Babies

Finding An OB/GYN In Brooklyn

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I have lived in Brooklyn 10 years but would go back to Long Island where I grew up, for that once per year dreaded gynecological exam. I figured my commute east for these office visits would bite me in the ass some day, but there a million things more comforting than having to find a new gynecologist.

Good times at the gyno

So when I found out I was pregnant, the first thing I did was look up doctors who were close by where I lived. I knew there would be many appointments in my future and I wasn’t working, so being in walking distance of the doctor’s office was important to me.

That’s when I met Dr. Scott Postell at Long Island College Hospital. After some further testing confirmed my pregnancy, he fed me his credentials and shpeel on the thousands of babies he’s delivered and assured me that a merger with SUNY Downstate Medical Center would not hinder my birthing plans. He spoke in layman’s terms often, but he had a personable quality that made me more at ease about exposing my vajayjay. Plus, the walk to his office was only five minutes from my home.

We were fortunate to have a hospital in our neighborhood and thus it felt it was only right to have our baby in the community we loved and lived in for so many years. It was decided. We would have our baby with Dr. Postell at LICH. All of a sudden I was having visions of walking (or waddling) myself to the emergency room when I went into labor!

Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn, NY

Of course I made this decision before I did my homework and combed the web for reviews. Turns out the message boards were ripe with negativity about giving birth at LICH. One woman wrote in the comments to an article about births being down at LICH that she wouldn’t let her dog give birth there. Well if you read this blog then you know how I feel about people who think their life has greater value than that of an animal’s.

But there were also comments from moms who had great things to say about giving birth at LICH. Like the woman who was in labor 65 hours (yikes!) and called labor and delivery at LICH “top rate.” Hopefully I can second that motion. The top rate comment, NOT the 65 hour labor!

Quickening

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I woke up from a nap on the couch Friday night, and as I made my way towards the bathroom to get ready for bed I felt it. It stopped me dead in my tracks. I didn’t know what it was at first and described it to my husband Jason as a swooshing sensation through my lower abdomen. Forgetting for a moment that I am pregnant, I told him that I felt possessed, like something was inside of me. He reminded me that something was in fact inside of me! What can I say, I was drowsy.

The bambino is the size of this delicious apple. Yum.

When I looked it up on Dr. Google I found out what I felt is called quickening. American Pregnancy Association describes quickening, or flutters, as the first fetal movements. Wow, is this very surreal or what?!

Laid Off While Preggers

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Yes, it’s true. But it wasn’t personal and it wasn’t performance-based either.

In 2007 I left a prosperous job at Goldman Sachs to join an Internet start-up. Goldman was intense to say the least and I wasn’t happy. What’s more, I wasn’t writing. I spent $35,000 on a graduate education in journalism and I was writing little more than truncated, abbreviated emails while on the job.

Joining the new company meant taking a bit of a pay cut with no opportunity for a year-end bonus — something that allowed me to build a considerable savings after two years at Goldman. But it was ok. I was happy to do it and eager to see what lay ahead.

The new job was fun, flexible and fast. We had fun on AND off the job, my hours were flexible with a good amount of time spent working from home, and I forged friendships fast. We traveled to conferences in exotic places as far away as Monte Carlo and as close to home as Boca Raton.

The dream team.

My boss was an entrepreneur who dabbled in many different ventures. The one that generated the most revenue was in financial securities lending. He branched out into the media world in 2008 and was operating in the red by the following year. In May 2009 I was reduced to half-time. The adjusted salary meant I had to scale back on my lifestyle a bit but it also freed me up to explore other passions. The change wound up being a very liberating one and around that time, we began talking about starting a family.

I stopped taking the pill in late September. By November I was pregnant. The following month I got my first pay check in the mail rather than direct deposit. I remember my husband telling me it was a sign that I would be let go. I told him he was crazy. In January I was indirectly informed that my job with the production company, along with dozens of others, had been terminated. Jason was not crazy after all. He knew exactly what he was talking about.

These two will always be in my life. Of that I am sure.

I was almost three months pregnant at the time and had not yet shared the news with anyone other than family. When people close to me learned that I had been terminated from my job, they encouraged me to seek recourse and take action. But that was silly. I was working from home at that point and my boss didn’t have a clue that I was pregnant. It was nothing I did or didn’t do. The company simply did not survive the credit crisis.

Working with the Internet start-up allowed me to get back to my roots in writing. It was the birthplace of many wonderful friendships. It was a great ride and I have absolutely no regrets about taking that job. Pregnancy hormones aside, I even wrote my boss an email thanking him for the opportunity. If there is one thing I have learned in the business world it’s to never burn your bridges. It may be cliche, but it’s true.

A Family Grows In Brooklyn

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I found out I was pregnant after the hustle and bustle of the first winter holiday. It was the week after Thanksgiving, family had left town, our apartment was clean and it was just the two of us again. And the menagerie of course.

In spring 2009 Jason and I decided over dinner at our favorite Mexican spot in the neighborhood that we would enjoy the coming summer, go away with friends in September to Puerto Rico as planned, and then get off the pill when we returned. Fit in a trip to California the following month and we hoped to be pregnant by the early part of 2010.

Feeling no pain in Napa Valley.

In October I was on high alert every time we got… well, you know. But October came and went and so did my period. As we thought: “it’s going to take some time after all.” My mom was in her late 20’s and had trouble conceiving her first. We were in our 30’s. Between our age, genetics and our excessive use of modern technology, we were convinced getting pregnant wouldn’t be easy.

But we were wrong. While conceiving was very much on my mind in October, when it didn’t happen, I had cast it aside. We went into the holiday season, lead by Jason’s birthday the week before Thanksgiving, with our usual celebratory force. We are both downright lovers of good wine, so perhaps “celebrating” is an understatement. Thanks to my sister-in-law who likes to make sure my glass is always full, I spent a good part of Thanksgiving Day hungover.

It was Wednesday, December 2nd and I was going potty when it occurred to me that I hadn’t gotten my period. I was due but wasn’t that alarmed because I was only off the pill a month at that point. But my underwear was bone dry. There was not a hint of discharge. It was for this reason alone that I knew something was different. So I shared my suspicion with Jason and he laughed it off. Mind you HE was the one who sat me down at dinner in May to ask when we would start trying.

I told him I thought I should take a pregnancy test and he told me to wait another week. Another week? “Was he nuts?” If I was pregnant I should know so that I could stop drinking. If I wasn’t pregnant I wasn’t going to marginalize myself from socializing. After all, we had plans that coming Saturday with good, wine swirling friends! He relented. I peed on a stick and sure enough it was positive. My hands were shaking and I threw it in the sink as if it possessed a magic power that would turn me into a frog. Jason was in disbelief. Literally. He made me pee on a second stick. That too, was positive.

I was in shock. I was in awe. I was out of my mind excited. I just could not believe it. I immediately called my brother on the phone and told one of my closest friends when I bumped into her on the street walking our dogs. (The same friend we went to Puerto Rico with and were due to have dinner with that coming Saturday).

When the shock and awe began to settle in, I made an appointment with an OB/GYN in the neighborhood to have it confirmed. And confirmed it was, I am due August 8th!