Weekly Chat August 14 - 20

[Brisen]

I didn't see a new chat thread, so I figured I would go ahead and start one.

I had my first prenatal appointment today.  It's with a midwifery practice I haven't been to before; they're pretty new actually, this branch opened about a year ago, though the owner opened her first practice 10 years ago.   The appointment was straightforward; I'm about 8 weeks, so it was all talk.  I expected to get blood drawn, but she'll do that next time.

The office is about 7 mins from my house, on the same road actually.  That's really nice -- it used to be at least a half hour drive, and then parking was annoying.  I had to draw a map from the clinic to my house; I'm not good with directions in the first place, and between pregnancy brain and being nervous at a new place, it was even worse.  I manged to mess up the written directions because the road becomes one way on my section, but I was thinking it was one way the other way, and was giving them directions to drive around to get there.  Bah.  I realized as I walked in that my mom shops at the pharmacy across the road, and that there was a teeny chance that she might see me.    

[Bobbys]

I'm almost 9 weeks pregnant and I look like I'm at least 4 months preggo, if not more. We decided we will tell our families this Friday, even though we have yet to have an u/s or anything really to confirm viability. I'm just looking pregnant and feeling so pregnant that if we don't tell our families soon, I'll have to go into hiding. I'm excited to tell them of course, but I wish I had an u/s to show them too. My MIL loves to talk, but I am going to ask her to keep it under wraps until we hear a heartbeat. It saves her the task of having to tell EVERYONE she knows if something goes wrong.

[8inTulgeyWood]

I just spent a wonderful weekend at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary with my oldest DD to celebrate her birthday.  We spent the weekend as volunteers taking care of many kinds of animals.  This is where Dogtown is filmed if anyone is familiar with that.  It was so awesome and a much needed break to forget about my worries for a few days and focus on something else.  That place and the people/animals are AMAZING! Of course we found a new friend (a sweet little dog with a hard past) and brought her home with us to give her a second chance for a loving forever home.

On a side note, I have still been bleeding on and off.  It will be three weeks tomorrow since it started. 3 LOOONG weeks.  I am scheduled for another ultrasound next Monday to see if anything new can be seen.  At least I have got to hear the heart on doppler once a week for the past two weeks.  It has comforted me enough to not totally go out of my mind.

Anyone else have a weekend they want to share?

[StacieM]

I finally called dr's office to schedule my next appt where we'll do another u/s and hopefully date this pg.  I am sure of LMP but know I had to have O'd late.  First u/s had me a week behind LMP dates, so we'll see what happens.

I want that update before we really tell anyone.  Should happen next Tues.  I hope my appt doesn't get cancelled because my dr goes on vacation during the second part of that week.

This past weekend was very busy.  Got to see my oldest DD play in a softball tournament with her new team.  This coming weekend I am coaching a tourney and she is playing in another one so things are going to be crazy again!

[cameragirl]

We had a LONG day. Mom's surgery went well. We spent half the time trying to find the cafeteria and gift shop in the maze that they call a hospital. I got to drive home with DH and DD drooling and snoring. Now we just have to get through getting DD to the hospital to meet up with Auntie for babysitting, and the peri appointment in the afternoon. I think I might actually get into bed early tonight. I've kind of forgotten what 8 straight hours of sleep is like.

[BirthFree]

A little cheer!  I'm 11w today.  Yipee!  Oh mama I can see the light at the end of the m/s tunnel... bring 'er on over!  

I'm drafting my "crud, gotta tell the parents who are going to be peeved" letter to send at the end of next week... so I can tell my manager and my friends.  Gotta be "official" in order, and they are going to be the most disappointed/mad.  Been down this road with them before though, they haven't been so thrilled since #3, honestly.  But #5 is going to make them really not happy.  I think they'll be afraid I won't work/keep my job, which is silly (I'm the sole income source).  But you know parents and worry I guess.  I'd appreciate any prayers for that.  To address their concerns in the letter, to assure them, and still leave little to no room for criticism.  B/c we are actually kinda getting excited and I'm adjusting...

We go on vacation this week too - I can't WAIT!  

[Brisen]

Cameragirl, I'm glad to hear the surgery went well!  I hope everything else goes quickly & you get some good sleep soon.

Birthfree, I'm in the same boat with my parents.  They weren't thrilled about #5, and I'm sure they will be even less happy with #6.  They live close, so I'll have to tell them in person.  I wouldn't mind sending them a letter, just so I can give them some time to cool off before they have to talk to me, lol.  Yesterday, I was toying with the idea of just not announcing it to anyone, and waiting to see how long it takes for people to start asking.  I usually carry pretty small; I've had people who I saw weekly not realize I was pg until I was 7 or 8 months along, and I generally deliver around 38 weeks, so there wasn't much time left in the pregnancy at that point.  But I think if I don't say anything, they will think we're unhappy about it or agree with them that it was a bad idea.  I know I should just tell them and be positive about it.

I was up for about an hour between 2 & 3 this morning; I ate a bunch and then went back to bed.  I woke up this morning hungry, but not starving and feeling sick, and I was able to eat breakfast without it making me feel more queasy.  I think it might be worth it for how much better I'm feeling today to set my alarm and get up for a snack every night.  Plus, the house is totally quiet and there are no kids around bugging me to share my food with them!

