32 weeks, 0 days: Has Time Sped Up Lately?

I mean, my goodness! Every time I look at the calendar, another week has sped by! Why couldn't it do that when I was dealing with the serious nausea? Ah, well... Time flies when you're having fun... and it certainly doesn't fly when you're not!

This week I reached an exciting point in my unpacking - the point where I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. The end is not here, but it's close! I MIGHT be able to finish pre-baby! That is immensely exciting. I still have a to-do list the size of Mt. Rushmore, but it is looking more doable. I've got two weeks before I need to start kicking into high gear with birth prep (ordering supplies, setting up the cradle, etc.), so if I can finish the house by then, I should be set. I want to get as much as possible done, because I know that my life is pretty much going to stop for a while when baby arrives! (Like for two years or so.) I felt like my existence terminated when our first arrived, and I know it is going to be beyond crazy with a newborn and a preschooler at once. How do you moms out there DO it? I definitely don't feel up to the challenge.

(TMI warning....)

I'm still grappling with the birth control issue. There's no easy answer, is there? Physical methods are a pain in the neck, chemical methods are no longer acceptable to us for a myriad of reasons, permanent sterilization has health ramifications for both sexes, and natural family planning requires a lot more self-control than we apparently have. So that leaves us.... where? I have no idea. I don't really want any more kidlets (at the moment - though that is purely an HG issue rather than a numbers issue), but I don't really want to permanently end my reproductive capacity either. So for the moment, I'm stuck.

One question that runs through my mind often is what I would choose to do if (God forbid!!) complications during labor necessitated transport to a hospital and ended up requiring a cesarean - which would be a perfect time for a tubal ligation (it would save a lot of trouble later!). Would I do it? Or would I wimp out? Only time would tell.... But hopefully the situation won't arise anyway!

But if I have any sense at all (something which I often doubt), this does need to be our last child. I can tell that the hyperemesis would have been much worse this time if it had not been suppressed with medication, due to the fact that the nausea hit much earlier this time (over a week before I could get a positive pregnancy test) and much harder (I was seriously nauseated by four weeks, whereas last time it didn't hit till sometime mid-five weeks). The trend with most HG mums (that I've seen) seems to be that HG tends to get worse with each pregnancy - not better. And it is almost unheard of for an HG mum to have a subsequent non-HG pregnancy (HG recurrence is well over 80%). So unless I want to risk going through the hell that some of my dear HG friends have endured, I should probably play it safe.

Well, I have run out of time! So I will have to post more later. We see our wonderful midwife team next week, something to which I am greatly looking forward, and we're off for a weekend spent up north with DH's parents. Should be fun! Next week is going to be crazy (doctors' appointments, midwife appointment, playdates, homeschool conference, houseguests, etc.), but I'll do my best to check in.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend!
Diana