Baptism? Christening? Help!

I find myself in a position that I didn't ever really think about - that of "hey I'm going to have a kid and I know people do these things but I don't know why or how or who". We aren't involved in a church, mostly because we're too lazy to get up and go and partly because we have a harder time finding one that fits both of us - Baptist being the closest.  DH says that the hospital has clergy of every denomination on staff and that they can do both of those things as soon as the baby is born. But...

Is that the right time? Do we wait a few week/months for the christening? Years for the baptism? I know I've seen christenings done in the churches I've been to, and the baby is still very small and new, so that would seem to imply weeks. Like...at least 6, since I refuse to take my child out into a place with a lot of germs (a store, theater, church) until that point. But what do I do then? And why am I doing it - aside from "because that's what you do"?

And baptizing them into a certain religion - I'm not sure what I think about that. Shouldn't the child be able to choose what religion to be? Does baptizing them at an early age negate that option, or is it more so that if said child dies before being able to MAKE that decision for themselves, they're "covered"? Does anyone ever resent being baptized at birth? I mean, what if my child decides (god forbid and no offense meant to anyone) to be an atheist or agnostic - wouldn't baptizing them upset them later, since they didn't exactly give consent? I know, I know, I'm the parent...but I don't know how to be one of those and I can't ask my mom what she did when I was born, seeings how she's not a ghost and doesn't answer me. I could ask my dad, but chances are he won't remember - and probably won't admit to that either.

Help! Someone explain all this to me, pretty please!

Gender results are in!

We are having....

No, we don't know what we are naming him yet. We had a name picked out, but it's become very popular I believe and the one thing we agreed on was that we didn't want our child to have a popular name like we did. So...it's quite possibly back to the drawing board. We have (hopefully) 20 more weeks or so to figure it out.

Remiss

I know. I have been terribly remiss in posting updates about this pregnancy. As a matter of fact, it appears I haven't posted in 3 months...and I have never gone that long without posting. I don't suppose "I've spent the majority of the last 3 months asleep" counts. No, I didn't think so. Well, let me update you for those who might still be following.

I am now 19w 5d. You can see my belly shots at Totsites, and we've been fairly good about taking them weekly.Be warned that the ultrasound pictures are up there as well, and the few items I have for the nursery. If you do go visit, pretty please sign the guestbook!

I have been blessed with an easy pregnancy so far. *knocks on wood* It hasn't proceeded the way I expected it would - I anticipated much heaving and nausea, blood pressure and sugar issues, bedrest, etc. You know, all the bad stuff that happens to us. Why? I'm not really sure, except that it took us 6 years to get pregnant and my body hates me...so why shouldn't it be rough? Instead, I was an absolute zombie for the first 10 weeks. I staggered out of bed and off to work, where I proceeded to attempt to stay awake. It was really hard during training, and I apologized repeatedly to my trainers - thankfully they understood and did their best to keep me awake. I couldn't be left alone for 30 seconds or I'd drift off! I would then come home and sleep for about 2 hours until Aaron got home. Up for food, maybe some internet, and then back to sleep for the night. Rinse and repeat until about 10 or 11 weeks. I did have some nausea early on, but discovered that continual snacking keeps that at bay - yay for goldfish and cheerios! I also started showing at about 8 weeks, for those who knew what they were looking for.

Week 12 or so, I was less tired. Less tired enough that we actually got some yard work done that has been in the works for about 2 years. :) Starting at about 16 weeks I started nesting, of a sorts. I decided that we should remove all the caulking and silicone in the bathroom because it was a little moldy and redo it. In the process, part of the wall popped off and we discovered a lot more than a little mold and rotted wood. So...for the past 3 weeks, my bathroom has been torn apart and we are re-doing it. Just the tub area, and no I am not working with much in the way of chemicals. Just the silicone!

My dreams have been really vivid and REALLY weird. Most of the time I can figure out where the different elements of my dreams are coming from - books I've recently read, games I've played, people I've been around. Not so much any more - they're random.  I have a lot of worries and am getting tired of people telling me not to worry. When you've lived in the IF world, you know the things that can go wrong and how fast and it's hard NOT to be concerned.

So far I haven't had to get any new bras. I was out of my regular clothes completely by 9 weeks. Nothing has been done on the nursery (other than putting in my moms dresser) because we can't afford it. Hopefully by the time Smallfry arrives we'll have stuff - my shower is sometime in January, I think. We find out next week what gender Smallfry is, and I am totally stoked. Everyone thinks we're having a girl and I hope so - Aaron will settle for human, and I'll settle for alive.

Ok, I'm starting to input really random thoughts at this point. I think I'll go get ready for work, and I'm going to try harder to update. I'm just having a hard time with it on many levels, so please be patient with me.