we have a doula!

last friday night we finally met hallie in person. honestly, after i spoke to her on the phone, it was pretty much a done deal in my mind--she was going to be our doula, but she wanted to meet in person and make sure we clicked face-to-face since we'll be seeing a lot of her face in the delivery room. plus, kenny was still a little skeptical as to whether it really was "necessary" to have a doula since we both originally wanted it to be only him and i in the room during labor and delivery (and medical staff as necessary of course). after i decided that we needed a doula though, he still wasn't so sure.

the meeting went well but i couldn't read kenny during the meeting and we didn't come up with a secret signal beforehand (yes, we do that--or at least talk about doing it), so when he asked if i was ready to sign the contract, i said we'd get back to her because i didn't know if he was just saying that because he knew that i wanted a doula and he was counting it as my "free pass." after debriefing at dinner (mmmmm Seasons 52) we decided that we wanted her to be there on the big day. plus, we learned some stuff that we never would've thought to do just from our short meeting with her which seemed to impress kenny.

we're trying to set up our next meeting with her (time is winding down though) where she'll come to our house (so she knows where it is, since i'd like to labor at home as long as possible before going to the hospital) and we'll get into things a little more.

knowing that hallie is available also alleviates some of my fears of going into labor while kenny is out of town in a few weeks. i know that the average amount of time that a first time mom is pregnant is 41 wks 1 day, but there's still a chance that i could go into labor while he's in atlanta. i probably shouldn't think of such things, but i have to always be prepared so i know what to do in the event of an emergency... :)