How I’m overcoming my abusive childhood to become a loving, patient parent
Ah, the bedtime ritual. Oh how I love the constant interruptions of a good movie, dinner or maybe even a make-out session because my little one has decided to defy sleep. Something happens to her sleepy body when I leave her bedroom. My absence acts as an amphetamine for her. I put her down, I leave the room, she gets out of bed. Sometimes she fakes exhaustion to get her little game going, and I fall for her deception every time.
Why two men went from New York to India and back to become parents
Brian and I yearned to have a child of our own for years. We explored our options via surrogacy both nationally and internationally. Here in the United States we were deep into the process of surrogacy. It was extremely costly, time consuming, and emotionally taxing. Our attempt at conceiving through different surrogates failed six times. Our funds were dry.
My experience being pregnant while serving in the US Navy
Being a woman in a male hyper-sexual environment is difficult enough, but being pregnant is a whole new story. I was serving on board a US Navy command ship in Yoosuka, Japan, as an electronics technician when I found out I was pregnant. The field I worked in put me with an all-male workforce — it took me almost a year to be seen as a hard worker and as an equal. I pretty much dominated my job. I was the best of the best.
My experience using Fertility Awareness Method to conceive a child
For the past eight years I have been battling severe endometriosis. Three surgeries, two rounds of medical menopause, and four doctors later: I am pregnant. But getting here wasn’t easy. Because of my endometriosis it was automatically assumed that I would have a difficult time getting pregnant and therefore my doctor wanted to put me on Clomid. Given that I had just gotten over another round of menopause-inducing hormones, I wasn’t about to add more synthetic hormones to the mix. So I refused the prescription and decided to try to conceive for at least six months before taking a serious fertility drug.
How trying to have a baby might change your sex life
I’m trying to get pregnant. I’m not taking the “go off the pill and see what happens” approach. I’m taking a more active approach. I’m thirty-four, and I think I want to have two kids. I’m not exactly worried about making that happen, but I figure that all else being equal, it’s best if we knock out the first one as soon as possible.
The journey of trying to conceive with my wife has changed the way I identify as a mom
Even though Carly and I knew we would want to have children together, we never had serious how-to discussions until last summer. I had a dream that I was carrying Carly’s baby, and I wanted it so badly that I was crying about it as I shared my dream with her. This sparked our baby planning. Ideally, we would choose in vitro fertilization (IVF), pick a sperm donor, have Carly’s egg fertilized, and I would carry her baby.
Biracial lesbian seeking known donor of color
At the beginning of my journey, “brown” was at the top of my list. I wanted, as much as it was (im)possible to control, to have a baby with whom I shared a skin color. I have struggled with this desire for a brown child on and off the entire first year of my search for a known donor.
I’m a first-time foster mom… at 53
Sheryl and her partner became first-time foster parents in their fifties. And you thought having a newborn in your twenties could be rough!