Infertility

  • Most Topular Stories

  • The Undoing of Things

    Stirrup Queens
    Lollipopgoldstein
    16 May 2012 | 9:52 am
    I smacked myself in the head with the side of the car door on Sunday.  After the initial writhing around, holding my temple, cursing everyone around me, the pain lowered to a dull throb that lasted for several days*.  All I wanted was to undo the moment, go back in time, not open the car [...]

  • Why women choose bad boys: Ovulating women perceive sexy cads as good dads

    ScienceDaily: Fertility News
    14 May 2012 | 12:43 pm
    Nice guys do finish last at least when it comes to procreation, according to a new study that answers the question of why women choose bad boys. New research has demonstrated that hormones associated with ovulation influence women's perceptions of men as potential fathers.

  • How Top Employers Say 'We Love Moms'

    Infertility News
    11 May 2012 | 10:17 am
    The word "easy" is rarely used to describe motherhood, especially given the challenges working moms face juggling careers and children.

  • risks of sperm donation : nyt article

    infertility
    15 May 2012 | 9:31 am
    Very interesting article today on the NYT.  It's a case of birth of a child affected with cystic fibrosis from sperm donation.  It appears that the sperm sample was 20 years old and was not appropriately tested.As usual the NYT article is very sensationalistic. I consider this failure of appropriately testing the sperm donor unforgivable but it is important to note that the article does not clarify if the case was due to an error in the lab that tested the blood : in this case this would have nothing to do with sperm donation but with quality control at the genetic lab . …

  • Rising Infertility And Cancer Rates Possibly Linked To Pharmaceuticals And Household Chemicals

    Fertility News From Medical News Today
    16 May 2012 | 12:00 pm
    According to the European Environment Agency (EEA), household products, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and food all contain endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) which may be causing significant increases in diabetes, obesity, cancers and increasing infertility...
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    Stirrup Queens

  • The Undoing of Things

    Lollipopgoldstein
    16 May 2012 | 9:52 am
    I smacked myself in the head with the side of the car door on Sunday.  After the initial writhing around, holding my temple, cursing everyone around me, the pain lowered to a dull throb that lasted for several days*.  All I wanted was to undo the moment, go back in time, not open the car [...]

  • Be Paranoid: People are Talking about You

    Lollipopgoldstein
    15 May 2012 | 10:33 am
    Karen made a very interesting point on my post about the drop in comments.  She writes: Before blogs, we read newspapers, and we did not write a letter to the editor for every item we read, but we talked about interesting stories at work, school, the dinner table or over the back fence. The conversations [...]

  • Your Drop in Comments Explained: The Incredible Shrinking Blog

    Lollipopgoldstein
    14 May 2012 | 6:45 am
    One of my favourite movies growing up was The Incredible Shrinking Woman with Lily Tomlin.  The main character, Pat Kramer, is an ordinary woman who gets sprayed by some perfume that causes her to shrink.  Shrink to the point where she tumbles into the garbage disposal in the sink.  Shrink to the point where she [...]

  • MFA Sunday School (Five: Sestinas; Chopped Edition)

    Lollipopgoldstein
    13 May 2012 | 6:58 am
    Welcome to MFA Sunday School, a once-a-week, free, online writing workshop. MFA Sunday School posts are uploaded on Sunday mornings, though you can read them or participate any time — the comment section is always open for people to post a link to their work or ask a question. You can subscribe to blog posts [...]

  • 392nd Friday Blog Roundup

    Lollipopgoldstein
    11 May 2012 | 6:45 pm
    So. Now I’m really late with this.  But I consider it all Lori’s fault because she’s a distraction.  Watch out if you swing by her blog because she will (1) turn you all healthy and then (2) give you mad coping skills and then (3) teach you something interesting.  And that will use up the [...]
 
 
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    infertility

  • risks of sperm donation : nyt article

    15 May 2012 | 9:31 am
    Very interesting article today on the NYT.  It's a case of birth of a child affected with cystic fibrosis from sperm donation.  It appears that the sperm sample was 20 years old and was not appropriately tested.As usual the NYT article is very sensationalistic. I consider this failure of appropriately testing the sperm donor unforgivable but it is important to note that the article does not clarify if the case was due to an error in the lab that tested the blood : in this case this would have nothing to do with sperm donation but with quality control at the genetic lab . …

  • Reproductive Technologies (ivf , icsi ) and the Risk of Birth Defects

    15 May 2012 | 6:09 am
    A large Australian study has reviewed the birth outcomes  in babies conceived with assisted reproductive technologies.Contrary to the sensationalistic article in the New York Times   the study found no increase in risk for conventional IVF.  Some increased risk was associated with ICSI but the risk was not present when frozen embryos generated with ICSI were used .This finding does not make much sense to me  suggesting that the final conclusion may be confounded by outside factors.The main take home fact is that simply having suffered from infertility will increase a…

  • 9 Jan 2012 | 10:39 am

    9 Jan 2012 | 10:39 am
    Prognosis following in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer (IVF-ET) in patients with elevated day 2 or 3 serum follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) is better in younger vs older patients: ArticleHere is a summary of a paper by Check et. al. puvblished in Clin Exp Obstet Gynecol 2002; 29:42-4.Please note that the article is old (2000) and therefore pregnancy rates are expected to be higher in 2012. Overall the result is meaningful though. also note that the pregnancy rates in the study are per transfer and therefore do not include cancelled transfers. Also live birth  rates are expected to…

  • 29 Dec 2011 | 2:10 pm

    29 Dec 2011 | 2:10 pm
    Ivf Prognosis based on FSH and AMH levels IVF Prognosis FSH normal FSH abnormal (high) AMH normal Good Reduced AMH abnormal (low) Very Reduced Poor This table summarizes oocyte production based on (day 3) FSH and AMH (Anti Mullerian Hormone ) values. It appears , based on the study (referenced below) that AMH is the better predictor.  Please note that this table is relevant up to the age of 42yo. After 42 the disparity between FSH and AMH does not seem to matter and patients with "good" FSH levels do better , regardless of AMH values.Reference: Gleicher N, Weghofer A, Barad DH.

  • 22 Jun 2011 | 2:05 pm

    22 Jun 2011 | 2:05 pm
    What is the best protocol for poor responders in IVF? Long protocol, estrogen priming , microdose lupron , short protocol with antagonist, low dose , mini ivf  or clomid  plus gonadotropins?The answer is none of the above , or more appropriately ,  any of the above! I have attended a myriad or conferences , conventions and debates on this topic and the conclusion has always been the same!Often patients come to see me and tell me that they  have read online that a certain protocol is much better . this statement is unsubstantiated by facts.  In fact when one looks at…
 
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    Creating Motherhood

  • Time to exit the ride

    Dresden
    15 May 2012 | 4:50 pm
    Sorry for keeping you hanging. I got the call a few hours ago and have just been hunkered down trying to keep W from climbing the walls. The beta was 14. The nurse said I could come back tomorrow or come back thursday for a repeat. She also said I should continue with progesterone and [...]

  • Clock Watching

    Dresden
    15 May 2012 | 11:49 am
    There is a scene in one of my favorite movies, The Thing Called Love, where River Phoenix and Samantha Mathis stand on top of a building in Nashville and yell out into the city, “Look out Music City cause here I am and I ain’t never leaving!” It’s one of those great moments where the [...]

  • What’s that you say? More?

    Dresden
    14 May 2012 | 8:02 pm
    Fine. FINE. Here are the three tests from today. No arrows provided. Yadda, yadda…

  • Want a ticket to the madness?

    Dresden
    14 May 2012 | 6:54 am
    Ok so fine. YES I have been testing. Often. And getting sad because things have been alabaster. Stark white. Which meant my hope sails were swiftly sinking and I was bracing myself for the super sized sad. I got a nice test with my W pregnancy at 8dp3dt (eight days passed a three day transfer, [...]

  • VlogMom: What tv show do you want to guest on?

    Dresden
    10 May 2012 | 12:56 pm
    This is the video that I recorded last week and now it is finally time to share it. I imagine my answers will come as NO surprise. Share your answer in the comments
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    Stefanie Wilder Taylor

  • Don’t Get Drunk Fridays: Molly’s Story

    Stefanie Wilder Taylor
    12 May 2012 | 6:28 pm
    I haven’t updated with a new story in awhile. If you have a story that you’d like me to post then please email it to me! These stories get people sober! They save lives! In ten days I will have been sober for 3 years. I can’t believe it’s been three years already can you? I will write about it when I get there and fill you all in on how it’s been lately (good). For now, here’s an amazingly beautiful woman named Molly who is baring her soul to save yours. I don’t really remember my first drink, it was either champagne at a wedding when I was 13, or at…

  • Note To Jessica Simpson – Please Don’t Screw Us

    Stefanie Wilder Taylor
    7 May 2012 | 2:23 pm
    Jessica Simpson who up until recently was being crucified by the media for gaining a bunch of pregnancy pounds was sort of my unlikeliest of heroes. She of the not grasping the concept of why tuna fish would be named “Chicken of the Sea” and other blonde moments. But her weight gain made her more of a relatable personality than any reality show could ever hope to achieve. Millions of women, including myself, who didn’t gain the prescribed 25-35 pounds saw their own muffin eating, cookie gobbling, carb hoovering ways reflected in the light of a Grammy winning singer. We were…

  • Do You Still Feel Sexy?

