Peachy Keen

One Edwards family tradition I have readily adopted is the shipping up of South Carolina peaches in mid-summer from McLeod Farms in McBee, SC.   This year Mom Edwards and Paula drove 10 boxes up from the farmers market in Florence, and we had another 15-20 boxes sent to our clients.

I ate 8 peaches on Wednesday.  Tummy ache. 

Totally worth it.

100 Posts?

Wow.  This makes 101 posts.  Who would've thought that people would want to read 100 random thoughts/gripes/postulations on my pregnancy?

I assume most folks reading are people I know.  But I'm sure there's a population that has googled their way here, the way I did when I was looking for info about fertility procedures in DC.

I've had over 6000 hits to this blog in less than 6 months.

At least 3000 of those have to be my mom, but what about the rest?

Do others who are getting started on the fertility treatment journey come by here because they googled Shady Grove or one of the other clinic in the area? 

Did they google DC and IUI?  DC and fertility?  DC and miscarriages?

Do they just have interest in babies from the Palmetto state?  Are they looking for frog bedding? 

Are they bitter when they find out my treatments worked?  Do they realize that I know what that bitterness feels like?  Do they realize that I still catch myself feeling bitter about pregnant women?

I still read blogs of total strangers that I came across early in the treatment process.  I don't know these people.  I don't comment on their blogs.  Some of them are still in the process... others are pregnant... others have moved on to adoption or chosen to live their lives child-free.

The Interwebs.  Its weird.

NPR on Infertility

I'm not really the NPR type.

Whenever people ask if I've listened to this or that on the radio, I usually confess that I only hear NPR when I'm in cabs getting from one place to another in DC. 

Why?  Probably because of XM? 

Anyways, NPR has a new online series/blog that I stumbled across the other day that is now a favorite read. 

"The Baby Project"  (http://www.npr.org/blogs/babyproject/ ) follows all kinds of moms-to-be.  Some have been lucky and got pregs right away.  Some are pregnant after fertility treatments and/or miscarraiges.  Some believe in natural childbirth only... others (like me!) think that medicating is the way to go.  Some moms-to-be live in the middle of no where... others are thinking about how the heck they are going to raise babies in the city.

Maybe its only interesting to me because its timely?

I started reading when I came across the entry titled "Infertility its Not the End of the World" when the entry (http://www.npr.org/blogs/babyproject/2011/07/06/137504382/infertility-its-not-the-end-of-the-world) references several studies, including one from NIH that have found that the "psychological impact of a diagnosis of infertility is comparable to a diagnosis of cancer."

While that statement is dramatic, the post is worth a look at the psychological ups and downs of fertility (or lack there of), the treatment options out there, and the real stories of three of the blog participants who were brave enough to share their stories.

Sister to Sister

In addition to the friends who came from as far as Boston for the shower this weekend, we were also lucky to host much of our family.  The Edwards ladies came into town from South Carolina, my parents came up from Greenville, and my sister, her husband and our niece came in from Ohio. 

Abby, our niece, was a special guest at the baby shower.  Even though she missed her nap, she was a trooper until the end.  Em put her in our new pack-and-play (thanks Hipps and Lisa!) and she spent the time in there standing up, smiling, saying "hi" and hoping someone would take her out.  Mission accomplished.

We hit up the ever popular La Loma for Saturday night dinner, and Abby put back more guacamole than anyone 20 times her size. She's just a happy, good natured baby: the Kroners are lucky.

And in December, there will be one more Kroner. Check out the sister-to-sister belly picture. (Emilie measuring in at 16 weeks, Susann at 33 weeks).  BK2 will make a total of 3 new grandbabies for my parents in 2011.  I predict Christmas 2012 will be loud (and fun)

Summer Showers

Bring full nurseries!

I can't even put into words how grateful and humbled I am for the gals that organized and attended our baby shower this weekend.

Tamar was kind enough to open her home, and worked with Emilie, Jess and Jules to throw a fabulous party.

As you all know, I don't excel at female-rites-of-passage. After all, I chose to go to a debate tournament instead of prom. Two years in a row.

So my only request that my guests would be able to have cocktails.  And cocktails and food, they did have!  The ladies put out a spread of all of my favorite foods (pregnancy and pre-pregnancy)... so I can guarantee there was some sushi, cheesecake, spanikopita and some Totino's pizza rolls, among many other fun fun snacks! 

This weekend I was incredibly touched as my village of ladies came together to throw us a beautiful shower.  Unfortunately, if its your shower, all of the photos have you in them. So forgive me my narcissism!

Great Weekend

We had most of the Miller Family and my Mom and my sister (Paula) in town this weekend for Susann's baby shower.  We can not begin to express how thankful we are to have family and friends that are so supportive.  Susann (and Robbie) got quite the hall.

Susann and her Mom (Grandma name-Bookie-long story) spent sometime this afternoon getting all of the clothes sorted out by age and Mr. Miller (Grandpa name- The Grand Poobah) and myself put together the stroller.  Let me just say that putting that stroller together was somewhat more difficult to do than I thought.  I have a feeling that I am going to be saying that about alot of things in the weeks ahead.

6.5 weeks to go - LOTS more to do.