Last week I went to a meeting of folks who are interested in opening a birth center in West Philadelphia. This is a fabulous idea. Here's why I think so. There are no free-standing birth centers in Philadelphia and no home birth practices in the city run by nurse-midwives. The prenatal care offerings are pretty slim around here too, if you want to see a midwife. The moms in the playground seem evenly split in getting their care at the Bryn Mawr birth center, 5 Penn Tower and Pennsylvania Hospital. There is also a smaller, but still sizeable home birth contingent.

At the meeting, it became clear that the whole idea is still in the conceptual stage with very few concrete issues decided. Here are some questions that I have come up with in thinking about it since.

1) how many births per month does a birth center need to do to be profitable?
The answer to this is probably more complicated than just a simple number. I imagine that it depends a lot on the patient population and their insurance coverage. Medicaid reimburses fairly well for births, but medicaid HMO's are terrible. But I imagine if you serve primarily a low-income population, then you would be eligible for grants etc.
2) Would a birth center in the immediate neighborhood (with very close proximity to HUP for emergency transport) attract primarily a low-income or middle class patient population? Which would be more desireable in terms of the needs of the community and preferences of the planners and clinicians who would ultimately be working there? Could it serve both? I feel confident that a good proportion of the middle class white playground moms that I know would go to a birth center. Others, not so sure. There are a lot of African immigrants in the neighborhood--would they like a birth center or do they like to be in the hospital? Ditto with the African-Americans and Asian immigrants in the neighborhood.

I have (of course) already found the perfect location. It is Rosenberg Hall on the USP campus. It is actually smack in the middle of Clark Park, has parking next to it and is handicapped accessible. Plus, it's spitting distance to the tot lot.

That leads to question #3 which is: how do you get an institution like USP to give/sell you a building.
Which leads to question #4 which is where does one get money for a project like this?

Sarah said that Diego looked like a teen idol i nthe wedding pictures, so I just had to post this one too--the most teen-idolish of them all.

Diego has been using the word "absolutely" a lot--as in "This is absolutely too hot for me to eat." It works.

Penelope continues to ignore the pressures of trying to meet any major developmental milestones. Instead she just sits and waves. It seems to be enough for her...

House Bill 1255 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollow

Oh beautiful day! This can't be Philly in July--it's about 72 degrees with a breeze and no humidity. Tonight the Philadelphia Orchestra is playing in the bowl in Clark Park (gentrification anyone?). But it's free, so how elitest can it be, really. We'll be picnicing with our friends from the neighborhood (Sylvia--one of the best cooks I know), her husband Michael (who is eccentric but as excellent taste in imported wines) and their daughter Alessandra who is Diego's age. Al and I will be bringing a sheet to sit on and the pleasure of our company.

Yesterday Penelope and I got up early and walked to Penn to witness a historic bill signing that will at last give midwives in PA prescriptive authority. Here is Tony Soprano signing the bill:

Just kidding, he just looks like Tony Soprano. It's actually Ed Rendell, the governor of PA.

Behind him are the states reps from various counties who worked on the bill. The dean of the School of Nursing who is Egyptian and the most fabulously put-together looking woman is beside him. Her name is Afaf. Isn't that great. Anyway, it was a very exciting thing to see as PA is the last state in the country to allow cnm prescriptive privileges and so many people have been working on this for so long. Funally. The medical association with their turf wars and their expensive lobbyists lost to a bunch of nurses! Hah!

So that's the big news here. Because this is supposed to be a crafty blog, I'm posting some pictures of finished objects: 2 pairs of socks. Both are knit with Lorna's Laces. The blue pair is from Nancy Bush's excellent book "Knitting Vintage Socks." I probably picked the ugliest and most boring pair of socks in the whole book. Don't ask me why. The pink pair is from yarn that I first saw on the Harlot's yarn crawl in NYC. Some significant portion of the monaey for the yarn goes to breast cancer research. I didn't buy it on the crawl (told myself I had enough sock yarn...hah!) but then craved and coveted so much that I made my dad go back to the store and get it for me. He actually got me 4 skeins, so I have 2 and a half left! The pattern is the Jaywalker Socks from MagKnit which was a total internet craze last winter. Now that I've knit the socks, I'm not sure that I get what all the fuss was about. But that won't stop me from embarking on another internet-fueled knitting project: the Rogue pullover (google it if you're curious, since I don't know how to post links...)

And look what just arrived special delivery:

It is a good day.

Well, my brother is married. Sniff. His wedding and mine were about as different as he and I are. His was fun. I posted some pictures below so the folks at work could see how my dress turned out (sorry, but they had to hear about my preparations for weeks, so they wanted pictures). I'll post some of everyone else soon enough.

It's good to be home again. It always seems as though it takes a few weeks to get completely unpacked from a big trip like that. Probably because I spend most of my time checking my email, reading mothering.com and various blogs and reacquainting myself with all my fabric. Plus having to go to work cuts in to my free time. It's a problem. I have had a run of really nice births at work lately. I had to scrub in on a c/s the last night I was there, and I realized it has been ages since I'd been in the o.r. Lots of nice vag deliveries lately.

