Getting to know you thread - Page 5

[tlcdoula]

Hello everyone - I am new to this board but not to the site. I will admit that finding out I was pregnant this time around was quite the shock because my dh went for a vasectomy at the beginning of May. We already have 8 children and felt that 8 was enough for us. All went well with the vasectomy unfortunately (or fortunately since we are happy now) it turns out that I conceived two days prior to the surgery. To say the least I was pretty darn shocked and had swore I would never have another baby because my last dd's birth was so unpleasant, but here I am again LOL

A little more about me - I am married to my high school sweetheart and together we have seven daughters and one son. They tend to keep us very busy and in addition to that I also work as a labor and postpartum doula, childbirth and new parent educator and massage therapist (all very part time jobs).

[Astraia]

Hi, I'm Grace, married to DH (Jeff) for 2 years in August.
We had our first baby Nigella, Nov/08, so she's six month old. I am, to say the least, NOT thrilled but I'm trying to be positive. My daughter is still exclusively breastfed and not a fan of solid food so I'm a bit worried about how this is going to go...

I had a period April 1st, but when I took a preg test May 14 it was negative, and then may 28 I took another and got my BFP.

We had a condom... uh, slip? Sure. We'll call it a slip. Anyway, that happened May 3 so I think that's our probable date of conception which would give me a due date of Jan 25 or something, I forget. Whoops.

I've got my name in with a midwifery clinic in town, and REALLY hope I get in- they always seem to have a wait list, even though I called and left a voicemail at 5 weeks 5 days. Here's hoping it works out!

Just thought I'd pop in and say hey!

[love4bob]

Originally Posted by mymary

You are almost in the exact situation as me! How are you feeling about three so close?

I'm a little nervous! We weren't planning any for a few more years, so we are going to have to shuffle life plans around a bit now. My first two are 19 months apart, and that wasn't too hard. I just hope 16 months apart will be the same!

[love4bob]

Originally Posted by Astraia

Hi, I'm Grace, married to DH (Jeff) for 2 years in August.
We had our first baby Nigella, Nov/08, so she's six month old. I am, to say the least, NOT thrilled but I'm trying to be positive. My daughter is still exclusively breastfed and not a fan of solid food so I'm a bit worried about how this is going to go...

I had a period April 1st, but when I took a preg test May 14 it was negative, and then may 28 I took another and got my BFP.

We had a condom... uh, slip? Sure. We'll call it a slip. Anyway, that happened May 3 so I think that's our probable date of conception which would give me a due date of Jan 25 or something, I forget. Whoops.

I've got my name in with a midwifery clinic in town, and REALLY hope I get in- they always seem to have a wait list, even though I called and left a voicemail at 5 weeks 5 days. Here's hoping it works out!

Just thought I'd pop in and say hey!

We were also not so thrilled when we found out we were expecting this time too. My DD2 was born Oct 08, and is 7 months old. DD1 turned 2 in February. Our "slip" happened on May 2nd, so I'm due January 22nd. If you ever want to talk about it with someone that can relate you can PM me!

[Dea]

Hi! I wanted to wait until my ultrasound to do this.
I'm Deadra. This is my 2nd pregnancy, my DD is Trixie and I hate calling her DD so I call her Trixie.
I live in the bay area and I am Canadian.
I conceived Trixie through infertility treatments and did them again this time, although they were a lot more intense.
I would love to try for a home birth again, but if I am pregnant with twins, I think that I'll go for a VBAC at the hospital.
I hope this isn't my last pregnancy, but time will tell.
I have a cat and a dog, they drive me crazy.
(but I love them so!)

[youngwife]

Hi everyone!

I am Rebecca (seems like there are quite a few of us with the name Rebecca)! I have been married to JR for 16 years, and we have five girls and one boy, this will be #7 for us. We plan to find out the sex of the baby as tradition since baby #2. The children really seem to bond with the baby once we know, and have chosen a name.

I am an unschooling/homeschooling mom, and I love to breastfeed and co-sleep. My two oldest have health issues, so our life is pretty crazy and hectic.

When I found out about this pg, I was really scared to tell anyone. I knew that with our lives being so crazy, it would not be well received. And there are times that my daughters really need me, and I didn't want to take away from them. But, God is good, and worked out all of the issues! Everyone, so far, has been happy. We haven't told my in laws yet, but no rush there!! They are the ones that give us such a hard time about our family size!

