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Showing posts from July, 2014

The Hidden Blessing of Suffering

I haven't been all that fond of Christianity Today lately, but I do still check out their emails and read articles that spark my interest. Obviously, an article entitled " T he Hidden Blessing of Infertility " was one of them. I read it excitedly, expecting to find a kindred spirit in the author, because I, too, have found so many hidden blessings in the midst of infertility. Unfortunately, the article left me with a sick feeling in my gut. There were parts that I resonated with, but there were more parts that felt judgmental and lacking in empathy. The thing I love about infertile women is that empathy has become their strong suit. We are a bunch of strong, compassionate women. But this author seems to be keeping her empathy at bay, which came through at the beginning of the article. That term,  infertile , may be medically and technically appropriate, but it's not a word I would use to describe my life. A friend recently asked my advice for someone struggling with ...

10 weeks! And other thoughts

I am 10 weeks, 2 days today. My baby is the size of a prune. My belly is much larger than that. I'm still living in the week. I've had people ask me where I will be delivering (a normal question), and I can not wrap my mind around that. That feels like an eternity away, after so many hurdles, and I can only wrap my mind around this moment. 10 weeks pregnant, more pregnant than I've ever been. I'm here in this week, slowly climbing toward the next one. I've had doubts about us making our announcement at 9 weeks. I know that the smart folks wait until 12 weeks or later. In some ways, I am jealous of those people who just get pregnant and are able to hide it for that long. We can't really do that, since we have chosen to be very vulnerable and honest about our fertility struggle. A lot of people ask, because a lot of people care, and I have refused from the beginning to lie about it. The best we could do was wait until our second beta to tell our familes. Last preg...

Our big announcement!

WE ARE PREGNANT! It has been a quiet 9 weeks on the blog. Turns out I'm not so inspired during the first trimester, while dealing with 24/7 nausea and exhaustion, in addition to the constant fears that something may go wrong. But things aren't going wrong! From the very beginning, things have gone so right. We did an IUI on May 27 (so I pretty much got knocked up on our anniversary). And we got a positive pregnancy test on June 11. [caption id="attachment_1665" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Pregnant![/caption] I went in the next day for a beta hcg test, and then repeated the test two days later. For a healthy pregnancy, the hcg levels should double every 48 hours. With the first pregnancy, my hcg levels did not perfectly double, but with this pregnancy they more than tripled! [caption id="attachment_1666" align="aligncenter" width="214"] Our baby is off the charts awesome.[/caption] Then we had an ultrasound at 6 ...