Now that Carolyn’s 36 weeks pregnant, we get to go to the OB/GYN twice a week. Today was “just” a non-stress test – almost a half hour, and an office visit. The office visit was interesting in that we met the doctor for the first time. Up until now, we’ve only been seeing the midwives.
Dr. Littlejohn was an interesting character. We learned that he is a HAM radio enthusiast and that he went war-driving around Altoona with his son, finding hundreds of open wireless networks. He also asked at least a few of the standard questions. Do you know the sex of the baby? Why not? Are you going to have an epi-doodle?
It didn’t take long to parse that as epidural – a spinally-injected regional anesthetic that relieves (some) labor pain, but also confines mom to bed for the duration of the birth. Between that, the big needle in the spine, and the knowledge that any drug mom gets, baby gets, we’re inclined away from it. But what was most interesting to me was this large, male medical professional referring to it as an epi-doodle. Why? And what’s next? Whether or not a boy child will get a circum-sippy?