I hope that each of you have healthy pregnancies and babies!

Rebecca

[kenyarena]

Hi! I'm Serena (31) and JohnPaul (DH, 31) and I have been together 4.5 years. My son, Grayson, is about 3.5 years. Currently, I'm still letting pregnancy #2 sink in. We are very excited! It began to occur to me a few months back that having another child would make the two 4 years apart. I freaked out and decided to start planning/charting/preparing. A month later I was pregnant!

I love gardening (although I miss my big garden and fruit vines and bushes in Georgia). DH works for the Foreign Service and we are currently in Belgrade, Serbia. We live in a beautiful area on a hill above the city, surrounded by forest. However, when they built the homes here they buried all of the debris and junk (like shoes, chip bags, etc) in the ground. The dirt is hard and rocky and I can hardly get a shovel in. So, I miss gardening. Love cooking traditional foods though! The produce is mostly local, fresh and not covered with pesticides. So that's a bonus. And animals typically aren't injected and are safe to eat.

I've been trying to wean DS for the past couple weeks. It just hurts like hell! I cry when he cries because it just breaks my heart. But my milk dried after conceiving and that, coupled with the pain and the wonderful, long 3.5 years of nursing him, are enough to convince me that it's okay to move on (and to even have a small break before #2 arrives end of Jan).

I think that's enough for now. Oh, I forgot, DS was born in a hospital. It was an uncomplicated, unmedicated birth. I'll be at a birth center in Indianapolis this go. Can't wait to come home to visit in two weeks. My first appointment with a MW is July 2nd. Hoping to hear all is well.

Great to know you all!

[remijo]

Sorry, I just had to pop in and say that there are now three Serena's on this board and it is usually such an unusual name. I never find anyone with my name!

[momofsamandaddi]

Hi! My name is Ruth & I have been married to dh, Chris, for 4.5 years now. We have an almost 3 yr. old ds (6/21) & a 17 month old dd (1/21). We are expecting #3 around Jan. 25.

I nursed ds until he was 17 months (2 months before dd was born) and I'm still nursing dd right now (at 17 months). If she makes it as far as ds did during my pregnancy with her, she'll wean at 22 months. I'm all for tandem nursing if she'll be able to not wean herself while I'm pregnant. We'll just have to wait & see.

I'm so excited to be pregnant, but this morning sickness has been ALL day... nothing completely relieves it. I am functional but sometimes think I'll throw up. I haven't thrown up but I've come really close (gagging, etc.).

My other two were born in the water in a stand-alone birth center but we have moved & are now over an hour away from there. I absolutely love my midwife, though, and fortunately she is willing to drive the distance so we're planning a water home birth with that same midwife. We're very excited & a little nervous about that.

I'm not sure what else to say so I guess I'll say... I'm looking forward to sharing the next few months with you all!

[mosmom06]

Hello, everyone!
My name is Gillian, and I've been married to my DH since 8/20/04 - we celebrate our 5th anniversary this year!
We have one beautiful little girl born 11/28/06 - the only time she is still is when she's sleeping!
Had a miscarriage at abt 4wks in January, but now we're expecting #2 1/1/10! My husband is hoping this one will come early - he wants the tax deduction for this year! However, DD was late (induced at 41wks) and my family has traditionally gone over, so he may be out of luck on that!
We got to see the little one this week...looking good! DH was impressed that it actually looked like a baby .
We are currently serving as Music Ministers at our church, which we both enjoy, and DH hopes to one day be a pastor.

[dnr3301]

I'll just jump in here too:

I'm Rebecca. I'm almost 34, this is my third kid, 4th pregnancy.

My first two kids were born at home, as this one will be. Fairly uneventful births, starting both times with my water breaking, so I guess that's unusual. Both times, you couldn't have paid me to get out of the water, so I'm planning a water birth for this one as well. Dd is 8 and Ds is 5. They will turn 9 and 6 a couple months after this one is born. I'm looking forward to having only one baby in the house, but having 9 years of parenting under my belt. Dh and I keep joking that this baby will be perfect, great sleeper, no nursing problems, easily readable cues for pottying, .