    Stefanie Wilder Taylor
    23 Apr 2012 | 2:12 pm
    When I was in my teens, it took very little to put my mind in the gutter — a nice butt in Levi 501′s, a sniff of Polo, and I was a mess of hormones. In my twenties it was all about the right music, the right wine, and men who were petrified of commitment. In my thirties I was wrapped up in getting married and making a few babies. And now … the things that get me going are pretty specific … my husband in Calvin Klein boxer briefs, the Phil Phillips performance of Usher on Idol, a hot dad at my kids’ preschool … and I’m pretty typical. If you go to my Babble blog, I queried my…

  • #ParentingFail the POST

    Stefanie Wilder Taylor
    16 Apr 2012 | 2:53 am
    I put everyone’s confessions together and put it in a post at Babble. I think it came out really great but you be the judge. I would love to hear more of your “confessions” because they truly help me feel connected to all of you and less cray-cray; especially coming off the end of what was basically three weeks of spring break with my children. My children are like candy: I crave them, can’t get enough of them, think about them all the time and then just when I least expect it, never thought it could happen, feel incredibly sick and need to not see or hear candy for a…

  • #ParentingFail

    Stefanie Wilder Taylor
    10 Apr 2012 | 9:09 pm
    I believe that I’m an excellent mom. I strive for excellence, put my damn back into excellence. And when I fall short of excellence, I look hard at my weaknesses and attempt to improve. That being said, one mom’s brand of excellence is another mom’s sub par slacker-ass, downright non-excellence. So it’s all relative. Just today Matilda made me a little play-doh figure and when she handed it to me apparently I held it wrong and squashed it a teeny tiny hard to see way. She cried…a lot. When I couldn’t understand why she was crying it escalated sobbing which…
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    Chasing A Child

  • Second Time Around

    Rebeccah
    3 May 2012 | 4:38 pm
    I'm still here. Are you? Aside from that whole "giving birth with no pain meds to a live baby" vs. "adopting a beautiful 3-day old baby on one hour's notice" thing, there are 4 major differences between my daughter's and my son's babyhoods so far. 1. Breastfeeding. I adore this part of the journey. Absolutely adore it. Even during nights like last night where the little bugger Would.Not.Stop.Nibbling.On.Me.And.Let.Me.Sleep. She wasn't hungry after awhile; she just wanted to use me as her own personal human pacifier. Even on nights like that, being able…

  • A peek inside my head

    Rebeccah
    12 Apr 2012 | 2:27 pm
    Yay, it's finally my one day a week when I get to stay home from work with the baby! Wish I had more energy. There's so much to do. Why does it seem like every time I brush my hair it gets dirty? Hmmm. Oh wow, look at all this gunked-on crap on my hairbrush. Wonder what it is? Hairspray, residue of hair products? Gross. No wonder it's making my hair dirty. I could toss it and get a new one but this was an expensive brush. I'll clean it. The baby is whining, but she can wait a few minutes. I need clean hair! Gack, this is taking a long time. I can't believe I haven't…

  • When "Having The Talk" doesn't mean birds & bees

    Rebeccah
    1 Apr 2012 | 4:58 pm
    Behold, children in hoodies: Scary, right? I have to stop reading the Trayvon Martin stories, because they're making me crazy with worry, but I can't help myself. He looks so much like my son. And he's not the only one. Sure, the Boy is now only 3 years old and is hardly someone who could credibly be described as threatening, no matter what he's wearing. But someday he'll be 11 and then 14, and then 17. Someday he'll be in his early 20s. Someday he might be walking down the street to his first job interview and pull out his cell phone to make a call and some lily-white…

  • Little things

    Rebeccah
    15 Mar 2012 | 5:49 pm
    The basics are pretty important right now. Sleep. Shower. Get dressed. Eat. Feed children. Dress children. Change diapers. Help with potty training. Brush teeth. Commute. Work. Pump. Eat. Work. Pump. Work. Commute. Feed children. Play with children. Put children to bed. Brush teeth. Sleep. And somewhere in there, wash dishes, clean bottles and pump parts, do laundry, pack lunch, pay bills, put on and remove makeup, brush hair, converse with the Mister, email friends and family, and generally keep all boats floating. I finally gave up and started co-sleeping with the Girl. Two nights so far…

  • Hi-ho, hi-ho ...

    Rebeccah
    10 Mar 2012 | 6:49 pm
    I went back to work last week. Our little girl was 9 weeks old. It felt like I sprinted out the door Monday morning, ran full-tilt all week, and sprinted in the door Friday night. It was a full week. FULL. The temp attorney actually did a very respectable job keeping the worst of the work under control while I was gone. There are huge stacks on my desk, of course, but it's not the chaotic mess I feared. Just a lot of work requiring me to focus every minute I'm there on the task at hand, so I can dash out the door at 4:30 to start my home shift at 5. I'm working 7.5 hour days…
 
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    Child Bearing Hips

  • Mother's Day weekend

    Cece
    14 May 2012 | 9:00 am
    I had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend. It wasn't too much different than any other weekend in terms of being nice to Momma - things here are always a good balance. Aaron is a great, supportive, husband - and my kids are in general awesome. But as I mentioned - I did get to pick up my bike this weekend! And man did we have fun. Maggie LOVED being on the back - but we knew that after the Nantucket trip last year. It's a huge difference from my fast road bike from the olden days, but I'm getting used to it and loving pedaling around town. I was more nervous about Cam's situation…

  • Friday Night Leftovers

    Cece
    11 May 2012 | 10:14 am
    Wow. This week was a quick one.My bike is in! I'm super excited to pick it up tomorrow. I have visions of riding everywhere around town.I've decided to name her (the bike) Mabel. I even got a matching helmet.Help. I'm becoming a freak about the bike thing.Cam has been having issues making it to the potty in time after nap at school. So I told him for every day he doesn't have an accident, he would get a dinosaur. I got these pretty big (like 6 inches tall) plastic dinos from Micheal's dollar aisle. I got about 8. Every day since I started this, no issues. So now I'm trying to wean him off…

  • Free Range

    Cece
    10 May 2012 | 1:36 pm
    I grew up almost neglected when it came to supervised play. I was essentially an only child (my brother is 12 years old than me). My mom raised me alone, ran her own business and is somewhat OCD about housework. If I wanted to play outside, I would just go outside. We happened to live across the street from the town park - so I was often running across the street to play there. When I was old enough to swim (I'm guessing 8?) my mom would even let me go to the town pool by myself. I would spend the entire morning at the pool, come home for lunch, and then run back until dinner time.I was on…

  • A bunch of leftovers

    Cece
    8 May 2012 | 9:31 am
    First - lots of great comments on my Balance post. Brandy asked how to even get started finding balance, and I think you just get to a point where you realize you NEED to. I had a very rich personal life before kids - an advantage of infertility, of sorts. I had children later in life (33 when Cam was born) so I had been in my career for over ten years, had a circle of friends I cultivated and spent time with, had hobbies, did triathlons, and was able to do a lot of things with Aaron as a wife BEFORE being a mother.... so I know what makes me personally happy. The kids? They are huge, happy…

  • Balance

    Cece
    3 May 2012 | 1:12 pm
    Seems like people are always talking about how to achieve 'balance'. Balancing work and home. Balancing being a mother with being a wife. Balancing caring for your children and maintaining friendships. Balancing the demands of home with the need to look after your health. Does anyone REALLY have this figured out? Something is ALWAYS going to 'win', right?And you are always going to feel guilty for NOT doing the other. It's a bitch of a situation. And honestly, I think these things have gotten worse. Kids are rarely outside without parents. Many parents forgo the bus and pick kids up at…
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    Maybe If You Just Relax

  • Ainsley's Memorial

    Jen
    14 May 2012 | 2:11 pm
    Memorial calling hours will be held for Ainsley this Wednesday, May 16, at Shorts-Spicer-Crislip Funeral Home in Streetsboro.  Visitors are welcome from 5-8 p.m. Location information and directions can be found here, as well as the obituary and the information to make a memorial donation to Akron Children's Hospital. Thank you so so much for all of the comments, thoughts, prayers, and support.

  • Peace for Ainsley

    Jen
    13 May 2012 | 8:28 pm
    I can't believe that I am posting this... Ainsley passed away early Saturday morning.   After almost seventeen months, her poor little body was just so tired from fighting  for so long.  We held her and kissed her and told her how much we loved her over and over until she left us. The last time she was awake was Monday, May 7.  This is a picture of her from that day.  Happy as always despite

  • Tell me how you care for your skin, and win $50!!

    Jen
    8 Apr 2012 | 11:36 pm
    Oh yeah, it's another sponsored post and giveaway. I'm on a roll with these!  They are pretty fun, and I get to try stuff and give my honest opinion and give something away to you guys.  I received a bottle of Olay® Total Effects Tone Correcting UV Moisturizer to try and review. I was pretty skeptical because I have skin like a freak of nature. I get dry and peely really easily, and my cheeks

  • Easter Bunny Made A Mess!

    Jen
    8 Apr 2012 | 10:00 pm
    That's what Olivia said as she saw the path of eggs left by the Easter Bunny.  She may look like her mom but she's getting a cleanliness complex like her dad. I was surprised by how much Olivia understood the difference between her basket and Ainsley's basket.  I was afraid she would want all of the toys to herself but she was actually really excited to give them to Ainsley. Stupid

  • NICU Graduate

    Jen
    7 Apr 2012 | 7:06 am
    Just not the way that we hoped! Much like George and Weezy, we have moved on up to a de-luxe apartment in the sky.  And by that I mean that we moved up two floors in the same hospital.  From NICU to PICU.* Around the end of February, we started thinking about moving to PICU.  Because at 14 months old, Ainsley was obviously not a newborn anymore.   She is a toddler - a toddler who doesn't
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    Baby Dust Diaries

  • Yes Cookies: chocolate chip cookies to feel good about

    Paige
    10 May 2012 | 10:15 am
    I am always looking for easy ways to get my family to eat more healthy foods. My kids eat veggies and fruit but who doesn’t love a cookie? I wanted a Yes Cookie. Something the kids could eat for breakfast or anytime and I’d still feel good about what they ate. This recipe is inspired by a recipe in Jessica Seinfeld’s Deceptively Delicious. She uses chemical sugars and “food-like” stuff like margarine but it gave me a starting point for amounts. Yes Cookies 1 cup organic coconut sugar 3/4 cup organic butter 1 organic egg 2 teaspoons organic vanilla extract 2 cups…

  • Homemade Bug Spray

    Paige
    8 May 2012 | 2:35 pm
    Mix the following in a spray bottle and shake before each application. Natural Bug Spray 1/8 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar 1/8 Cup Witch Hazel 1/8 cup Water 20 drops Eucalyptus Essential Oil 20 drops Tea Tree Essential Oil 20 drops Citronella Essential Oil

  • He’s where the wild things are

    Paige
    8 May 2012 | 1:36 pm

  • Tiny Penis

    Paige
    7 May 2012 | 8:46 am
    Conversation with 3 year old: Aellyn: Mommy I have a tiny penis! Me: You do? Aellyn: yeah, look! (shows me her clitoris) Me: I see. That’s called a clitoris. Aellyn: Yeah!! My clitoris penis! Later; Aellyn: My boobs are going to get big! Me: that’s right they will when you’re older. They’ll get big like mommy’s. Aellyn: yeah! (grabs my boob) they’re big! Me: do you know why girls get big boobies? To feed babies. Aellyn: Yeah, like the boys drink mommy’s boobie milk. Me: yep. That’s what boobies are for. Sigh. Parenting is fun.

