Welcome to Gaia! ::

Oh I'm sure they are. xd Be sure to let us know how the appointment goes!

eek heart Oh wow, that was fast! I knew you were going to TTC a little later this year. Congratulations!

Our Ethan won't be a big brother for a little bit longer. Hehe, we're waiting at least six more months before TTC.

I think after confirming I was pregnant at my clinic, my first appointment wasn't until I was about 10 weeks either, come to think of it. Did they want to see you earlier the first time around?

Dirge- I thought they would want to see me to at least confirm it but I guess not. Last time was kind of weird, I never took a HPT. I found out I was pregnant after going to the ER for being dehydrated from the horrible horrible morning sickness I thought at the time was just a stomach bug. At the time I didn't have insurance so I didn't go to the doctor right away (applied for and got Medicaid so I waited for that to go through). By the time I went to the doctor for the first time I was already around 10 weeks. The ER doc. did a blood test so there was no need to confirm. I guess I was just expecting them to want me to come in and confirm it but I guess they are satified with the HPT results!

Luna- Thank you!

Congratulations Syl! 4laugh My ob office actually wouldn't LET me come in for a prenatal appointment until after they'd done their own urine test to confirm. I guess every office is different!

I'm getting very nervous about my rapidly approaching EDD. I'm already feeling contractions and get somewhat excited with each. Then there's that small negative thought that pops into my head which makes me think something will go wrong. I know it's just from how nervous I am, but I can't seem to help it at times. Anywho, I plan to have a natural birth. I was just wondering if anyone alse made the same option. Any tips to help me stay as calm and relaxed as possible as I approach the moment?

How exciting! You're getting close!

I "plan" to try for natural this time, but I won't be upset if things don't go my way. I see how birth plans don't always go as planned! It's important for me this time to be able to feel how hard I'm pushing to try to avoid another severely ruptured disc. With my first, I was induced with pitocin (I DON'T want to do that again! It was fast, but intensely horrible!) and the *%&# anesthesiologist didn't show up until 2 hours after he was called, and by then Jade was born 5 minutes later. I had a spinal block done and didn't feel the 5 minutes of pushing, but apparently pushed hard enough to cause a fingertip sized piece of a degenerated low-back disc to come off and lodge itself an inch and a half below where it should be in my spinal canal. Almost 6 years post-sugery for that, I now have 2 herniated discs (including the orignal one) which are in danger of doing the same thing this time. I may just have a c-section to avoid pushing at all, but we'll see how it goes. I'd rather just push nice and easy and see how non-pitocin-induced labor is.

About the contractions, I've been getting frequent braxton-hicks since 3 months, and in the evenings every day I'll get them about every 5-10 minutes, sometimes quite painfully. I had them a lot with my first pregnancy too, and they said to call if I had more than 6 in an hour, but every day I had more than 6 in an hour, and that was just normal for me. They said this time I'll get them earlier, more often, and stronger, and that's held true! I'm 7 months now, and I started to wonder yesterday how I'll know when it's ACTUAL labor with them being so frequent. I figure I'll just wait until I'm leaking blood or amniotic fluid, and then I'll know it's the day. It's kind of exciting to think about! Who knows how delivery day will go, how long it will take, etc. I love hearing birth stories! As painful/momentous as the event is, it's exciting, and it's just one day! I actually look forward to it, as I did with my first.