hi tenibear, congrats on your PG!

as janie said, the other girls have covered your questions pretty well so i just wanted to add that i went public & it was my first.i didn't bother with shared care & just went to the hospital & this worked well for me. also, i have to say that until i had an appointment with the hospital at around 16 weeks, i felt completely in the dark with regards to what was going on, even with a good GP! i relied on BB & books/the internet for info!! even after my appts, i still made the forum my first point of call because i found my appts were over in 5 minutes (although be prepared for a long wait till you get your 5 minutes )