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Mommyland

The OB Appointment
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Let me just start by asking, how in the world does anyone get pregnant on ACCIDENT? Or, is my OB lying to me? When I went in for my appointment on Monday, she explained that there is a four day window during which we can get pregnant each month. That window includes the 72 hour life-span of the sperm, plus the 24 hour life-span of the egg. Then, she said, even if you have sex at the "right" time, there is only a 20% chance of conception. 20%!! As in, there is an 80% chance that if you time sex perfectly, you still won't conceive. And I'm all like, "But I know 87 women who have gotten pregnant when they weren't TTC, HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN?" 
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I Blame Google
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Apparently, my period heard that I was complaining about her tardiness and decided to show up on time this month. The thing is, I had gotten so accustomed to her irregular behavior, I wasn't expecting her when she made her appearance this weekend. And to make matters worse, the very morning I started, I had dared to hope that I was finally pregnant. I made this ridiculous mistake because Google said that the cramps I was experiencing could indicate pregnancy. You see, I was cramping all day Friday without any sign of my period or the usual PMS symptoms. I also don't usually cramp until after my period starts, so I did some research online and found that many women experience cramping when they're pregnant.
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The Irregular Period
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My period and I have a very bad relationship. We used to get along alright, but then in February of 2008, a few months after I married my husband, my period decided to abandon ship. For four months, she was MIA. At first, I thought I was pregnant. Being VERY NEWLY-wed, this was not in the plan. When I asked my husband what we would do, he said, "I suppose we'd get married, buy a house, get full-time jobs, and have a baby." Yes, we were already married, we had owned a house for 9 months, and we both worked full-time jobs, with benefits and the whole nine yards. Point being, ours wasn't the worst situation to bring home a baby.
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The Sex
Tuesday, 14 July 2009 08:51    PDF Print E-mail
As I mentioned before, our decision to grow our family was somewhat sudden, and therefore I hadn't done much research on baby-making. I did know that in order to conceive, we'd need to plant some sperm when I was ovulating. To determine when that would happen, I used an online ovulation calculator. Based on the length of my cycle and the start date of my last period, the calculator listed my five "fertile days" of each month. I took those five days and added seven days before and seven days after, plus a few extra days just in case, and decided that we needed to have sex every day of the month. And twice, if possible.
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The Beginning
Thursday, 09 July 2009 08:15    PDF Print E-mail
I've been picking out names for my unborn children since before I knew where babies came from. The first name I remember choosing for a girl was Khari (pronounced kah-ri). Fifteen years later, I'm not particularly fond of that name, nor the other 26 names I LOVED at one point, before I forgot them too. My husband just ignores me now when I tell him my new favorite name, because he knows it won't be my favorite for long. Like when I told him I wanted to name our first daughter Gretchen, and by the time he decided he could live with calling his daughter Gretchen, I'd moved on to Cecilia. I tell him, I just hope our kids won't mind when I change their names every other year.
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