Welcome and Congratulations! Introductions here

[meggles]

I thought it would be nice to have a "Meet and Greet" sort of thread. Feel free to say as much or as little as you like!

[meggles]

I'm Meg (23) (24 when babe is born) married to my soul mate, Mickey (35) since November 2003. We live in Berkeley, CA in a beautiful old house overlooking the SF Bay and the Golden Gate bridge. I graduated from a liberal arts college last year with a degree in Women's Studies and Sociology and currently work as a healthworker at a sperm bank. I've taken a doula training and am an aspiring midwife. Dh is a college history/social science professor and is active in several non-profit political organizations. We have one cat, Abby, and are so thrilled to finally be expecting! We stated ttc in early 2005, and I was diagnosed with very mild hypothyroidism (so mild that my blood tests were nearly normal) early this year. 10 weeks after starting a tiny dose of thyroid meds, I got my . Overall, I'm feeling incredibly grateful and blessed (and a little tired).

Nice to meet you all!

[tempestjewel]

Meggles- thanks for getting all these threads going! Its nice to have another TTC 12+ months grad on this board!

I'm Naomi (24 now, 25 when the baby comes). My husband is Tanee (he's from Thailand hence the name nobody has probably heard of) and he's 26, but will be 27 when the baby comes. We've been married since August 21, 2002, but we've been together since 1996. Yup, married my high school sweetheart

We live in the suburbs of Seattle, Washington, sharing a rented house with my father. I've been a SAHM since the birth of my DD, Faith, born 12/21/03. She will be 3 (perhaps exactly 3) when this baby is born. We've been wanting another since she was 10 months old, but it took us 18 months to conceive. I am still breastfeeding her 1-2 times a day.

This baby is the answer to months and months of hopes and prayers. I am to meet you all and to share this journey with you!

[jessjillbolyer]

Hi ladies!! First let me say I am so happy to be here with all of you!!

We were sort of TTC for the past 8 months. I say sort of because Dh didn't really agree. He was pulling out the whole time. This past month on April 16th he didn't pull out and it was my O day. 11 days later I got my ! I never did chart. I started using OPK's two months ago and that helped a lot. I knew when I O but used the OPK's to make sure I was right. Dh didn't expect us to get pregnant so easy and either did myself, but glad he finally changed his mind.

I have wanted another baby since the day my son was born 5/12/04. My son has a brain disorder. Its also genetic. My dh and I both carry the gene for it. So we have a 1 and 4 chance of having another baby with Joubert Syndrome. My son also has visual impairments. I have prayed a lot for this baby to be healthy. My dream is to have a healthy child. I am feeling very good about this pregnancy and leave the rest to God.

This will most likely be our last child since there is such a big chance with having another child with a brain disorder.

I am 25 years old (will be 26 when the baby is born), my dh is 29. We recently moved from Texas to Louisiana last December. We sold our home because we couldn't get health care for my son. Now my dh is working for himself and we are doing much better. We also now have healthcare for my son. We do live with my father in law. We just bought 15 acres of land to build a home on but we plan to pay off all our bills and the land before we move there. So could be years from now. : We have a horse and a cat. The horse isn't at our home but stays at a place close to where our home will be. We just got him a few months back and we are training him. He is a very sweet horse.

Sorry I went on and on. I look forward to getting to know you all more and more!

[bemommy]

Hey Meg and TempestJewel.

Looks like another TTc 12+months is joining you. Just got my BFP. I'm still in shock.

Hi I'm Be. I'll be 34 the end of this month. I live in Massachusetts with DH (also turning 34 a week after me), DD who is 3y4m, a dog, 2 cats and a tank of fish. We moved into our second home in AUgust. We'd been living in a more urban town, we're now in rural suburbia. I have a Master's in Library Science but have been home since my dd was born in dec.02. We've been trying to get pregnant with #2 since September 04. I had an early m/c in October (that lasted most of November). I'm a little nervous. Hoping for a homebirth.

[PortraitPixie]

so happy to be part of this group!

