23 Weeks

Things are continuing smoothly, tomorrow I'm officially 23 weeks and Friday morning I have my next doctor appointment. I'm looking forward to hearing the heartbeat again . . . but this appointment is also when my doc wants my decision about where I'll deliver . . .

For those of you not yet familiar with our peculiar situation, The Petersburg Medical Center decided about 2 years ago that they are no longer delivering babies. (What?!?) Yes, seriously. So, every woman here in our wonderful town of 3,000 people has to pack up all her things and waddle herself out of town at 38 weeks. Now there are a few cases of women who have just stayed in town and those who have gone in to labor early, but generally speaking, this is the way it's been working here for the past two years. The majority of women (and their families) choose to go to Juneau or Ketchikan and take advantage of the nice birthing facilities and hospitals available there. And they stay in crappy hotels, sometimes upwards of 4 weeks, gigantic, uncomfortable and often dealing with the lovely scent of fish processing. So, my other option is to travel all the way to Arizona, (at 36 weeks besides, and travel 2,500 miles back to Peterburg with a newborn) and find a doctor/midwife there and stay comfortably with my parents until this little girl arrives.

Neither of these options are entirely appealing and it's a choice we've been struggling with for 5 months. Now I have to make up my mind and I thought I'd have clear choice by now.

On a more exciting note, we got a stroller! Better said that my amazing, wonderful, fantastic mom found a stroller in Tucson! It's a style that I wanted and offered at a great deal so we didn't want to pass it up. I'm very excited to have that one thing taken care of . . . it's amazing that one teeny tiny little body needs so many things!

Nick finally got to feel our little girl move this past weekend. It was fun and exciting for both of us. I think she's more of a squirmer than a kicker at this point so all of her movements aren't being felt on the outside.

And just to share, this pretty girl was in my driveway this morning on my way to work :)

She's my friend as long as she stays away from my garden. She can eat all the dandelions she wants but the rest is off limits!