One of three pregnancy posts you'll read on this blog

So, I suppose the title reveals the big news for those who may not have heard it already: our IVF cycle was a success and we're expecting a baby in April! We're thrilled but it still seems pretty unreal at the moment. Now that I'm in the second trimester, I'm allowing myself to get a little more excited.

That being said, I still very much remember the feelings of jealousy and bitterness I sometimes had while hearing or reading about other women's pregnancies. Even today, I stumbled across the Facebook page of someone I don't even know (creepy, much?), and when I noticed that every. single. update. was about her pregnancy, that resentment crept back. Which may be silly, now that I've joined the pregnant clan. Though I suppose once an infertile, always an infertile. I don't want to rub any salt in the wounds of women who may be infertile, recovering from a miscarriage, or even those who don't have the opportunity to have children yet. So I don't want to bring up the pregnancy too much, either here, on Facebook, or in real life.

At the same time, I want to document my pregnancy so I have it as a keepsake. Who knows how many more times I'll have the opportunity to be pregnant?

Enter www.theawkwardone.blogspot.com

This blog started out as an assignment for a technology class I took in college, so technically I suppose the random girls in my group could see it on their sidebar if they still look at it all these years later. Before we went "public" with our infertility, I made the blog private and wrote some angst-filled posts I didn't have the courage to publish here, as well as some rough drafts of how I intended to announce our infertility to the masses.

This morphed into documenting our IVF process in excruciating detail, and finally into writing about our pregnancy.

I'll be making this infertility/pregnancy blog public -- for the time being, at least -- so those who are interested can read up on all sorts of personal details and TMI (because I'm sure you care about my body changes and functions), while those who aren't have no fear of being bombarded with pregnancy news when they least expect it. If you do decide to read it, I recommend starting with the oldest posts first and working your way to the newer ones. If pregnancy posts make you want to vomit or you'd rather watch paint dry, I won't be offended -- my own dear husband hasn't even read it, even though I've invited him to do so.

The two exceptions to the "no pregnancy posts on this blog": I'll likely announce the gender here when we find out (hopefully just before Thanksgiving), and I'll probably post the birth story here as well. Once our baby arrives, I consider anything fair game for this blog. But I'll try not to be obnoxious.