Chaz Moms and Moms-to-Be Chat (everyone welcome)

If anyone can do it, you can Paige.

It won't be easy, but it's possible. You might cry when you finally have to leave them, but you won't cry forever. Hopefully you can find a situation where Briggs can be watched by someone you trust and someone with experience with special needs children, or if they aren't experienced, they'll at least be willing to learn along with you and Briggs.

I was trying to go back to school this semester, but it didn't work out, and now I'm sort of glad. Lillian's having a lot of set backs in breastfeeding, and I'm not doing great health-wise, so it's not the best time to start. I am taking some coursera courses and finishing up an incompleted class, and it's already hard to balance it. I'm really hoping things are better by January.

Just...expect it to be hard, expect not to have perfect grades with two young children. Expect whoever cares for them to not do things the way you would. That's how I'm going into it.

On the plus side, lots of the professors I've met have been really accommodating and helpful to the parents in their classes.

You can absolutely do it, Paige. It's going to be a growth time for everyone, while you adapt to new routines and realities, but it will be worth it in the end. What a wonderful example you are setting for your kiddos down the road when they say school is too hard or they don't think they can handle it. You will be able to empathize, to support, and to show them it absolutely is possible.

Zach and I have 34,000 girl names we like, and not a single boy name. Pretty sure that guarantees fetus is a boy.

I am probably the least picky person when it comes to that kind of things with people doing things different. For preschool Briggs has to go with a development worker and how autism funding works in BC he will have a BI covered through my own budgeting of our funding who can be left alone with him if I am comfortable leaving him with them. I am not so concerned about Blake because his needs are more basic.

I hear so many horror stories about special needs kids getting abused and mistreated due to ignorance it scares the snot out of me. Briggs isn't a cakewalk. He takes a lot of energy to take care of but I am hoping that giving him a year to adjust and learn skills it will be easier to transition him to that type of environment.

Paige, I would send a message to Baxtersmybaby here in Chaz and ask for advice she is a wealth of knowledge for parents with special needs kids both as a parent and a teacher

Will do. Its very intimidating handing over the reins for yur child with more advanced needs.

We had a similar issues...agreed on a few girls' names but both wanted our way for the boy's. even though we picked one in the end I think if I did have a boy I'd regret not giving him the one name I really loved.

I was actually a little relieved I didn't have to name a boy.

Are you planning on finding out the sex?

I had a buch of boys names and nothing for a girl. I never wanted a girl so never really came up with names.

My middle name is Marie as it was my grandmothers name. Hubby took that and took some geaneology and found there was a Hannah long ago in his family and said "what about Hannah Marie?". The first name had family meaning to him, middle name had meaning to me... Hannah is a biblical name which his family would appreciate and my great grandmother would have coo'd over and we like. It was perfect. As soon as he mentioned the name we knew it was right and even though we didn't find out the sex before birth... I just knew we would have a Hannah Marie and we do and I can't imagine life without my girl

It will be fine. I was going to college and running a business with Winnie. It was insane the first few weeks, but we got into the groove and everything was a-ok. You can do this, and it'll be good for Briggs too. <3

Absolutely, yes. I am a planner to the nth degree. I hate surprises!

Plus, if it's a boy, we have to have the circumcision conversation ahead of time...yet another reason to hope it's a girl!

She's 3.5 months old and I STILL question Everleigh's name. We had a boys name immediately. But I too didn't want to deal with the circumcision question so yay girls!

Hit send too soon.

I have pregnancy paranoia. I keep having phantom kicks and in the past 24 hours, I feel like I've peed 36885 times. I'm on the mini pill but I'm still paranoid. I'm still EBFing Everleigh so I feel like my body is still a mystery and that I would have no idea if I WAS pregnant again and I'm sure that I'm overreacting but is it wrong to say I would be devastated? I want Everleigh to have my undivided attention until she's 2 or 3 AND I need to have kids at least two years apart in order to try for a VBAC.

I know, I'm getting ahead of myself. Someone talk me down.

Allison, buy a bunch of cheapie tests just for ease of mind!

I started getting my stupid period again 7 weeks after giving birth (not EBF + she WAS sleeping through the night), so no worries here

Ugh, on the topic of going back to school:

I took an incomplete in a class before I left. I touched base with the professor about finishing the final paper, but I think she thought I already finished the paper and just need to submit it. I did not.

So now I'm trying to write an 8 page paper on plays I read two years ago in like two days. The BF is working 58 hours this week (and has almost an hour commute). He's also getting sick I think I know my friends would watch her, but they're kind of baby clueless and would be asking me if they're doing it right every six seconds. SO's parents would watch her too, but they all work and don't exactly live around the corner.

My mom is going to watch her again tonight. I can't imagine NOT having help...even with a dozen people offering it, I still can't get anything done.

I totally have pregnancy paranoia and also get phantom kicks. I'm going to order a bunch of cheapo tests just for peace of mind. These are the ones I got when we were trying, I don't know if they're available in Canadaland.

I feel weirdly selfish/crazy because I REALLY miss my tiny squishy baby and I want to have another. But I also want to savor every single first and not have another one until Falon is 2 or 3. Plus the cost of daycare/college funds for two kids is out of our reach right now so we need to wait awhile. And I hated being pregnant with a fiery passion that really hasn't diminished.

^^You are not alone in needing to be talked down. LOL. I'm probably not helpful at all.

In other news, I found this jacket this morning (SO MUCH RAIN TODAY) and ohmygod it has a pixie hood. So stinking cute.

Untitled by taqroy, on Flickr

And I really love this picture of us from BV.

FalonBV-1258 by taqroy, on Flickr

I buy preg tests periodically when I'm getting weird symptoms (like the last week with random annoying cramps, tender breasts, etc.) and it always freaks DH out, but the negatives really help settle my mind. I know the IUD is as close to 100% effectiveness as you can get without surgery, but I still get paranoid.

I do like all this talk about you guys waiting until the babies are 2 to have another because then it'll be right around when we plan to have our first and that will be awesome!

One thing to keep in mind when planning a second....if you wait til baby is two...likely they will be three (or close to it) with a newborn and for most, 3 is the most challenging age. Many people choose that spacing and are fine with it but oh boy, SOOO glad I went sooner lol

How late do you think is too late to start having kids? I've been thinking about this lots since a lot of my friends are older like early 30's and have not started having babies, although they are planning on having kids eventually?

And we plan on starting to try for kids late 20's early early, early 30's.