I went to my first prenatal yoga class at the suggestion of my midwife.  She said that it would greatly help with labor and delivery, especially cutting down on my pushing time and recovery time.  So I thought I would give it a shot.

The poses ended up being a lot easier than I thought they would be, I guess because it's a pregnancy class they go easy on us.  I didn't feel like I was getting any sort of work out but I did feel like I was getting a lot of good stretching.  The best part is at the end, we sort of lay down on these comfy pillow things and she puts herbal eye masks on us and then she comes around and gives us a mini massage with lavender oil.

Later that night my muscles started to feel a bit fatigued and I thought maybe I did get a work out.  Well the next morning I struggled to get out of bed, muscles that I never knew I had were sore.  It even got worse the following day, I look like such an old lady trying to get up the stairs.  I will never make fun of anyone again that says yoga is a strenuous workout.

We went to one of our first of many classes.   It was all about introducing your baby to your pets safely. 

We took a look around the room and realized all the women in the jam packed class were about pop and wondered why they were waiting until the last minute.  After listening to people for over an hour, worried about their dog suffocating their baby by accidentally laying on it or their cat wanting to sleep with the baby, we realized we have bigger problems.  We soon realized we were the only pet owners in there with a dog that bites and that has issues with children.  We decided to wait until after the class to speak to the instructor as to not embarrass ourselves.  I got out about half of this opening statement "We have a 9-year old cocker spaniel that is aggressive towards kids, infants and other small dogs"  when he automatically starting writing down the name of the best dog trainer and behaviorist in NJ.  He said he didn't even want to give us any advice besides giving this guy a call.  We just left there laughing, saying why did we think it was going to be easy for us.

I got home and looked this guy up.  This was the top dog trainer for not just one branch of the military, but all of them.  The other branches thought he was so good they allowed a guy from another competing branch of the military train their dogs and trainers too.  After leaving the military he went the usual route into the police force and of course became the head trainer for all of NJ.  Now he is "retired" and just working with family pet owners. 

I don't think Jez has any idea of what coming.

Today I met with Alison a midwife that works out of Morristown Memorial Hospital (one of my person favorites).  She was great and I also briefly met Tina the other midwife I would also be seeing, she was also so warm and welcoming.  The only downfall is that since midwives are all hands on, we only have one ultrasound with them at 20 weeks.  So any others we would have to get ourselves, but that is a small price to pay for having the care we have been looking for.  Morristown Memorial is also in its second phase of construction to the maternity ward and will have birthing tubs installed on the floor before our little one is due.  So it seems like we finally found everything we wanted and its all close to home.

So Dina as always will be our doula for the entire labor and also be joining us in our home after the delivery to check in on us so we don't have to go back to the doctors.

Alison and Tina will be our midwives for prenatal, labor, and postnatal.  And we will be delivering at Morristown Memorial.

And we can finally kiss all the other doctors goodbye!!!

We met with Dr. Lonnie Morris the head midwife from Pascack Haospital.  We were expecting a warm friendly motherly type and we got arrogant, rude and cold doctor type.  She was the typical full-of- herself doctor who wouldn't stop talking about her achievements. 

Although, we very much liked the sound of the hospital policies and treatment.  Our only concern is the distance.  It took us an hour to get to her office which is 10 miles closer than the hospital, so we have to see if we can find another road besides the parkway to get us there that doesn't have as much traffic.  I can't imagine it would be much fun to be in bumper to bumper traffic for an hour in labor.  

So now I think we are going to meet with a woman named Donna, who is part of the same practice and see if we like her.  If not we are back to square one.