[fossie]

The daycare stuff is pretty overwhelming, especially when what I hear from almost everybody in my and dh's family is why don't you not go back to work and just make it work financially (all of my friends who are expecting soon are also quitting). I don't know how they think we will just make it work with mortgage and bills and added expenses of two kids - I've gotten the, people do it all the time shpiel and you just have to set priorities talk, but my priority right now is to feed, clothe and put a roof over these babies heads which means income is necessary! Our families both think it is imperative to have someone (mom or dad) with the babies at home but I don't know why my mom conveniently forgets that neither my sister or me had a stay-at-home parent and we turned out just fine, I think. I know that we could make it work but to do that we would have to sacrifice things like a house and neighborhood (in a great school system) that I love, gym and tennis and golf membership (my dh and I both played in college, and tennis (me) and golf (dh) are very important to us and our sanity and to me it is worth working for things that make life a little more enjoyable and having a great caregiver for small amounts of time! Everyone thinks I am overareacting when I say that we would definitely have to sell our house but we just could not pay the mortgage - it is difficult as is with two incomes (sometimes since my dh is sporadic) now that we used all of our savings on IVF. If down the road those are sacrifices that we see we need to make then so be it.

Caroline - I really cannot wait until we find out the genders! I have no hunch really, I go back and forth based on old wives tales - heartrate (2 high and the same) = girls, intelligender said boy (but PCOS and progesterone could sway that), no morning sickness = boy, breaking out constantly = girl, I just have no clue! Everyone else seems to have an opinion - most think boy and girl, some think two girls, nobody thinks two boys.

[Tabitha]

Shellie, I have been hearing the same speech. That financially things will just work themselves out if I decide to stay at home. I have ran the numbers several times, and it just won't work. I suspect that some of the people that I hear these things from are receiving assistance from family.

And yes we are definitely finding out the sex of the baby. I get the feeling that DH would like to wait, but I think I would go crazy!

[flamingpajamas]

Hey you guys I am wondering if anyone is doing the triple or quad screen AFP test. The Nuchal test was for downs and chromosomal abnormalities but they also do the AFP for neural tube and abdominal wall defects. Again, there seem to be a lot of false positives I know they can screen for both of these things in anatomy scan. Hmm I am undecided....

[Tabitha]

At my appointment on Friday I had blood drawn to test for spina bifida, which is a neural tube defect, right? My dr hasn't mentioned the triple or quad screen test.

[Dellemma]

Originally Posted by flamingpajamas

Hey you guys I am wondering if anyone is doing the triple or quad screen AFP test. The Nuchal test was for downs and chromosomal abnormalities but they also do the AFP for neural tube and abdominal wall defects. Again, there seem to be a lot of false positives I know they can screen for both of these things in anatomy scan. Hmm I am undecided....

I think I am going to decline these screens. I have decided that I wouldn't do an amnio so I might as well not have the screens in the first place. I guess I am more worried about the stress a false positive would have on me.

[fossie]

I had an ob appt. today and we discussed those screens but my doctor advised against them because he said there are a lot of false positives with twins and then if something comes back you can't tell which one it is and if you aren't doing amnio you will never know so we just opted not to do it.

My appt. went well today although we still could only hear one heartbeat on the doppler - they say that is very normal at this stage because they are right on top of each other and mine have had the exact same heartrates in the past so we could be hearing both and not know it. The doctor checked my cervix and said it is great - thick and long and closed so that's good news - no cerclage necessary for now. That was really all we got out of today's appt. - I wish we could have heard both hearts beating but we are going to be positive like the doctor was!

My anatomy scan is scheduled for May 13th!!! Seems so long away but I am so excited and will be counting down the days for sure!

[flamingpajamas]

Ok ladies here is this week's update...I can't believe how close we all are getting to find out the genders!!!!

I decided not to take pics of my nonexistent bump yet. It is just too unimpressive....in case anyone was wondering.

October due date buddies!!!

EDD

Mum2abbeylily (Caroline): 1 bean sept 30th
BZOE: 1 bean Oct 4th
Tabitha: 1 bean Oct 5th
Tracyinterior: 1bean Oct 5th
Trinitysmom EDD Oct 7th
Blaze63333 (Christie): 1 bean Oct 9th
Hopin4baby (Kory): Triplets! Oct 9th
Celeste: Twins October 10th
Fossie (Shellie): Twins Oct 10th
Norcal (Holly): 1 bean Oct 11th
Flamingpajamas (Claudia): 1 bean Oct 11th
Blessusw/baby: 1 bean Oct 13th
Eriksgirl (Laura): 1 bean Oct 15th
Chie: 1 bean Oct 16th
Che_girl (Netty): 1 bean Oct 20th
Dellema: 1 bean Oct 23rd
Liv: 1 bean Oct 25th
CAtIz1 (Melissa): Oct 27th
Ara79 (Amy): 1 bean Oct 30th
MelBar: 2 beans Oct 30th

US Calendar!

