Hi everyone!
I've been reading this board for months now, ever since I found it, but I was so afraid of a m/c that I really needed to feel solid about this pregnancy before I got TOO excited. And well, now that I'm about to hit the third trimester, I figured it was time to celebrate by actually posting!
My name is Jen. I'm (gasp) 43 and expecting my fifth baby. I had my first four kids with ExH, have been divorced now for over 7 years, and have a new partner. He's going to be a first-time dad! :) We are all so excited! My older kids are DD 20, DD 17, DD 14 and DS 12.
Let's see. What else? I had oldest at a traditional hospital, the next two at a birth center with a midwife and they were born in the water. My youngest was born at home with the same midwife. With this one we are planning a homebirth with a midwife from the same practice as my original midwife, but she's retired from births and is now only doing well-woman care.
I nursed all of the kids for around 4 years, and tandem-nursed, so I nursed for 12 years straight, and have had an eight year break. I'm thinking it will be really fun to have a newborn to nurse again without an older sibling wanting to nurse too!
My partner is way more into this whole pregnancy thing than my ExH ever was, so that's been really nice. We're really looking forward to having a baby with all of these capable older kids around--I already feel so lucky to have help!
Oh, and I've been really lucky health-wise with this pregnancy. I didn't know what to expect, being an "older" mom, but I've kept up my regular morning run (2 1/2 miles with my oldest daughter), and we've run two races since I've been pregnant....a five-miler when I was 2 1/2 months along, and a half-marathon when I was 3 1/2 months. So far so good--no back pain, no issues at all except a bit of insomnia!
I already feel like I know some of you from reading your posts, and I'm excited to be part of the community! :)
It must be a bit strange but super-cool for them to have a new sibling on the way. (I have an older half-brother and half-sister - about the same age difference as your older 2 to your new one - but sadly they did not live with us when I was born. I wish I'd been able to get to know them as real siblings - now we're all adults they feel more like cousins or aunt & uncle than siblings.)
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