“I write this for the mom about to go through this. I write this for her, so she might be able to mentally prepare for the oddity of wanting congratulations in such a sad time. I write this to prepare her for the desire to celebrate her child’s life, while she’s mourning that very life.”
“My friend said, ‘I have this weird feeling you’re pregnant.’ I laughed. ‘No way, I have not even gotten my period yet.’ Sure enough, those two lines showed up. WHAT? I immediately called my husband. ‘Are you kidding me?’ After an hour, a nurse told me, ‘You picked the wrong day to come here. Monday’s are busy.’ My husband, getting frustrated, looked at me and said, ‘I’m going to get the truck. We’re not staying here.’”
“Sperm. Freaking. Extraction. Had to get naked and lay on a table. The doctor ‘numbs’ your nether regions with a shot (which HURT A WHOLE FREAKING LOT) and tells you, ‘That’s it, that’s the worst part.’ So now you can kick back and relax. LIES. ALL LIES.”
“She suddenly lets go of my hand and starts running. I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed a smile from my husband like when he finally got his little girls in his arms after 175 days away.”
“She’s a known serial spitter!”
“He was there when I said I was ready to try again. When we stood in that tiny bathroom for the fourth time staring at a plus sign that seemed more like a question mark, he was there.”
“I loved my baby, so how could I be depressed? But I was. I was suffocating. I was literally gasping for air.”
“Having a child with sensory issues and autism is not something I anticipated when becoming a mother, but it’s become my normal. They scare him, overwhelm him, can be physically painful for his ears, and he has had intense anxiety over them since he was a baby.”
“We went in at 11 weeks to find his heart had stopped. We were done… Crushed, confused, and heartbroken. We took a break from it all and almost through in the towel. But we knew we had one embryo left. If we didn’t try it, we would have to discard it and there was no way we could do that.”
“‘Shall we put these up on the fridge when we get home?,” I asked. You paused, reluctant to answer me. ‘No, I don’t want to.’ You said quietly, your usually steady voice shaking a little.”
