I Graduated!

Wow, it has been a while.  Things at work have become so chaotic and hectic and busy that I barely have time to eat my lunch let alone blog or keep up on TB!  I am at school until at least 5 every day and still have so much work to do.  All school teachers and students have a four day weekend (hooray!) so here I am, finally able to update!

Yesterday I graduated from the RE!!!  I am so freaking excited I can hardly stand it.  My sweet little bean has a hearbeat of 167 beats per minute and is measuring right on track at 8 weeks!!!  I got to stop taking the Estrace yesterday and have only one more week of Endometrin suppositories!!!!!  YAYAYAYAY!!!!!!  I am so excited to be done with that crap.  I am very grateful I got in to see the OB I wanted to use.  I can't see her until 11/25, but that's okay; I really wanted to use her so I'm just relieved that I got in at all!  I had these visions of them telling me they weren't accepting new OB patients at this time.  Since I have been exclusively seeing my pelvic pain specialist (who is an OB) for the past year and a half I had to find someone new now that I am pregnant.  The OB I chose is one that I saw in January of 2013 when I was searching for someone who could help me with my pelvic pain.  While she couldn't help me with it, she was very sympathetic and kind and I really liked her practice.  She is a holistic practitioner and uses herbs and aromatherapy to complement allopathic stuff and also specializes in natural birth (unless otherwise indicated, of course--she can/will do epidurals, c-sections, etc. if necessary).

If I could, I would have a home birth.  I would love nothing more than to have a midwife come to my house, have my husband catch the baby and then curl up in my own bed and nurse by baby.  However, I live a solid 35 minutes away from the nearest hospital and also, being on meds myself, I just feel that I would need the extra support that a hospital would offer.  Since there are no birthing centers in NJ, the hospital is kind of my only other option.  I feel that even though her practice is about 40 minutes from my house (everything is 40 minutes from our house--we live in the mountains out in the sticks) and the hospital she delivers at is an hour from our house, this will be the closest thing to having what I want for prenatal care as well as birthing.  She has since gone into private practice and I am just absolutely in love with everything I have read about her practice and everything I see on their website.  I really think it will be a perfect fit.  Plus the hospital she delivers at has private rooms, tubs for water labor and a really good reputation for maternity care.  I have known since I met her that I wanted to use her for prenatal care, but just to get all the information I did research on other hospitals that might be a little closer.  The only thing I found that I really liked at all was a holistic birthing unit in a different major hospital, but that hospital is just so crazy busy and also my SIL had a horrible experience there so I just decided to go with my gut and stick with what I know.

So I am very excited to see her in a few weeks.  Mostly, I am excited to be just a regular pregnant person in one more week!!!  No more hormone meds!!!  For now, I am just trying to keep up at work and be not so tired.  That last part is not working; I'm exhausted beyone belief right now.  I am so lazy I can barely peel myself off the couch by the time I get home.  Eating is kind of hard too; all this kid wants is carbs and cheese.  But I'm working on trying to get the veggies in there.  I can do it if I add starches somehow (grains, beans, etc.)

Also I think we are going to tell my dad and stepmom and MH's family on Thanksgiving.  I had wanted to try and hold out for Christmas, but 1) they will immediately know something is up when I don't walk in the door and start pouring wine 2) I don't know when we will get to see everyone in person again since we are going to see my mom and aunts for Christmas.  I am adament about telling family in person whenever possible.  Plus I already can't use my belt anymore.  I will be eleven weeks at Thanksgiving.  While it's still a tad bit earlier than I would have liked, I think it will be best and fine.  I will tell my aunts in person on Christmas (my mom and stepdad already know).  After that it's open season.  Cool.