Getting to know you thread

[marinak1977]

Hi Everyone, I decided to follow up on Erika's suggestion and start this thread. Please post a little bit about yourselves, (as much as you feel like)
I'll start -
I'm Marina, I'm 31 and have been with my DH for 8 years (yikes!), married for 4. I am a graduate student - I study neuroscience. We live in beautiful Pacific Northwest in a perfect little house which we share with our furry kids - 3 very busy border collies. I love to garden and right now my heaven is my front yard where everything is blooming and fragrant.
We've been trying for a first non-furry kid for about 18 months now, and finally after majorly changing our diets (especially for my DH) and charting we got knocked up in february but lost it right away. Took a month off and tried again, and here I am. So, at least we got that part figured out it seems. I'm a bit scared of having the little worm 1.1 not stick, but I decided I am going to enjoy every moment of having it here, however long I have. Hoping for a smooth and uneventful 8 months.

I'm really looking forward to getting to know everyone, and it's great to see some familiar faces too! :

[petit_bleuet]

Howdy!

I'm Laura, 34, and am still officially a newlywed having just married my DH, Jeff, last July. We haven't even hit the 2 year mark as a couple, but we've been friends for almost 5 years.

I've got an adorable 7-year-old, Ian, from a previous marriage.

I'm a middle school library/technology teacher but like 120-some odd other teachers in my district, I've been pink slipped for next year. So I've got some soul-searching ahead of me as I won't have a year plus in any new position to be FMLA-eligible and would only be eligible for a 6 week maternity leave... The logical plan is to take next school year off, but that's not going to be great for us financially, we're not exactly rolling in the dough and one income will demand a lot of creativity and scrimping.

Meh. It will all work out.

[merrywearer]

Hi! I'm Mary. I've been married to Ethan since August 2003, and we have two little munchkins, Elias, who'll be five in August, and Ella, who just turned 2.
I stay at home with them, and love it!
I am also a doula and a homebirth midwife's assistant. I LOVE birth, and am so excited to go through the pregnancy/birth process, being well educated. Research and learning are SOOO important, as this is the only time we will birth these babies!
I'm pretty crunchy, and normally we cloth diaper, but after almost upchucking yesterday after getting some poop on my hands, we might be using only or just mostly sposies until this baby comes, or the first trimester is over, we'll see

[fascha]

Great thread!!!

I'm Amanda (28) and my DH is Vince (26... I know I know LOL) we have been together for 8 years, married since 7.7.7 had our major surprise DS 07.10.08 and was lucky enough to get a BFP after my 1st PPAF :

I was a travel agent prior to going on mat leave with my DS and I'm due back in July... they're going to LOSE IT when I tell them I'm prego again lmao

oh, and I'm in Canada!

[geekgolightly]

This is a great idea, because I have been curious about all of you.

My name is Kathy, and I am 39. I've been with Reed, who is 33, for 7 years and we have one son, Seth who is 5. I am an RN and work in an Medical ICU part time and really love it. I also knit and love music. Punk rock are my roots, but I love everything. My husband is a pharmacy student.

I started getting very interested in moving to vegan eating right before I found out I was pregnant. I am still moving in that direction. I bought lots of great books, like Veganomicon and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. If you have any suggestions, recipes or tips, I am all ears.

My husband is interested in eating mostly vegetarian after discovering he has dyslipidemia, but my son has NO interest in being veg.

Hi everyone! :::

[Keeta]

I'm Chessa (30), SAHM to Silas (who will be 3 in June) and wife to Chad (37) for coming up on 6 years. I graduated with my masters in Library Science when I was 7 months preg with Silas, so I'm trained as a librarian but haven't worked profesisonally as one (I refer to myself as a secret librarian ninja). My husband started out as a philosophy professor at community college and now has moved into community college administration. I was born in NC, grew up in NH, went to school in OR, lived in Metro Detroit for 4 years and now we're happy to be back in the PNW in Seattle.

I'm a big reader (lots of SF, paranormal, urban fantasy, but other genres, too). We used to watch a lot of indie films before becoming parents, but now we never seem to get to our netflix movies! We are a vegan family, although we're flexible with DS in social situations. We try to live lightly on the earth as much as possible.

As far as parenting, DS is intact and was breastfed until we weaned at 27 months (history of breast cancer in the family - mom has had it twice - and my doctors were really stressing about me getting a baseline mammogram done). We selectively vax, and DS was cloth-diapered until 2.5. Then we got lazy with sposies. We may try to go back to cloth to see if it will encourage DS to potty-learn, but I'm not holding my breath on that one.

