rose, my amazing personal assistant here in Guangzhou to find me a western grocery store!!! So off I went on the subway to find The Corner’s Deli (yes apostrophe s) in the basement of the Citic building. The kind customer service desk girl pointed the way. Through that door, turn right, go downstairs to BM Street… LOL, BM Street?!? I was sure I heard her wrong… Well, actually…

So off I go, down this quiet stairway and find myself dead end at a Chinese restaurant! I point, I show them the name and address and they take me through the restaurant to an underground shopping mall… It was bizarre! But, tucked around the winding walkway, all the way in the back was a western grocery with FAT FREE GREEK YOGURT!!! And COTTAGE CHEESE!!! AND SALAMI!!!! And MOVIE THEATRE POPCORN, EXTRA BUTTER!!!! Ok, I bought ONE package of that, for my celebration meal on Sunday 🙂 I thought I’d died and gone to heaven… A REAL grocery store!

So I’ve just gotten back from dinner at my favorite Arabic restaurant and dished up a plate of that yogurt with a Splenda and flaxseed… My tummy will be happy again!

And yes, I eat my yogurt with chopsticks… I’m in china 😀

Parting shot… This afternoon I shot a commercial for the hospital to promote water birth. They even recruited one of our nearly due patients! What fun. I decided I wanted to get a shot of one of the camera people…

Exciting life I lead… Ciao!

Thirty-one years ago today, I gave birth to my first child. I was a child myself… only 17 years old, a recent high school graduate.

On Friday, August 14, 1981 my dad took me to see my OB, Dr. Larry Holder. It was my due date and I fully expected to have my baby that day… LOL. He told me that most women didn’t have their baby on their due date (it’s statistically around 5%) and that after examining me, he thought it would be Monday or Tuesday, before I delivered. We left the doctor’s office at 1130. My dad dropped me off at my part-time job, a high end chocolate store, where I decorated humongous chocolate chip cookies and chocolate “records” for birthdays and other events. At 230 he came back to get me.

At 400 p.m., after watching General Hospital… LOL, sorry, I haven’t watched soaps in about 10 years, my dad declared me in labor. Labor? I’m not in labor! He told me that for about a half hour I would sit up every 5 minutes and rub my lower back. He called Dr. Holder and said we were coming into the office. <Insert me rolling my eyes at my know it all dad…> We got to the office at 445 and Dr. Holder examined me and I was 6 centimeters dilated! I have no idea how! I truly didn’t feel contractions. I walked the half block to the hospital, my dad not so happy that I was walking, and went to my mom’s office there. She worked in the Cashier’s Office at the hospital and stayed and chatted with her for a bit, then off to the coffee shop for a soda and donut 😀 I truly didn’t think there was any rush.

At around 545 the nurse came looking for me and took me upstairs. Nick was born, direct occiput posterior (face up instead of face down) at 626 p.m. All 7 lbs. 15 ounces of him. The only “pain” I had was the feeling that I was pooping a watermelon out… It was awesome (the lack of pain, not the watermelon part!). My mom, who brags incessantly about this, was the FIRST person to hold him. The doc handed him to my mom! My mom handed me the poloroid camera to take a picture of her holding him moments after birth, it’s pretty funny. I don’t have that picture to upload in this post. After the pic, she handed him right over to me.

Nick and I have been very lucky. Even though I never married Nick’s dad Joe, he always supported him. His family has, as well. Joe and I still have a good relationship. Which is awesome. My mom and dad were awesome in that, until I married the following year, they helped keep a roof over my baby’s head. I worked full-time and paid rent, but I couldn’t have done it without them. And they ADORED my little man 😀

Although I have a lot of fun memories, one of my best is that even when Nick was a bitty baby I would wake up to him smiling at me. I co-slept with my babies (meaning they slept in my bed with me) and even as young as 4 weeks, I would wake up and Nick would be staring at me with a grin on his face. His teachers used to say how precious that smile was… his smile is charming!

So, here’s some pics of my “boy”… he’s a man now… 31. I have NO idea where the time goes… At 48 I don’t feel old enough to have a 31 year old!!!