  • Six Years of Baby Dust

    Paige
    1 May 2012 | 12:12 pm
    I know it isn’t April anymore but April was my 6th Blogiversary.  I can’t believe I’ve been at this for six years or how much I and my blog have changed in that time.  I started as a heart broken, angry infertile and many of you have followed my journey to the now – 3 kiddos, a SAHM, and a wonderful network of gently parenting blogger friends.  I struggle sometimes with blogging.  I can’t always write everything I want.  I struggle with finding balance and with being a perfectionist.  But, honestly, I can’t imagine my life with out this space of mine…
 
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    Write Mind Open Heart

  • I own that

    Lavender Luz
    16 May 2012 | 8:00 am
    Jane asked us at the start of yoga class to silently  compliment ourselves on something. In the space of seconds I discounted everything that came to mind. On my body? That’s my genes. On my children? That’s someone else’s genes. On my writing? That’s due to my dad, my 7th grade teacher, Melissa, y’all who [...]

  • Outliers

    Lavender Luz
    12 May 2012 | 8:00 am
    An open letter to ministers, yoga teachers, and anyone addressing mothers and fathers in mid-May or mid-June. Dear Person at the front of the room, I know you worked really hard on that homily about Mother’s Day / Father’s Day. It’s a time of joy and appreciation and community for almost everyone in the room. [...]

  • Five ٥ 5 cinco 五 fünf ★ cinq V

    Lavender Luz
    11 May 2012 | 7:00 am
    High five, everyone –it’s my blogoversary! Year-by-year highlights of my blogging and personal lives: In 2007 I joined the blogging world via a Peggy Orenstein book and the Barren Bi+ches Book Club. My brother-in-law was near death from Guillain-Barre Syndrome and my children were 6 and 4. I had just taken up yoga .Back then [...]

  • Time Warp Tuesday: Mothering

    Lavender Luz
    8 May 2012 | 8:00 am
    I’m participating in Time Warp Tuesday, the monthly blog hop offered by Kathy at Bereaved and Blessed. This week’s theme is Mothering, and our assignment is to: Choose a blog entry from your archives that you wrote about mothering. It can be a post where you talked about your own experience as a mother, one [...]

  • All that’s left

    Lavender Luz
    7 May 2012 | 8:00 am
    About the time I started middle school (or, as we used to say, “junior high”) I had exasperated my piano teacher to the point where she decided I had to find a new teacher. I still don’t know how I flummoxed my mom so. I suppose it could have been my legendary stubbornness. (Example: My [...]
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    China Adopt Talk

  • No Rumors

    RumorQueen
    16 May 2012 | 4:55 am
    Right now, I don’t see any rumors, but it’s early. I’m leaving the house before six, and not sure how much time I’ll have online today. If someone else sees a rumor, please share it in the comments, and send the details to me.

  • We’re in the window, and NSN TA’s

    RumorQueen
    15 May 2012 | 5:46 am
    NSN TA’s from the most recent referral batch have begun to arrive. Congrats to those families who are so much closer to finally buying those plane tickets! From the most recent When post, the soonest we’d expect to see referrals this month would be yesterday, the latest would be Monday, May 28, and the most [...]

  • Happy Mother’s Day!

    RumorQueen
    13 May 2012 | 6:41 am
    Happy Mother’s Day to all of the moms and the waiting moms. Sit back, relax, and let your kids and spouse show you how special you are. I know I say this every year, but if you’re still waiting then my advice remains that you should spend the day doing things you won’t be able [...]

  • When to bring it up

    RumorQueen
    9 May 2012 | 8:03 am
    Yesterday we talked about how it’s important for us to bring up adoption topics, so our kids know we’re comfortable with the conversation, and they can feel comfortable bringing it up. I mentioned finding balance — not bringing it up so much it’s like picking a scab just to watch it bleed, but also not [...]

  • Family Trees

    RumorQueen
    8 May 2012 | 7:29 am
    Both of my girls have had multiple family tree projects, I stressed over GG’s first one, in kindergarten, but it was no big deal to her. A few years later, it was. Jennifer Handfor has an entry at Huffington Post that I think stresses the importance of us bringing adoption issues up for our kids, [...]
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    Infertility SUCKS!

  • ...And A Partridge In A Flower Box

    16 May 2012 | 10:28 am
    Last Monday, (the day I started chemically starving my ovaries Lupron) I noticed an odd thing outside my bedroom window.  The day before we put up new shutters (well, we've had them in the basement for four years, but we just got around to painting and installing them) and added our usual flower boxes underneath the windows.  Our bedroom faces the street, so it gets lots of sun and we like to look at something pretty as the summer progresses.  On Monday morning, I saw a bird sitting in the flower box.  Just sitting there.  Staring at me:Awwww, I thought, isn't that…

  • Slumbering Ovaries

    8 May 2012 | 11:18 am
    Well, hello there Lupron.......I know it's been awhile, but you were kind of a shitty house guest to begin with, and I see that this time is NO DIFFERENT.Ugh.  Yep, we "officially" began our DE cycle yesterday, after being told that my ovaries are cold and dead suppressed and I swear that I'm already feeling the side effects (combined with the three months of birth control pills, and....well, you get the drift).  Can't wait to add the Estrace into the mix on Sunday-good times!  Whoo-hoo!I'm glad to be moving forward, finally-we were put on hold because there was a chance that…

  • I Really Wasn't Kidding In That Last Post.....

    9 Mar 2012 | 10:06 pm
    About the Sock Fairy (aka my disgusting husband) leaving dirty socks on the floor, not unlike Hansel and Gretel leaving a bread crumb trail to make it home.....minus the fact that bread doesn't smell like rancid cave-aged cheese that's been fermenting in cotton for hours on end.The proof is below.  This was the only clear shot that I got, unfortunately.  The other ones had the cats cautiously going up to sniff them, then running away crazed as if they bit them on the ass.  Hell, they probably HAD bit them, for all I know-those bad boys can probably get up and walk all on their…

  • 370

    3 Mar 2012 | 10:29 pm
    370.It's just a number, right?  It could be anything-how many dusty pennies are rolling around in your car, the oven temp you need to set to make those yummy and not-really-helping-the-diet chocolate chip cookies you bought in that sugar low you were conveniently having at the supermarket, the amount of time in seconds it took to yell at your husband for leaving his dirty socks YET AGAIN on the floor in the living room.  Just three little numbers.Not for us.It's our donor's number.  Our match.  The person we've been waiting for.  And she's everything that we could…

  • Waiting

    6 Feb 2012 | 3:26 pm
    Waiting is all I seem to do lately.Wait for a call for a job interview.  Wait for a call afterwards for a job offer (on the occasions that I DO get an interview).  Wait for another rejection letter or just no response from a prospective employer.Wait for a donor profile to come our way.Waiting sucks.  But, it's teaching me to have more patience, to realize that sometimes the good things that happen in life are the ones worth waiting for, and that I can't force something to happen that's not quite ready to occur.I still hate waiting, though.  We're on to month 5 in the…
 
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    Food and Drink

  • Factors That Make A Memorable Fine Dining Restaurant

    admin
    12 May 2012 | 6:00 pm
    Many people know what it is like to go to a fine dining restaurant and find that despite almost everything being perfect, the experience is let down by one small factor such as poor service or a noisy atmosphere. When choosing a fine dining restaurant, there are four main factors you should consider. Each contributes [...]

  • How Is Sushi Healthy?

    admin
    11 May 2012 | 6:01 pm
    There are several factors that have lead to the increasing obesity of the American population. Jobs are less physically active. Hobbies are less physically active. Sedentary entertainment is amazingly seductive, and hyper-caloric processed foods are always at hand. As a result, most adults, at one time or another, deal with issues of weight loss, nutrition, [...]

  • Choosing Side Dishes for Steak Recipes

    admin
    10 May 2012 | 6:07 pm
    Steak is not the kind of dish that you cook every day. This implies that you will only consider preparing it when you want to have a special meal. Making side dishes to complement the steak is crucial to ensure you get a balanced meal. The extra dishes can either add a hint of flavor [...]

  • Healthy Fast Food

    admin
    12 Apr 2012 | 1:13 pm
    There are times when all of us are going to need to avail ourselves of fast food. I mean, really, it has many advantages. You can get it without getting out of your car, it doesn’t cost much, and you can eat it on the go. However, there is one big problem. Fast food seems [...]

  • Portable Gas BBQ Grilling to Perfection

    admin
    4 Apr 2012 | 2:43 pm
    In the past, those looking for a good tailgate or picnic grill were mostly limited to models like a charbroiled griller. With the portable gas BBQ, it becomes one of the most recognised and trusted grillers for everyone to barbecue. There is a wide range of great choices for such a product. It provides you [...]
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    Maybe If You Just Relax

  • Ainsley's Memorial

    14 May 2012 | 2:11 pm
    Memorial calling hours will be held for Ainsley this Wednesday, May 16, at Shorts-Spicer-Crislip Funeral Home in Streetsboro.  Visitors are welcome from 5-8 p.m. Location information and directions can be found here, as well as the obituary and the information to make a memorial donation to Akron Children's Hospital. Thank you so so much for all of the comments, thoughts, prayers, and support.

  • Peace for Ainsley

    13 May 2012 | 8:28 pm
    I can't believe that I am posting this... Ainsley passed away early Saturday morning.   After almost seventeen months, her poor little body was just so tired from fighting  for so long.  We held her and kissed her and told her how much we loved her over and over until she left us. The last time she was awake was Monday, May 7.  This is a picture of her from that day.  Happy as always despite

  • Tell me how you care for your skin, and win $50!!

