I’m trying to conceive and feel like it might not happen
The road taken when trying to become a parent is already long enough. You weigh this and that — a new house or a child? My wedding or the birth of someone greater than a piece of paper from the state? Cloth or disposable diapers, when should I start stocking up on either? And then there’s fertility: even if everything checks out fine, you still have a 20% chance of conceiving a child each month.
I’m genderqueer and pregnant: how my tattoos are helping me maintain my identity
Throughout the years I have experienced many different responses to my tattoo work. My tattoos are very personal — the experiences and tattoos themselves are very spiritual to me and all my work has deep symbolic meaning. I’ve recently found myself 35 and pregnant (something I never thought would happen), and my pregnancy has uncovered another benefit to my tattoos.
A response: why we’re saying yes to a third foster child
On saying no to a second foster child showed up on Offbeat Mama precisely as we were struggling to make a decision on taking an additional foster placement, and I am hoping that we will be able to say the same thing about our decision that I have to say about hers: “I’m glad you did what is right for y’all.”
I just don’t want to be pregnant: why I chose adoption over pregnancy
I was incredibly uncomfortable with the idea of getting pregnant. The idea of my body trying to sustain another life seemed impossible — I even went to hypnotherapy to try to help me “get over” it.That is when I realized that if I needed to be hypnotized in order to want to get pregnant, pregnancy might not be for me.
Finding out the sex of your baby: pros and cons
Finding out the sex is one of those favourite sources of conversation for pregnant women and all who know them long into early parenthood: “Will you find out/have you found out/did you find out the sex?” It’s the earliest indication of the significance society places upon the gender distinction.
I had to learn to love my baby
I hear my husband coming up the stairs with our four-day-old baby. I hide my head under the duvet and dread their entry to the room, knowing it means I’ll have to feed him. Exhausted and sore from the birth, I wish the baby would disappear for a few hours so I could have my old life back.
Planned Parenting: how I found a childless community with my LGBT friends
For two-and-a-half years I walked through life like a ghost, waiting for my baby. Then I discovered I could not conceive a child with my partner. Suddenly, that hope and suspense was gone. A simple biological fact I had assumed was my birthright vaporized before my eyes. One day I was kvetching to my best friend — who is gay — about this shocking news, and he stopped me and said. “Listen: this is new to you, but it’s not new to me. So don’t you walk in my door talking about doom and gloom. You have to understand, this is just our life. It’s been our life, and now it’s yours, too.
Choosing non-white-dominant art for kids
Once our daughter is born, I assume she’ll be some mash-up of the two of us, although the more brown-and-white mixed kids I see, the more I wonder if our little monster will be identifiably brown at all. I always thought of my genetic heritage as weak, non-fat milky white DNA that would easily be overwhelmed by a good infusion of cocoa. I’m beginning to suspect that my mixed Scottish/Slavic heritage is heartier than it lets on.