Baby Harvey

After my my plan to have a home birth was completely blown out of the water due to a sudden preeclampsia diagnosis at 40w & 3d I told Josi that this was “everything I didn’t want in one nice package just short of a bow” and she responded “I’m sorry. That sucks. They could’ve at least given you a bow” which was the first time I had laughed probably that whole day leading up to my diagnosis. I was induced later that night. Because I was dealing with high blood pressure and getting readings every 15 minutes I was scared to get out of the bed in case I spiked my blood pressure. When Josi arrived she gave me the permission I felt like I needed to get up and move to cope with my contractions. She came bearing breakfast which would have been fantastic if I hadn’t already gotten to the point of feeling nauseous when I ate. She was encouraging and helpful and gave suggestions for laboring positions, I’m sure she felt like I didn’t care for that because I said no A LOT, but it was good to have someone there that knew what might help open different parts of my pelvis and so on. She also started a diffuser which I found very helpful because the nice smell made me want to take deep breaths and helped me remember to breathe through the contractions. She also came bearing a tens unit which I also liked and accidentally tried to break. Josi helped encourage and educate me and my husband all the way through the birthing process and helped me make the best of a situation I didn’t want to be in. She also helped me some postpartum with breastfeeding and gave me some tips and recommended the lactation consultant I’m now seeing. (Photo creds also Josi)