When we first got pregnant, I thought I would journal about the entire experience. However, I soon realized that there wasn’t much to write about. Pregnancy is fascinating to the person who is going through it. For the others who have to listen to her drone on and on about it- not so much. I have often felt like a walking science project. I was keenly aware of every uterine twitch. (felt like someone opened bag of Pop Rocks in there.) I’ve been fascinated and sometimes disgusted by the physiological changes to my body. (I’ll be spending a lot of time and money at the Dermatologist post partum.)  While there are plenty of bloggers who could wax romantic about their pregnancies for 9 ½ months- I’m not one of them. I’ve enjoyed most of the journey. The third trimester has been a bit challenging. If I’d blogged every day, it probably would have turned it to a rant at some point. I’m so grateful for the experience, I don’t ever want to complain about it.

Of late, this pregnancy has become more interesting. Apparently, I’m a pregnancy Diva and only know how to do high risk/high maintenance. We were forewarned that a twin pregnancy might get complicated- and it did. Continue reading →

Michael and I kept Gillian’s name secret until her birth. We wanted to meet her before we committed though we were pretty sure of the name for at least a month before she was born. Michael was responsible for choosing her middle name and that decision came a bit later. Continue reading →

Our second ultrasound was scheduled for March 28th but we were too sick and had to reschedule. You have to know that an IVF prego is pretty sick if she’s actually willing to post pone an ultrasound.

In the past 3 weeks, our household has had pink eye, RSV, strep throat, ear infection, random medicine allergy related gnarly rash and just felt like zombies in general. Oh..I didn’t mention the bronchitis- that was the germ that chose me. I wound up in the ER last weekend. After playing the martyr and not consuming so much as a cough drop, I wind up on antibiotics and albuterol. What can you do? I pushed back on the doctor and he did the due diligence to provide me the latest documentation on the drugs and basically told me that it was a case of “risk vs. gain” and that I needed to be able to breathe. Sigh. Continue reading →

Yesterday morning, we had an early ultrasound appointment to check whether our embryos implanted. I realized the night before that I was pretty nervous. That’s the curse of the Internet-I’ve ready too many IVF blogs. So many families have faced the heartache of chemical pregnancies, ectopic pregnancies and miscarriage. Continue reading →

When we decided on IVF, I hadn’t put a lot of thought in to how the day to day process might impact our routine. Some women quit their jobs to focus on getting pregnant. That is not my testimony. I work from home full time and have a somewhat flexible schedule. However, I also have a kindergartner on a set school and bed schedule and it’s ideal that I get my work finished between the hours of 8:00-5:00.

Thus far, I’d rate the entire IVF process as “manageable” but it has definitely introduced some new challenges. Continue reading →

I’m a planner. You might even call me a schemer. I suppose it’s the curse of the analyst- it’s hard to stop strategizing. I’ve been family planning in one way or another for most of my adult life… Continue reading →