Baby #5...

I'm starting this blog with a posting to announce that we are pregnant with baby #5! I am very surprised and very happy. I had suspected that I was pregnant, given my emotional reactions to things and my husband's persistent nausea. That's right, I rarely get nausea while pregnant, which is wonderful, but my loving husband seems to get it instead. Those two symptoms alone made me suspect that something was amiss.

We are the proud parents of 4 boys already! Our oldest is closing in on 9 years old and the youngest is just 1 this past week. Prior to finding out that we are pregnant, we had thought about waiting until the littlest one was about 18 months before trying again. We weren't trying to prevent pregnancy, but we normally don't work towards it either unless we feel lead to have another one. That is a story in itself!

There are so many topics to discuss that are centered around this baby and the coming birth. Ultimately, my goal is to have this baby at home. I'll discuss the previous 4 births in another posting soon and you will start to see why I would pursue this, but delivering baby #5 in a healthy, peaceful setting where I am in control of my own labor is what this blog will be about. Blogging should be cathartic and I plan to take full advantage of this by working through the history of each child's birth and my experiences with them.

I named the blog "Birthing Sons" because it seems that I am destined to be the mother of sons! With 4 already and no stark differences in this pregnancy so far, I am guessing that this is another boy. This pleases my husband immensely, I suspect because he is afraid of what a daughter might do to him emotionally! lol I shouldn't tease, but it is darling. There is every possibility that this could be a girl and that I am blessed to have easy pregnancies!

On to the first posting....:

Today is my first "pregnancy visit" with our family doctor. She has been my o.b. since baby #1 and I love her dearly. She is a good doctor. I have had to refer to another doctor for the last trimester of both baby #3 and #4 due to some "complications" and I have not been so pleased with that doctor. Today I will be informing my personal doctor that I will be having this baby at home. Let me clarify just a little - this will be my second VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean), so I might be met with a good bit of hesitation or hostility, though I don't see her taking a hostile approach.
I am at just about 11 weeks of this pregnancy and there is still plenty of time for me to prepare myself and if necessary, seek out another doctor or midwife who will support my decision. As far as I have been told, the other doctors willing to take on a vbac patient (other than the one who attended the last one) tend to push for repeat cesareans and most midwives in my area will not take on vbac clients either. Whether or not this will change once they are informed that I have vbac'd once successfully, I do not know, but that is all part of this journey. I suspect that I will come home today with a determination to find a midwife....

I have also chosen not to inform anyone that I am pregnant. If you know me and happen to read this, please keep it to yourself. I am blogging only to share my experiences with other women who may be going through similar challenges. I have not been met with joy or support when sharing my views of family planning, even in my immediate family, so I will not be telling anyone that I am pregnant until it is no longer concealable. Thankfully, I am overweight and will be able to pass it off as "weight gain" until possibly the 3rd trimester! Our children do not know either, though they often talk about wanting to have more babies and so we feel they will not feel deceived when we do tell them. Please honor my wishes. And thanks for reading!