We love to spend time in the outdoors, hiking, camping, throwing rocks in Puget Sound...

Oh, we plan to homeschool Silas, most likely unschool. We aspire to a consenual living/radical unschooling parenting style, but it's a work in progress. Like most good things in life I guess.

Nice to meet everyone!

[JayJay]

Okay, right, here I am!

Can we get this thread stickied? I think it would be awesome to be able to refer to it as we progress together in the coming months, don't you all?

Anyway so, I am Jay, 26, turning 27 in two weeks. With Harry (we'll get around to getting married at some point lol) and stepmom to his gorgeous kiddies aged 7 and 6

We had a daughter, Josie, but she died at term almost along with me. She was beautiful. I want to have a million babies because just seeing her made me realize the meaning of life. So far we've got this one in the works, only 999,999 to go

Anyway, so I want to use the G Diapers - wanted to with Josie as well but didn't quite get around to ordering them. They seem like a good solution. I am totally against circumcision - we don't do it in the UK and just because I'm in the US does NOT mean any so of mine is getting any proportion of his willy cut off. No way.

I do like organic food, try to grow my own mostly. I hugely prefer (love, even) co-ops over large grocery stores. I love ethnic food stores and trying new food, baking, cooking, sewing, crafting anything, painting...you name it.

Love being out in nature, fishing, just being out and plunging my fingers in the earth. I'm such an animal

I just gave in my notice at work today - I will not be working out of home any more this pregnancy. I overdid it last time and right now I work about 65 hrs a week including the commute, which leaves no time for a life. I came to this decision over a period of months and am going to just throw caution to the wind and freelance.

Funnily enough, for someone who's just chucked her job with health benefits and a good salary, I am not scared at all. I really believe I have the capability to do this, and to be a better mother as a result.

Ummm...ooh, and I would love to homeschool. Working from home, this is a much greater possibility than before.

I think that's it for now....great to meet everyone! It feels so nice to be art of a community, even though we're just soooo newly pregnant and are all carrying tiny little beans - or in my case, a burgeoning ball of cells. I love my burgeoning ball of cells though Hopefully in nine months it will have soft skin, fur on it's little head, bright little eyes, a cute little toothless mouth and an APGAR of 10

I cannot cannot CANNOT wait to breastfeed.....OMG...

Anyway enough from me - I'm taking over the thread here!

*HUGE hugs* to you all! XXXXX

[Kidzaplenty]

:

[marinak1977]

Bummer - I don't think I can change the title to ask for a sticky - so I'm hoping a Moderator would read this and sticky the thread. Thank you!

[Bubblette]

I'm Marie (25, 26 soon) married to my wonderful DH (28); we've been together almost 7 years, and just got married this past January. I'm in veterinary school in Australia

We are owned by a lovable quirky cat and a 11 month old, very boisterous, tries to hard to be good great dane puppy, who we are really really working hard on training and praying he matures ASAP. They've both been selectively and delayed vacc and eat as natural a diet as we can find/afford.

We've always wanted children, just didn't expect to start incubating any until I was nearer to the end of school, h well!! We've always intended to cloth diaper, delay and selectively vac, babywear, gently discipline, and generally AP. We're not sure how that all is going to work out now that I'll be having a child in between semesters at school but we're going to do our best to figure it all out.

We do our best to eat TF within our budget and time constraints. I want to grow more of our own food but so far I've only killed the seeds I've started

[MrsAngelic]

I'm Alicia and just got my BFP yesterday with a due date of December 28th 2009 but most of my births have been "late" so I think it's probably safer to join you all in January. I'm soooooooooo excited about this pregnancy because I was told I was pregnant in a dream the night I conceived. Here is the story by way of an email I sent a friend:

"Most of my dreams are very long and drawn out changing themes throughout; leaving me with a feeling but not much in the way of specifics. Like i can be reading a newspaper and I understand what i am reading but when I look closer at the page it's just a bunch of random letters. Ok, so in this very clear and concise dream I walk into a bright white place and I hear a voice and know it's coming from above from the light and it's saying that I am pregnant, I look down at my belly and touch it (lol), and that the baby's name is EMANA and I see that written in very large lettering, black on white in caps and someone else I don't really see (because I am trying to really read and remember this word) starts pulling me away and saying it's time to go. And I wake up and start giggling. Anyway I didn't know this word EMANA and wrote Brad Scott (the one who does the hebrew word studies) and apparently this is the hebrew word most commonly translated as 'faith'. So I'm figuratively watching water boil to see if this is something real. If it is then I will be so happy and if not....I'm going to feel really silly for getting all excited about it! This was a couple weeks ago."