    8 Apr 2012 | 11:36 pm
    Oh yeah, it's another sponsored post and giveaway. I'm on a roll with these!  They are pretty fun, and I get to try stuff and give my honest opinion and give something away to you guys.  I received a bottle of Olay® Total Effects Tone Correcting UV Moisturizer to try and review. I was pretty skeptical because I have skin like a freak of nature. I get dry and peely really easily, and my cheeks

  • Easter Bunny Made A Mess!

    8 Apr 2012 | 10:00 pm
    That's what Olivia said as she saw the path of eggs left by the Easter Bunny.  She may look like her mom but she's getting a cleanliness complex like her dad. I was surprised by how much Olivia understood the difference between her basket and Ainsley's basket.  I was afraid she would want all of the toys to herself but she was actually really excited to give them to Ainsley. Stupid

  • NICU Graduate

    7 Apr 2012 | 7:06 am
    Just not the way that we hoped! Much like George and Weezy, we have moved on up to a de-luxe apartment in the sky.  And by that I mean that we moved up two floors in the same hospital.  From NICU to PICU.* Around the end of February, we started thinking about moving to PICU.  Because at 14 months old, Ainsley was obviously not a newborn anymore.   She is a toddler - a toddler who doesn't
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    glow in the woods

  • Future Perfect

    jess
    15 May 2012 | 1:50 pm
    This post is brought to you by 80s synth chords and spaceships made from tinfoil and fishing wire. I'm wearing epaulettes. Yeah, they came back round. The president is a lesbian. I have a belt that makes me invisible. It's awesome. Errr... just trying to create a little atmosphere, folks. Sheesh. The point is, I'm writing from the future. Today is four years. Four years ago she died. Four years ago she was born. Four years ago time stopped. Life paused. She was still and so was the world.  I didn't have the capacity to think beyond that room, that moment. There was no space for…

  • raven

    angie
    10 May 2012 | 10:08 am
    I am wearing a pink gown, the opening in the front. I am grateful for that small gift--back openings makes me feel so vulnerable and undignified. There is a paper blanket covering my legs. My shaking hands fumble with the thinness. I tear a hole in the thigh. It is not meant to keep me warm, I remind myself. There is a blood stain on it, already. I lean back on the table. There is a skylight over the stirrups. The rain falls like a war drum, hard, without rhythm, but persistent. The wet leaves cover the bottom of the skylight.   Nature keeps falling, water and leaves. Dead things that…

  • The Most

    chris
    8 May 2012 | 1:28 pm
    When do you miss him the most? Lu asked me last night. "Alone in the car," I replied. When I can't listen to the radio for another second and I'm tired of all the music I have and I'm just driving along quietly and my mind starts to turn, I feel him not-there so powerfully it makes me choke. In the first months and years after he died driving alone in the car was when I cried the most.  A new story about pregnancy, or that perfectly placed Modest Mouse tune, it would annihilate me and the car was the perfect capsule to scream as loud as I needed. It is also why I will never,…

  • nothing to be afraid of . . . . .

    catherine w.
    2 May 2012 | 3:24 pm
    When I was eighteen I had a premonition. She was standing across the bar from me. In a student union. Not a student. Not a teenager. Something about her posture was crushed. Tiny fractures in her vertebrae. But I didn't recognise grief when I was eighteen. Because I was lucky and stupid. We were loud back then. Or we were quiet. Boasting with ideas. Or clinging to the wall, hoping to pass unnoticed. Our thoughts so predictable that you could probably have written them out on a blackboard and counted out the nodding dogs. Insecurity and hubris and hormones. But hers were unreadable. She was…

  • What It Feels Like To Almost Have A Child After Losing A Child

    josh
    23 Apr 2012 | 2:33 am
    Two weeks from today, on May 7, around 12:30pm in Los Angeles, we are scheduled to meet our third child, a boy, who if anything like his older sisters, will be long and thick and blue eyed and full of hair. We have a name picked out for him. We have a few things ready for his arrival; an old car seat, some hand me down articles of clothing, an aqua colored swaddle blanket and a scattering of other necessities, like baby soap and a sealed bottle of whiskey. Barring any unforeseen calamity or early entrance, he will come into the world after spending thirty-eight and a half weeks inside his…
 
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    Double Blessings

  • Summer Bucket List

    13 May 2012 | 9:15 pm
    This post is totally inspired by Katie, at Once Upon a Time!  Her list is awesomesauce!So, I work usually Monday through Friday, leaving the house at 7AM, returning at around 5PM.  I teach, so I'm with kids and it's noisy and I hardly ever get to sit down.  And that's ok, because it's my life and I love it and I'm pretty stinking passionate about what I do but... boy and I ready for my summer off!!!  There's a teaching assistant in my school that always wears a paper that is attached to her back with a pin, that has a countdown number on it.  And so tomorrow, she'll…

  • DIY Hairbow Holder

    6 May 2012 | 10:13 pm
    So, we've accumlated a lot of bows and clips in our house.  I had them all strung on one ribbon which was attached to a basket, and hung from the shelf above the changing table.  It was CLASSY!  Let me tell you!So... naturally I looked up "clip holder" on Pinterest and got some ideas.  The one I found had a painted canvas, but I decided it would be sweet if I could reuse one of the 5,000 recieving blankets that have been sitting in our closet.  So, this is what I came up with.  I just had to buy a canvas and a roll of…

  • Preeeeeeeeeeeee Foooooouwahs (Pretty Flowers)

    5 May 2012 | 10:07 pm
    "Hey Goooorwen (Lauren),  just LOOK at all of the fooouwahhhs (flowers) there are!!!  They are so preeeeeeeeee (pretty!)"Haha!  My kids are hilarious!  And cute!Other cute things...In the middle of the grocery store, Lauren shouts out at the top of her amazingly lungs, "Ohhhhhhhhhhhh, Nooooooooooooooooo"!!!  And really, nothing was the matter, we just think it's funny when she says that, so she says it a LOT!This morning Lauren was crying and Addison brought her 1 passie, 2 blankets, and 4 stuffed animals. Giddy Up, Giant Purple Dinosaur! And today I took…

  • National Infertility Week

    24 Apr 2012 | 8:55 pm
    Today I went to have my blood drawn to check my thyroid hormone levels.  I have hypothyroidism and have basically blown off treating it since I had the girls.  I know, shame on me.  But I have NO energy lately, so off to the Endocrinologist I go.  And so ends my boycot of medical professionals.First, I went to the same building where my R.E. is, because the hospital has a lab there.  Floods of memories... as I haven't been there since about November of 2009 when we "graduated" to the OBGYN.  I thought about those women who are still in the midst of struggling to…

  • Adventures in Feeding Toddlers: Version 21 Months

    12 Apr 2012 | 9:47 pm
    First, I want to say... I've calmed down a smidgen since yesterday's angry post.  Sortof.  Although, I did kind of gripe about it today to my coworkers and my babysitter.  Yep, pretty much anyone who would listen.  Haha...  sigh.Anyway, I have a pile of ridiculous but required tests  papers to grade so.... I think I'll do another post.  :)  Kimalli1 asked:I think I can remember you doing this in the past, but can you do an updated post about what your girls eat on a regular basis? My daughter is 17 months and seems much like your girls. I feel…
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    Production, Not Reproduction

  • What I Want to Say to You on Mother's Day

    Heather Schade
    8 May 2012 | 11:05 pm
    This post is becoming something of an annual tradition here at the blog; I cannot think of anything I want to say more as May comes around this each year. May has not been an easy month for me for many years now. I mostly feel the same about Mother's Day as I do about Valentine's Day. I enjoy the private celebrations letting the people I love know how valued they are. I dislike the shallow, frequently sexist, commercialized public commotion that typically only serves to make those on the "outside" feel bad. My time on the outside looking in on those holidays was recent enough that I well…

  • Another Day

    Heather Schade
    7 May 2012 | 6:31 pm
    Um. Hello, there. Anyone home? I am sorry to disappear on you like I have, sorry for the unanswered emails and glaring lack of response around the interwebs. I think about writing every day, with a mixture of guilt and longing. Every day I can't quite bring myself to do it. I miss you all. The truth is this: I am struggling with some depression right now in the weeks following baby Trey's* arrival. I don't know why that is so hard to admit, but there it is. Thank you for your patience. I am doing the best I can, every day.

  • Review: The Book of Jonas

    Heather Schade
    20 Apr 2012 | 1:59 am
    Time for another BlogHer Book Club review! We read The Book of Jonas, the debut novel of Stephen Dau. The Book of Jonas gives us glimpses into three very different, but connected, lives. Jonas (originally Younis), is a Muslim teen refugee from a Middle Eastern country left unnamed in the book. After his family and village are destroyed by a misguided United States military operation, he runs away from the trauma both physically and emotionally as he tries to adjust to life in the U.S. Christopher is an American solider who was part of the raid that killed Jonas's family, and who Jonas says…

  • Mother Letters

    Heather Schade
    17 Apr 2012 | 12:04 pm
    A long time ago--in 2007, before Mari, even!--I wrote a letter to a woman I've never met. A husband was collecting letters about motherhood as a Christmas present for his wife, who was about to deliver their fourth child. So I wrote something sweet and encouraging one night and sent it off to him. It was just one of those nice things you do for people on the internet. (ETA: It turns out they received over 600 letters. I had no idea it was so many!) It turns out that the two of them went on to put some of the best letters and artwork into an e-book that was released today. The e-book is called…

  • OAB Happenings This Week

    Heather Schade
    13 Apr 2012 | 3:51 pm
    One of the nice things about the new Open Adoption Bloggers blog is the chance to highlight guest bloggers. The first fabulous guest post was by adoptive mom Rachel from White Sugar Brown Sugar, who offered seven tips for respecting online privacy in open adoption. Not everyone agreed with the tips, though--you might want to check out the post and comments and add your own thoughts. The 36th Open Adoption Roundtable was also posted this week. The prompt was about open adoption agreements and the effects they (or their absence) have had on bloggers' relationships. Some interesting, and…
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    Write Mind Open Heart

  • I own that

    Lavender Luz
    16 May 2012 | 8:00 am
    Jane asked us at the start of yoga class to silently  compliment ourselves on something. In the space of seconds I discounted everything that came to mind. On my body? That’s my genes. On my children? That’s someone else’s genes. On my writing? That’s due to my dad, my 7th grade teacher, Melissa, y’all who [...]

