I just found out I'm PG a little over a week ago. So its reallllllly early. But I like to play this game, and I'd like a little advice. :) My husband tonight told our kids about the PG (wayyy before I wanted to tell him, but he was so excited, that I didn't want to stop him LOL Also, with us talking about it in code all the time, they were going to figure it out soon). Anyway, he asked for baby name ideas from the kids. My 9 yr old said he loves the name Bella. My Dh immediately loved it too. Rose would be the middle name after my little sister that my parents lost at birth. We've all never forgot her even though we never got to know her or even see her (I was pretty young and my living sister and brother weren't even born yet). Bella Rose does sound very nice. :) DH doesn't know that Bella is his mom's ALL TIME favorite girl name and she even tried to rename her last granddaughter with that name. lol Anyway, so a question... Can Bella stand alone on its own as a name, or would it have to be something like Isabella? DH didn't seem as keen on Isabella. And...does it sound too much like we're Twilight fans just trying to use the name Bella from the series? We ARE Twilight fans. But I don't like Bella in the Twilight series so much, and NOT enough to want to copy her name. lol But I do think Bella Rose sounds very nice. So...thoughts?

I voted more then 24 hrs...but I'm not really sure how to count it. I started having painless contractions, that really felt like braxton hicks, around 9pm the first day. They never went away, every 10-20 min. The next morning still had them, but they were a bit closer (like 7 min) and just stronger, but not painful. I went to class and sitting in my desk was hard by noon. My back was aching a little with each contraction. I went to a Dr. appt. around 2pm and I was dilated to 2 cm and 90% effaced. The Dr. (a CNM) said I may or may not be in labor...to just go home and see what happens. The next few hours they kept coming, getting a bit stronger. Then around 6pm or so I lost my mucous plug and my contractions got even stronger. At this point I was having to relax through them (I was using the Bradley method). But was still laughing and having a good time. By around 9pm I was in bed, really having to breath and relax my body through each contraction. I told my mom I was ready to go to the hospital. She said she didn't think I was ready because I wasn't in enough pain yet. HELLOOO I was using my Bradley method!? LOL I guess I used it too well. ;) But I insisted. So she took me in. We get in to the room right away and the nurse checks me...9+ cm. LOL Everyone rushes around but it was my first birth, I was very young, and I was still pretty tiny. So he wasn't coming anytime soon. Three hours later of pushing, finally my CNM did an episotomy with his head right there, and used a vacuum extractor to pull him the rest of the way out. I was doing GREAT! With natural labor your body has this amazing trick of kicking in its own pain relievers after awhile. So honestly, I was not in pain. I was just hanging out, pushing, crunching on ice chips. BUT he has showing heart decels, so my CNM wanted him out a bit quicker. So he was born around 12:30am the next day, 8 lbs 14 oz. (Not too bad for a 17 yr old teen mom! That was 12 yrs ago and I still remember it well :) )

I did a lot of research on rats as pets. I went to rat owner message boards and talked to friends who were rat enthusiasts. Everything was so positive! So we got a pair of them, males (because males are lazier and slower apparently LOL). Everyone said NO to the pet store rats...but I couldn't find a breeder of rats locally and I couldn't justify spending 3X as much (including gas, etc.) when Petco had them just down the road for $5 each. ;) So maybe that was mistake number one. Hey, I was just saving them from snake food, right? lol They are nice and cute. They were a little skittish at first but got used to us fast. They bit a little at first, but now only nibble our fingers through the cage if they think we have a treat. The biggest problem is how STINKY they are. We bathe them and clean their cage, but honestly, I just can't keep up with all these kids, homeschooling, the house, my school work, etc. and clean a rat cage once a week. My kids are 12, 9, 7, 4, and 2....at least the older two should be able to clean the cage, right? Well its like pulling teeth, and then they don't even do as thorough of a job as I'd like to see. So it still stinks. Rats just pee everywhere. So it drips all over the cage and down the sides...UGGH! Also...the cancer/tumor issue that is common in rats. One of our male rats has a large tumor on the side of his face. Its probably cancerous. We had our vet look at it. But not many vets know a lot about rats, unless you're lucky to live near a vet that does. Sorry, but I can't spend hundreds of dollar on a rat that only lives 2-3 yrs on average anyway. :( So as long as he's eating good, running around, and normal acting then we'll keep him around. Otherwise, the vet said he'd humanely euthanize him. (Yes I checked with the rat owner message board and they all said that is the best thing to do. You can't really treat cancer like this in a rat, not the type he has. :( ) THEN we got a female rat from the school because the kids squished her cagemate. :( The rats are in seperate areas of the house, so no worry of babies. But I noticed my female rat now has a lump in her groin area. From what I read, its probably some sort of normal ovarian cyst type thing. I'll keep an eye on it. I just never realized how many medical problems rats can get. It can be hard to deal with for the little ones. :( Next time...I wouldn't go for the rats...I think we'd do a hamster or guinea pig. lol I've had those as pets when I was a kid and I loved it.

