I have just came home from a 36 hour hospital stay with my one year old son. He is doing much better now but due to breathing issues, he had to be admitted yesterday morning for treatment and observation. As the evening nurse was going through our discharge orders, I had a memory from being discharged from that same hospital myself after multiple D&C procedures.

Back then, going over the orders through the haze of barely wearing off drugs and painful emotions I initialed every little line and signed and dated the forms at the bottom. On my copy that I was allowed to bring home, I diligently wrote down dosages, times taken, pain level and flow heaviness. There weren't any ... more

I received an offer for an ebook online last week that I felt was very interesting. It is titled 1000 Questions For Couples by Michael Webb.

I haven't yet ordered the book but I thought that it would be a wonderful thing to bring along on date night. Since it is an ebook, I'd have to print out some things to bring along, but what a concept! 1000 questions to get to know your mate better.

I haven't ever heard of the offer, but according to the advertisement he has been featured on Oprah. I haven't double checked this, but I will. I don't want to be purchasing a book written by someone featured as a criminal on her show, but I'd buy something endorsed by her ... more

Listed in the February 2007 issue of Child magazine, they listed five different marriage programs for their readers to explore. Setting up the article was this scenario:

Child's Ultimate Guide to Marriage Programs. The arrival of a baby can cause a rift between spouses. Here, some workshops to help get your relationship back on track.

Yes, the arrival of our first baby did put a lot of stress on our marriage. We did seek marriage counseling when she was a few months old, and it helped. But, we both feel that the infertility times were probably the most stressful thing that we encountered as a couple. We ultimately should have ... more

I have recently encountered an unexpected benefit from sharing my grief. On a random encounter with a misdelivered newspaper, I discovered that a close friend of mine back in junior high had lost her father to cancer over the holidays. Not being able to mentally deal with another funeral, I sent a card to her via the funeral home along with my contact information.

Well, yesterday I got an email from her thanking me for the card and wanting to catch up with our lives. We are both mothers to two children. We have both recently lost our fathers to a devastating illness. We still have quite a lot in common.

Mostly in the email she had questions about emotions that she ... more

Celebrating the birth of my friend's twins yesterday I found myself in the grocery store in the greeting card aisle looking for the appropiate card. This brought back memories of trying to find an appropriate sympathy card for one of my other friends when she had a late term pregnancy loss a couple of years ago. I had to end up buying a blank card and writing in it myself as all of the other sympathy cards were either way too general or way too specific with nothing in between that could fit with the circumstance. I was frustrated.

I found this link to La Belle Dame that ... more

I wrote a post on Thursday, telling of my plan to watch the highly recommended television show, "In The Womb: Multiples" by National Geographic. And I did watch it. And loved it.

This show was amazing. With their 4D scans, GCI, and facts about multiples this show was riveting. I fell asleep before I watched the whole thing, but it is airing again tonight and I'm planning on watching the whole thing.

The next day, which was yesterday, I talked to three different friends and raved about the show.

The majority of what I was amazed with were the theories that the show shared about conjoined twins. According to the program, there are two theories about ... more

Tonight on the National Geographic channel is a new documentary that explores the facts and mysteries of multiples: twins; triplets; and quadruplets. To find out your specific listing you can check the site with thislink.

I have a coworker who has 9 month old fraternal twin boys. I have a dear friend who is very pregnant with twins and is being induced tomorrow. I also have a brother and sister that are twins and are 18. At different times today they both were telling me about this documentary that they had seen on the 14, which was last Sunday. I was bummed that I had missed it.

Upon ... more

If you are dealing with infertility and want to torture yourself along the lines of "A Baby Story", or if you are dealing with infertility but are currently in an optomistic mood, check out www.youtube.com

Into the search space, type in ultrasound. And then sit back to watch the results pour in. I just ran this and came up with over 1000 entries. And I just spent about 10 minutes scanning through them.

First of all, the 3D ultrasounds are absolutely stunning. I so wanted one of these when I was pregnant with Miss Ivy but they were still pretty rare 4 years ago. But even the traditional ultrasounds are amazing. Those little ... more

I wrote an entry yesterday that posted today about the possible transplant of a uterus in a NY hospital. To read the full article, click here. To read my post click here.

Since reading the article, my thoughts have really been focused on the issue of organ transplants. I am an organ donor and have been since I have been 18. I love seeing that little heart on my license, knowing that I can possibly be of service to someone after I die. The only conditions that I have told my family about is that I don't ... more

Imagine my surprize this afternoon to see a possible fertility milestone reported on the front page of my local paper. I was waiting for my sushi to go order and was passing the time reading their donated newspaper. The headline "Uterus transplant may enable pregnancy" grabbed my eyes. To read the full article on Yahoo click here.

The transplanting of a uterus has been tried before in a woman only once. The transplanted uterus had to be removed three months later due to a blood clot. Uterus transplants have also bee attempted in rodents, rabbits, pigs and recently a failed attempt in a monkey. ... more

Holding Hands

I subscribe to a newsletter that gives little "bites" of health articles. All of the infertility and fertility bites, I send along to this blog and comment on my experience with them. This article has more to do with one of the benefits of being in a couple. I figured since the majority of us are in a relationship at the time that we are building our families, that this might be helpful. And the information here could also be used during treatments for infertility.

In an American study at the University of Virginia researchers found that women ... more

I don't know how wide spread this activity is, but it is a big deal here in the small town where I live. It is called "The Beautiful Babies of 2006". It has been running every year for at least 15 years. It is a paid for insert that runs on a Sunday in January.