My name is Sarah (26), and I live in a liberal island of KS with my husband of 5 years, Jason, and my 23 month old son, Noah. They are the two brightest lights in my life.

This pregnancy was a bit of a shock for us, but welcomed and loved.

I worked as a sign language interpreter before my son was born, and I now stay home with him, and teach infant toddler sign language classes. We signed with Noah, and he started communicating with us months before he could speak, and we plan on signing with this one as well. I am also a free lance photographer. This is my love job. I specialize in maternity, children, and birth. I had a hospital birth with Noah, (natural, doula, etc.) but plan to have our first homebirth this go around. We are also going to try our hand at cloth dipes this time...

Looking forward to learning from, venting with, crying on and celebrating with each of you!

Sarah

[Carrie Posey]

My name is Carrie. We live in Seattle. We are a bit shocked by this pregnancy, we were being pretty careful, condoms the occasional pull out. That combined with the fact that I only have one fallopian tube that is working makes me think this must be one head strong little person! We definitly wanted more children but we were thinking closer to trying a year from now. After we got an addition on our 500 square foot house, so now we have to get creative with the living space! I am hoping for a home birth this time around last birth was in the hospital with pitocin after 12 hours of walking to try to bring on contractions (after water broke) and the cascade of interventions that followed that, my son was a vaginal birth but just barely! All in all we are excited and suprised!!!

[Zaxmama]

Greetings and Salutations..

Hi I am Jaime (29) wife to Steve (36) and Mama to Zachary (3.5) we recently moved from Pennsylvania to Florida..and even though we are thrilled and wanted another baby..we are kind of shocked at how quickly it happened. We just stopped using condoms in March. We would like a little girl to round out the testosterone levels in this house but we will be happy with whatever fate delivers..I am currently a stay at home Mama..I was planning on going back to work in august when my DS starts PreSchool... still might depending on how I feel at the time. I am so happy to be here and am looking forward to getting to know my fellow clubbers the next 9 months.. btw my EDD is 01/07/07.
January 2007 DDC ROCKS!!! woohoo!!! ok I am a dork.

((Hugs))
Jaime

[darsmama]

Hey gals, not joining you but wanted to wave and say Congrats! ~*Sending Baby Stickies to all of you*~

[mamallama]

Hi Ladies! I'm so glad to meet you!

I'm mamallama, mama to two girls, age 4.5 & 7. We homeschool and love it. I babysit a (signing) two year old 3 days/week. We like that ok too, but it was more fun a year ago when she wasn't getting into everything and could take her nap wherever we happened to be! This summer I'll also babysit her 7 yo brother. I'll quit watching both of them when school resumes in the fall. For now, I'm glad to have the work. I need to pay the midwife!

I'm also a doula. I worked a lot the first couple of years, but then my childcare situation changed and I couldn't find a suitable replacement, so now I only attend the occasional birth. Friends & family, mainly. I'm disappointed that I can't do more birthwork right now, but I'm confident that if it's meant to be, it will come back around.

I'm in my 30's. Dh and I have been together for 12 years. We're still best friends.

Being pregnant again is comforting and alien at the same time. I've been pregnant or nursing or both for 6 of the past 8 years. This will definately be our last baby.

[cpop]

Hi, I'm Cveta,
I'm originally from Serbia, but lived my whole life in NY.
I'm 27 and my husband, Mato, is 28. We have a darling three-year-old daughter, Eva.
My husband works for the UN and 2 1/2 yrs. ago managed to get a contract working in Serbia so we are living in Belgrade now.
It has been quite a culture shock for us but we are dealing with it.
I am five weeks pregnant today.
Also, I had a m/c in the 10th wk in Jan 05. So we are very excited but a bit nervous about this pregnancy!
Great to meet all of you!

[Thalia]

I'm Julie (Thalia), 33 and married to Mark (wordyeight) for 3.5 years now. Marriage has been the very best part of my life, so I am looking forward to seeing what expanding our little family will mean! DH is a professional writer who works from home when not doing contract gigs on site, but he is looking for a full-time position to give us more options in the future. I graduated with a doctorate in linguistics years ago and now work full-time at a big private university, running language programs for three of the university's schools. We are also lay co-pastors of a small group for our church, meeting with 22 people on a weely basis for worship, study, prayer, and raucous fun.

