Am I going to go past my due date? I’m beginning to think this is a real possibility.  And, as much as I don’t want to do that because I want to meet the baby, be done being pregnant (2 YEARS of this.. seriously), yada, yada, yada, my true motivation is to avoid ANY more appointments with my OB.  I’m not sure I can stand the awkwardness any longer.

A little perspective before I get into the details:

When I was pregnant with Noah, we lived up north in Buellton, California since I was then stationed at Vandenberg Air Force Base (I know, I’ve blocked it out of my head, too).  Fortunately, the Air Force base did not have a hospital on base, so we could pick any doctor contracted with the military to be our OB.  I did a little research and realized that that this was not exactly going to be an expansive search.  Because we lived in such a small town, I decided to pick a doctor near the hospital in Lompoc, California.  You might know Lompoc as the home to a large Federal Penitentiary. Otherwise,  you probably don’t know it at all.  Yes, it’s quite the locale, and this is where we would be having our baby.  At any rate, I found a doctor with shockingly mixed reviews (“absolutely awesome doctor!” / “embarrassed and demoralized” — seriously – read this review.  I have no doubt this conversation took place). I figured I’d take my chances on this fellow. Dr. Huss is one of those small town doctors who has been delivering babies for decades, and he delivers almost all of his patients’ babies.  He’s a no-nonsense -the baby’s fine, you’re fine -I’ll tell you straight up if you’re too fat-but will write you a doctor’s note for anything you need – kinda guy.  Bottom line: Good choice by me.

So then we moved down to Orange County at the beginning of the year, and lo and behold — pregnant again!  I decided to quickly find an OB at one of the bigger practice groups because it seemed like an easy solution.  So I did. I asked for someone at their smaller Irvine office and I got assigned a doctor. And, well, it’s awkward. I knew from day 1 it was awkward, yet I kept pressing ahead, thinking maybe things would improve, maybe she’d take a course in bedside manner, maybe she’d decide to have a personality, maybe her nurse would stop making uncomfortable comments to me [like when I brought my son in at my 35 week appointment, after talking about my… well.. SON for the preceding 30 weeks (and bringing him in sporadically), and she asks if she, “can hold her. ” I tell (remind?) her that he’s a boy.  Her reply: “uhh, pink shorts, mom!” What?  Or, more recently, after weighing me one week after Noah’s birthday: Nurse: (more to herself than to me): “Oh, so it WAS the birthday cake…”  Me: “What?” Nurse: “Well, you lost weight since last time.”]

So every week I go and make awkward small talk with the most awkward people of all time who can’t seem to remember one fact about me amidst their tens of patients.

The upside, perhaps: The only doctor in the practice group who delivers the baby is the one who’s on call.  I think it’s safe to say that I would have the same level of comfort with a complete stranger as with the one I’ve been seeing for the past 40 weeks.  SO STRANGE!

Now the big question: will I get MY doctor to deliver the baby?  Andy asked her today when she’s on-call

“Tomorrow.”