Taking the first steps

So far in trying to prepare my self for the ultimate physical challenge of growing another human inside me I have started exercising on the treadmill, taking prenatal vitamins, charting, and I've read "The Mother of All Pregnancy Books". I've also been doing online reading at various blogs and other health resources like iparenting and webmd.

The one thing that many of these reqources have told be was to book a 'preconception' appointment with my physician. Everyone who reccommended this appointment had also been sure to mention that until recently, any Dr. would have looked at you like you had 6 heads if you had requested this type of visit, but that now it was the norm. I was a little skeptical to call and request a 'preconception' appointment, so I wasglad that I was over due for my annual physical. I figured that during that visit I could mention that we are planning a family and if he had any concerns they would be brought up then.

So that is exactly what I did, on Wednesday I went to the Dr's for my annual physical and PAP (tmi?). Anyways, we went over mine and family's medical histories and current midications and finally he asked if there was anything new that was concerning me.

"Well, in the new year, my husband and I would like to start trying to have a baby."

"What do you want from me? To tell you how it's done?"

So aparently it's not so common for people to go to their Dr. with only plans to become pregnant! The only advice he had for me was to start taking prenatals, which I have already started. I did convince him to run a check on my vaccinations just in case, so I guess something was accomplished during the visit.

When I grow up

While planning my wedding I signed up for a multitude of different wedding planning websites, most of which were very helpful. I really liked one in particular because it was a Canadian site and it had a forum. Even though I didn't post much on the forum, see other people ask questions and the responses they were getting was really useful. The one problem I had with this site is that most of the active topics were about life after marriage, but now, I am following this forum even more than ever. When I am bored at work I find my self refreshing that page over and over and reading all of the wonderful experiences that other wives/mothers are going through. Most of the time, the topics hover around babies/toddlers/pregnancy, but every once in a while someone asks a question that really makes me stop and think. Today that question was "Do you really love what you do?"

D has been asking me quite a lot lately if I enjoy my work, because he feels guilty that his changing career paths has forced me to stay at this job for the health benefits and stability. I always answer him "I don't hate it, it will get me through until we have our family started". But today I find my self asking if that is enough.

Right now I have a job. Just a job. It is not a career. I am not challenged by it at all. There have been too many days where I only do about one hours worth of work and have to make up what I've done for the other 7 hours. For about one week out of the month I am busy for all 8 hrs, and I think there have only been a handful of days where my list of things to do has had to carry over to the next day. I enjoy working for this company, the people here are wonderful - a HUGE change from my last 2 jobs where my immediate supervisors had severe anger management issues. So in that sense, yes, I do enjoy my job.

But that question got me thinking... what DO I want to be when I grow up?

The long and short answer is... I have no freaking clue!