CatIz1 (Melissa): NT scan 4/17
Mum2abbeylily: Gender scan 4/28
Eriksgirl: Gender scan 5/8
Fossie: Anatomy scan 5/13
Flamingpajamas: Anatomy scan 5/16
Chie: Antomy Scan 5/30

MIA


Needs a hug

Frymomma, MsFitsy, TAP, ShellBell, Skatingva, Numeria, Tinarapp

[Celeste]

Hi All - sorry to have been MIA, but work is killing me. Speaking of, don't let people make you feel guilty for not staying home. You need to do what is best for your family and everyone else should stay out of it. I had to go back to work when my DD was 6 weeks old and it was terrible and horrible and she started in day care at 4 months 3 days a week and my mom watches her 2x a week and she is a wonderful, happy, beautiful, attached to Mommy and Daddy 2 year old with no problems and frankly, she loves going to "school". Don't let others make you feel guilty, you will do enough of that to yourself once they are born.

As for me, I had an OB appt on Friday and got to see the little buggers on US and they look great. I will have my official anatomy scan (and find out genders) on 5/7.

I hope that you are all doing well.

[fossie]

Good to hear from you Celeste and great to hear from someone who really knows about the daycare trials and tribulations!

So exciting that your scan is in 3 weeks!

[blaze6333]

I too have been running the numbers to see if there is anyway to stay home. My Dh makes good money and I could stay home but it would be hard. I have student loans out the yingyang and we both not long ago got new vehicles. But, on the other hand, I know that this is a choice for me. I could cut out a lot of things that would make me staying home much easier. Many of the toys we have, our hobbies and dishtv for goodness sakes, I could make it work. But, right now it would be hard to make it work. SO, I am trying to pay down alot of bills now and maybe after a year or so, I can stay home. I love my work, and I would miss it terribly but I do think I should stay home if I can without putting a financial burden on us. There is just so much turmoil and decisions(hard decisions) to make. As long as we do what is best for "our" family, that is what matters!!!

[norcal]

morning ladies


The blessing of good weather in California has landed me with a killer allergy attack that has kicked my butt since Friday. I'm staying home today to try to get over the worst of it. FYI - did you know that we need to take the Original Sudefed, not the PE version? I guess it's just because the PE version has not been out long enough but I didn't realize that over the weekend. Got to the store yesterday to get the "real" stuff from behind the counter. Between that and a humidifer, I'm hoping to get this congestion out of my head and chest today BTW - coughing sucks when your


Daycare - oh geez! We love the center my neice goes to, but it's $250 a week and no part time for infants which is probably what we'll need. Complicating the whole matter is due to potential state budget cuts ( I work for a non-profit in human services) I won't even know if I have a job July 1st. so a lot of our plans are on hold until that gets figured out. I'm such a planner so this is hard for me, but there's nothing I can do so I'm trying to just focus on today. We knew this was a possibilty before the IUI and thought about waiting, but since my job is where we get insurance and it covered infertility through IUI, we made the decision to move forward and figure out the rest later.

[Eriksgirl19]

Hi all -
I'm so glad to hear that the u/s this week have been great! My next one isn't for a few more weeks yet, and I'm so anxious to see our bean! :-)

How is everyone feeling? It's so strange to have my symptoms be pretty much gone. And since I'm not really showing I could seriously forget I'm pregnant. I spent the weekend with my best friend who is 8 1/2 months pregnant with her third. She said that this is such a tough time of pregnancy because no symptoms. So, that was nice to hear. I've been buying maternity clothes and I really need to stop! But it is the only thing I feel comfortable buying still.

Hope you all have a great day!

[fossie]

Laura - that is the only thing I will buy for the pregnancy too - I just can't buy baby stuff yet. We are having a tax-free weekend coming up and I know I should get stuff for the babies but I still feel like it is a jinx - I'm going to buy maternity clothes though since that is a good savings not having to pay tax. I am struggling right now with the clothes because we were having definitely spring like weather and then we had a cold snap so I'm back into sweaters and jeans that don't fit! I can't wait for the temperature to stabilize!!!

[norcal]

Shelly - we had 90 degree weather here this weekend, and now we're back in the 60's!

[fossie]

Holly - it is all my fault really - I planted flowers two weekends ago and even while doing it I knew that the weather staying like that was too good to be true! We had snow flurries (in Nashville, TN) just north of here and were under a freeze warning last night - oh, well I guess I shouldn't complain too much since this will definitely be a hot summer and I'll probably be complaining more about that when we are all big and ready to pop!