OTOH, My SIL, who did want a tubal with her second c-section in her early/mid 20s, had a really hard time convincing the doctors to give her one because they said that she was too young to make that decision. It was really insulting and also rather clueless as her reasons were pretty strong.

Truthfully, even as a homeschooler I only know a handful of people with 4 or more under the age of 18 IRL right now. I definitely think homeschooling is a somewhat unique demographic in this respect. We'd like to have 3-4 but it seems more than likely than not that we will have 3 max.

Because one of my nieces is a mini me of me (my brother and I have a VERY strong family resemblance) and one of my nieces is exactly the same size as my younger son so they are presumed twins wherever I take them, I understand why people would just assume they were all mine. I also have a niece and nephew who are black and Puerto Rican (one of my brothers is black and their mom is PR) and bluntly the rude comments are never about people assuming we have 4-6 kids, but little and not so little things that tiptoe around or plough right through race. It's a sad testament to how confused people are about mixed race families. It's 2015. This is not all that hard to understand. And it's rude to demand strangers tell you if your kids are adopted. I use this as a frame of reference to teach my sons to try to avoid assumptions.

I don't think anything about it. I also don't necessarily assume that it's all one family. I get large family comments sometimes when I have 6 kids with me but four are my nieces and nephews. So you never know.

He can tell her: that the ducks have formed a union to demand better working conditions. that your baby is going to be ready for college at age 3. that the ghost of Mozart haunts your hen house but on the upside, he also plays sonatas to lull everyone to sleep and you think that's why your baby is so smart. that you are considering opening a "massage" parlor in the garage. that you can't decide if you guys are going to paint the house neon purple or all black with a mural of Marilyn Manson. Basically just whatever he can get out with a straight face. And then leave her to her stunned silence.

The southern states tend to pay the worst rates. Honestly the idea of cops making $13-15 an hour like I have heard is possible in places like Mississippi is rather blood chilling. Why on earth would we want LE officers living at or close to poverty? That's a major red flag for public safety as far as I am concerned. That pay is often lowest in higher crime areas is adding insult to injury. The states with the best LE pay tend to be on the West Coast and NE. State governments and larger cities tend to pay more than smaller towns and cities.

I would, if we could afford to live there.

I have all wooden hangers from IKEA. Never noticed any bumps in the shoulders.

Have some fun. Have your husband start feeding her dead pan fantastical, insane stories about how things are going down there and then laugh when she repeats these things to other people.

Last month. We mostly take camping vacations to be budget mindful but we make taking a number of trips a year a priority. Once we aren't on as tight of a budget (my husband is in school), we will resume taking 1-2 non camping trips a year. We do love to camp though and that won't stop.

Another thing that helps is fluency in another language commonly used in the area he wants to work.

Police pay varies but most places, due to strong contracts, they make good money. There aren't many jobs in my area where someone is making $90k+ a year with less than 5 years experience, before any overtime and without an advanced degree required. I don't think that's too much, the work is hard and dangerous but I wouldn't say they are underpaid either, especially with the very strong disability and pension benefits. My friend who is a detective makes more than that with overtime. That's a solid professional level compensation package. I know many people in other fields who make less.

My FIL was a cruise person. That was how they vacationed. No other trips were ever taken with his dad. He could afford it though and never went bankrupt. That said, being dragged on cruises as a child and teen has left my husband permanently unwilling to ever even consider boarding another cruise ship again.

I'd have left by now. Not ready? You can see the car I buy when we get home.

I am sorry that this is so intense for you 3 years later. I second the suggestion to get some professional help. Also, definitely don't tell your friend why. While you wouldn't mean it that way I think she would take it badly and you don't want to hurt her.

I've had somewhat different experiences each time but for me, unless it's just a chemical pregnancy that presents like a late period, I do generally notice a loss of pregnancy symptoms (ie- my breasts felt less tender and I wasn't queasy anymore) and sometimes some pain before bleeding. I have had repeated losses. Three times bleeding never started and we had to get medical assistance.

I share your skepticism about him being the one to notice the symptoms. I was just sharing that there are other symptoms short of bleeding.

Loss of pregnancy symptoms. Cramping Low back pain

That said quite possibly the thing that irritates me the most is them saying they are on a new mission to educate people about miscarriages. Um, one very early pregnancy loss doesn't make them special experts or spokespeople for miscarriages. Most early miscarriages are wholly unpreventable and unexplainable. A lot of pregnancies end spontaneously in the first few weeks. It's such a privileged and self centered thing for them to think this is unusual.

The dollar store pregnancy tests have droppers and you are supposed to pee in a cup and then take the dropper and use that to put 2-3 drops of urine on a very small test strip in a small plastic casing. I assume that is how they sell them for $1- way less plastic. What is odd to me is any woman with a regular period and two kids being a full two weeks late without already testing. I think the pregnancy may have been real but the reverse announcement was probably staged for YouTube hits.

I hope Cat's husband is ok.

Yeah, that's odd. 2 weeks late means 6 weeks pregnant or so. Lots of people have healthy pregnancies when there's no detectable heartbeat at 6 weeks. I have a 6 year old who had no heartbeat detected at 6 weeks. Ù/s could have showed something that wasn't even as large as a 5 week yolk sac though. I've had early u/s were it was pretty clearly not a developing pregnancy early on.

He said she doesn't flush at night so as to not wake the baby. I don't flush at night either so as to not wake people up. That part didn't seem odd to me. Small houses, apartments, thin walls, light sleeping babies. You make adjustments.

If it's a very early miscarriage (possibly just a chemical pregnancy) and they haven't despaired of being able to have another due to secondary infertility/recurrent miscarriages, I can see taking it pretty lightly. I was disappointed after my first early miscarriage but I wasn't alarmed or concerned until my third. My first second trimester loss was way harder. Honestly, I assume when anyone announces a pregnancy that early that they are unburdened by a history of past miscarriage. I assume he's a nurse or something from his scrubs so I'm guessing he has a high tolerance for gross.

He might look into doing informational interviews with different types of LEOs. I had a friend who was thinking she'd become a cop but once she met lots of different professionals, she ended up in federal law enforcement and has been really happy with her career thus far. One thing to be very careful with is for him to keep his credit squeaky clean as LE agencies are loathe to hire those with bad credit or lots of debt and it can hurt security clearances if he advances.