I’m 17 weeks into my pregnancy and I am already a bad mother
I am 17 weeks along, or just a little over four months. Well, mostly. Here’s the thing about pregnancy weeks. Some people, like my mean doctor, like to count you as far along as you are — as in I am 16 weeks because 16 weeks have already past. Some people, like my lovely pregnancy tracker, count the week you are in — as in I am in my 17th week as 16 weeks have already past. Then there are the people who count thing like the exact days, as in I am 16w1d or 16 weeks and 1 day. Until I am overdue, we are gonna ignore that shit.
Penis in vagina: this way of making babies is kind of crazy
I remember the day in fourth grade when our school nurse divided the classroom into boys and girls, then whisked us, the ladies-in-training, off to a wing of the school I’d never seen. We were made to watch a poorly scripted, grainy feature film about a girl who gets her period for the first time while sleeping over at a friend’s house. The next morning, terrified, she tells her friend and her friend’s mother. The mom spends the remainder of this ostensibly ’80s classic drawing a uterus and ovaries in pancake batter on the griddle to demonstrate the female system.
3 things I wish I’d done differently when I was pregnant
Since conception we have often joked about the magical powers of the iconic seafood restaurant chain. So this weekend we returned, which got me thinking about pregnancy, specifically my pregnancy and that a year ago I was just two months pregnant, blissfully unaware that I was having two babies rather than one. There are so many things about my pregnancy that I wouldn’t change, but there are others that I wish that I could do over again.
I’m infertile but not defective: how our journey to parenthood is changing
I’m one of those women struggling with infertility issues. One: my age. I’m no spring chicken. Two: endometriosis — I was treated for that two years ago after suffering for over a year with crazy painful periods, and after my husband and I had been trying for more than six months. Three, high FSH (follicle-stimulating hormone) levels — it’s taking more hormones to kick-start my ovaries and get them working.
Our queer family ditched fertility treatments to foster-to-adopt
We are a queer family of two (for now). My husband is transgender and I identify as queer. Obviously, any baby-making to be had wasn’t needed some outside help. We’ve been together for ten years, and I’ve been baby-crazy for all ten of them.
Self-care during fertility treatments
If you’re doing fertility treatments, chances are pretty good that you’re stressing the fuck out. Not only do you have the logistics of appointments and medications (and physical/emotional weirdness from said medications), but if you found your way to fertility treatments after dealing with infertility, then you’ve got the emotional burdens from THAT whole awfulness.
And then, as if the whole process wasn’t stressful enough, then you have to stress about STRESSING, because everyone tells you that anxiety will negatively influence your chances of getting pregnant. Not stressing isn’t just an issue of sanity — it’s an issue of treatment effectiveness. AARGH!
So, that’s all fine and good: DON’T STRESS. But how? How can you keep yourself calm and non-anxious during the mind-fuck that is fertility treatments?
We’ve decided to have our baby and I’m going all in
When I found out I was pregnant, I had a serious choice to make. I have no moral, religious or political objection to abortion, and since news of my pregnancy was such a huge shock (at a time when my partner and I were unsure if we were able to handle the financial and emotional stress of raising a child), abortion was a very real possibility for us.
Our lesbian conception story – how a salsa jar helped us get pregnant!
We always knew we wanted to have a baby, but having two sets of ovaries doesn’t really help with that. Patty’s best friend has always talked about helping her conceive by donating sperm, but Patty didn’t want to carry the baby herself. I, on the other hand, was happy to get pregnant. We did consider adoption, and I in fact always thought that would be the way I’d have a child, but since we had a willing known donor… we figured we should at least give conceiving a biological child a shot!