Lights Out

Had the tour of the public hospital this morning. The midwife who showed me around was super nice and helpful. It seems that they allow a lot more freedom of mobility during labor and birth (they have this cool chair you can use to sit on to help let gravity do some of the work to get baby out, sounds so much better than lying flat on your back) which is awesome (I heard the private clinics around town tend to be a lot more restrictive). The bad news, is that only one person at a time will be allowed in the room with me, meaning Zach and Mom will have to take turns... and so would a doula, if I chose to have one. And although all the doctors speak English fluently, not all the midwives do. So that's kinda scary-- I'd like Zach to be in the room as much as possible, which would defeat the purpose of a doula if they had to take turns, but then I'm kinda scared by the idea of not being able to understand the midwife on duty about something. So I'll have to try to see if one of the clinics has more flexibility in that aspect, and then figure out what to do.

I got home after that feeling pretty hopeful, then soon discovered a huge puddle of milk on the floor near the refrigerator... apparently the bottle I'd put back on the shelf sideways after breakfast was not closed properly. Poop. Sierra must've been upstairs all morning, as she didn't seem to discover the milk on the floor till she came down to greet me... and soon started furiously licking up milk as fast as she could. I had to laugh. I got it all cleaned up, including washing some of the fridge shelves that had milk all over them (not an easy feat, since the shelves were slightly wider than the sink, which had dirty dishes from me cooking last night... ugh). Of course the last thing I wanted to do after dealing with that mess was wash the rest of the dishes in the kitchen, so those will wait till tomorrow.

And then... at about 7:30 this evening, I was sitting at the computer and the power all of a sudden went out. It wasn't storming outside or anything, and it was throughout the entire house so no tripped fuse. One house across the street had a light on, which made me mad, but then I noticed that none of the other houses seemed to have lights. I was glad to have eaten dinner early, so as not to need to open the fridge (in case this lasted a while), though I also knew that in that case I'd be starving by midnight and need to eat something anyway. Oh, and phone and internet were out, too. Baffled for what to do, I eventually gathered up supplies (crackers, bread, pecans; candles and lighter; magnetic-powered flashlight that my mom-in-law gave us last year, thank god otherwise we probably wouldn't have had one at all in the house) and went upstairs to the bedroom, which got the most of the remaining bits of natural light, and settled down to read for a bit by candlelight.... and wait to see what happened. Thankfully, 30 minutes later the lights came back on (then off again for 30 seconds, then back on) and have been back for about half an hour now.

It always sucks more when this stuff happens when Zach's gone. I guess I just prefer the company, and having someone else to help me figure out what to do. The thought crossed my mind of what I would do if this happens when the baby's here. That's kinda scary... thinking of another being so dependent on me. I know having the lights go out isn't that big a deal, expect it kinda can be... I dunno. I'm also curious to see what I'll feel like when Zach travels after the baby's born. I have a feeling that, if he's already sleeping on his own in the nursery, I'll want to go in there with him. When I'm home alone there's always a part of me, in the back of my mind, that gets paranoid about someone breaking in, and I can't imagine that fear getting better when there's this tiny little creature that's in the house with me that I have to protect. So we'll see. Zach has always assured me that family comes before work, and if changes need to be made to make me and the baby happy, then he'll do his best to make that happen. Certainly is nice to know.

Edit: lights went out again at 10pm, for another 30-40 minutes. At this point I was glad to have left my flashlight right next to me, and have the candles and lighter all set by my bed still. Still no clue what happened.