Tomorrow I find out if I get to join you fine ladies - Yup, preggo :D

[blizzard_babe]

Tomorrow is my big POAS day. AF is six days overdue; we wanted to wait a week to get our most accurate test possible, since we only have one test left and there aren't any at the local store. If it's positive, I'll be a late April due date.

I hope I get to hang out with you guys! Send vibes...

Edited... yeah, I'm knocked up, all right.

[All together ooky]

: I can't believe you waited this long! I was POAS way before it could detect.

[chely7425]

I hope you get to join us!!!

[DancingOtter]

You have wicked willpower. I poas at like 5dpo and for a couple days after I get a bfp!

6 days late?? Congrats mama!

[blizzard_babe]

:

Hope he/she is nice and sticky.

Oh, and I wanted to wait until i was sure of getting a pretty definitive answer... we only had one stick on which to pee, and there aren't any at the local store. I live and teach in a tiny little Alaskan village, off the road system. Even if they had pregnancy tests at the store, I wouldn't buy them, because a pregnant (or even maybe-pregnant) teacher is rich village gossip indeed.

Now I have work to do... figuring out who's in my insurance network. I'll have to fly into Anchorage to give birth (no doctors or nurses in the village, and while the nearest city has a hospital, they aren't in my insurance network, and I wouldn't want to give birth there anyway...). I've already looked into a few places (it was a long week, waiting for my day to test!), so now I just need to figure out if they're in-network or not. I've always been fairly healthy, so I don't even know how this stuff works!

[s_kristina]

Congrats!

[My3babes]

Congrats!! I cant imagine living in such a remote place. Suppose it would have its advantages though!!

[JorgieGirl]

Congrats!!! And welcome to the club!

[AuntArty]

Congratulations!

[sarahmck]

Congratulations!

Originally Posted by blizzard_babe

I'll have to fly into Anchorage to give birth

How will that work? How long is that flight? Will you have to fly there in advance and just hang out until the time comes or will you fly in labor? Where and with whom do the local women give birth?

[blizzard_babe]

Originally Posted by sarahmck

How will that work? How long is that flight? Will you have to fly there in advance and just hang out until the time comes or will you fly in labor? Where and with whom do the local women give birth?

The flight into Bethel (our "hub city") is like ten minutes, then the Alaska Air jet into Anchorage is an hour. You have to go in at a set point before your due date (I forget what week) and just hang out. I'm not sure how that'll work... will insurance pay for me to sit on my arse in a hotel room in Anchorage? We'll find out. I know a few coworkers (one who was in this village last year, but is now in a different village in the same district) who have had babies up here, so I may have to break our "don't tell anyone" rule and ask the one I know to be a very quiet, non-gossipy kind of person, so I can get some advice on the whole process. Gotta talk to DH first, though. We're both pretty "don't tell anyone" at this point. We need to get used to it ourselves; we were expecting the conception process to take longer.

Native women give birth at YKHC (Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation) in Bethel (if they're high-risk, they go to Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage), but our school district's insurance provider network thingy couldn't come to an agreement with them, so I'm not covered there. Women who go into YKHC stay at what's called the "pre-maternal home," which is basically a group living kind of place where women hang out and wait to have babies. I've heard some iffy things about YKHC, so I'm not sure I'd go there even if they were in-network.

I had found a place that looked GREAT (standalone birth center with an apartment for women who have to come in from elsewhere to wait to have their baby), but they're not in my network.

If I can't find something good in-network in Alaska, I'll go down to the Lower 48 and give birth in either Wisconsin or Minnesota. My coverage isn't as good (although not as bad as in-Alaska-out-of-network... like I said, our insurance is weird), but I'd have somewhere to stay.

[blizzard_babe]

Hmm... looks like Providence Hospital has a "Guest House," for people getting outpatient care, or whatever... wonder if that includes women who have to fly in to give birth?

http://www.providence.org/alaska/facilities/04guest.htm

[Jennisee]

Congratulations!

[rmzbm]

Congrats!

[sarahmck]

Wow, I can't imagine having to go off to another city to wait to go into labor. I guess there aren't any homebirth midwives near you?

I suppose it's similar to the situation many of us homebirthers would be in if we ended up pregnant with twins or breeches or whatever and were faced with the choice between a hospital delivery or traveling to a midwife who would care for us outside of the hospital. I'm thinking of Ina May Gaskin's farm.

[blizzard_babe]

Originally Posted by sarahmck

Wow, I can't imagine having to go off to another city to wait to go into labor. I guess there aren't any homebirth midwives near you?

I suppose it's similar to the situation many of us homebirthers would be in if we ended up pregnant with twins or breeches or whatever and were faced with the choice between a hospital delivery or traveling to a midwife who would care for us outside of the hospital. I'm thinking of Ina May Gaskin's farm.

There aren't any midwives around here. We have a clinic staffed with health aides, but insurance won't pay for a medivac if you choose to stay home past a certain point in your pregnancy... and I don't even want to know what a medivac all the way to Anchorage would cost. They'll pay if you go into early labor, but not if you choose to stay home into "normal" delivery weeks.

I'm just sad that Mat-Su Midwifery (the place with the apartment) isn't in our insurance network.

I guess I could give birth back in WI, but I feel like while a one-hour flight into Anchorage at the end of my pregnancy will be fine, that same one-hour flight, followed by a four-hour layover, then a six-hour flight into O'Hare, followed by a three-hour drive up to my hometown would be a weeeeeeee bit much.

Heck, it's a wee bit much when I'm not knocked up.

[chely7425]

Congrats and good luck getting all the details worked out!!

[InaX5]

congrats.

I know the hospital & waiting thing is a lot to think about, I know a lot of Women who have had to do this (& being in Canada they didn't have the added issue of insurance) & I also know many who chose to bush birth it. Good luck finding just the place for you.

[blizzard_babe]

Originally Posted by InaX5

congrats.

I know the hospital & waiting thing is a lot to think about, I know a lot of Women who have had to do this (& being in Canada they didn't have the added issue of insurance) & I also know many who chose to bush birth it. Good luck finding just the place for you.

I wouldn't mind a home birth, but on the off chance I'd have to go to a hospital, I'd have two plane flights (or one helicopter ride) to the nearest hospital that my insurance covers. If you choose to stay home past a certain point, they won't pay, so I'd have to eat the medivac costs... and I'm not sure hiring a helicopter out of Anchorage is within my teaching-salary budget.

[exquisitebones]

1st tri - mood swings over baby sex...

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I posted to the wrong spot. I am insane.

yay preggo brain :\