[Brisen]

Some good news today -- my dh has been working on getting an MA for a few years now.  He had to take some undergrad courses (his degree is in biology); his MA programme is a combination of classes and a research paper.  He has done all of the classes, and he just finished his paper.  It was a joint project between his work and his schooling; they have a mandate to help employees continue their education, I guess, and the research he does for this paper will be useful to them.  It ended up taking some time for him to get the approval, though.  For the research paper, he had to be registered in school, and it was pretty expensive.  He figured he might be able to finish the paper in one semester and not have to register again, but then it took 10 weeks for his work to give him approval to do the paper, so that left 3 weeks.  He had planned to work on it in the evenings, but with that little time, he just took 3 weeks of vacation and has been working non-stop.  He had to submit the paper to his supervisor a week before it was due, and he ended up taking a week to get back to dh with his comments.  Luckily, they extended his deadline by three days, and there wasn't much that the supervisor suggested he change.  He pulled an all nighter last night to finish it up, emailed it to his supervisor early this morning, and came home and slept until noon.  He just checked his email, and the prof says that it's all ready to submit.  Phew!  The paper still has to be, not marked, whatever they do to evaluate it, but the supervisor was very positive about it.  So hopefully before too long, we'll hear back about whether or not the paper passed muster and dh will be able to get his MA.

This is especially good news for me because dh has spent his last two parental leaves in classes for this degree.  He was often away longer hours than he is with work.  I'm looking forward to him being home more this time; we have a lot of renovations that need to be caught up on.  

[BirthFree]

Brisen,

My parents live 15 min from me... and I'm sending a letter for that reason... in my experience, in person has not gone well and hitting "reply" to an email before your smart-brain stalls you is too easy.  SO... it's b/c I want them to act adult about it that I'm writing a letter.  I'm 11w and showing enough that soon it will be beyond obvious and honestly, I want to tell my kids.  So parents have to know before that since my kids would NEVER be able to keep that a secret.  It'll work out, pretty sure, and if it doesn't... well, I am sort of used to giving them gray hair/creating waves, so if it happens... that's the way it goes.  But really, telling them there is someone who will love and idolize them the rest of their lives is good news... don't you think??  It's not like I'm loosing my house or we are moving away - but respectfully I'll explain.  

I will say, if my kids have a large family on purpose or accident... I really will be the last one to say something negative.  Thanks experience, at least I will have that.

[Brisen]

Well, maybe I can get away with sending them a letter, or at least doing it over the phone.  It would be so much easier, for them too, I think.  Bah.  I really hate that the toughest part of being pregnant is figuring out how to break the news to my parents.

[StacieM]

cameragirl: so glad to hear things went well.  Hope you got some rest!

BirthFree: Yipee for 11 weeks!  Hope breaking the news goes better than expected and have fun on your vacation. :D

Brisen: I'm with you. I tend to carry small and I was toying with not telling anyone until they figured it out, but it's getting harder and harder to keep under wraps.  I do not have the issue of people not being thrilled though.  I mean, I don't expect anyone to be jumping up and down, but I'm not expecting much hostility or negativity either.  btw - hope all goes well with your husband's submission.

afm: I have a long day at the dentist ahead of my.  I'm taking 5 of my kids (4 are actually being seen).  We should be there all morning until lunch time.  It's usually not very fun.  On top of that Baby Boy (17 months) is cranky because he's not feeling well.  On a positive note, I just signed up for Scentsy and can't wait to get my starter kit.  I am also totally looking forward to having something that makes our house even more pleasant to come home too.  Sometimes we're so busy and life is so crazy that our house just has that "lived in" feel (nothin' fancy about it) and I think having some nice uplifting scents would be a great way to brighten my family's day a bit and make coming home a little sweeter.  :)

[cameragirl]

Yay! We FINALLY got our transfer signed by the crummy school district that we live in. We signed DD up for a home-school program in another district, and we've been waiting weeks to get the documents signed. We've been in limbo, so that leaves us with less than a week to get started. We found DD an old desk from a classroom like we used to use in school this past weekend. Now we need to get the shed organized, then the garage, and then set up her learning area. Good times.

Mom thinks she'll be release from the hospital today because she can walk around. This is a little TMI, but they won't let you leave after abdominal surgery until you poop. She hasn't yet. I'm trying to talk myself up to going again. That hospital is a serious maze, and while I can handle the walking physically, it makes me super sleepy. I had to leave yesterday when her roommate was throwing up, too. Things that normally are fine are making me light headed. For fun I did one of those blood typing kits at home yesterday, and had to have DH help me. My blood pressure dropped and I barely got out enough blood. It was pretty cool, though.

Oh, and I need some brown shoes bad. I have a few pairs of brown maternity pants/shorts, and I feel like a dork wearing black shoes with light brown pants.

[chels_c2000]

Sorry I have been so quite this past week. Thanks Brisen for started a new theard.

I feel like things have been an emotinal rollercoaster. There was family drama over the weekend. Then tomorrow I have my first u/s. Which I am so nervous about that I feel like I can't do anything until after it is over. Praying I get to see a heartbeat tomorrow!

[cameragirl]

Originally Posted by chels_c2000 

Sorry I have been so quite this past week. Thanks Brisen for started a new theard.

I feel like things have been an emotinal rollercoaster. There was family drama over the weekend. Then tomorrow I have my first u/s. Which I am so nervous about that I feel like I can't do anything until after it is over. Praying I get to see a heartbeat tomorrow!

Good luck on your ultrasound! Sticky bean dust