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LFCA Latest Issue: Friday, September 25, 2009.

Latest Post on BlogHer: Parenting after Infertility.

My Status: Fed Josh's almonds to the squirrels. They needed them very badly.

Friday, April 27, 2007

Friday Blog Roundup

Note to self: always appeal to people for blilt submissions with doctored Dr. Suess pictures. When this method starts to fail, I'll simply run the gamut through childhood favourites. The Cat in the Hat begging you for a blilt submission, Charlie Brown asking for interviewees, the owl and the pussycat serenading you in an effort to get creme de la creme submissions to ring in the new year (his nose, his nose, with a ring at the end of his nose)...

Thank you so much to all of the chickies--and the man-pie (thank you, Becky's husband, Justin) who submitted one that almost made iced coffee come out my nose--who sent words for a square. I'm going to have a big Microsoft Paint fest this weekend. If you haven't sent one yet, there's still plenty of time.

So...I've been doing a lot of walking. Stretching my legs. Making sure I can drag my flabby body over the finish line for WalkAmerica. So far, we've raised $917--which is pretty freakin' amazing. If you were thinking about making a donation to the March of Dimes (click on the hypertext), this is the final week. The walk is on May 6th. I promise I will make you proud. And on May 7th, cease all exercise until next spring when the walk comes around again. I mean, I mean, I will keep exercising. Walking. Running. Cardio. Um...

A combination of Adrienne, Erin, and Elizabeth all had this fantastic idea to compile a list of words that we've all created. An emobloictionary housed inside the emoblopedia. So if you have a word that you created in a post, send it along with the link to the original post and a definition.

And now that we've concluded the business portion of this roundup, let's bring on the blogs.

Becky at Are We There Yet? has this great post this week about the support we receive and give. She writes: "I know how important having support is. Infertility is crappy enough, but not having people around you who understand you would be much worse." She later muses: "I’m not sure if the people who form my support system are just naturally supportive or if it was because I taught them what it was like to be here in this place. Are they supportive because I’ve told them that is what we need? Or is just that they simply love us? I don’t think loving somebody is truly enough to be a good supporter." I think they're all good questions and it does feel a bit like a chicken-or-the-egg conundrum. Were they supportive first, so you felt safe to open up and lean on them? Or because you opened up and told them what you need, they became supportive?

Kir of Kir's Corner made an analogy for the suppression phase of IVF to the suppression she has been doing emotionally for a while now. The post includes a memory from high school when she held her tongue even though it didn't feel right and how ill she had felt for the rest of the day. She writes: "Suppression, it turns out, is not only a birth control pill's job. It has become mine...Until then, I am suppressing and wondering what I am going to do with all the emotions that are bound to find me soon." It was simply an entry that gave me a lot to think about after I read it.

Caro at Third Time Lucky had the "talk" this week--the how-far-are-we-willing-to-take-this- and-what-are-our-limits talk. These walls sometimes change as you change emotionally, but I think those talks are always important to make sure both people are on the same page. She admits towards the end of this brief post that "I'm not sure I'm strong enough to put myself through all the treatments and stress that could come with it. Although I'm also not sure I'm strong enough not to." And I'm not sure why those words made my heart ache so acutely as I read them, but I wished hard that it wouldn't come to that for Caro.

Jennifer's post about time on her blog, Arcane Matters, ticked very loudly for me (get it--it's a biological clock reference...get it?). The time aspect to infertility--the sense that time is running out or the long periods of waiting--is what makes me feel like I am frantically trying to kick my way to the surface while I'm being anchored down by heavy, water-logged sweaters and furry boots. And the sense that time isn't within your control doesn't stop once you're pregnant. This post speaks to the anxiety that comes towards the end of a pregnancy when you don't know how much time to have left before the baby (or, in Jennifer's case, the babies) arrives. While it may seem heavenly to be in that position when you're still in the throes of treatments, it can be quite nerve-wracking towards the end because every day counts. Literally, every day. And this issue is obviously in the forefront of my mind right now since we're about to do the March of Dimes walk, but just as no one can tell you when you'll get pregnant, you come to realize that the due date number is semi-meaningless. You never know when you'll go into labour and I'm just sending so many good thoughts to Jennifer and Nicole that the babies keep cooking for the next 51 or so days.

Liana at Welcome to the Dollhouse has a post this week that will send chills down your arms. Liana created an adoption plan with Josie and they are now waiting for Josie to go into labour. During this time period, Josie requested that they have an entrustment ceremony after the birth. Liana quotes a passage about entrustment ceremonies in her post: "The Entrustment Ceremony, perhaps the only ritual that is exclusive to adoption, is usually defined as the ritual where the parental role is transferred from the birthparents to the adoptive parents. Birthparents entrust the life of their child into the hands of the adoptive parents, often by physically placing the child in the adoptive parents arms." Josie has planned the ceremony already and Liana and her husband were able to read a draft beforehand. Liana promises that "All I can tell you is that it will be awesome, not in that surfer-dude use of the word, but in the inspiring great awe word usage. As my late grandmother used to say, my heart is full."

Lastly, this post by Kirby at What to Expect When You're Not Expecting just made me laugh. I snorted (yes, I'll admit it, I was alone in the living room reading this and I snorted aloud when I started laughing) when she writes about Domar's book: "And I don't really feel as though there were any earth-shattering revelations. And the whole overtone had a bit of an infomercial feel. As in, if you come take one of my overpriced classes, you'll be able to sleep at night. Right — cause if there's two things a woman in the midst of an IVF cycle has a surplus of, it's money and the ability/time to travel. To hell with coping strategies. I'm sticking with my chocolate and gradually escalating attacks on my husband." Her whole blog is hysterical and this is but one example. Head on over if you need a good laugh during IVF.

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend. I leave you with this video of Green Eggs and Ham that I found surfing YouTube...

Green Eggs and Ham

I haven't actually gotten past the opening song, but I have listened to his ode to the noble egg many times now.

5 comments:

Caro said...

Wow I made the round-up. Thanks for the mention.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Love the Friday Blog Round Up, Mel! I look forward to it every week. (And I'm still thinking of something for the third blilt!) In the meantime, a word I've coined is "P-bomb" which means "the pregnancy announcement that falls out of the clear blue sky and blows you away." It first appears here: Ugly and Perpetually Crouching

Bea said...

Words! I almost forgot.

That Friend - the opposite of a STAR. Someone who has only the best of good intentions, but nevertheless makes you want to tell them to go to hell.

Pregna Donna - a pregnant woman who keeps reminding you she's pregnant so you can arrange for the universe to revolve around her unecessarily.

Parent Poseur - those couples who take unecessary actions to remind everyone of their parenthood whenever possible, like ordering a babyccino for their nine-month-old son.

Bea

Anonymous said...

Thank you for bringing such nice posts. Your blog is always fascinating to read.