I lost the 3rd pregnancy at 14 weeks, and it was a pretty bad experience for me, not just the loss, but the actual miscarriage was bad too. I lost a lot of blood and was treated pretty poorly at a hospital I trust(ed). I'm fine with the L&D part, but the ER part was just terrible.

We've been together for 15 years this summer, married for 10. We are taking a road trip in August, just the two of us. We figured that the kids are old enough that we can leave them for a week and none of us will be too traumatized, and we won't have that again for a few more years.

[princesstutu]

I never do due date clubs, but... why not, eh?

I'm happily single with four kids, so this'll be the fifth. The father-to-be and I are having issues, so who knows how that will pan out. I actually don't care. This was an "oops" pregnancy, but I'm very happy to be pregnant. He doesn't know how he feels.

My last baby was UP/UC all the way, but I'll be doing doctor visits with this one. I just have a feeling I should and so...I will. This pregnancy is so far nothing like my others. I'm sick a lot and I get light-headed easily. I have headaches and stuff. I'm used to having no pregnancy symptoms, so I'm not too happy about all this hoopla. I still plan on UCing, as long as there are no pregnancy complications.

My older kids are 10, 9, 7, and 5 and they're pretty excited about the pregnancy, too. I'm starting to get a belly and it makes me happy to look at it. It's the little things!

[humptydumpty]

hello everyone
I am 33 years old, married to my spanish husband for a few years living in southern Germany. This is our first child, first pregnancy too.
I havent planned yet where to give birth. I have a good doctor (alternative, natural medicine aswell as the normal approach). The first ultra sound revealed two sacs, one baby with a heart beat at week 7.
We are very happy and excited about it, due date is probably 26 of Jan. Hopefully my mother in law will be able to stay with us for a month around that time. (My mum is working and wont have a lot of time off)
A good pregnancy to everybody!

[jtrt]

I've been here for weeks but never posted on this thread! My name is Amy and I am 37 (38 in July). I have been married to the love of my life for 14 years and we have three sweet little boys, collectively referred to as "The Fellas." We are a homeschooling family and lead a pretty crunchy life. My fellas are intact, unvaxed and nurse until they self-wean. I tandem nursed the last two for many months and our current record holder weaned at 3 years 2 months.

I work part-time on weekends as a home health RN. I love seniors and being out in the community is good for my soul. My dh is an artist and works as a creative director. We live in North Texas.

A bit about our journey to parenthood...all of our boys were born out-of-hospital with the same CNM. Our last two babies were home water births, born in the hot tub in our backyard. Pregnancy and birth have always been a joy for us.

Since last summer, we have been trying to add a new baby to our family and have suffered three consecutive losses. It has been a terrible year. My body, mind and spirit have been tried by fire. I found a great OB willing to treat us aggressively and am now on heparin injections twice a day, along with baby aspirin, Zervalx, progesterone and a handful of supplements. For whatever reason, it appears this little baby who we call JingleBell is going to stay. I am beginning to enjoy being pregnant and look forward to feeling JingleBell move soon.

I have really enjoyed getting to know the mommas in this DDC!

Amy

[littlestars17]

Hello My name is Sabrina, I just turned 29 and have been married to Kristopher since Jan of 2006. We have 3 beautiful boys ages 11,9 and almost 3 and are expecting this little bean Jan 25th. All 3 of my births were without medication but needed pitocin due to not progressing, my 2nd nd third children were both induced, Jonah due to toxemia and premmature rupture of membranes and Ryan due to GD and high blood pressure.
I am a wahm Mom and have run a licensed childcare and preschool from my home for 11 years. I love what I do but am trying not to overdue it in hopes of not having blood pressure issues this time around. I am currently on methlydopa for HBP and was just taken off of metformin for PCOS.
Looking forward to long healthy pregnancies with all of you!!

[rachel65655]

I am Rachel and am 29 years old. I have been married for almost 12 years and have 3 sons ages 11, 10, and 5...and two daughters that are 3 and 1. I think everyone knows that we are expecting twins this January. If not, you will know by my signature.

We live on a farm in Missouri where I milk 3 cows, twice a day, by hand! In addition we raise pastured poultry and natural pork. We have our own bee hives and we raise a large garden every year.

I am a stay at home mom and homeschool my children.

[NaturalBeauty]

Its great to meet everyone!

