Family

What better topic to follow up nausea, right? Family is a complicated issue. If you're lucky then there is mutual love, respect and support. If you're really lucky then you have all of that in forms that you like. Mine is a mixed bag. My parents LOVE me, my brother and my family. The kind of all-encompassing, sometimes suffocating love. Six months after my son was born my parents moved more than a thousand miles into a house FIVE HOUSES DOWN from us. Yes, technically I found the rental for them. I figured if they're going to be close, I want them within walking distance so I don't have to hear about my dad needing to leave to take care of his dog after an hour (he can walk home and come back) or having to get my antsy toddler into his car seat every time they want to see him. In an emergency it takes them three minutes to get to me (including getting dressed in the middle of the night).

However, they are suffocating, and they cannot see outside of their own experiences. College? Didn't understand. Wanting to live away from home? Didn't understand. Not wanting the whole world to know every aspect of my business? Don't understand. Add this with the fact that I am the only one reproducing amongst my mother's family and friends and there is a lot of pressure and excessive "advice." I couldn't tell you how many "aunties" my son has even if I tried to count them all. Which lead to me not revealing my first pregnancy until my parents visited at nineteen weeks. Obviously, I can't hide it that long this time. Heck, I'm about ready to move into my roomier maternity clothes already! I'd rather wait until after the first trimester so I'm less worried about a miscarriage again (nope, didn't tell them about that, either). But, there's that growing belly. My dad's birthday is next week, so I have a feeling we'll spill the beans then. A good birthday present, I think, since all I hear about is when we're going to start on number two. Then all I can do is hope and pray that they mainly leave us and our choices alone. (Because I can already hear my mother: "You can't have a home birth, what if something happens!!??")