7 Weeks

This week has been one of disappointment and joy. What a roller coaster ride! I called to make an appointment with a midwife on Monday only to discover that it's not as easy as making a doctor's appointment. I needed to answer some basic question over the phone like, when are you due, do you have any illnesses, do you have an ontario health card etc. Then I had to wait for the centre to confirm that there would be a midwife available for me. And she told me I could be waiting up to 2 weeks! Luckily I only had to wait 24 hours but the news was not good. Because midwives take their vacations during the summer, there was no one available for me. She might as well have ripped my heart out of my chest with the help of a rusty spoon. OK, well... I'm exaggerating a little but I was pretty upset. For the past 3 months I've been thinking and weighing my options only to be told it was all a waste of time and I would have to do what I had decided against... seeing my GP for 10min appointments only to be passed along to a strange OBGYN and finally to deliver in a hospital, medicated and unable to leave my bed. All I wanted was options. And then there was a glimmer of hope.
"You could try calling the midwifery centre on the other side of town. Maybe they've got someone available for you."
My heart began to beat a little faster and I suddenly wanted to hang up on this woman and call the other centre before any other pregnant bitch got a chance to. But of course rational people don't do things like that so I kindly thanked her for helping me and answering the few questions I had. Then I said goodbye and hung up. I said something to P about my bad luck and promptly started dialling the other centre.

This time, it all worked out :) It wasn't my first choice but it's not a bad one. I'll be seeing a midwife that's about 25 minutes west of me instead of 15 minutes east. My first appointment is in 2 1/2 weeks which is a little later than I would have liked but I'm sure it'll still be an uneventful visit. I'll probably be too early for an ultrasound but maybe if I keep my fingers crossed they may want to verify a heartbeat.
Speaking of...my lil' bean is now the size of half a cheerio and growing! His little heart has now finished developing and is beating almost twice as fast as my own. And what could that little heart be pumping at seven weeks? His own developing blood of course. The arm and leg buds now have little paddles where hands and feet will be and are starting to flap about. The eyes and nostrils are just dark spots but the nose, ears, and mouth are also starting to form. Then there's the kidneys, spleen and liver ducts that have begun to form while the intestines are getting longer. And you know all this work is leaving me very tired. I find myself exhausted after only doing a small amount of work like washing dishes, or even doing the laundry. My to do list keeps getting longer and I've really had to tell myself that it's OK. I've got to rest and not sweat the small stuff.