This last year has been so busy for both of us--we're working crazy hours and we've had to work hard to make sure we still have quality time with one another, so we know we are in for a BIG change when this baby comes. I'll take three months off after the birth, and then we will see what choice seems right for us. The childcare offerings at my university are not great (no childcare at all onsite!), but I work in a small department that is based in what used to be a house, so my office is quite homelike and I am considering taking the baby to work part-time, at least when he/she is small, but maybe even after that. I love my job: it's unique and would be hard to find anywhere else, so it would be hard to give it up in some ways, but it is also demanding. I've always wanted to be a mom, and so I could see being a full-time SAHM, too. I think I can picture almost any combination of work/life right now!

We spent a year TTC, so we are feeling incredibly blessed right now, and still a bit in shock. Part of me thought it would never happen! I will be so relieved to get past the 12th week, and I can't wait to tell all the people who have been praying for us our good news. This will be the first grandchild on both sides of our family, so this is a very much anticipated little person.

[mommy2boys]

I'm Erin (turn 26 on monday). I've been married to Stewart for 7 years. He is in the air force and is a full time student as well. We have two beautiful boys Sade age 6 and Ethan who is almost 4.
This is my 5th pregnancy, I've had two miscarriages in the past year, one last april of 05 and one in november. I'm a little nervous about this one and won't breath easy until I make it to my second trimester.

[*~Danielle~*]

I'm Danielle and am 30 yrs. old. I have one son who is 21 months and am so thrilled to be expecting again!!! We've been ttc for about a year now. This last month I decided I wasn't going to stress about getting pregnant and I really just gave the whole thing to God and was finally okay with just having my son. Then, I got blessed with being pregnant. I really couldn't be happier.

We have our house on the market and are trying to get some land. We keep bees, chickens and we garden (in the suburbs) but we really would like to have a milk cow and a bigger garden. Here is my blog: www.pithycraggle.blogspot.com

I make diapers and crochet soakers, shorties and longies. I love cloth diapering, so if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.

[christmasevetwins]

My name is Olivia. I'm 32 (will be 33 when the baby is born), and I live in Ohio. I have two dd's who turn 7 and 4 this month. This is definitely our last baby, so I am looking forward to all the changes pregnancy brings. This is something I've wanted for a couple of years now, so I am thrilled to be expecting again. I'm due 1/7/07.

My last two births were in the hospital. While pg with my first I had PIH, so I was on bedrest for the last six weeks, had an early induction, epidural, the whole nine yards. With my last dd, we moved to a new town when I was seven months, so I had to switch dr.'s at the last minute. I had hoped to have ncb, but I caved under pressure at 7 cm and had the epi. She ended up being posterior, so after 4 hours of pushing, I finally had to have an episiotomy and a forceps delivery. Recovery was terrible. I couldn't sit down without a donut pillow for two weeks.

With this birth, I am planning a home water birth. I don't want to repeat any part of my last birthing experience. The OBs here are old-school, and not ncb-friendly. They'll let you go natural, but no laboring tubs, constant monitoring, and when it comes time to push, it's laying on your back with your feet in stiruups.

Let's see, what else . . . I'm a SAHM, have been for 4.5 years. I cloth diapered dd #2 and plan to do so again. FB's and cpf's. I've been married to a wonderful dh for 8.5 years. He turns 38 tomorrow. His job allows him to have four months off every winter, so he won't be working when the baby is due. Yay!

Nice to meet everybody.

