Produce and a Birth

This is a proud picture of the produce I received yesterday from Door to Door Organics.
The bell rang, I opened the door, and there was this smiley guy with a big box. Wow.
I put the food all over the floor and took a picture like I told my sister I would do so that she could check it out before we ate it.
I opted for the Large mixed box and this week I received:
green leaf lettuce, 5 artichokes, 5 radishes, a pineapple, 8 plums, 2 kiwis, 5 huge Yukon gold potatoes, a bunch of mushrooms, bunch of carrots, celery, 2 limes, a bag of grapes, a bunch of beets, 3 huge Valencia oranges,a bunch of bananas, 4 red pears, 6 roma tomatoes (which is hilarious since we've had about 300 grow in our own garden in the last 2 weeks!) and I think that's it. That was $55, all organic and delivered.

I'm not sure how I feel about the price because I normally don't buy all organic and I'm not very good at budgeting. The hopes of participating with this company is that we will eat better and with a better variety. I like the amount of fruit especially, because the kids and G eat a lot of it IF tightwad Me actually buys it.
I opted for bi-weekly, because I'm tight and I'm pretty good about not spending a ton of money on food when grocery shopping.
The other guilt I have about buying this produce is that it is not locally grown and it has to travel a long way to get to me. This company buys the best priced, freshest organics and then distributes it to their members. Obviously, pineapple and kiwis grow nowhere NEAR south-eastern Michigan. But neither do the cheap, mealy apples and bananas I buy at Krogers.

The other news is that my primip who was 2 weeks late had her baby Tuesday morning via hospital induction. We went in for a biophysical profile Monday afternoon, and while the baby's heart tones and variability were gorgeous, the amniotic fluid levels were low~ half of what they should be at 42 weeks, or so they said.
The staff were really great and accommodating to us all, and very respectful of a planned home birth and my client's desire for a natural birth. They didn't try to scare her of fetal demise (did say it was a possibility of course, but that it's ALWAYS a possibility when pregnant, just a percent or two higher chance), and told her she could go home and wait for labor to commence or stay for an induction. She and her husband decided for an induction at the hospital and so we stayed.
We were treated fabulously for what its worth. The L&D nurse was in midwifery school and very anti-doctor. She was such a character and hooked us UP! She fed my client dinner before starting the induction because she feels women should be nourished before birth! What a concept, I know.
She changed our room to one with a tub, and she generally advised us not to be afraid of the doctors, to be advocates for ourselves and to always ask for a second opinion if we didn't like what they were telling us. She also picked my brain about homebirth and talked about how independent midwives were so great. This woman really helped us get a wonderful hospital birth.
One of my preceptors used to talk about some women needing "just a whiff of pit" to get going. Being a CPM, I obviously can't give people a whiff of Pit! Nor would I want to at home. That's definitely something that needs to be monitored for induction.
But it was true to form with this woman. She started getting contractions pretty soon after and just rocked through the night, laboring the hardest parts in a huge tub of water. It's a shame they don't do births in the tub. She got out to push and only pushed an hour or a little less perhaps. Baby was born around 5am, healthy and lovely. There was no vernix on him, but he certainly didn't look post-mature. His skin was lovely, his nails fine, a ton of lanugo all over his back and shoulders.

Sigh. A lovely birth. I'm grateful for the good treatment she received. Nobody accused her of not having prenatal care despite her midwife being there. (see the abruptio placenta post for more on that topic). She'll be coming home this afternoon. I'll be doing a postpartum visit this evening.
Now I have none of my own clients due until January, and then I'm really busy again. I am helping another midwife in October and another in November.
I'm looking forward to a break and I'm happy this woman had her healthy baby, even if not at home. I was beginning to get incredibly obsessive over due date formulas and natural forms of induction. (They did try one day of herbal induction, but then the partner got freaked out about it after reading something on the internet about the herbs, so then stopped despite her getting contractions.)

I'm ready to go for a beer at the brewery without obsessing over if my cell phone rang and I just didn't hear it.