I can quit you, and I will.

Today I made the decision that I'm firing my midwife practice. 

I've been feeling "off" for the last few days, and last night at the car dealership (a long story, but we didn't buy the car) I had four huge contractions while we were there, due largely to stress of the salesperson lying to us). So, I stayed home from work today as I was feeling crampy and generally icky.  I tried calling the midwife's office yesterday to make an appointment - but as it turns out, they're CLOSED on Wed. Every single Wed. And, they're not open on Saturday. Oh, and did I mention that they're only open until 2 p.m. one other day during the week? And they're 45 miles from my work, which means that due to the train schedule, unless I get an early morning appointment, I end up having to miss an entire day of work to see them? 

My original doctor was a pleasant Indian man, with a grandfatherly demeanor. He was nice, but when we moved out of the city, it wasn't practical for me to continue care with him. When we moved out to the suburbs, I decided to see about a midwife's practice here in the town that I live in. Big mistake.  The head of the practice was a warm, kind woman who was patient with my questions. Her partner? An icy bitch. 

When I went in for an emergency visit due to incredible swelling in my hands and feet she all but rolled her eyes at me and said that some women just have worse swelling than others. The woman who makes the appointment is a little too authority-happy. When I stared under their care, I requested my previous records FOUR TIMES from the first doctor's office, and for some reason they never received them. I tried. I signed a release and requested that my records be sent over. They bitch me out about not having the records every time I'm in there. I'm sorry - I've tried to get them. They have copies of everything else though, so aside from records from my first 12 weeks, there's nothing they have to worry about. And really - so many women don't even see a doctor until then, that seriously - they can do without them. 

Anyway, today was the kicker. Their office is closed on Wed. so I couldn't make an appointment yesterday. Today, when I called to make an appointment, they told me that they had to see me tomorrow at 11:45. Now, I work downtown, and with the train schedule the way that it is, there's no way that I can make it back here in time for the appointment. Just simply no way. I told her that I couldn't take that appointment and that I needed something for next week. She said that there wasn't anything. I asked about the week after. She said that wasn't allowable - that it was too many weeks between me seeing the CNM, and then said 

"You need to make sure you care as much about your baby as you do your job, and make your appointments here with the same vigilance that you make your appointments at the office" 

At this point, I flipped out. I work for a living. I don't have the luxury of staying at home. I have to be in the office the majority of the time. 

As soon as I hung up with her (after securing an appointment at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, where I will retrieve my records), I called an OBGYN that's close to the house for an appointment. The receptionist was pleasant, and said that a nurse would call me within a few minutes to follow up and set up an appointment that fit my schedule. 

After I have my records, I will be done with their office. I'm saddened, because I really wanted to try the midwife route, but not at the cost of this much stress.