Not the News You Expected, but Awesome

Everyone is anxiously awaiting to hear when I have the baby, that they are healthy, how big they are, whether they are a boy or a girl.... well I still have not had the baby. I hope to go into labor any day and satiate this anxious waiting and excitement for you all, but it has not happened yet and as I am new to this, I could not even guess if I am getting close or not. My doctor does want to induce pretty quickly with the due date past, but the date is not set and we would prefer to avoid pitocin.

That said, I do have huge, life changing, giant, exciting, nerve wracking news that has nothing (or very little) to do with baby. DH and I have accepted a job offer for him in Duluth!! He starts on January 30th. Yeah. In case you were curious, we are insane. Who decides to move to Northern Minnesota in January with a four week old kid in one of the worst housing markets ever? On top of that, it is a pay cut for DH and I will be temporarily unemployed once my maternity leave ends. But it was sort of a "take the plunge" or don't moment. We have talked about moving to Duluth for a long time, and we knew it would be difficult, that DH would have a paycut. It is sort of like if we did not take this particular job it meant we were deciding that Duluth was not an option based on the general Duluth economy. We considered carefully together as a couple and ultimately decided that we want to give it a shot. We know it will be really tough financially, and the timing is poor, but it will put us in a location where we are surrounded by family and friends, where we have at least 7 adults who will drop anything to come to our aid if we need it (my parents, siblings and siblings spouses). We just imagine being able to go to my parents for dinner on a random weeknight, having people to call when our car breaks down or we run late and need the kid picked up from daycare, or having people to swing by with groceries when we get sick... etc etc etc. The decision was money versus everything else, and everything else won. If we are young and naive and it is the wrong decision, well, I guess you live and learn, but its a mistake we are willing to risk.

So of course there are a million new stressors. We need to replace at least one of our cars - the 300c is rear wheel drive and it won't work for the Minnesota winter we are jumping into. We have to sell our house, which of course has lost value since we bought it and is a mess. We have to figure out where we are moving to, where our stuff is moving to, where our pets are moving to, and how it all is getting there. I need to start looking for a job that will let me start in mid February to March. If I do find a job, we will need to find childcare. All of this on top of the fact that any day, any minute, I could go into labor and start the biggest adjustment of our lives as we welcome our first child. Exciting times, stressful times. Wish us luck :-)