Looks like I'm saved the trouble of picking a name too lol. My husband views my dream as suspect but really what are the chances? That's my view anyway.

About me...I'm a homeschooling SAHM of four sweet children ages 6, 5 ,3, and 19 months. Boy, boy, girl, boy. I am hoping this one will be a girl because lately the boys have been leaving her out. My last birth was planned unassisted with a midwife on backup and hope to do that again but something tells me that may pose a challenge now that we are in North Carolina. I think lay midwives and CPM's are illegal, and CNMs I've met in the past don't strike me as being cool with UC. We'll see.

Should get back to bed, congrats to every one of you too!

[nummies]

My name is Mandie. I am 25 years old. I have one son, Nathan who will be 2 in 10 days! I am a stay-at-home mama, but am also a RN. I am actually in the process of applying to schools to become a CNM. We are a AP family (obviously). Our kiddo co-sleeps, and nursed until he was 20 months (I pumped for an additional 2.5 months). He is cloth diapered and we do not vax.

Our birth with Nathan was very traumatic (in the hospital) and we have decided to do a homebirth this time around. I already have great midwives lined up so I am excited!

We tried for a very long time to have this baby. 15 months total with 5 IUIs. We had 2 follicles (eggs) for this last IUI, so there is a possibility of twins.

Can't wait to get to know you all!

[jamie79]

I am Jamie. I am 29 (veeeeery close to 30, though) and married to a wonderful guy, Jimmy (32) - yes Jimmy and Jamie - for almost 10(!) years. We have been together for 11 years. We have 2 children. Ethan is 7 & Lainey is 3 1/2. They are our little rays of sunshine in this world. We are a homeschooling family, but I don't seem to be home very much I teach kid's yoga and also substitute for other age groups as needed. We are involved in Crossfit and my son is in Jiu-Jitsu. We are very natural minded, don't vax (anymore), do co-sleep, do breastfeed for as long as possible, do treat illnesses with herbs/foods/supplements/etc, do cloth diaper part time, I run a natural food co-op with a friend of mine, & I also work for a local CSA, delivering organic produce to it's members. *takes a breath*

My husband works craaaaazy long hours and the birth and post-partum period after my 2nd child was very stressful as a result. I had very bad PPD. However, that coupled with the fact the I contracted Lyme disease when my daughter was 1 1/2 and have successfully fought it off have made me who I am.

This baby is the answer to many nights of crying and praying, wondering if I would ever get well again and be able to walk without weakness, let alone have anymore children. Regardless of what happens, I am convinced how good God is!!

My children are all miracles. My second I almost lost when the placenta started to tear away around 8-10 weeks along and this one being in the aftermath of the past few years. I just get choked up writing this. We are just so :

Thanks for reading this! I hope to get to "know" you all very well in the next trimesters of our lives!!

[acordio]

So nice to get know a little more about all you ladies!!

I am Angie(28) married to my super awesome hubby (joey 29). We just celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary a week ago but have been together for almost 9 years. We have two boys Lucas and Alex. They will turn 5 and 2 in June. I am a stay at home mom and have been for 3 1/2 years. We are a very natural minded family and are very excited to be planning our first homebirth with #3 . My first was section, 2nd vbac, and now doing the homebrith. Baby steps I guess.

I am a very active person that enjoys being outside. I recently ran my first half-marathon. I actually ran it a couple weeks pregnant I just didn't know it Our favorite things to do are go on long family hikes and work in the yard together. Hoping to get the garden planted this weekend!!

Thats a little about me.

[reese_6773]

My name is Laura, I'm 27, and we live in New York. My husband and i will celebrate our fourth wedding anniversary this summer.

I have a two year old son, and since then have had one misscarriage at 7 weeks. We are pregnant again after quite a few months of trying...and we are both so happy, but a little scared of losing this one also... but I'm glad to have found a community here to get excited with!

Our due date is Jan 1st, that will make two christmas babies for us! :

[Vespertina]

Nice to meet you ladies!

