Midwife appointment

We had our midwife appointment today with a midwife we hadn't met yet. Our practice has three midwives, but somehow we've only seen one of them. Today we finally met a second one and we were not impressed. We had an 8am appointment and she was an hour late (as in she arrived to work an hour late!). They tried to talk us into rescheduling, but we wanted to get it over with. Last month I had a 2:30 appointment and waited 45 minutes. I hope this is not becoming a trend. She was professional and answered all of our questions, but because she was so behind, she was really rushing through everything.

Then I asked her for two things - to fill out the FMLA form for my work that is required by law and to write a basic letter on letterhead for our second parent adoption stating that I am healthy . For each of these, she sighed, rolled her eyes, and said "I can't do this now, I'm running late." Actually, I assumed you couldn't do this now, which is why I'm giving it to you so early. Please just do it by the next appointment. I'm confident both of these will be forgotten or lost by our next appointment.

Then we asked for medical records from other doctors that we gave two months ago. The copy machine was broken when we gave them, they asked to keep them until our next appointment. Well, they seem to have lost them since then, as their policy is to review records and then destroy them. Well, it would have been nice for someone to tell me that when they asked to keep them! I let them know I was very annoyed at this whole thing. They are doing one more check to see if they can be located, but since their policy is to destroy them, this is unlikely.

Generally I get that they are disorganized. I think this is part of the 'charm' of a midwife practice - more earthy, more homey, less professional, less organized. I don't have high expectations, but I expect some level of professionalism. Don't lose my records, don't get annoyed when I ask you to fill out the same form any women in the US needs completed by law in order to take any maternity leave, don't misplace my charts, have copy machines that work, have computers that work, show up on time, be polite, don't rush me just because you are late to work, etc. We're doing all of this so that the labor day can be nicer, and from what I hear about doctor assisted births, I think it will be. We just have to get through the next few months for that one day.

But besides that, the baby is doing great. We heard the heartbeat again (which is always my favorite part), my belly is measuring at 25 centimeters (which she said is right for 25 weeks), my weight gain is right on track (9 pounds so far), everything is looking good. Next week I need to go to the lab for the glucose tolerance test. Next midwife appointment in 3 weeks when we get to 28 weeks. Then every two weeks from there. Wow, that's a milestone - when you switch to bimonthly appointments. This baby is actually going to be born sometime soon!