Two Idealists' Stories: January 2008

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Decisions

Thanks to all for their congratulations and input in response to my last post! We have decided, as of now, to not find out ahead of time what the gender is. Dan thinks Little One is boy, and I think L.O. is a girl. Our housemate Adrienne thinks boy, and we're waiting till her husband Derek arrives home from Guatemala to poll him. :)

I have also decided to take maternity leave for all of next year, and then make a more permanent decision from there. I'm hoping to pick up some part-time teaching or tutoring, but we'll see how things go. I recently read a persuasive essay from a junior female student who argued that women should not have to stay at home once they have children (and that this is an an arguable issue may reflect the current demographic where we live), and while I agree that they shouldn't HAVE to, I certainly feel like I want to, at least to try it out. I just can't imagine teaching high school English full-time and being a mom, considering most of my evenings are full of planning and grading. Any thoughts on this?

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Heartbeat

Today Dan and I had the most excitement I've had in a long time: we heard the heartbeat of the one we're calling Little One. August 3rd is approximately when we will have the next human member of our family (sorry, Chaco - you won't be the baby anymore)! We are SO excited, especially now the fact that there is a little human growing inside me makes the whole experience much more real.

For now we're calling him or her Little One for a gender neutral yet endearing term. Sofia Claire is my #1 name for a girl right now (even though we recently found out that Sophia was the #1 girl's name for 2007), and we're not so sure about boy's names - we like Samuel and Harper. I've always thought I would find out the gender of the baby ahead of time, but Dan isn't so sure, and after both our midwife and my mom suggested thinking about NOT knowing ahead of time, I'm starting to re-consider. What do you think - know ahead of time or not?

Also, for those of you are interested, Dan was with me during my physical and therefore was able to see my cervix - so far I really like having a midwife who cares about educating both of the parents-to-be (and I think Dan does too). :)