slacking, thanksgiving, and daycare

OK, well obviously I've been a complete slacker blog-wise, so my apologies to my tiny handful of readers.

I don't have much to report baby-wise. I still feel crappy at times. I still eat often. I still haven't been to the doctor - although I will go on Friday.

We spent all of Thanksgiving week with my mother in law ( hi N! ), who I know reads this so I can't give away any of her dirty little secrets;) But I will say that we had a nice visit, and more importantly I was able to eat at Thanksgiving!! Yeah! Now I have to point out that quite a bit of a typical Thanksgiving meal is very carb/starchy food friendly, which translates into pregnant-Jena-friendly, but I did manage to eat some turkey as well, which was nice.

So now that I've caught everyone up on our doings, here's what's on my mind now. Daycare.

We've started thinking about what to do with the little bugger once she's born (I switch back and forth on referring to gender, we don't know and we don't plan to find out).
I plan to take 3 months off after little bugger's born (unpaid, but I still plan to take it).
After that… well, that's a problem. I would love to stay home. And it's probably technically possible for me to do so, but it would be a bit of a stretch. And really really scary. It is financially possible that I could work reduced hours and not have the bugger in daycare fulltime, but I haven't discussed this with my boss yet. (OK, boss doesn't even know I'm pregnant, I was going to tell him this week, but he's out of town for at least a week and a half, but I promise I'll tell him when he gets back!) What's also possible, and financially feasible is that I work full time and R stays home with little bugger. This would probably make me insanely jealous, but it's a whole lot better than any sort of daycare. However, that last option relies on me getting hired directly by Big Oil, for whom I work as a contractor. Getting hired directly is a possibility, but more like a 50/50 chance, not something I can count on, though I should know for sure by the new year - and would almost certainly mean that I get a nice raise.

So, exploring the more likely option of at least part-time daycare/maybe full-time daycare...
The really nice day care at my office would eat up a quarter of our current combined take-home pay - there's a discount if you're a company employee, but contractors like me have to pay full price. So that's out unless I get hired directly and the discount turns out to be amazing
But maybe it's not the best choice anyways… I mean it'd be convenient for me, but no way would R drive out here to pick up the little bugger, it's just too far and at rush hour it'd be a horrible drive for him (I drive against most of the commuter traffic, so it's not that bad a drive for me usually). So maybe it's just as well that we can't afford it.

The Kinder.care close to the house is $400 cheaper (per month). But when I looked them up on the official Texas day care licensing website, I wasn't very happy to see all the violations and incident reports they in 2005 at that location. Now it's true that they did much better this year, but still… if they've had problems with correct supervision in the past, how can I know it won't happen again?

So the state daycare site got me thinking about home daycare... how do you feel about home daycare? You know, the people that keep half a dozen kids in their home (hopefully at a better $ rate than the other places, though I'd be happy to pay Kinder.care rates as long as it doesn't come with Kinder.care style supervision). Anyways, I've always thought of them as a bit shady…I don't know why I think that, just a feeling, a suspicion if you will. But I found out that some of them are registered with the state. And that means that they get inspected, just like the big day care centers.

There are two of these registered home daycares in my little neighborhood. Both have been in operation since 1987. One has had no violations in the last 2 years (that's all the data that's available on the website). The other did have a violation, a fire extinguisher needed servicing, but she had it serviced and reported back to the inspectors within a week. The state site tells you to consider not only any violations, but what they were and how responsive they were in getting things fixed - so getting it done in a week is pretty good in my book. Neither had any incident reports. I haven't called these people yet, let alone toured their "facilities", I'm just trying to figure out what the options are.

So, if you were a new parent, would you consider home day care? Other options I'm missing?

Released from the RE

(originally tried to post Fri. Nov 10, but it didn't go through)

Well, today was my last RE appointment! ACK! Scary! I could have gone back next week, but it would only be to get one last look at the baby before I go into a long period of no ultrasounds… and it would be the day we are leaving for Thanksgiving, so I decided it would just be extra stress on that day. So it's done. I'm supposed to wean myself off the progesterone this week. 

My next OB appointment is Dec. 1, but I don't think they'll do an ultrasound then - but they will use a "doppler" to listen for the heartbeat.

I've been wondering if my morning sickness is lessening… the last 3 days have been a bit better. I even ate pad thai for lunch earlier this week - a hugely adventerous move on my part! I still haven't eaten meat though I might try some for lunch today. Dinners are still low-key, but I've introduced vegetables back into my diet. OK, so I've only been eating peas and I've only done that twice, but it's a start!

I'll post the ultrasound pic later after I have a chance to scan it in.

Ultrasound #6 and my first OB appointment

Wow! A fantastic look at the baby today! It even moved a little while we were watching (we= the RE and me, R couldn't be there)

You can see little tiny arm and leg buds! The head is pointing down. Cute little bugger, isn't it?

After my morning wanding at the RE I was off to my OB appointment. Not too much happened - they would have done an ultrasound, but 2 in one day is too much, even for me, so I just showed them the picture and told them that everything was confirmed and the baby was fine and they were ok with that.

I wasn't sure if I was going to go back to my same OB/GYN - these are the same people who kept me on clomid for 7 months and would have kept me on it for 9 if I hadn't gone to the RE on my own. But in the end it just seemed easier. I DID tell the doctor that the RE was a little shocked they kept me on clomid for so long, and she did seem sorry (sorry I felt that way, not that she admitted to making poor choices for me)... and she could tell that I was a bit upset.

The doctor was excited to learn that I was pg... of course, her first thought was that I got pg on clomid since that's the last thing in her records, but I soon set her straight. I find it odd that the receptionist who made my appointment listed me as simply "missed menses" rather than confirmed pregnancy even though I told her I was transferring my care from an RE. And when the nurse was updating my family history and LMP and such, I told her I also had the dates of my IUIs, but she didn't even write that down. I suppose to them it doesn't matter HOW the baby got IN there, they're there to get the babies out.