  • Outliers

    Lavender Luz
    12 May 2012 | 8:00 am
    An open letter to ministers, yoga teachers, and anyone addressing mothers and fathers in mid-May or mid-June. Dear Person at the front of the room, I know you worked really hard on that homily about Mother’s Day / Father’s Day. It’s a time of joy and appreciation and community for almost everyone in the room. [...]

  • Five ٥ 5 cinco 五 fünf ★ cinq V

    Lavender Luz
    11 May 2012 | 7:00 am
    High five, everyone –it’s my blogoversary! Year-by-year highlights of my blogging and personal lives: In 2007 I joined the blogging world via a Peggy Orenstein book and the Barren Bi+ches Book Club. My brother-in-law was near death from Guillain-Barre Syndrome and my children were 6 and 4. I had just taken up yoga .Back then [...]

  • Time Warp Tuesday: Mothering

    Lavender Luz
    8 May 2012 | 8:00 am
    I’m participating in Time Warp Tuesday, the monthly blog hop offered by Kathy at Bereaved and Blessed. This week’s theme is Mothering, and our assignment is to: Choose a blog entry from your archives that you wrote about mothering. It can be a post where you talked about your own experience as a mother, one [...]

  • All that’s left

    Lavender Luz
    7 May 2012 | 8:00 am
    About the time I started middle school (or, as we used to say, “junior high”) I had exasperated my piano teacher to the point where she decided I had to find a new teacher. I still don’t know how I flummoxed my mom so. I suppose it could have been my legendary stubbornness. (Example: My [...]
 
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    Life in the Soupbowl

  • Papa & Nana Visit - April

    15 May 2012 | 12:12 pm
    A few scattered pictures, of here and there with my parents a few weeks ago!Papa & K1 in the early AM: so happy to have her Papa visiting and eating our Mickey Mouse pancakes with us! Sissy was not awake enough to be happy!Kyla at church, coloring in the aisles as we listened.Their favorite time: after church means snacks! Kyla and her lovesI was having an emotional week at work, so my Mom bought me some of my favorite flowers: tulips! How perfect! I put in the two roses from my friend, Roz! :)

  • Team Shaklee Athletes - Check it Out!

    14 May 2012 | 10:00 am
    Are you a marathon runner? Do you bicycle? Spin class? Lift weights? Or better yet, running a "Tough Mudder" or "Mud Run" anytime soon?Then you need to check out these Sports Nutrition products! They are amazing!  They taste amazing, can be used by your entire family (yes, dogs, too! and we call it our "kool aid"), and over 100 Olympic (yes, OLYMPIC!) athletes are powered by this stuff!Check it out! Click here:Team Shaklee Athletesand then go to my WEB SITE to shop the products:Make sure you check it out as MEMBER PRICING- as for the rest of this month, you'll get the free membershp;…

  • Those Naughty Leprechauns!

    13 May 2012 | 9:59 pm
    Last weekend, a storm came through and knocked over all our chairs outside. Kyla was aghast: she stood in the doorway, and shook her head, saying "those naughty Leprechauns, that's just terrible".I grabbed the camera and tried to get her to repeat herself, but only managed to get part of her original "story" on camera.  This girl is a HOOT!  Drama Girl: 2.0

  • Kyla's first Hair Cut!

    9 May 2012 | 11:58 am
    Lunch at Target, what could be better? Oh, I'll tell you: Kyla won't take off that leotard that I got at a consignment sale for $2! Best  $2 ever spent! Nana had JUST bought the girls new sunglasses at Fleet Farm, and although it was raining outside, movie star K2 wouldn't take hers off inside!Since K1 was getting a hair trim, we thought maybe K2 could have HER first hair cut! It was doing that long, wispy, comb-over thing!Suprisingly (or not, if you know her), K2 had no qualms about getting into the chair, popping a sucker into her mouth, and letting the stylist work on her…

  • Keifer takes a time out

    7 May 2012 | 9:08 am
    We have a unique girl in our K1, in that she has a VERY hard time regulating her behavior: (read: EMOTIONS) and it's hard to get her to take a break to calm down.However, since school began last Fall (preschool),she's been starting to take breaks in our play room/office area. I think she thinks she's a little bit of hot stuff in there. It was quite comical to me (laughing inside) to have her come stomping out with the note pad, to ask me how to spell " no coming in".  She spelled it out (in picture 1), and then laid on the love seat, and took her break. It was actually quite nice for all…
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    No swimmers in the tubes, no bun in the oven

  • Here we go again...

    14 May 2012 | 12:32 pm
    I had a romantic date this morning with Ron-Bob the dildo cam guy. He's so smooth with that thing. Seriously ladies...you should come to Fargo just for your monitoring. Smooooth operator, I tell ya. Anyway, yes...I had a baseline ultrasound this morning. Start on Clomid 100 tomorrow (can't afford the injectibles!). Go back for another date with Ron-Bob next Wednesday, and likely have the IUI next Friday or Saturday. Yikes! I can't believe we're jumping back on this crazy train again...here goes nothin!

  • its a no-go

    23 Feb 2012 | 2:31 pm
    I had to cancel our attempt for this month. I realized I would likely be out of town when the insemination would need to take place...and, well, I don't have a stand-in uterus.And I need to wean off some medication (Pa.xil) and caffeine...so I guess it's for the best. So why am I still disappointed?I also realized I'm scared. Like really, really scared. What if it doesn't work? What if it does? It's been so long since I've faced the IF fear, I've fogotten how awful it is. In the meantime, I'm continuing to be thankful for all that I have - B, Sherbie, the dogs, and the rest of my family.

  • Day 1

    21 Feb 2012 | 11:29 am
    Cycle Day 1 is near. TMI, perhaps...but I know you don't come here for my modesty.First step will be the (always lovely) baseline ultrasound. It's been a long time since I've seen my girlie bits on a flat screen, I'm actually a bit nervous. What if it all shriveled up and died since I had Mr. Sherbs? Or grown some gangly mass of uterine gunk? I guess time will tell.Somewhere along the road I'll start Clomid.Before day 11 I will have my HSG...yayayay I can't wait! I just looove having dyes and shit shot into my girlie bits. I had one several years ago that hurt like a sonofabitch. All worth it…

  • So I had this appointment...

    15 Feb 2012 | 9:09 am
    ...with a doctor who knows lots 'bout girlie bits and spermies and eggs and all that jazz.Yeah, we're gonna give it another shot. Sherbert wants a baby brother or sister. Actually, he would like a baby brother named Diego or a sister named Dora, but that's another story. (Side note: PUh-LEASE don't let it be a Dora, her head is fucking HUGE...ouch)So at the first sign of AF I'll be heading in for a HSG to clean out the 'ol tubes. Since my insurance completely dropped fertility benefits, we'll be trying a round with Clomid...and well, we'll see how it goes.Yikes.Am I really gonna do this…

  • Photo Card

    26 Nov 2011 | 10:31 pm
    So Happy Holidays HolidayBrowse Christmas invitations and holiday cards by Shutterfly.View the entire collection of cards.
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    a little pregnant

  • Fishsick

    Julie
    15 May 2012 | 7:07 am
    Oh oh oh okay so I'll tell it like this: Once upon a time there was this kid who wanted, of all things, a fish. This kid — let's just call him Charlie, no relation — had been finding it tough to bring all his stuff home at the end of the school day, despite his parents trying everything, evvverything, to make it easy for him to remember. Finally his mother — we'll call her Cher — look, who's telling this story, you or me? — hit on something that motivated Charlie. If he could remember to bring home his backpack, school folder, notebook, and coat every school day for…

  • Grandma goes to Washington

    Julie
    4 May 2012 | 9:43 am
    We spent last week in Washington, DC and it was, like a lot of things we do as a family these days, about 80% wonderful and 15% how-come-the-human-race-didn't-die-out-long-ago? (The other 5%? Cortisol, trace elements, and mechanically-separated chicken.) I find it very easy to travel with Charlie; he rises to the occasion beautifully, given liberal access to electronics on the long car ride — check! — and strict adherence to his pharmacological regimen — check! Oh, believe me, check. Ben, on the other hand, is tough these days. I lost count of the number of times we had to…

  • Comes with the territory

    Julie
    14 Apr 2012 | 9:23 pm
    Ohhh, I just had a day.  Two incidents of note: We'd been out in the car, and Ben's window was down because I make him open it while he smokes. When we got home I pulled into the garage; before I stopped the car, he asked me to roll up his window. That's how things are done when you're Ben: What was open must now be closed; what was askew cannot go unstraightened; and we have to do it the other waaaaaaaaaay or his little brain explodes. (Earlier on the ride, he'd happily chirped, "Wouldn't it be nice if all the cars lined up? The red cars would all go…

  • Scorecard

    Julie
    25 Feb 2012 | 10:05 am
    I'm back in the ski lodge this snowy Saturday, somehow managing to collect my thoughts over the sound of young femurs snapping. (It sounds like bamboo windchimes. Relaxing in its way.) First, my thanks for the support and ideas you shared on my last post. It feels so good to be understood. And if I say much more than that about how grateful I am, about how much your kindness moves me, I'll start crying — again, as I did more than once as your comments came in — and there's already enough wailing going on in this one cement-floored room. I must not join the toddlers in it.

  • Expert

    Julie
    22 Feb 2012 | 6:40 pm
    It's kind of fucked up how people say, "You're the expert on your child," when they want to be reassuring. You know, don't ignore your intuition. Let your knowledge of your child be your guide. Trust your instincts. Mother knows best. You're the expert! I am not reassured by that phrase. In fact, it makes me panic. These days I don't know what to do with Charlie. And if I'm the expert, shit — does anyone? Rough times. I don't even know how to talk about it. I walk around feeling so embarrassed — not by his behavior, his lack of impulse control, or his…
 
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    Flotsam

  • Interior Views.

