I worked from home today so the three of us could take a visit to the Eastside Birthing Center. This was our first activity related to our new baby and it went really well. We’re referring to the new baby as “Baby E” because we’ve decided that we don’t want to find out what we’re having, but we know its name will begin with an E. If it’s a boy his name will be Enzo, and if it’s a girl her name will be Eleanor, although she will probably go by Ellie or Elle. Although we had initially planned on finding out the sex as soon as possible, we have since decided to leave it as a surprise. We wouldn’t have been able to do it the first time around because everything was all so new, but we’re much more at ease this time through and like the idea of keeping it a surprise. I can’t think of too many greater surprises life will have in store for us and we wanted to keep this pregnancy unique from the first.
In the spirit of keeping this pregnancy unique, we’re leaning away from delivering at a hospital and are more interested in a birthing center. We certainly didn’t have a bad experience at the hospital in San Diego, and we wouldn’t have been interested in doing things any other way at that time, but this being our second time through we’re more interested in being in a comfortable environment with people that we’ve dealt with throughout the pregnancy. When Ava was born we only saw our doctor for about an hour throughout the entire process. The rest of the time was spent with various nurses that we had never met. Everyone we dealt with was great, but it would have been better to have some familiar faces around. There was a lot of pressure by the hospital staff to have a C–section, which thankfully we did not do, and Jessica spent the entire time in bed, which wasn’t very ideal.
We really enjoyed our visit to the Eastside Birthing Center today, and although we haven’t completely made up our minds quite yet, we feel that this may be the best place for us. We met with the owner, who is one of the three midwives that work there, and really liked her. Ava immediately ran up to her and jumped in her arms, which was a good sign. Ultimately this is Jessica’s decision but I gave her my honest opinion, which was that its a nice place with very warm and caring people. If she decides to go there I will be completely on board. We’re going to give it a couple days before making a decision but we’re feeling good about everything for now.