Most likely...yes. I rescued a stray preggo kitty a couple years ago...kept her in the house so that I could control where her babies went. I didn't think she'd get PG again SO fast, and had even set up an appt to get her spayed when I realized she was PG again already! After her SECOND litter of kittens, I didn't let her out of the house at all before I got her spayed. Lesson learned .lol As for spaying/neutering the kittens...that can get pricey. One idea is to s/n them and then charge that cost to the new homes of the kittens. Good luck!

Me too! lol :iagree:

We are considering Essentials now too and I have no clue about the books. The catalog says I'd need the guide for Essentials, the IEW syllabus, Our Mother Tounge, and the History Based Writing Lessons (for cycle three).... Does that sound right? I'm confused about the IEW though. Why do I only need the syllabus? How does that program work? What kind of work do we do at home with IEW if all we have is a syllabus? Thanks!

Oops double post. sorry

Here are the breakdown of the costs we had planned for - maybe I'm not doing it right though...LOL Foundations for three children: Tuition ($312 x 3) - $936 Registration ($50 x 3) - $150 Art/Supplies ($50 x 3) - $150 Books/materials: Guide (1) - $50 Whistles ($10x3) - $30 History cards - $100 Flashcards - $30 Memory work CD - $25 American History workbook - $10 My Body book - $8 Life science work books (1 plus an extra workbook) - $35.45 Challenge A for one child: Tuition - $1,110 Registration - $120 Art/Supplies - $50 Curriculum - Latin - $44 Bible based/IEW - $29 Word Aptly Spoken - $16 (a couple of the other books I already got off Ebay for cheaper, and the reading books I plan to get through the library...and he's actually already read two of them off the list). NOW - I'm really considering Essentials for my 4th grader. I think he really needs it. So I'd be looking at another $312 f/ tuition, $50 registration (and $50 for supplies?). Books for him....not sure, because I'm not all sure what he needs ,but it looks like it could be another $140? But the overall final picture of all that cost is that it would be our spine. At home I'd only be doing math (CLE) for my 4th grader if he does Essentials, and math and language arts (CLE) for my 2nd grader. My 7th grader will be all taken care of in the Challenge program. They will do some enrichment, like P.E. and music classes at a local co-op program (one half-day in the afternoon). So for just over $3,000 that covers ALL of the FOUR boys' curriculum for the year. Maybe its not so bad? I don't know what to compare that too...its our 2nd year. I talked to my SIL though and she cleared up some of my confusion about our local CC program. What I heard wasn't true, and everything is still going forward as I thought. The only problem is that they are really limiting class size (sounds like more then before, but I wonder how they are doing that unless they were trying to go for larger class sizes then the national CC program allows). And the families in the trial run last year got first priority already. There has been a lot of new sign-ups already and I haven't gotten my registration in. Its first come/first serve, but they are also going to choose which registrations sound like the best fit apparanetly. I went to the open house, met everyone and they all liked my kids (whew!) and my SIL and her sister are in the first priority families and they will vouch for me. So maybe I've got an in. lol We'll see if we can get it! But we are going for it! Now just to quickly decide if we for sure want to put our 4th grader in Essentials. One concern is how I'm supposed to stay on campus with him when my other three little ones won't have a place to go. hmmm

My good friend lives two houses down from a mid-sized elementary school. She has to deal with CRAZY traffic in the mornings and when school gets out. That makes it hard to get out of her driveway during those times. Also, people parking up and down the street during drop-off times or any school events (concerts, etc). Beyond just the traffic issue though, tons of kids are walking past her house in the morning and afternoon, which can be pretty disruptive. She takes her kids to private school, but I can imagine what it'd be like if her kids were home. I believe she's even said that kids have cut through her front, and back, yard before. Those are the biggest issues that she's brought up. She doesn't really complain about it much. She does like living next to a big wide grass area for playing soccer, etc..as well as a playground in a pretty convenient location. :)

Thank you. That really helps. We want our children to learn about history, including church history. There is nothing there that is against our beliefs. History is history, lol. However, the issue would just come about if the program was trying to teach non-truths about our faith and our beliefs. I like that the parents are ultimately in charge of that. I don't mind if my son has doctrinal discussions at all. He is very well-informed of our beliefs (more so then I am at times I think! LOL) - and we've only being going to this church for 3 yrs now.