My name is Brittany. My husband's name is Mark. I'm 24 and he is 25. We've been married 6 years (as of next month). We have two girls, Grace is 4.5 and Evangeline is 2.5. Our son Duncan was born sleeping on November 14th 2008 at just shy of 35 weeks. He passed away due to complications with Down Syndrome. He was absolutely beautiful. Sweet little boy. I miss him. :

It took three full cycles to conceive this little bean. We were on a time crunch since Mark was set to deploy early May. We found out in early February. He actually left today just a couple hours ago. This last cycle was our last shot for 10 months. I just had a feeling that it would be our cycle, given the circumstances with him leaving. I'm staying with my in-laws in VA while he's gone. I very much enjoy the new scenery. I'm glad to be out of NC, at least where we were at.

I'm very nervous about this pregnancy, but I'm SO trying to remain positive. I want to enjoy this pregnancy and I keep telling myself that each pregnancy and baby is unique and should be treated with the same innocence as my other uneventful pregnancies. I'll be planning another homebirth. I'm excited about it. I've been looking forward to getting my homebirth for so long now. I'm so impatient. It always seems like the beginning of pregnancy goes by slow. I look forward to the second trimester. I know my worry won't end there, but I'll at least get a teensy bit of relief once I'm out of this delicate stage.

As for parenting style, we're a crunchy family. Some other things about me, I'm a photographer (of sorts). Right now I'm focusing on 35mm B&W. I love it. I also have a really big passion for philosophy and comparative religion and mythology and the religions and history of the ancient Near East. Studying religion and various philosophies is what I consider fun. I'm pretty much an automath. I'm really big into self study and education. I guess it's important that self education is a big deal to me since we're considering unschooling.

Anywho, I guess that's it for now.

[maplesmom]

HI! I'm Molly. Married to Sean for 4 years. DD Maple is 18 months. We have a dairy farm in MA which keeps me very busy! Running after cows and babies is not easy... not to mention prego!

I had a hospital birth first time around... but we are planning a home birth for this bean.

We CD, EC, I am planning on tandem nursing, co sleep etc.

I can't beleive how big my belly is already!

[BlessedNotStressed]

[welldone]

i'm serina (29), married to jason (32) and mom to maya (6), elly (4) and asher (18 mos). we lost our baby winter to miscarriage on new year's day this year, and are thrilled to be expecting a new life for new year's 2010. praying this one is healthy and well born.

we recently moved to ten acres in the country and are learning about homesteading and small scale farming. we have 26 four-week-old buff orpington chicks, half of whom will be living a happy life and going in our freezer in late summer. the rest will be our laying flock. we're starting our first big garden, and plants are taking over my life right now (tomatoes in the dining room, cabbages in the cold frame - they keep multiplying and growing bigger!).

i homeschool my kids and look forward to the challenge of integrating a new baby into the mix. my current little guy keeps me busy enough; good thing we have nine-ten months to get used to the idea of the next one!

[ratrodgrl]

I'm regina (29), married to S. for 10 years in July, and we have a 3-year old son. It only took a few cycles to conceive him, so I was expecting no issues with #2. A year after trying to conceive, we finally got pregnant much to our great joy... and then great sorrow in late December when I miscarried. My husband's mother died at the beginning of January, so it's been a rough start to our year. This is my 4th cycle after miscarriage, I'm so happy to be pregnant and expecting our little one. I'm feeling a lot more calm than I did last time, and I can't wait to hold our sweet babe 9 months from now.

I'm a SAHM to my son, and we just moved out to a more rural area so I am on a smaller scale than Serina but it's big enough for me! My garden hasn't gotten much love since I found out I was pregnant; I can't wait to get back out there. We have a few chickens that we hope to get eggs from, and my dream is to get year-round veggies from our own garden. I'd love a milk cow as well but don't think I can be tied down to a milker just yet!

My hopes for the birth are to have a homebirth. We had a uncomplicated hospital water birth with DS, I loved having a doula and the midwife was great and just let us do our thing. What I didn't like was how they panicked when DS' umbilical cord broke as he came out of me, and they whisked him away to the nursery for observation for 4 hours... and released him without ever having a doctor see him. It seemed like hospital protocol overrode any possibility of common sense and reason. I am seeing the midwife that attended my husband's birth, and I love walking around my home thinking about a birth happening here soon.

I'm greatly enjoying reading all the stories and getting to know you ladies!