My name is Jamie and my SO is Michael.
This is baby #5 for me. I have DD - 10, DS - 7, DS - 6, DS - 3 soon to be 4. and this baby bean is due 1-27. We are hoping for a girl since last 3 have been boys... feeling the need for more estrogen in the house.

We live in Northglenn, Colorado which is on the north side of Denver. And are a crunchy AP family. I breastfeed including extended and have tandem BF in the past. We delay vax, co-sleep with my babies until they are ready to move into their own beds. Currently they are all sleeping in their own beds but our youngest almost always comes into our bed in the middle of the night or the morning.

I cloth diaper and will be returning to WAHM cloth diaper making as well as adding in clothing as I am able to get it all set up again. I also do some modeling & photography along with my SO. Unfortunately with the economy slowing down the modeling & photography are making us less & less. And now with the new pregnancy I need to get the WAHM business back up and running full time.

I am looking into having a HBAC here in Colorado but have NO information on it yet. So any help there is much appreciated. My life is really stressful due to low income, and dealing with my ex-husband. I am in desperate need of support & friends. I tend to be extremely busy but really need to be able to learn to juggle my time to be able to build a support network for myself.

This pregnancy has been rough so far. I am 9w1d and have been extremely exhausted, and have been having extreme symptoms literally from implantation. None of my other 4 pregnancies were this rough, in fact with my last (4th) I didn't find out I was pregnant until I was 16 weeks so of course I wasn't showing yet either. So even though they say you show more and quicker with each subsequent I guess I don't. I had a tummy tuck just over 2 years ago to fix my muscle separation so this pregnancy was a complete surprise and I don't expect to show for quite a while which is frustrating.

Well thats enough of a book for now. Looking forward to getting to know everyone and spending more time online building a network of friends and support buddies.

Jamie

[robin1377]

Hi! I'm Robin (31). I'm expecting my second child towards the end of Jan. I just got married to my husband Mike on May 9th of this year and we found out I'm PG a week later. It was a big month for us. We are both thrilled. I have one DD, she'll be 6 next month and she's beyond excited to finally be a big sister.

We moved to Chicago last fall and are finally starting to feel at home here. We have a beautiful yard and vegetable garden that are a much needed amenity to city living in a best of both worlds kind of way. I've been catching up on a lot of reading lately which has been very nice and I hope to start knitting and sewing again soon in preparation for the little one, making sweaters, hats, clothing and diaper covers for the winter arrival.

So far this pregnancy has been pretty tough, much harder that the first one. I haven't been able to keep much down and have been seriously fatigued and dizzy and am losing weight. I'm hoping that I get over the hump soon and start to feel a bit better.

I had a natural birth in a free standing birth center with my first and am looking forward to having this one at home.

Wishing the best to all of you during your pregnancies and beyond.

[kitteh]

Hi ladies! I'm Tashia, 27 and expecting my first child in late January. I was planning to wait another couple of years before starting a family, but life had other plans!

My husband G and I were recently legally wed here in the US on June 12th, although we had a previous (non-legally binding) wedding on December 12th 2008 in his hometown in northern Chile. We met and fell in love when I was studying in Chile last year, so we've only known each other for about 10 months, although it feels as if we've been together forever (sappy, I know.) G just arrived in the US on May 7th and we had some moment(s) of throwing caution to the wind, after which I freaked out and took the morning after pill but our pequeñito had already begun making itself at home. We're thrilled because raising a family is very important to us, but I'm also very stressed out and worried because of the timing.

I just graduated from UCLA this Spring with a BA in Comparative Literature and have been contemplating going back for my masters in education and going the teaching route. In the meantime I work as a waitress, which I've done for the past 7 years to help pay for school. G isn't legally able to work yet but should be soon, and we're hoping that he will be able to find employment without too much delay. I'm very worried about money and how we're going to manage having a new little one with us so soon, but we're trying to stay optimistic and hopeful for the future.

[S.Elise]

Hello

Hi, everyone, I am new to posting on mothering.com. I had my first 15 months ago - I was so lucky to be living in the UK at the time and had a wonderful birth center birth there. This time (guess date is 1/11/10), I am back home in NY and planning an HB with a CPM. A little intimidated by the fact there will be no pain relief possible, but otherwise totally happy with my decision as I have been studying the US maternity system for years and know a hospital is no place for me if I can at all avoid it!

So nice to have a place to share!