and so it goes

I see that you are still checking in regularly, so perhaps I should, too.

Bob has just over 1 week left of his current classes, and so far he has an 'A' in both.

Naysha, Riah, and Ced have begun the 3rd grade math book. William and Ella are both still doing pre-school stuff. I had tried to start Ella on math, but her logic button just hasn't been switched on yet. Even with her letters, she will do excellently for a little while, and then suddenly forget everything she's "learned" over the last 6 months. So to avoid frustration, I keep letting her color and cut and glue. William was having very poor hand control, so I bought a set of stencils. He traced various letters, numbers, and symbols for a couple of weeks, and now he is doing much better.

I finally made a prenatal appointment. I'm a terrible procrastinator; I'm 18 weeks already! I've been dithering because there are at least 4 places (besides home) to give birth in this area. I want to be where I will be left alone, but have backup if needed. So ideally I would have called or visited all the hospitals/birth centers and got some sort of clue, then cross-referenced with doctors who are on my insurance plan, and set up an appointment with my PCM (primary care manager - insurance speak for my regular doctor) to get a referral to the OB/GYN of my choice. Well, that didn't happen.

Saturday there was an insert in the newspaper about women's health, with a full page article about a group of doctors at Mercy (a Catholic hospital) who are general practitioners that also do OB care, so that they can take care of your everyday concerns, your pregnancy and birth, and be the child's doctor after he's born, too. That sounded pretty interesting to me, but then I saw something that really caught my eye. The article said that women who want a low-intervention labor, with a holistic approach to health and delivery, have that option. So I got all excited and decided to call them on Monday. Sunday afternoon I started thinking (about time, right?) and looked up my information with the insurance. One of the doctors in the group that I'd been reading about IS my PCM. I'd picked her more or less at random back in December when we realized the doctor in Huntsville wasn't going to work for us.

That's a good thing, too, because when I called to make the appointment on Monday (yes, I actually did), the appointment clerk suggested I call the insurance first to make sure that doctor was taking new patients. When I told her I was already assigned to this doctor she set up the appointment, but said that the doctor was "full." So I wouldn't have been able to get in if I hadn't already set it up with the insurance. Phew. I'll go in Friday, which will be about 19 weeks, so I hope that will count as my 20 week appointment and we'll go ahead and get the sonogram and stuff. Time will tell.