    Alexa
    6 May 2012 | 8:25 pm
    Last week I took Simone and Scott to a 3D ultrasound. Simone has been very excited about (and frequently impatient for) the upcoming arrival of Baby Twyla, but I think seeing the moving face of the actual baby I am housing helped make it less abstract for her. It certainly did for me. I mean, look! That is a real baby! MY baby. That face up there? Is INSIDE OF MY ABDOMEN. She looks SO like her sister in a few of these. A few remind me of my baby pictures, and I can definitely see Scott, but she doesn’t resemble either parent so much as she does Simone. Of course, she doesn’t look…

  • Still Kicking.

    Alexa
    2 May 2012 | 10:05 pm
    I don’t know exactly why it has been so hard for me to post here—truthfully, it has been hard for me to accomplish much of anything—but I suspect that it has something to do with the fact that my emotional state is one that doesn’t bear close examination. I am buoyantly happy, but that happiness is stretched tautly over the surface of something else; I live mostly as though I am going to give birth to a live baby in 40ish days, but much as I want to be, I am not convinced that this will actually happen. It’s not that I think that it WON’T happen, only that I am not…

  • How I Do Run On.

    Alexa
    28 Mar 2012 | 10:57 am
    I am more pregnant than I have ever been. 26 WEEKS pregnant. Soon I will enter a whole foreign trimester. Some of it will feel familiar to me, having been so very, very vast last time, with twins and all (in many ways, it’s been the second trimester that felt new this time), but still. This baby is older than Simone was when she was born. Screw pregnancy newsletters; I can look at Simone’s BABY PICTURES and get a reasonable idea of what Twyla looks like in utero at any given gestation from now on. (Yes. Her name is Twyla. I let that slip on Twitter the other night. When I’m…

  • Sells Much Better Than “Massive Teratoma.”

    Alexa
    13 Mar 2012 | 8:12 pm
    Hey, have you seen what I’m wearing? It’s new: I call it VIABLE BABY.

  • Things and Such.

    Alexa
    9 Feb 2012 | 9:25 pm
    —Simone turned FOUR yesterday, you may have noticed. We are having a big party this weekend, and you can expect quantities of pictures and maybe some weepy maternal sands-through-the-hourglass-of-time talk to follow. FOUR! FOUR? —This pregnancy is taking place almost exactly four years after my last one, only behind by a month and a half, and it is odd to be pregnant during another presidential election year. I now firmly associate watching primary coverage with pregnancy, and suspect I’ll come over all nostalgic in 2016. Maybe I’ll feel phantom kicks every time I see an…
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    Julia

  • Once I Get Started

    Julia L
    25 Apr 2012 | 1:28 pm
    The bag-that-used-to-be-a-hat thinks I should write a blog post even though I have bills to pay and dandelions to eviscerate. So, hi, we have internet again and before I forget thank you very much for your advice. Also have any...

  • Not A Post

    Julia L
    17 Apr 2012 | 5:19 pm
    Our internet is down until further notice so I cannot receive email, arrange our Netflix queue, bank or look up the equation for the surface area of a cone. It suuuuuuuuucks. And when Steve bristled in outrage and told tech...

  • Than Never

    Julia L
    8 Apr 2012 | 12:30 pm
    Typepad keeps eating my posts. Granted I have only written two in the past two weeks and one was about three words long with seven hundred pictures but still... faults on both sides, no doubt, but I wanted you to...

  • Glaring

    Julia L
    21 Mar 2012 | 12:46 pm
    You might recall that I started putting slips of paper labeled "kitchen" or "bathroom" into a hat with the idea that I would then be honor bound to thoroughly tidy whichever area the hat dictated before I could allow myself...
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    Serenity Now!

  • Six Years.

    Serenity
    14 May 2012 | 11:19 am
    My first post on a blog was on August 17, 2005. I wrote a couple of posts, most of them to do with trying for a baby. But I abandoned blogging when our IF shit got real, and didn’t really start it up again until April 2006, when I was waiting to see if my “positive” from our IVF cycle turned into anything. It was then when I started blogging for real – made it my outlet and connected with others dealing with IF. So really, April 2006 was my official start of blogging date. Which makes April 2012 my SIXTH year blogging. I totally MISSED it, too, if it weren’t for…

  • Pee and Poop and Stinky Bums.

    Serenity
    10 May 2012 | 10:37 am
    Lucky is in a potty words phase right now, and if it doesn’t put me away into a locked room, I will count myself… well, Lucky. We have tried ignoring, working with it, telling him he has to use those words in the bathroom only, incenting him to find other words that make us laugh. What seems to be working right now is piggybacking off of what they do at school – two warning (“Oops!”) and then a “Magic” the third time he says a potty word. At school, he has to go sit in the director’s office. At home, he has to sit on the Magic Step – our…

  • Some Things I’ve Learned from a Couch.

    Serenity
    9 May 2012 | 7:17 am
    As I marvel at how different I feel about the prospect of doing another cycle, I’ve spent a lot of time wondering exactly how things have changed. And I realized that I’ve learned a few things in the past year by sitting on my therapist’s couch and just talking. I figured I’d share. 1. Avoiding or talking myself out of a feeling does absolutely no good. Seems simple, right? But always, I’ve spent a huge amount of energy trying to talk myself out of feeling something. Not even kidding, at my cousin’s wake? I looked over at my cousins and aunt and uncle and…

  • Up and Down…

    Serenity
    7 May 2012 | 4:16 pm
    Man, what an up and down weekend. I didn’t know how hard it would be to let my cat go. I feel his absence strongly when I’m home. I keep looking for him, wondering where he is, then I remember, Oh, right. Last night I waited for him to jump up on the bed and nestle into my legs. I told Charlie Brown on Saturday that he had to get rid of the litterboxes and food, mostly so that I wouldn’t run out and get a kitten because, well, we had everything we needed. I wanted to DO something to fill in the hole in my heart. It was the right decision, though. When I found the picture of…

  • Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.

    Serenity
    4 May 2012 | 8:16 pm
    Hardest thing I’ve ever done, to whisper to my cat, my constant companion since college: Go to sleep, Puck. I love you so much. He was so mad. They sedated him and he fought it for so long, the sleep. I didn’t stay to watch his final moments. The vet told me it was probably best, because he was so angry and didn’t want to be there. I said goodbye into the cage, whispered to him that it was okay to go to sleep, and I left. The vet told me, You are doing the right thing. Whatever is making him sick is bad. We both know that this is best for him. Still hurts a hell of a lot…
 
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    So Close

  • Happy birthday Maxie boy

    Tertia
    15 May 2012 | 10:09 am
    Three years ago he made headlines. He might be three years old today but he will always be my baby.  Happy birthday big boy!  Mommy loves you millions xx

  • Warrior Eli is a hoax

    Tertia
    15 May 2012 | 3:50 am
    Thanks to the efforts of a few concerned people, it has been uncovered that Warrior Eli is a hoax.  A sickening, horrible, disgusting hoax that conned thousands of people across the world into believing a little boy had cancer and that his mother died. Many reputable organizations were deceived into believing the story was real.  People like Battle4aCure, Little Fighters Cancer Trust, Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation among others.  It is all the work of a disturbed young woman in North America.  Full details are here:  http://warriorelihoax.wordpress.com/ The thing that upsets me…

  • Updated: Someone is stealing pics of my kids and using them as their own. Again.

    Tertia
    14 May 2012 | 1:45 am
    It has just come to my attention that once again someone has taken photos of my children and used it as their own.  I feel sick. Even more concerning, they are raising funds for one of their children who supposedly has cancer and apparently the mother died yesterday. The facebook page for the little boy with cancer already has 6500 likes.  6500 likes!  That is a LOT of people who were duped.  The mother supposedly died yesterday and already $1200 has been donated within a few hours (before I was alerted to the scam).  I have to go out now so there isn't much I can do right now, but…

  • We had a dream

    Tertia
    12 May 2012 | 11:52 am
    Conversation while driving in the car: Me: I had such odd dreams last night. I dreamt about a new store opening, about Kate's teacher and that I had an argument with my friend about a school circular.   Adam: I had a dream that I was fighting a killer scorpion that I killed with a needle and then it died and I moved to the next level and got 500 points. (Eek! I really don't let him play games with violence!) Kate: I dreamt about a cuddly owl Marko:  I dreamt about Mom. I always dream about Mom. (One track mind!) Adam:  I think Max probably dreamt about socks. (No idea why socks.)…

  • Won't be getting a sports scholarship anytime soon

    Tertia
    10 May 2012 | 2:05 pm
    Kate had her first netball match today and I was once again reminded that while my children have many talents, natural sporting ability is not one of them. I am afraid my children have inherited my balls skills.  To illustrate just how good I was at sport, when I was 6 years old the tennis coach gently suggested to my mother that perhaps her money would be better spent in other endeavours - I was so bad that the tennis coach didn't want to take my mother's money.  My children are probably about as good as I was. Adam is enthusiastic and unbelievably unaware just how um,…
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    Uppercase Woman

  • 7 Things I Haven’t Talked About Lately

    Cecily Kellogg
    16 May 2012 | 9:50 am
    1. Living with my mom. It’s been challenging; we’re now coming up on a year, and there is plenty of push and pull going on as we figure out the details. Some of the challenges have to do with my mom’s memory, which is somewhat compromised because of the hypoxia she experienced with her illness [...]

  • Amazing, Exhausting, Fantastic

    Cecily Kellogg
    14 May 2012 | 12:41 pm
    What a weekend! Friday night was the Listen To Your Mother Show and it was AMAZING. I’ve never been happier to be part of something. 15 people read their personal stories of motherhood, and some were wrenching, some were heartwarming, and some were hilarious. It was exactly how we’d hoped it would be – a [...]

  • ACK

    Cecily Kellogg
    11 May 2012 | 10:44 am
    I swear. Next week, regular posting again. Promise. But tonight is the Listen To Your Mother Show here in Philly. (If you want to come, tickets will be at the door). So this is it from me. Sorry. :D   How are you?

