Catchin' Up

Oh I owe you all such a huge amount of info and I'm so so sorry.

First of all, we won the video contest.  Not only did we win, we blew the other contestants out of the water.  We had over 2700 votes.  As much as I'd like to think that it was all our Facebook campaign, grandma's warriors, and half of South Korea who made that happen, I know that my blog friends were out there voting en masse and we are truly grateful.  I can tell all of you that this experience was so moving.  People came out of the woodwork to tell me about their experiences with infertility - people who I had no idea had struggles.  The most awesome thing, though, were the people who told me that they had a cousin/sister/friend who was having trouble conceiving and instead of telling that person to relax/stand on their head/adopt/have more sex they encouraged them to see a physician.  I think we all know how much a little acknowledgement can go a long way.

On the life front, I've been busy busy with work.  We are also contemplating moving to a small rental house we own to try to save up a down payment for what we call our "grown-up house."  Yes we are in our mid-to-late 30s and we talk about our "grown-up-house."  This move would put us much closer to my office (we're talking an hour + commute down to about 10 minutes), but it would mean uprooting the Chipmunk from her awesome daycare, pediatrician, home, etc.  It's a big decision, but something I think we need to do.  We've been strapped with 2 underwater homes for almost 5 years and it's getting OLD!

On the Chipmunk front, she's as spunky as ever.  She thinks she can run, she loves to dance, music is her happy place, hugs are her bread and butter, and she's as darling as ever.  She weaned herself about two weeks after her first birthday.  She was down to about two nursing sessions a day at that point.  I had gone out of town for a couple of nights and J was giving her expressed milk during those nursing times.  The first night I came back, she nursed no problem.  The next night she pushed me away and hasn't asked since.  My body is still freaking out.  I have redness and acne like a 13 year old boy, my hair is a curly/wavy/straight nightmare, my weight is all over the place, I'm starving all the time for some reason, the bloating... OH THE BLOATING.  I'm having a hard time with body image right now, let me tell you.  So I thought I'd go home to my mom's for Christmas.  I'm sure many of you can relate to a mom that isn't all that supportive of body love when you aren't looking your best.  Dread ensues.

Happy holidays to you all and here's to a rockin' 2015!

My favorite shot from her one year photo shoot.  She was in full on tantrum mode.

#MicroBlogMondays: Here We Are!

 

As soon as this contest is over, all of this identifiable stuff is going POOF! But for now, I will continue to whore out myself and my family for votes.  We made the local news!  I hope we did you all justice.

**POOF** Link deleted for privacy.

Trickle Down Negativity

We had our first negative comment.

A good friend has been sharing the posts in our facebook group.  She herself has PCOS and her daughter is hard won.  She was actually the first peer I had who dealt with infertility and her story started before I even met J. She was the one who got the comment on one of our posts that she shared on her page.  Something along the lines of infertility treatment being selfish and people should adopt because of all the babies in America that need parents.

She deleted it.  She's awesome.

Before we entered the video contest, we had a long talk about what we would do if we actually became finalists.  We knew we'd have to go public if we wanted to win.  We were okay with that.  What we didn't think about were the awesome friends who would start ti feel comfortable sharing their stories.  They have been amazing to watch.  Or the friends like this one who have been supporting us by voting and sharing, but haven't gone public, and have to have insensitive people post crap that hurts them.

Of course I reached out to her and of course she was awesome... and shared another post on her page today.  Friends like this one are rare.  I just hope no one else has to deal with any bologna.  Why do so many people think they get to make public statements giving their uneducated opinions on how people choose to live their lives?

We're going to be on the local news tonight, telling our story.  The piece will go on their web page, where they have a comment section.  I'm going to have to not read that.

I know I'm annoying with the vote begging, but please remember to vote for us every day.  We're the ones with the Asian dude, white chick, and adorable baby.  This kind of money can be life changing for our little one.  We realize we've been so blessed already, but we have to make the most of an opportunity like this!

#MicroblogMondays - Humbled

Our clinic called to get permission to post the contest details on their website. They told me that they knew the other finalists were from big clinics.  I really want to win this for our girl.  J and I were the first in both of our families to go to college, and as such we paid for it (and are still paying for it) on our own.  Giving Chipmunk the gift of some money to help her out?  It would be a dream come true.  So when I knew the other big clinics would be out getting votes for their patients I felt panicked.  I'm not a competitive person, but this is for our precious girl!  We made a Facebook group and our friends joined.  Everyone from my mom to my 3rd grade music teacher to the guy who calibrates our audiometers has been asking for votes, emailing their friends. Parents of kids I work with who have a lifetime of a hard row to hoe have been posting like crazy.  First we had all the love and prayers to bring her into this world, and now we have all of this support for a video contest of all things.  This girl is loved.  So loved.  And it's humbling.

CONTEST DETAILS!!! VOTE FOR US!!!

Dearest Blog friends,

We have exciting news and we need your help!  We have been selected as one of five finalists in a national video essay contest!  If we win, Chipmunk receives $10,000 in a 529 plan for college.  Obviously, we want to win. I mean, she can stack 3 blocks in a row.  She's obviously college material. Brilliance, truly.

We really hope that our story can give hope to others, but more importantly we hope to raise some awareness.  Making our movie felt a little "shiny happy people."  I know it may be painful for some people in the trenches, but we came out the other side and truly are shiny and happy.  Everything we went through really was worth it.  Even if we didn't get our Chipmunk, the lessons we learned on our journey are ones that we will carry for our whole lives.

Anyway, back to the details.

You can vote for us ONCE A DAY between 12 AM Eastern Time on November 2nd through 11:59 PM Eastern Time on November 16th by going to **POOF** Link deleted for privacy.  If you need help remembering to enter every day, you can make **POOF** Link deleted for privacy your browser’s homepage, or email me and I’d be happy to send you a reminder. We also have a Facebook group you can join at **POOF** Link deleted for privacy that will feature regular updates and reminders (for the two week voting period only - I promise).

You can also forward this information to others! I do ask that you send a link to the contest rather than a permalink to this page to those outside of the infertility community. I'm just wary of it falling into the wrong hands.  And I just put my last name on here, and a link to a video featuring my whole family.  That's a lot of personal info, but there's a chance that our story may bring some hope or awareness to others.  If that isn't enough motivation for you to vote, Chipmunk just celebrated her first birthday!  What an awesome birthday gift you could help us give her.

I plan to use the Facebook group to promote some little facts and tidbits about infertility along with voting reminders.  If you have facts, links, or tidbits you think we should include, please let me know in the comments!

Thank you for always supporting us on our journey.  We know our lives would look much different without your well wishes and prayers. Your insights and support were more valuable than we can even express.

Okay, Okay I'll Spill!

I wouldn't want Mel endlessly hitting refresh for days on end.

J and I entered the Heart to Heart video essay contest.  We thought our video was pretty neat, but some of last year's finalist videos looked pretty professionally done.  So we thought it would be great if it panned out, but if not - we still had a good time putting it together.  Over the weekend we received word that WE ARE PART OF THE TOP FIVE FINALISTS!!!!

We are so psyched.  I don't have all of the details yet, but the winner (and by winner I mean, your kid gets a $10,000 529 plan) is chosen by online votes.  You can vote once a day and I will need all y'all's help!!!!  The voting period will start some time in mid October and will run for two weeks.

I think things are about to get pretty un-anonymous around here.