I just spoke to Christine and poor Silas has coxsackie.

It's 10:30 here and I'm taking a break from watching Law & Order SVU and knitting on my Jaywalker Socks to make buttered noodles. I did already eat dinner (in case you were wondering). If Al were home he would probably have tried to stop me, but he's at a movie. So buttered noodles it is. With parm and fresh ground pepper. MMMmmmm

A few thoughts for father's day

Father's day weekend here and lovely weather. I haven't posted any pictures in a long time and Penelope has enough hair to braid! Also many beautiful dresses (and why shouldn't she?). Above is a picture of us at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival with a little Waldorf doll that I got her there. She loves him. She shows that she loves him by crowing when she sees him and pulling his hair out with her teeth. She can't be left alone with him.

Penelope and I are recently returned from Minnesota where Penelope attended her first birth (well her 2nd I guess)--we went to be with my amazing friend Talisyn and were lucky enough to be there for the birth. It was great to catch up with Christine and Silas too. We spent 4 days cooking and cleaning for Tal and wrangling the 2 babies. Tal was totally wonderful in labor--really focused and calm and incredibly tolerant of all the chaos around her. When we arrived at the hospital Christine and I couldn't help but laughing thinking of what the staff (ourselves included) at Chestnut Hill would have done if a patient's support folks had arrived as we did: picture the actively laboring woman, her mother and husband, 2 midwife friends, 3 pillows, 2 babies, 2 diaper bags, 2 shopping bags of food, 1 stroller, 2 Ergo's, 1 sling, 1 rolling suitacase, 1 bag of baby toys and a comforter. We were a ridiculous site to see. But whatever they might have been thinking, they were too nice (Minnesota, you know) to be anything but pleasant and welcoming.

Beautiful Zibby Esme.

I said recently--as I often do--how much easier everything was before we had kids. When I think about things that used to stress me out, I want to laugh. Traffic? Exams? Spending time with my in-laws? Holidays? Ha. Take away the kids and any of those things seems like a walk in the park. Really. The person I said this to said, "and you want to have more?" Which, of course, I do. I don't think I ever appreciated a single thing in my life before the kids were born. Not a single thing. Now I appreciate everything--the time with them, and the wonderful time alone (all the more wonderful for being so rare).

Ahem. Queer much? No one has ever called Al metrosexual, so I think he must get it from his Uncle Jason.

Is it wrong to spend a moment complaining about my children's wonderful father on father's day weekend? Better that I should get it off my chest, no?




Al is great at some of the staying home stuff. He's good with the kids ( of course that's the main thing). He's easy-going which I am not (news flash!) and in my new world view, that is almost the most important characteristic a parent can have. Being patient and easy going will take you far when you spend your whole day with irrational short people. But (as is typical for men, I believe) he doesn't do any of the following things:

make dentist/doctor's appointments for the kids
plan meals
plan anything
sort and store baby clothes
hang laundry out so it smells nice
read parenting books (not even one)
sort and organize kid toys
clean the kitchen at night so it's nice in the morning when you come downstairs

Okay, so it's a pretty short list. That was pretty much the extent of my home-making when I was the stay at home parent. I didn't even do the laundry--I just hung it out when the weather was nice. But it's really hard to fit that stuff in on my schedule. When I have only one or 2 days off in a row, all I can manage is the every day house stuff--food for that very moment, clean underwear for today, taking out the trash, walking the dogs, etc. I never feel able to take on bigger projects.


I think we need another wife.

Our awesome (childless) friends are watching the kids tomorrow so we can go out for a fancy brunch. They all think it's funny that our idea of a good father's day (mother's day too) is to go out without the kids. Oh we love them an all. But it's really hard to butter good french bread and drink cup after cup of strong, piping hot coffee with a wriggly baby on your lap. And let's not even get started on reading the paper...

My question is this: Why should it bother me that my long-term hobbies (we're talking since childhood here!!!) should be suddenly (it seems sudden to me) trendy and cool.

I mean the number of knitting and now QUILTING blogs out there is unbelievable.

And what is wrong with me that it doesn't bring me joy? I ask you. Shouldn't I want everyone to share the joy of crafting? Is it because I've been doing it longer but "they" are better than me? Their blogs are certainly better. Gah.

Before you know it, the Little House on the Prairie historical sites are going to be mobbed--not by dorks in their matching mother-daughter Laura Ingalls dresses (ahem, I hope you are awaiting this year's Halloween pictures with baited breath) but by cool, trendy, thin women wearing homemade moderne baby slings and matching mother-daughter Laura Ingalls dresses. I ask you, is nothing safe from the cool people?

Meanwhile, I waste so much time (and I really don't have a lot of that) perusing other people's blogs instead of spending the precious few moments that I have
exercising
sewing
cleaning the kitchen
training the puppy
walking the dogs
cooking
paying the bills
getting out my summer clothes
getting a haircut
getting a dress for Jason's wedding
getting father's day presents
making something for Talisyn's/Jessica's/Nikki's babies
sleeping
gardening
going to the dentist
going to the chiropractor
getting a massage
going to grand rounds at work
etc

Oh, by the way: that's my to do list. In no particular order.