18 weeks 6 days (edited for content)

I had every intention of coming home and working on writing up an Educational Assessment for one of my students...every intention. But instead I came home to two packages from my mom. Upon opening I found three great sweaters, a pair of leggings, a gray shirt, and a pair of cargo shirts. One of the sweaters is somewhat a shrug structure...so I put it on right away and soon I was in comfy mode and I needed comfort food and my couch.

It has pockets! I'm in heaven!

My comfort food was kumato's and mozzarella cheese drizzled in oil, italian herbs, and sea salt. Yum! I also had a few slices of bacon and most recently some peanut butter and chocolate ice cream. Altogether, that sounds disgusting...but over the course of 2 and a half hours it was quite satisfying!


I am flying solo this evening as Jesse is playing in a Harlem Wizards (kinda like the farm league for the Harlem Globe Trotters) game at one of the schools in our district as a fundraiser for a new playground. I didn't but a ticket because I foolishly thought I would be able to go see my husband play, but nope...it was sold out! So I asked him to make sure someone takes a picture and I'll see him sometime after 9:00. Hopefully the Wizards don't pants him when he goes to make a lay-up! 


So I'm going to get deep, and I'm apologizing for that. I was just looking online and have seen some cute pregnancy bump pictures on a forum that I visit at times. That got me thinking that it'd be nice to price out some shirts cause I saw one gal who had a top that stated the number of weeks to wear when she did her weekly photo. Pretty cool idea! While I was researching I came across a website that I wanted to share...and here's why. 


Some of you know this, some of you don't. Jesse and I struggled with infertility. We had over a year of failed attempts before finally getting referred to see a specialist. During that year many of our friends knew we were trying as we didn't think it'd be much of a try so we told our friends we were trying....well, I told. That's not really a guy thing to talk about. Well, the months dragged on, and on, and on. My emotional state was not great. It wasn't even close to good. It was bad. 


After being referred to see the specialist, undergoing numerous embarrassing and somewhat invasive tests for both of us, we began the task of fertility treatments. This is where your life, your world, your schedule revolves around MY hormone levels. I missed a wedding of a good college friend because it was around my ovulation time and I needed to do 2 consecutive days of IUI's (intra-uterine insemination, aka artificial insemination)... needless to say that friend did not understand my vague excuse for missing her wedding and promptly unfriended me from facebook. Nice. 


Our first IUI was a fail. I was so hopeful...and it didn't work. I had at that point gotten the love and support of a core group of friends and it killed having to follow up with each of them and tell them it didn't work. The 2nd failed and I developed a cyst so they couldn't continue treatment until that went away. Another month went by wasted. The third cycle was a bio-chemical pregnancy. Do you know what people say to comfort you when they hear about this type of loss? They tell you "Well, that's your bodies was of getting rid of something that's genetically wrong" Thanks. So now it's a genetic problem. Awesome. Then we were referred for IVF and went through the consultation process for that. 


The good news is that with the end of a stressful school year and the hope of IVF, we conceived naturally. (All those that have suffered infertility definitely want to smack me right now, I would...I don't blame you!) As I'm beginning to get to the point of this orange rant I want to state that 1 in 6 couples struggle with infertility. Which means that you or someone you know has struggled. We did the math. Out of the people we know, that statistic stands true...and we were part of it. Your friend with infertility doesn't want to talk about it all the time. Nor do they want to be tiptoed around. My favorite things were when a friend wrote me a card (Laura) or made sure to always follow up (Anna) or sent me something to let me know they were thinking of me (Kara) or let me participate in what their children were going through (Jess) or remembered the things that broke my heart (Stacey) or supported me by attending an appointment (Lorie) or was there and treated me normal (Ashleigh and Ashley) or admitted that they had no clue what I was going through but would listen (Patty) or travelled 3 hours just to hold me hand (Rachel)...Man, I love you all! 


The point is: I found a wedsite that just put a comical spin on all of this with shirts like: 

Shirt Example 1

Shirt Example 2

Shirt Example 3

Shirt Example 4

The website is: Click here for AMAZINGNESS