  • Letting In The Light

    Cecily Kellogg
    8 May 2012 | 9:00 pm
    Last weekend I was in Miami at a blogging conference (the Mom 2.0 Summit), and I found myself clenching up again, tightly armoring myself against the coming perceived onslaught of being around so many women. Which is totally stupid, because I love being at these conferences, and I love the women that are there. Why I [...]

  • Please Send Prayers and Good Thoughts

    Cecily Kellogg
    4 May 2012 | 8:48 am
    I’m sad to say that Diana lost her sons yesterday. My heart breaks for her. You all were there for me; kindly send good thoughts and prayers her way… She’s gonna need them.    
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    Certainly Not Cool Enough To Blog

  • Brainpower is overrated

    27 Apr 2012 | 3:34 pm
    Okay, so here's the weird thing: I don't know what to do when there's nothing to worry about. My dad had his first heart attack when I was 13. On that sunny February day in 1984, something in my brain clicked on and it appears as thought I'm powerless to turn it off. I worried about him endlessly, right up until the night he died when I cried myself to sleep before I even knew he was dying in his.I worried all through my tragically flawed pregnancies (and with good reason, as it turns out), and I worried during the endless hours I waited for doctors and tests results at the fertility clinic.

  • Seven

    9 Mar 2012 | 5:43 pm
    "I miss him so much! I can't wait until he's home!", she said. Her boy was away for a few days and, like all mothers, she missed her child desperately. She was excited knowing that she was soon going to have him back home, safe in her arms."I'm miss him so much."Multiply that by forever, I thought.I have absolutely no idea how anyone survives the loss of a child. Every day I do it, and after all this time I still don't really know how.Thomas would be seven today. He is gone. And I still breathe and the world still turns - and I just don't know how any of it is possible.But somehow it is.And…

  • Just thinkin'

    15 Feb 2012 | 10:51 am
    Mass is always an interesting experience for me. I find my mind wanders to places it doesn't often go during the rest of the week. I think the internet, television, work, and yarn have a lot to do with the reason my brain is so distracted and otherwise employed during the other 6 days of the week.But the quiet of the church and the fact that I can't easily supplant deep thoughts with shallow diversions means my mind wanders its way along roads that often lead to Thomas. And not just Thomas, but this life without him, and what that means and what it looks like now and what it'll look like 20…

  • Motivation

    1 Feb 2012 | 4:16 pm
    If you've seen mine, please give it some cookies and milk and send it home.On a related note, I'm shocked to discover that the only thing worse than a bone-chilling, snowmageddon style winter is a dreary, spring-like one.Huh. Didn't see that coming.I'll try to remember that next year when I'm (hopefully) up to my eyeballs in snow drifts.

  • The unberable lightness of being

    10 Jan 2012 | 11:18 am
    It's not like I'm walking on sunshine and floating two feet off the ground or anything. But this morning it dawned on me that life is sort of good right now. Uncomplicated in a way it hasn't been in, well, in virtually my entire life, really.We're not trying to have a baby anymore. So my body has ceased to be a science experiment/means to an end/poorly constructed baby-making machine. It's just my body again. Arms, legs, graying head and a busted uterus that can just fucking relax now, since it's not going to be called into action ever again.If you listen closely, you can probably hear it…
 
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    INFERTILITY NEWS - Google News

  • Elizabeth Banks' busy summer includes 'Hunger Games,' babies - KHOU

    15 May 2012 | 12:01 pm
    Elizabeth Banks' busy summer includes 'Hunger Games,' babiesKHOUShe and her husband, producer Max Handelman, welcomed son Felix last year, choosing to use a gestational surrogate after facing infertility. Banks connected to the film adaptation of "What to Expect" because it's less about pregnancy and more about and more »

  • The Infertility ONE Thread**May 2012 - Mothering

    15 May 2012 | 12:36 am
    The Infertility ONE Thread**May 2012MotheringSila, so sorry to read about your BFN. I was following along and rooting so hard! I hope that your body did create the perfect lining, and now that it has, it'll do it again next time! What a discouraging weekend to have a negative on as well;

  • Birth-Defect Risk Seen in Assisted Conception - New York Times

    14 May 2012 | 11:19 am
    Birth-Defect Risk Seen in Assisted ConceptionNew York TimesResearchers looked at records from 302811 pregnancies, including stillbirths and terminations, between January 1986 and December 2002 that resulted from spontaneous conception and 6163 that resulted from fertility treatments.and more »

  • Fertility Institute Offers Help For Hopeful Parents - CBS 11

    13 May 2012 | 10:05 pm
    CBS 11Fertility Institute Offers Help For Hopeful ParentsCBS 11Dr. Walid Saleh, of the Sher Fertility Institute said, her response was a common one among young women diagnosed with cancer. “For some women, the infertility is more stressful than the cancer diagnosis,” he said. The Institute's fertility rescue

  • Fertility-frustrated women turning to India - MyFox Phoenix

    11 May 2012 | 11:58 pm
    Fertility-frustrated women turning to IndiaMyFox PhoenixSo Adrienne traveled to India to the Ankansha Infertility Clinic. There she met her surrogate, a 26- year-old Indian woman, Vaina, a happily married mother of three from an impoverished village. The two connected immediately. "She did say to me, and more »
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    BagMomma

  • Avoiding the Obvious

    Shelli
    24 Apr 2012 | 9:27 pm
    The message for National Infertility Awareness Week is "not to ignore infertility" and instead of preaching the message, I am here to tell you I am guilty of doing just that. I came here on Monday ready to write a sun-shiny post (like I do every year) to support the message. But nothing came. I just stared at the keys on the keyboard.... unable to find any words. The words did not come because of sadness- that my infertility journey was a long, wasted effort into the depths of hell and back with no success. The words did not come because of anger- for myself and my sisters, that our journeys…

  • The Egg

    Shelli
    2 Apr 2012 | 8:53 pm
    Last I left off, I was having a moment of clarity and obsession in the middle of the night with a bottle of Gatorade. Since then, I have managed to completely change my life and the direction of my health. This is a big thing for me. As much success I have had in other areas of my life, I had as many failures in caring for myself. I wish I could say that it was totally a result of work/life imbalance, because honestly, I had myself believing that too. It wasn't. I know now that the struggles with infertility wasn't the real issue either. It was tragic, yes, but not the crutch that hindered me…

  • You're a hard habit to break

    Shelli
    2 Feb 2012 | 10:28 pm
    Am I crazy?Well, I AM sitting in bed typing this late at night while guzzling a sports drink. I just about had a coronary a few minutes ago soon after quenching my thirst realizing that I was inadvertently drinking Weight Watchers points. Wait, let me use my nifty scanner on my iPad.Oh damn, I just drank 4 points. Argh! Habits, so hard to break.Sigh............, I'm back on the wagon. For the 2,566th time.So while I've been spending time away from this place, life happens. This latest foray into weight control has no connection to a new years resolution. Rather, it's a pure scared straight…

  • My iPad is killing me

    Shelli
    30 Jan 2012 | 9:25 pm
    I have a love/hate relationship with My iPad. More love than hate, to be honest... maybe a little co-dependent. Maybe a lot.It started innocently enough. I became a proud owner of an iPad shortly after they arrived on the scene. I became hypnotized by the HD screen. I marveled at how Angry Birds looked so much more colorful and vivid compared to my iPod Touch. I loaded my four e-mail accounts with ease. I transferred my Kindle books. I started playing Words With Friends...Pretty soon I was taking my iPad everywhere. To work, to the waiting area at my son's karate, on vacation... and to…

  • Hark! The Angels Sing in Irony

    Shelli
    20 Dec 2011 | 7:44 pm
    Where to start? This has not been a banner year. The eight year old in me will tell you flat out that it sucked.  The big girl in me will tell you that I was not quite prepared for the curveballs thrown at me. It seems I broke myself while attempting to reinvent me. To continue the saga of the hair loss situation, last I left you I was only 40% bald, and receiving monthly cortisone injections to the scalp from a dermatologist.  Since that time, I also modified my vitamin regime, and started cl.obetasol, to stimulate my hair follicles into reproduction. Follicles, reproduction! I…
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    The Stork Lawyer®

  • Mother’s Day from a Formerly Infertile Myrtle

    Liz
    11 May 2012 | 7:25 pm
    As I started to type this Blog, I turned on Pandora radio for some happy listening while I typed my blog.  Mother’s Day is a very, very difficult topic for me.  Mother’s Day and infertility.  Well that is, it used to be a difficult topic.  And no, it’s not a better topic for me now because I have children.  Having children didn’t fix it. So I wanted some inspiration from song writers and I typed in an artist that usually has some words of wisdom for me. The song that popped up when I entered the artist (who shall remain nameless) was all about love and family. And…

  • Why non-gestational moms should consider breast feeding their baby(ies).

    Liz
    9 Mar 2012 | 5:22 pm
    I saw the most amazing picture of a woman simultaneously breast feeding twins, her husband’s arms are wrapped around hers, which are wrapped around the babies.  I will try and post the picture.  It was sent to me by someone in the reproductive industry so I assumed that the twins were conceived through assisted reproduction.  But as I looked at it, the photograph got me thinking about all my clients who are using third-party reproductive technologies, surrogacy, to conceive their children and how many of those clients conceive twins.  I then wondered whether any of my clients chose to…

  • Why you need to begin thinking about the consequences of “Personhood” Amendments

    Liz
    16 Feb 2012 | 6:08 pm
    I have had enough.  Enuf is enuf. I want to know what ACID or other hallucinogenic drug was put in the water of every member of every state legislature (heck let’s add congress) which are either proposing or passing amendments which declare that preembryos  are to be afforded the same legal status as a  full-grown-eighteen-year-old-human being , defining how many times a man may masturbate in furtherance of the donation of his sperm , or defining who can prescribe oral contraceptives, like someone’s boss. I’d like to propose an amendment to the food and drug law which…

  • Infertility Treatment and Insurance — Speak Up While You Can!

