Common Questions

When I started telling people we were having a baby there were certain questions I expected to be asked.  What has amazed me is how consistent people are with their questions!  I get these three each time.  So in case you DIDN'T ask me these, here's a little mini interview with myself:

"Have you been sick/how are you feeling?"
Very surprisingly well.  At the beginning, I had some food aversions (the Christmas ham had.to.go.) and smells that made me a bit queasy (like our plug-in air fresheners), but I actually have not been sick. The closest I've been is having a very sensitive gag reflex, which means I have to be careful when brushing my teeth.

I've been tired, but no more than usual after teaching and being active all day.  I fall asleep on the couch every night by 8:30, but I've been doing that for about the past 8 years, so nothing new there!

"When are you due/how far along are you?"
I am due August 20th (yes, I know it's going to be an uncomfortable summer).  I went to the doctor last Thursday, and he told me I was 13 weeks.

"Are you going to find out if it's a boy or girl?"
You betcha!  Each family is allowed to make their own decisions about this, but seriously, I couldn't stand not to know.  Besides, I want to get lots of cute pink polka-dot clothes or blue dinosaur clothes at my shower, not all yellow and green unisex clothes.



Other questions:

"Are you going back to work?"
Yes.  August 20th is the beginning of the school year, so I'll have a substitute and then return some time in the fall.  I know it's going to be really tough not being a stay-at-home mom, but I absolutely love teaching and feel that it is my calling in life, so I want to continue to pour into 180 teenagers a year (while still being an awesome mom).

"Have you had any cravings yet?"
This is hard to tell, because I've always been a bit eater and my family has always eaten weird stuff.  Sure, I came home the other day and had some baked beans as an after-school snack... but I did that years ago, long before Baby Itself.  Sure, I had some rice-a-roni the other day before I left for school, but it just looked so yummy!  Cravings or just an excuse to snack all the time?  I can't tell.

"What are you doing about day care?"
That's a big unknown right now, except that we'll be doing daycare.  SAS provides on-site daycare, but it's really tough to get into.  If we don't get in, they will give us a stipend to help with the expense of going with another daycare (shout-out to SAS for being awesome!), so we'll need to start looking in the next few months.  We really want one with an early drop-off, since Jason and I currently go to work around 6am.

"Any names yet?"
We've thrown around a few names, but haven't really found ones we love.  We're having better luck with girl names than boys.  We have a few "rules" (more than one syllable, limit the number of S's in the name, plan on calling the baby by its first name), but no winners yet.  We probably won't share names we're considering beforehand.  When we finally have "the" name, we'll consider sharing.  We just have to be careful, because we have a lot of pregnant friends and family right now that may be name-stealers!


That's it for now.  Feel free to ask me other questions, but I just thought I'd answer these since these are the most common ones I get hit with.