[mama2ashlynn]

Hi Ladies.
My name is Laura. I am married to my husband Bryan for over 7 years and together 10 years as of tomorrow. I am 26, (27 next month) and my hubby is 31. I have one daughter Ashlynn, that is just about 16 months old. Looks like I have the youngest sibling in this group so far. We have been living in Las Vegas for 6 years now. We both are originally born and raised in So. CA.
This was our 2 month TTC and I cannot believe we are pregnant! : It took us a year to get pregnant with our first. We feel truly blessed though and are very excited. I think we are pretty set on having just 2 kids. We said that we will wait and see though before making any final decision once baby #2 arrives.
Lets see...what else about me...oh, I am a natural mama convert as of recently. Had a *horrible* hospital birth with Ashlynn and literally it has changed my life. I started researching about all sorts of things after her birth, and by the time she was about 6 months I would say I became a natural/crunchy mom. I just needed to knowledge to find my path in life. I sometimes am sad when I think of all the things I didnt know in regards to my first birth, as well as life in general. My family was and still is very very traditional in almost every sense of the word. Because of this, and having a small family, becoming the person and mother I am now has been very hard. Even on my marriage. My husband is slowly adjusting. He respects me and for that I am very very apprecaitive. He and I have been through *everything* life can dish us in the past 10 years. This past year has been pretty up and down though, with my changing attitude. I know that we will be okay and that I must learn that I cannot expect everyone to be or think like me, not even my husband. With this mindset I know things will be just fine. Like I said, it just gets rough sometimes, thats all.
Anyway, I am thrilled about this pregnancy. I am planning a home waterbirth with a midwife attending. I have learned so much about birthing from research, reading tons of books and going to a birth network here locally. I cannot see having birth any other way now.
With that being said, I want to say that I look forward to sharing this journey with you all. Thank you for allowing me to share a little bit about myself.

[BlissP]

Hi everyone! I'm Bliss, 35 yo SAHM to Jack, who is 18 months old and the light of my life. I am also lucky to have two more boys - my wonderful stepsons, Carter, 8, and Hunter, 6. Lots of TESTOSTERONE in this house! We have another due 1/1/07, maybe this will be a girl? (Yeah, right. I'm not holding my breath! )

In my former life, I was a litigation attorney. While I loved that (and I think I was pretty good, if I do say so myself), I love love LOVE being a mother, at home with my babe. We have cloth diapered since birth, and I love knitting wool soakers (and other things.) I am TOTALLY psyched about having two in dipes (assuming that Jack hasn't potty learned by then..who knows?)

We live in a suburb of Atlanta, GA, but in my heart, I am still a Minnesota girl (born and raised.)

So wonderful to meet you all!

[Kritto]

Hi Everyone! I'm Kristal (24), married to Josh (26 when baby comes). We're both grad students in Northern Utah. This is our first, and we're both very excited and nervous about everything. I'm bouncing between the December and January DDCs (due Dec. 30th). Haven't told the grandparents-to-be yet, but I'm sure they'll all be thrilled, as Josh and I are both the oldest in our families and no one else has kids yet.

[gribbit]

Hi I am michelle (36) married to kevin (36) . I just found out we are expecting number baby # 2.. We were going to start trying this summer,but we got ahead of ourselves a little bit... I am happy to be here, although it still seems very unreal to me.. I look forward to hanging around on this board with all of you ladies!

michelle

[gr8tfulmom]

We got ahead of ourselves too, as we were going to wait a bit longer (our son is 7 mo.) Glad we aren't the only ones w/ close soon to be sibs. My older dd's are 13 months apart, I think my body likes having babies close together

Anyway, I'm Sarah (32) married to John (38) for almost 3 years. I have 2dd's from my first marriage, they are great and super helpful sissies. We were planning another sibling after Taite, just not quite this soon, but we are definitely happy. Over the last year we have been building our dream house, and plan to go off the grid, though we aren't starting that way. Self sufficiency in all aspects is our ultimate goal, but some parts will come easier than others. I have almost finished a degree in Sociology (nice to see all of you social science folks!) but alas, it will be put on the back burner again for awhile. I love gardening but it will be a challenge to start new gardens w/ a babe and pg, though we do have pocket gardens of different stuff around the property.

The only pg related issue that concerns me is the size of the new little bean. Taite was 9lb 11oz, drastically bigger than his sisters, so if this one is bigger - Aye Aye Aye! I look forward to getting to know you mammas during our journey.