    Liz
    30 Jan 2012 | 1:59 pm
    There is an important deadline tomorrow: Public commentary (from you!!) is needed to demand that infertility treatment coverage be included as an essential benefit under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  To include your voice and make sure your concerns and needs are addressed contact the Department of Health and Human Services before January 31st, 2012. The decision to include infertility treatment as a covered essential benefit falls solely in the hands of Kathleen Sebelius, US Secretary of Health and Human Services.  You can email her at EssentialHealthBenefits@cms.hhs.gov For more…

  • Sentencing of attorneys who plead guilty to baby selling. Is it Enough?

    Liz
    27 Jan 2012 | 2:53 pm
    I have been following the cases against my former colleagues Theresa Erickson and Hilary Neiman for some time.  I had known for awhile about the investigation but was still stunned when the plea agreements became available to the public and I began discussing the details with colleagues and officials in the Justice Department.  I know stuff like this probably happens more often than any of us care to admit.  It always has and it always will.  What is that expression about there always being thieves and crooks among us?? But my blog today — which is very different than that which I…
 
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    lifeslurper

  • Sometime in April

    Lifeslurper
    10 May 2012 | 5:22 am
    Closing my eyes for long enough, the splintered visions are there. Glimpses of warmth: they seem teasingly real. The fleeting images are exquisite in their beauty. Simple images of soft baby skin... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

  • You Can’t IVF What You Want

    Lifeslurper
    3 Feb 2012 | 4:20 am
    Does prolonged exposure to the rigours of infertility necessarily destroy a relationship? Can love die for the want of a baby? When hope is lost, what is left? These last few months after loss... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

  • Lifeslurper’s Tipping Point

    Lifeslurper
    23 Oct 2011 | 5:03 am
    ‘Hold on to me!’ He said with some urgency. So I did. More tightly than I could remember doing in any of the previous five years. Then I wept some more, thus continuing the pattern of virtually... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

  • What Becomes of the Broken ARTed?

    Lifeslurper
    1 Oct 2011 | 5:58 am
    Three days spent alone immediately after news of an early end to pregnancy is a sure-fire method to become acquainted with isolation. My only direct communications were Wobbles’ many phone calls and... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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    Women's Health and Fertility

  • Fourth IVF Cycle Ends In A Chemical Pregnancy: What Can Be Done?

    12 May 2012 | 10:51 am
    Question: Hi Dr. Ramirez, I have been on a rollercoaster ride for the past week and I am hoping that you can offer me your opinion. I received a positive beta after my 4th IVF on Monday (11dp3dt). It was 14.3 and my RE said that it was quite low. I held out hope as I am convinced that I tend to implant a little later than others. In a previous cycle I had a negative beta 12dp3dt and found out that I was pregnant a couple of weeks later. I tested 3 days later and my beta was up to 52.8. I was so excited and felt so much better about things. I am scheduled to go back on Sunday morning for…

  • IVF Protocol For High FSH

    8 May 2012 | 9:16 am
    Question: Dear Dr. Ramirez, I am 39 years old in 2 weeks and about to undergo my first ivf (in vitro fertilization). I have only one fallopian tube, which an hsg has shown to be blocked, probably by adhesions (my other tube was removed due to damage from extensive adhesions - a reaction to previous surgery to remove a dermoid cyst on my left ovary). My FSH level was 14 in March. Two weeks ago my FSH dropped to 8 and my AMH level was 7.42. An ultrasound scan and follicle count showed 9 follicles on my right ovary and 3 on my left (the ovary which the cyst was removed from). My consultant has…

  • 35 Year Old Responds Well To Low Dose Clomid IUI Cycle: NOT A Low Responder!

    2 May 2012 | 8:31 pm
    Question: Dr. Ramirez, My husband and I have been infertile for more than 2 years now. We have gone through a wide variety of tests. I have had a polyp removed through operative hysteroscopy and we were asked to try on our own for 3 months afterwards (unsuccessfully). I am 35 years with borderline bad FSH (around 10 on day 3). I have a low antral follicle count (usually around 7 if they can see both ovaries during the ultrasound). We have tried 1 IUI (negative for pregnancy) and I was prescribed 50 mg Clomid on days 3 - 7 for the IUI. I ovulated 3 eggs with this dose and was triggered with an…

  • You Can Do IVF With A Low AMH !

    27 Apr 2012 | 8:04 am
    Question: Hello Dr. Ramirez, I am 36 and have been unable to conceive for 3 years. The diagnosis we have been given is diminished ovarian reserve. I have tried 3 IUIs (intra uterine insemination) with clomid. Each time I ovulated only 1 egg (I already ovulate on my own). I decided to move on to IVF. I went to a new clinic because they have very high success rates (30% higher than my current clinic). Over the last year, my antral follicle count has only been between 6 - 8. FSH has been between 7.6 to 9.5 (my very first cycle a year ago it was 12.5, but that was tested on day 4, so I'm hoping…

  • 31 Year Old With DOR Advised To Keep Trying: Adjust Protocol To "Mixed" FSH & FSH/LH

    20 Apr 2012 | 8:40 am
    QUESTION: Hi Dr Ramirez I am on my first round of IVF and my day 9 scan showed no follicles on left ovary and 3 tiny follicles on right. I am on 375 menopur which has now been upped to 450. Priot to starting treatment i was on the combined pill for irregular periods. I am 31 years old with FSH level of 6. My question is, can being on the pill interfere with follicles growing and am i on te right meds? When they scanned me prior to starting treatment i had more follicles than when doing IVF which doesn't make sense to me? I am having treatment in London, England. Thanks, N. from England…
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    InVia Fertility

  • Top Ten interesting facts about in vitro fertilization and tubal pregnancy

    Dr. Vishvanath Karande
    16 May 2012 | 9:00 am
    Patient's undergoing in vitro fertilization have a 2 - 5% chance of having a tubal pregnancy. This blog discusses interesting facts about IVF and tubal pregnancy. Continue reading →

  • Acupuncture is safe, PAINLESS & has no negative side effects!

    CherlynCoplonLAc
    14 May 2012 | 9:00 am
    Cherlyn Coplon discusses the various conditions where acupuncture can help. She emphasizes the fact that the needle is so small that the process is practically painless. Continue reading →

  • Commitment to Balance

    coreykellyanatomicalengineer
    9 May 2012 | 9:00 am
    Corey Kelly is an expert in helping people achieve their fitness goals. In this blog he talks about the emotional and mental commitment that is important for successfully achieving your goals. Regular exercise in combination with a proper diet is not just a fad -- it is a lifestyle! Continue reading →

  • Reproductive Technologies and the Risk of Birth Defects

    Dr. Vishvanath Karande
    7 May 2012 | 9:00 am
    There is an increased risk of birth defects in children born to patients using assisted reproductive technologies compared to spontaneous conceptions. This increase was more in patients undergoing ICSI than in women undergoing IVF. Of interest is the fact that this increase is also seen in patients using less invasive technologies (clomiphene citrate, intrauterine insemination) and those with a history of infertility that conceived spontaneously! The increase in birth defects may be due to the underlying reproductive disorders and not the technologies used to help these patients conceive.

  • Top Five Things to Think About Before Scheduling a Donor Book Viewing

    Vicki Meagher
    2 May 2012 | 9:00 am
    Vicki Meagher is our donor egg co-ordinator and is responsible for matching our patients with suitable egg donors. In this blog, she writes about the things a couple can do prior to seeing her for the book with the pictures of available egg donors. Continue reading →
 
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    Trying To Get Pregnant ?

  • Male Fertility Testing – What Your Man Needs to Hear

    Maria Anderson
    21 Apr 2012 | 10:03 pm
    Male Fertility Testing has got a lot easier and less embarrassing in the past five years, but still men are reluctant to have one done. Why is this ? Men are obviously sensitive about this area of their health and a few decades ago that might have been understandable. However, time has moved on and most men are different now. They carry shoulder bags, they drink wine instead of beer, and even dress in pink shirts. But there still seems to be a stigma attached to fertility discussion which seems to threaten their masculinity. As a woman, you need to tread very carefully when you broach this…

  • Pregnancy Success Program Review

    Maria Anderson
    7 Apr 2012 | 7:37 pm
    Welcome to my review of Diana Farrell’s Pregnancy Success Program. Some of you might have heard of the books and programs that are taking the pregnancy world by storm at the moment, but this one comes highly recommended from members of my support group. For the sake of avoiding confusion with other similar titles, the one I’m referring to is The Full Embrace™ Pregnancy Success Program by Diana Farrell M.A. Diana has written many great books on pregnancy issues (please feel free to Google her name at some stage to see her other famous publications). What is different about the Pregnancy…

  • Endometriosis Treatment

    Maria Anderson
    29 Mar 2012 | 5:28 am
    Thank you for visiting my endometriosis treatment page. In this article, I’m going to firstly explain what the condition is, and then offer what endometriosis treatments are available (including natural treatments). Before I move into my own take on this condition, I recommend you view this excellent 11 minute video from the Center For Human Reproduction : What exactly is the issue ? Endometriosis and infertility is reported to affect 30-50 % of women in the USA today. Some are not considered infertile, but sub-fertile. It should be noted that infertility does not cause endometriosis, but…

  • Causes of Infertility in Men

    Maria Anderson
    21 Mar 2012 | 12:10 pm
    Thank you for visiting my causes of infertility in men page. This is my sister (or brother if you like) page to the Causes of Infertility in Women. This aims to be an introduction into this frustrating and upsetting condition. But let me say right from the off that, for the vast majority, male infertility CAN be resolved with just a few life-style tweaks – and boy are they worth it. Whilst it used to be the case that women were usually blamed for infertility, it has become more and more recognizable to actually treat the male of the species. Causes of Infertility in Men The bad news is…

  • Causes of Infertility in Women

    Maria Anderson
    17 Mar 2012 | 2:00 am
    Thank you for visiting my causes of infertility in women article. I have also produced a separate article for men called (not surprisingly) Causes of Infertility in Men (publication 19th March). Whilst the human body is a complex structure, the woman’s body takes this complexity to a whole new level. There are 100’s of things that can go wrong in the female body and many of them relate to the reproductive system. In this article, I aim to summarise some of the more common causes of infertility in women. Where you see links is where I have expanded on a particular topic in a separate…
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