- my iParenting
- quick clicks
- preconception articles
- preconception q&a
- message boards
- research baby names
- prepare a birth plan
- content channels
- ip channel rss feeds
- read birth stories
- read parenting stories
- recommended books
- e-newsletters
- safety recalls
- ip diaries
- ip store
- mom of the month
- dad of the month
- editor's letter
- letters to the editor
 |
- e-newsletters
- Sign up to receive our free weekly e-newsletters
- award-winning products
The iParenting Media Awards program helps parents find the best products for their families.
I Will Never Forget
The Struggle That Brought Joy
By Ninotchka Beavers
Today as I was innocently driving to a lunch date, I realized how far I've come. You see, I haven't forgotten. I don't know what triggered it, but I was reminiscing about when I started a preconception diary on Preconception.com in 2000. I remember how giddy I was. I even remember my mom's first and only post ever on my Talk To Me board, teasing me for a silly thing like planning to have a baby. I remember posting to an expectant runner's group – a subgroup of a runners' e-mail loop that I belong to – way back in March and signing every e-mail "Expecting To Be Expecting." I remember laughing off my sister's warning to "remember what happened the last time" we tried to conceive.
You see, we got pregnant on the first month of planning to conceive our first child. I can close my eyes and go back to the excitement of finally being able to start trying to conceive our second child. But the excitement soon turned to anguish as one, two, three months passed. Then we hit the ungodly six-month mark. What was wrong with us? After conceiving our daughter so easily, how could we not conceive now? After literally years of waiting for this moment to even start trying, I had never allowed for the slightest possibility that it may not happen right away.
I remember secretly envying people going through infertility because at least they were actively trying, while we waited for that blasted "right time." So when this much resented "right time" finally arrived, I was nevertheless elated and excited and so ready – more ready than I've ever been for anything in my entire life. The time had come. But life doesn't always work out the way we'd like, does it? Surely, if it did, I would have gotten pregnant right away or, even better yet, I would've had an "oops" pregnancy somewhere on the path to this perfectly planned pregnancy of ours.