My SIL said that church history is going to be covered in cycle three in the Challenge program. We are LDS, and she said she heard that the church history covered in CC goes over various churches including LDS. I don't mind at all if they are doing a historical time-line type lesson...however I don't think my DH (or myself!) would go for it if they were going to be teaching any anti-LDS literature. Can anyone else me what they remembered from Challenge program and how much in depth church history in regards to other religions was discussed? THANKS! (crossposting....)

My SIL said that church history is going to be covered in cycle three in the Challenge program. We are LDS, and she said she heard that the church history covered in CC goes over various churches including LDS. I don't mind at all if they are doing a historical time-line type lesson...however I don't think my DH (or myself!) would go for it if they were going to be teaching any anti-LDS literature. Can anyone else me what they remembered from Challenge program and how much in depth church history in regards to other religions was discussed? THANKS! (crossposting....)

I know what you mean about parenting other people's kids. I have issues with that too. However I think its a good idea that if the mom isn't going to say something ,then you should. I have a friend who has kids around the same ages as mine. We get together frequently for playdates. Whether at her house or my house, or even church (we go to church together too) if one of my children is acting up - she'll say something to them. ;) At first maybe I was a little taken aback because I'm just not used to other people disciplining my kids for me. However now I'm greatful for it. Its good for them to hear from another adult sometimes. They tend to tune me out after awhile. ;) When another adult says something, its much more serious to the child and they would likely straighten right up. When you guys are together and the girl starts being bossy, just nicely intervene and say that they need to share/take turns/etc. You don't have to sound rude/scary. :) HTH!

*hugs* I can understand where you are coming from. Last year in 2nd grade my son had many issues. We're just now getting an ADHD diagnosis and started him on medication. I don't know how severe his ADHD is, but I do know that he has had constant impulse control issues since he was able to be mobile. *sigh* He's always been my child to try to push the line as far as he could. At some point he saw reactions of other kids to inappropriate words and globbed on to that. We went through a swearing phase with him (thankfully he never got into trouble at school for swearing! Phew!) and a potty-talk stage (that he did into trouble with, like when he wrote the word p3ni$ on school property, I think it was a desk or book). Its literally caused me stress and heartache beyond imagine. WHAT had I done wrong with this child? (this was before I knew of his ADHD diagnosis). The teachers and other parents probably thought I had a very disturbed child and I didn't parent him at all. :( Around the middle of 2nd grade I had my fifth son. I breastfed him, and tried to cover up but I wasn't perfect at it all the time. I taught my sons that breasts are for breastfeeding. That's why women have them. Its not appropriate to gawk at them, or say rude things because they are just for feeding babies. We don't let him watch TV where girls are wearing skimpy bikinis, etc. I wanted him to understand the natural purpose for breasts. Then he goes back to school and its ALLL about the boobies. He kept getting into trouble for talking about "boobies" with other students. Parents were getting upset, the teacher told me he was bordering on "sexual harassment" the way he kept talking about "boobies". The straw that broke the camel's back is when he was playing with a little girl at recess, not alone but with a group, and they were all playing make-believe. He told her that he wanted to marry her and sleep with her. I know he doesn't know the adult meaning of "sleeping with someone". Its not something I ever use in my vocab or that he'd see on TV. He was a 2nd grader who sees that mommy and daddy are married and go to sleep together in the same bed. I got a note home that the little girl's mom was VERY upset, and the little girl told my son that her mom said she was "DONE" with all of this and she was going to go to the principal to do something about it. Well I was DONE too. So I pulled him out of school right then and he never went back. It made me SICK to know that teachers I put my trust in were thinking of my son as a sexual harasser, and now other parents were too. A year made all the difference. He's in the middle of 3rd grade year and no where near where he was last year. Maybe partly it had to do with the friends he had there, the other little boys were getting into trouble too. Or maybe he just needed to mature more. But he has a little friend who's a girl that goes to his co-op and they play together great. No talk of boobies at all anymore. lol So *big hugs* to you. I know how you feel. I would hope that the adults dealing with your son would understand the autism spectrum and ADHD enough to know that he's not be disrespectful, but its part of that impulse control. I hope this made sense or helped at all. I am typing quickly to get back to dinner clean-up! Lol but I just had to post. :grouphug:

We were pretty set on doing the Classical Conversations program this fall. We set aside the money to do it, which is going to be a lot with three in Foundations and one in Challenge. But we really felt it was worth it. DH's brother and his wife did last year's trial run of this program (because its BRAND new to our area, free last year to try it out and see if there was enough interest and they are JUST opening the new program this fall here). They were big supporters. Now I hear that they may not do it because the lady who was acting as administrator is going to teach instead, and the lady who is stepping up as administrator is making lots of changes. Also, my DH just doesn't feel that its worth THAT much money to go toward tutors that are other moms. I guess he thought for that much money the tutors were going to be a bit more qualified/trained. Especially since this is the FIRST year for CC here in our area, so the program is new to everyone. The one who was acting as administrator did CC in Texas, and that's why she tried starting up a chapter here. I don't know why she's stepping down - just as of last week she was telling me to write checks payable to her for registration. Anyway, I just don't know what to do now .I was REALLY looking forward to CC. But it sounds like they have a lot of kinks to work out for their first year, and its a lot of money to put into a program that may fall apart. However, part of the new changes the new administrator wants to make is making even smaller class sizes and being picky of who they let in. So if we dont get in this first year, we may never get in if we change our mind. What would you do? Would you do this program, or wait and see how it plays out? IF SIL stays in the program, then we'd have an in and someone to "vouch" for us if they are being that choosy of who they let in. We've met several of the families and the teachers already. Its going to be over $3000 for this first year for all the books, registration, and tuition. Not including the other non-CC curriculum - math, language arts, etc.

Yay! Congrats on two little ones. :) Praying for things to resolve and a nice strong h/b next time! *hugs*

I've never had PUPPS but from what I've heard its beyond just itchy-ness. Its obviously serious enough for women to want to consider induction. As I said in my post, I have a friend PG with twins and she is beyond miserable too. She is getting zero sleep at night because of the PUPPS. At that point, and when it starts causing secondary infections, its really a risk to the mom and baby's health. She's 36 weeks and she's trying everything she can to go into labor as well.

:grouphug: PUPPS is miserable. I've never had it, but I've had friends who had/have. I have a friend right now 36 weeks with twins and PUPPs. I don't know what gender you are having, but she said that she found out that something like 70% of women who have PUPPS are carrying boys? She's hoping she has a girl in there too though. loL Anyway, I think only you, your DH and your doctor can make that decision. C-section is a major surgery...it has much higher risk of complications then labor. Also, there is the recovery period to consider. I've never had a c-section so I can't speak from experience. But I do know how much I love being able to get up and walk around a few hours later, without pain. Its just a TV show I know ,but I watched one of those reality labor and delivery shows on Disc. Health, and a woman was being induced for this very reason (PUPPS). You're still pretty early to be induced. But maybe at 37 weeks your OB will discuss it with you. *hugs* Will something like an Aveeno oatmeal bath help? I know it helped my severely itchy eczema kid. :grouphug:

I do have to give some words of encouragement, maybe. :) I've had five births, all in a hospital. Two were non-medicated by choice and the OB and staff were totally accepting and supportive of that. Even when I started to ask for meds at one point (nearing transition), they encouraged me to keep going because I was so close. My other three I did get epidurals with, by choice, because I wanted to not have to worry about the pain of childbirth. lol They worked just fine, although the last two weren't really needed as I literally had minutes before it was suddenly time to push (in both cases went from about a 6-7 to a 10 and ready to push in just minutes). So I've learned by lesson with the last two and am not going to go for the epidural again. :) Anyway, my OB has never tried to induce contractions with pitocin or pushed a c-section, etc. She did induce labor via water breaking with my 3rd and 4th sons who I was dilated to 4cm with one and about 2-3 cm with the other. Contractions started on their own within the hour. :) Also, at the hospital I was allowed to walk around (pre-epidural), and they had me try a birthing ball before. One of my labors (number 4 I think) I spent nearly entirely in a rocking chair. It was the only place I felt comfortable for some reason. lol

Oh yes. :) But give me a couple weeks. We're totally rearranging every bedroom in our house, including the school room. We're doing a big "switcheroo" lol. So I'll post pix when I'm done. We won't have a neat little room just for school anymore :( But we need that for a nursery. ;) Instead we'll take a corner of the downstairs.

