Medulla Oblongata

This was a pretty full weekend in the Fernandez household. On Saturday, we went to a local art fair at one of the Catholic schools in the area. It is a pretty big deal, with hundreds of different vendors in all kinds of art media (traditional, oil painting, landscapes, metal sculptures, rugs, etc). They also had some live entertainment (mostly acts performed by students of the schools) and carnival type foods (hot dogs, corn dogs, funnel cake, etc). We had a pretty good time browsing all of the art. We thought pretty seriously about buying a few pieces, but in the end, decided against it. We just couldn't make up our minds :-)

Later in the day, we went to a small Cuban festival at one of the local libraries. Honestly, it was pretty sad. One of the local restaurants had donated food (which was tastey), and they had a few dance demonstrations. Other than that, there wasn't really anything else highlighting Cuba or its culture. I was disappointed, to be honest. Jose brought up a good point--the one thing the Cuban festival was really lacking was--CUBANS! There were a few cubans in the dance performances, but other than that, they were nowhere to be found. Oh well. Maybe there was another Cuban function going on that we didn't know about. That's my theory :-)

Yesterday, we went to a local park for Doulapalooza. What is this event, you ask? It is an event hosted by the louisville area birthcarenetwork that highlights prenatal, labor and delivery, and postnatal care resources in the area. My doctors recommended that I go to get to know some of the resources in the area. To be honest, I wanted to go because I'm still trying to figure out what kind of birth experience I would like to have this time. I have no regrets about my experience with the birth of Enrique, but I feel like I didn't really have time to prepare or research things when I was pregnant with Enrique because I was so busy working all of the time. Now, I have a little bit of time to actually think about things, and I want to know all of my options. Honestly, I can't say that I won't get an epidural--I had one with Enrique, and honestly, I think it helped me to relax a lot. I did not have a painless labor or delivery, but the pain was much less than without the epidural. By the same token, I can't way that I will get an epidural. The hospital I'm going to be giving birth in (which is actually in Indiana--just across the bridge) has some whirlpools and other resources for the birthing process. Anyhow, the point of all of this is that I've started reading about professional labor coaches called doulas. Don't get me wrong--Jose was a wonderful labor coach during my experience with Enrique. I think I've been thinking about having a doula to support not only myself, but to support Jose through the process, too. It's just kind of scary having a baby here in a town that I'm still getting to know, and without my good friends and family from home. My one concern about having a doula is--what if I decide I want an epidural and my doula doesn't support that? I don't want somebody coaching me who thinks i'm a wimp! Alas, there's still time to figure this all out...and no matter what I "plan," I know that surprises always come.

Oh, you're probably wondering about the title for this blog. It comes from the following:

Luz: I would like to go to this event they're having at Willow Park. It's called Doulapalooza.

Jose: Doulablongata?

Luz: Do you mean "medulla oblongata?" Like the part of your brain?

Jose: Yes! Boy, I would have killed a bunch of people by now if I had become a doctor.

Aye yay yay!!! :-)