The insert is in color, but you can also buy a black and white space for less money. You can choose to also pay extra to have your baby put on the cover. If you want this, you have to act fast as these spots go first. You can also buy extra space to name in proud relatives.

I have every issue that my nephews, niece and kids are in. Before I experienced infertility I really looked forward to this issue. ... more

Procreation Vacations

Need to get away from it all? Especially the troubles of trying to conceive? Why not try a procreation vacation?

One of the newest trends in traveling and vacationing is to offer a fertility related get away. For couples who are trying to get pregnant, these packages that are put together by different agencies and resorts are offering all that can be offered in the vein of natural conception.

The destinations range from the Bahamas, Wyoming, Maryland and Arizona but I'm sure that even from that small of a list, ... more

Yesterday I met with a group of girlfriends for a seminar in the early afternoon. The "seminar" was brought up by one of my friends who had just had a legal victory and she wanted to celebrate with her girlfriends, without the husbands and the kids. The rest of us were all there, ready to help. It took a bit of scheduling and a lot of emails back and forth but 5 of us met at a new pub that we had all been wanting to try.

Conversation around the table was diverse. I had iced tea and 7 up and we all shared a large order of fries. As I thought about each of us who were there 3 of us had been touched by infertility in various stages in the past 4 years. 1 of us is child free ... more

I was never a fan of "Married With Children" although Chris said that he was. I suppose that kind of humor isn't something that I'm that in tune to, but I've always loved Katey Sagal. Only knowing her through MWC, I wasn't too involved with her career, but beginning with her very public miscarriage history, I became a fan of her.

According to www.usatoday.com Katey and her husband, Kurt Sutter had a baby girl that they named Esme on Wednesday January 10th, 2007. The couple used a surrogate for this baby who joins Katey's two older children from a previous marriage.

Although this article reveals in the headline that the couple used ... more

I was looking through the archives at www.usatoday.com and found the following link.

by Janet McConnaughey

The story is one that I never would have thought about unless I read this article. For some reason, I hadn't thought about how frozen embryos would be handled in an emergency situation.

The couple in the article had used a fertility clinic to help create their embryos that they used for their first child. They then stored their remaining embryos in the hospitals nitrogen tanks to use for future use. When Katrina hit New Orleans, the ... more

I was thinking about New Year's Resolutions today. I don't think that I normally make a resolution, but if you can define a resolution as a goal, then I guess that I do. I make general goals that I would like to see happen in my year and then work towards them throughout the months.

In this frame I have reduced my debt from huge amounts as a 20 year old, to almost no debt in my 30s. I have worked toward working less hours. Reading more. Learning something new for my business, my family or myself. And these were all doable. But what about fertility? Can fertility be a goal for the infertile? Can you resolve to become fertile in 2007?

I am thinking of all of the ... more

One of my friends was in to the spa today and we got to talking about listening. Listening as an active, focused, directed activity. Not just waiting for the pause where you can jump in and say what you want to. But really listening to what the other person has to say.

As we talked all over the subject, I started thinking about careers in listening. Life coaches, massage therapists, nail artists, counselors, doctors, clergy are just a few that I can name off of the top of my head. Some of the things that I hear in my treatment room make me cry, make me laugh and make me grateful. I get to treat the full spectrum of life as a person experiences it. Prom, graduation, ... more

If you are currently blogging, journaling or at all in the process of sharing your story of infertility and pregnancy loss, here might be another outlet for you.

Known as the International Infertility Film Festival, an idea created by Bea over on blogspot. The concept is for anyone who would like to share about infertility and pregnancy loss, connect through short films created for the project.

Through her FAQs she really is encouraging and ... more

Through stirrup-queens and sperm palace jesters I found the following link for
"I Probably Shouldn't Be Writing This" from Thalia's blog.

This post is in the Creme de la Creme of The Best from the Infertility and Pregnancy Loss blogs 2006. Thalia writes about the "what ifs" from all of her fertility treatments and unprotected sex. What if each one would have taken hold? She talks about how old each child would be and what they would be doing at this time. It is eye opening to say the ... more

While I was dealing with infertility, I felt frustrated at how elusive pregnancy was for me. I was angry thinking back to health class and the terror that was instilled in us about unplanned pregnancies. I wish that infertility statistics would also have been included, to round out everything else we had learned. But then again, I wonder if this is a recent trend with prolonging parenthood into later life with my generation? In my state, largely in part to education, our teen pregnancy rates are down. Would this also mean that our infertility rates are up? Hmmm.

Googling "infertility prevention" I found the following link. ... more

I have been cleaning out my files on the computer, getting it somewhat ready to take in for yearly maintenance. It should have been done a couple of times before this, as my laptop is about 3 years old, but, better late than never! In purging some files, I came across some saved articles and links that I had planned to post on while on this site, but didn't get around to. Now that my move is planned and in the process, I thought that I'd better share them while I have the chance.

amfAR
This group's mission from their website is as follows:

amfAR's mission is to prevent HIV infection and ... more

I'm following in the blogging footsteps on Jan Baker in her wish to you all for a Happy New Year, one day late. To read her post, click here.

In my last post, I let you all know about the move of the fertility blog over to it's own site, which can be reached through www.fertilityblogs.com The move has been a tad slower than any of us could have expected, so I'm still here! I will probably be over there starting on Wednesday or Thursday, so keep checking back if you can. Since I won't be able to let you know that I've actually moved, you'll have to come and ... more