Thank you all again so much for your stories, insight, etc. :) My DH really isn't comfortable with a birthing center. He has good points, which we brought up here too. I think then that we're going to compromise and I'm going to use a CNM who delivers in the hospital. :)

It wasn't unnecessary hospital intervention, but my mom did lose a baby to medical neglect. She had the RH factor but have becomed "sensitized" (right term?) because she didn't realize she had a m/c and didn't get the rho-gam shot. The OB was supposed to closely monitor the baby's "levels" of some kind, (blood count I assume since the effect of this is that baby's become severely anemic since their blood cells are being attacked). The OB was monitoring the baby and had all the results that were saying baby was getting into danger zone, but even at 37 weeks wouldn't induce. The baby died the next week. And yes my parents sued, and won. :( They went on to have two more babies, who did survive because they were induced early before they became too anemic. So medical neglect from OB's does cost babies lives all the time. :( So so sad. My thoughts and prayers to all those mommas who've had to deal with this, of any kind. *hugs*

The first for November here? 4 weeks today :) Just found out! Due Nov. 20th?

Uggh I have had issues with Ebay and Paypal too. Its unfortunate that they pretty much have a monopoly on internet auctions and paying electronically! lol In one case, it was similar to yours. The person said he/she didn't get the item. I had proof I sent it, but I couldn't prove where it went from there. For all I know the person got the item and just said they didn't. Paypal first took the funds from my account during the investigating of the case, and my account was linked directly to my bank account so that I could transfer my Paypal money to my account or pay people with it - using my bank account balance if my Paypal amount didn't cover it. So when they froze the money it came out of my bank accoutn because I didn't have anything in my Paypal account at that time. We live a tight budget. That was not good for us to have that money just taken out without being able to prepare for something like that. Grrrr Sorry you had to deal with that! I always thought that "seller not responsible for shipping loss/damage" was enough on an auction. But obviously its not. Now I require shipping insurance on anything over $20 that I'm selling on Ebay. Otherwise if the item gets ruined, *I* have to pay it back. Also, when I print labels online via Paypal, it automatically does delivery confirmation w/tracking. That is a must too.

Thank you all again for all the advice! I really am listening to it seriously. In fact I keep going back and forth with my decision. I think the best thing to do, is really discuss it with my DH, tour the birthing center and meet the midwives, and then pray about it. :) I know there are many factors in hospital vs birthing center births. However for my specific situation here is what I'm looking at: * This will be my sixth delivery. Even in two deliveries which were induced, I always have short, complication free labors. * I've delivered large babies too (9lbs 10 oz being my larges) with no extra effort on my part. * I am well informed about both options and the risks of both. * The birthing center has a great reputation and I've talked to friends who've personally used it and had nothing but good things to say. * The birthing center is only 1.5 miles from the hospital. * I've had two med-free deliveries, so I know what to expect and that I won't panic. * My OB clinic rotates OB's, so when I go into labor on my own, I will only get the OB that is on call that night. * I've witnessed at Dr. appt's with my OB that even if her patient goes into labor when she's the on call OB, she will stay at her office and continue to see patients because she has a computer feed to the hospital that shows the laboring patients contractions and if she's needed at the hospital yet. The OB clinic is the same distance from the hospital that the birthing center is. * If I go into labor during off hours, the hospital calls the OB (I don't think they are there, because we called the OB on-call number ourselves before and they said they'd "meet us there" in about 15-20 minutes). I'm sure there are other OB's that are there, but the OB clinic that I go to has about 6 OB's that rotate shifts. Unless they are already there for another patient, then they wouldn't have a reason to be at the hospital until they are called in. * In the four deliveries that I had at this hospital (the first one was at a small rural hospital elsewhere), the nurses did 90% of the work. The OB only came in when it was time to push. Even when the baby was showing decels in a few cases, the nurse just had me change positions and then try oxygen - the OB didn't get involved. In one of my deliveries, the OB was sleeping the entire time, and when the nurse came to get him he saw that my pushing wasn't very effective yet so he just said he was going back to sleep and to have the nurses page him when it was closer to time. He barely got there as the baby was being born. So the nurses were the ones there for nearly all of the pushing as well. So those are just some of the factors to consider that relate directly to my decision. Like I said, I know in general, there are many factors and "what ifs" to consider. However, since I'm making this decision for myself...those are my factors. :) Thanks again!!