My Specialist Is Not So Special

Ok so remember when I said here that my Endocrinologist is/was taking really good care of me? Well let's just say that she is no longer my Endocrinologist. I have decided to take my husband's hard earned money else where. I will be seeing my family doctor from here on out for my thyroid needs. After my last visit with her where she zipped into the room, gave me my lab results (which are still out of whack) and zipped back out of the room before I could even ask questions and told me she didn't want to see me until a couple weeks after baby arrived...in December! That is months away lady and my thyroid is still all screwed up. Midwife did not like this so much, neither did I, but she (midwife) lit the fire under me to contact and get some more answers out of my not so special-specialist. Well it took the special endo over two weeks to get back with me, well I shouldn't say that the whole ordeal of trying to get a straight answer to my question took two weeks and really I still don't have an answer...keep reading. I called with my initial question and the nurse called back two days later with an answer.....just not the answer to my question so you know where that gets you at a doc's office, NO WHERE! So, now I still had no answer and the nurse said she would get back to the doc and then back to me, yeah right. I had to keep calling and calling, playing phone tag and not getting answers...for two weeks!! RIDICULOUS!!! I finally called this morning to complain to the office manager and let them know that I did not find this acceptable at all especially since I am so very pregnant with a thyroid problem! After talking with my family doc, who also goes to our church, this weekend on our church retreat, he is going to take over my thyroid needs and I see him on Thursday. The kicker though comes when I look a little more closely at my results to see that all along she has been telling me that I was HYPOactive (underactive thyroid) when really I have been HYPERactive (overactive thyroid) the whole time......awesome. New found faith in her I tell ya! You would think I would have been paying a little closer attention to my results and I thought I was, but I also trusted my doc, a specialist no less, to be giving me the right info. Now if I was on my game and not having my intelligence sucked dry by this pregnancy and trying to take care of my 2 year old, husband and home, I might have read my labs correctly and realized the error in what she was telling me, but I didn't I just saw "out of range" numbers and went with her diagnosis of underactive not letting the numbers click in my head and tell me the correct story. Oh well.....moving on, literally.

The BIG Cut

Today we took Sophie to get a haircut, a much needed haircut. Her hair was really starting to get too long and out of control and with as a hard as she plays it was just too much. So after we went to her best bud Morgan's birthday party we headed over to the hair appointment. The stylist was great with her, I just took her to the salon that I go to, but a different lady. I think she said that she ended up taking off about 3 or 3.5 inches! Her hair looks so precious, I LOVE it!!! She looks all grown up now with her new big girl haircut.

Before: Crazy mess.

After: Beautiful little bob.

Puddle Jumping

After rinsing her hands off because they were so sticky from the orange she just ate our evening turned into a two year old's dream!

Scooter

Another fabulous new toy has arrived via the Fed Ex man, actually woman this time. Always thinking of Sophie Auntie Nancy sent down a pink Radio Flyer scooter and man was it a hit! Sophie's cousin Braedon up in Boston has one just like it, although I'm sure his is not pink. Auntie Nancy saw how much B enjoyed his scooter and immediately thought Sophie would love it just the same, not to mention aide in the healing of her foot. Boy was she right, Neal couldn't get that thing out of the package quick enough! She was itching to get on it and get scooting. She enjoyed it so much it was hard to get her inside to get washed up for bed. Thanks Auntie Nancy for another fabulous find!

Neal was playing around with the lighting outside and insisted this picture make it onto the blog.

Celebrating 80 Years With Grandad

Last weekend the Slimick/Hatfield crew all gathered (minus Aunt Sara who lives in California and was greatly missed!) at Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia to celebrate Neal's grandfather's 80th birthday. Good times were had by all. Sophie finally rode in Papa's boat and got to swim in a lake for the first time ever and was an old pro by the time the weekend was over. Sophie caught her first fish with Papa, not sure who was prouder her or Papa! Neal and I went out on the boat with his Dad to do a little fishing and got stuck in the most torrential down pour ever! It was such a fun weekend we hated to see it come to an end.

So excited to be swimming "all by herself!"

