14 weeks

I just figured out my log in info again so I hope to post more often. Wishful thinking :) In the past I have kept pregnancy and birth journals for some of my children. It's not common knowledge yet, but I am currently pregnant with baby #6! A few of my friends have mentioned how much they liked my pregnancy journals and I really hope I can keep up with this pregnancy! I have also had a few friends become interested in homebirth lately so I hope to document the process I go through so they can understand midwifery and homebirth.
My previous birth and pregnancy were unassisted. I have decided to use a midwife this time and am very comfortable and happy with that decision. I've had some anxiety this time about choosing a midwife and whether I wanted a homebirth. I know it's a very individual process and everyone cares about different things and has different ideas of what kind of birth they want. I really enjoyed Navelgazing Midwife's series on interviewing a homebirth midwife. Even though this is the 5th time I've considered these things I liked reading from the point of view of a homebirth midwife. There were a couple things that made a difference to me this time.
We have so many amazing midwives where I live and each one of them brings something different to a birth. I hope there is a midwife for each woman; someone they can work well with who will be a good mentor during the pregnancy and birth. I had a new option in my community this time. A midwife here has opened a small birth center. I don't feel like it's a good fit for me, but such a cool opportunity for women who aren't comfortable at their homes for whatever reason.
On to pregnancy news - I'm due the end of May. We are super excited to have a new baby. I am happy to have a baby at the end of spring. I have too many fall/winter babies and I don't love that time of year. I have been feeling small movement for a couple weeks now. We first found the heartbeat around 10 weeks or so. It was 169. I didn't start to feel very crappy until about 7 or 8 weeks. And then I got sick! I had a nasty cold/cough that kept me down for a couple weeks. I have a few lingering issues with it still, but overall I am feeling pretty good now! I have been anxiously focused on choosing where to birth and with whom and I feel a lot better about that now after talking with a few midwives over the past couple weeks.