Her first fish


The Crew



Helping Grandad blow out his candles

Thank You USA Today

• When my mom told me about this article today (that my dad found...go Dad!) I knew that I had to find it online and put it up on the blog. Both Neal and I have gotten a lot of mixed reviews about our choice to have to have our second child naturally and at home, mostly people are not sure what to say or make of our choice so they just sort of smile and say that's nice or I hear about a lot of people doing that these days. Some commend me for being "so brave", I don't really see it as brave, but more doing what my body was designed to do. Others have been so rude to flat out said, "You're crazy!" Crazy, no.
  
• 
  
• I do not judge others for how they brought or will bring their child into the world (lets not forget Sophie was born in a hospital), just as I feel that breastfeeding is hands down the best, not to mention perfect food for babies, but I have not and will not push my breastfeeding views on others, so I don't appreciate others making rude comments or thinking I am "crazy" for my choices regarding birth or breastfeeding. Birth in most cases is not a "condition" that needs treatment or medical attention. I do agree that in some pregnancies there is a need for a doctor and a hospital. For me, I had a very uncomplicated pregnancy and delivery with Sophie and this pregnancy has been nothing but normal, so a home birth is a good safe option for us. However, if God forbid something happens to mother or baby, fatal or otherwise, at anytime during labor or delivery at a home birth others are so quick to blame the mother and the fact that she attempted to have her baby at home with gasp a midwife, but if the very same thing or some entirely different complication arose at the hospital no one would even dare blame the mother or physician. How is that right? Anyway I am just loving the fact that USA Today came out with this article to possibly enlighten and educate the American public a little more.
  
• 
  
• 

Study: Home birth with midwife as safe as hospital birth

By Amanda Gardner, HealthDay

Having your baby at home with a registered midwife is just as safe as a conventional hospital birth, a new study says.

In fact, planned home births of this kind may have a lower rate of complications, according to the study published in the Sept. 15 issue of CMAJ.

Even though the study was conducted in Canada, where attitudes toward midwifery are more accepting than in some other countries, the findings may help to calm an ongoing controversy in the United States and elsewhere.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is opposed to home births, as are certain organizations in Australia and New Zealand. More organizations in Great Britain are supportive and Canadian provinces are currently transitioning to midwifery, said study lead author Patricia Janssen, director of the Master of Public Health Program at the University of British Columbia.

Janssen, a registered nurse who has midwife training though not certification, said: "People who function as independent midwives are not necessarily tightly regulated [in the U.S.] depending on which state you're in, so there may not be a guarantee that they have had an adequate level of training or a certified diploma or anything like that. And they may not be monitored and regulated by a particular professional college."

The controversy has resulted in a lack of clear regulation and licensing requirements in the United States, said Dr. Marjorie Greenfield, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland.

According to Greenfield, the National Association of Certified Professional Midwives does have a certification process but many states don't recognize it. "If you're a woman who wants to have a home birth, how do you determine if this person has appropriate qualifications?" she said.

The authors of the new study compared three different groups of planned births in British Columbia from the beginning of 2000 to the end of 2004: home births attended by registered midwives (midwives are registered in Canada), hospital births attended by the same group of registered midwives, and hospital births attended by physicians. In all, the study included almost 13,000 births.

The mortality rate per 1,000 births was 0.35 in the home birth group, 0.57 in hospital births attended by midwives, and 0.64 among those attended by physicians, according to the study.

Women who gave birth at home were less likely to need interventions or to have problems such as vaginal tearing or hemorrhaging. These babies were also less likely to need oxygen therapy or resuscitation, the study found.

The authors acknowledge that "self-selection" could have skewed the study results, in that women who prefer home deliveries tend to be healthier and otherwise more fit to have a home birth.

Janssen said she hoped "this article will have a major impact in the U.S." But there is a definite "establishment" bias against home births. And the issue is an emotionally charged one, she said.

"There is a political and economic issue about controlling where birth happens, but also a deep belief by physicians that it's not safe to have your baby at home," Greenfield said. "Doctors see every home-birth patient who had a complication, but we don't see the ones that have these beautiful, fabulous babies at home who may breast-feed better or have less hospital-acquired infections. There may be medical benefits," she added.

"Midwifery needs to be regulated. It can't be under the radar because then it's dangerous," Greenfield said. "There has to be a regulatory process and a licensure process [to protect] women who are going to choose home birth anyway."