[missy123]

As most of you know I took a 2 month break from these boards and then got my surprise BFP and everything has been such a whirlwind since then.

Now that I am back there are so many new members here and I would like to get to know you all. I know there is a Check in thread, but I would like this to be a little more personal.

So, pretend we are standing in a coffee shop and we are meeting each other for the first time! I am shaking your hand...

Hi My name is Missy and I am 41 years old. I have 3 incredible teenage boys, one who moved out across country recently. I was a single mom raising the boys on my own for 14 years until I met DF. We were just friends for years and then one night we just hooked up and the rest is history!

We would really love a baby of our own but if it doesn't happen that is ok too because we love each other so much we can't imagine life without each other.

We have 3 cats and are moving to GA next year after my middle son graduates high school. After we move we want to buy a dog... Like our lives aren't crazy enough, lol.

And you....

[dreamer10]

If we were in a coffee shop together I would wrap my arms around you and say hi to a great friend I just hadn't met in real life yet......

[AmyLM]

Hi Missy, nice to meet you! I'm Amy and I'm 35. My husband's name is Damien and we will be celebrating our 2 year wedding anniversary on the 27th of this month. We have an amazing (briliant, if I do say so myself) little girl named Allison. She is 14 months old. I cannot imagine life without either one of them. Both of them make the sun shine a little brighter every day. I am a SAHM and wouldn't change it for the world even though I do miss the adult interaction daily. We live in the mountains in California. If it were up to us, we'd move to Montana but right now DH's job needs us here. We have a dog, a yellow lab named Blondie (he's a boy) and Allison loves him more than us put together. We are trying for #2 and God willing, I'll get that sticky bean soon!

Oh, and coffee is my #1 absolute favorite thing to drink. So, it's no wonder we met in front of a coffee shop. lol

[TTCin2010]

I am Karen (28) ive been married to my hubby for 2 1/2 yrs. I am from Scotland, but have lived in the US for 18 yrs. We currently live in a small southern town in GA. I'm a nanny to two little boys as well as a foster parent (taking a break since our MC). My life revolves around children, we cant wait to have a baby of our own. We have three fur babies, Pete, Supd and Lilly.

[MeganMomof5]

What a great idea! I love hearing about other people!!!

My name is Megan, i'm 30 years old...I've been married to my husband Tyler for almost 11 years...We have 4 wonderful children who are my life...Molly is 11 and just started middle school, Chloe is 9, almost 10 and she's in 4th grade...Allison is 7 and in 2nd grade...Jack is my baby boy and he's 4...We also had Ella almost a year ago stillborn...Everyone in our family misses her dearly and we talk about her often...We live in washington state in my hometown, and my husband is from Southern California...We don't really have much of a life, we seem to revolve around the kids which is fine by me...Our kids play sports, mostly soccer...My husband just started coaching Allison's soccer team, so we are pretty busy right now...We have a cat, but she lives at my mom's house...I am a neat freak and I can't handle animal hair lol...My oldest daughter Molly loves animals, her favorite is a dog...I hear from her almost every day about how horrible it is that we don't own a dog, and everyone she knows has one...So I don't see us having any animals any time soon...We've had some fish, but they scare me lol

[ldovey83]

Hi Missy!!! I am Lindsey (but you already knew that) LOL!!! DH is Chris.. We have one son Elijah who right now I consider to be my miracle baby.. We have been trying to conceive #2 for over a yr.. We have had 4 losses, but I know you understand my pain... Right now we are taking a break until I can get the testing that I need to find out what is going on with me.. I am really hating the waiting, and not being able to try.. It is driving me insane. I am hanging out here with all the lovely ladies of TTCAL because they are the only ones who know how I truly feel...

[Halfbaked]

Hi, I'm Rebecca or my family call me Boo which comes from being called Becky Boo as a little kid but I prefer Rebecca.

I've been married for 11 years to my DH who I met online back before it was the thing to do. We have 6 kids, 10 down to 2. I come from a big family (7 of us kids) and have always loved children but I got diabetes when I was 2 and was always told I shouldn't have kids or I'd end up like the girl on Steel Magnolias (I HATE that movie). After I got married, my endocrinologist told me if I was going to have any kids, I better do it while I was still young. That's all it took. My first was born at 35 weeks due to complications and all my kids have come early due to one complication or another. I have just decided that's the only way they were going to get here, although I still dream about having a take home baby. One of my kids was delivered by me, still in the amniotic sack. That's something I wish everyone could see. I was really amazed by the whole experience. Thankfully, the NICU team was across the hall

I've had 2 chemical pregnancies and my MC in July. I never officially introduced myself, went straight to the limbo sub-forum until we decided to not wait 2 full cycles. I haven't temped in a long time so I'm still trying to figure everything out and glad this board is here. I feel like I know a lot of people here even though I'm only seeing glimpses of their lives.

[shen7]

Hi Missy!!! I'm Sarah, 29, I met my husband in graduate school, we're both in the hard sciences and huge nerds!! Haha. Yes, we love Star Trek, but not enough to dress up for conventions or anything. We will have our 3rd anniversary soon. We moved to Mississippi for work one year ago. I was working part-time in hopes of becoming pg and then a SAHM soon, then after the ectopic and my blood loss, I went on a leave of absence. I had been needing a break for awhile anyway, I'm burned out on the science work. I really hope to get pg before I go back in January... we'll see. I've felt for a few years now that my main goal in life is not to make it in my career, but to have a family, and I know someday we will get our kids, one way or another!!

[ohnicole]

Hi Missy (and everyone else)! I'm Nicole. I'm 27, and have been married to DH for about a year and a half now. That also happens to be how long we've been TTC our first (actually we were TTC before we were married, because I'm a rebel like that ).

Once upon a time (like last year ), I was on my way to a PhD in microbiology in Wisconsin. Fast forward through my loss, my little sister's strokes, and my DH's graduation, and I am unemployed in Ohio, doing daily care for my sister, most likely to end up with a Master's degree that I may never use, and still waiting to hold my baby in my arms. It's been a whirlwind, girls, a nasty one!

What gets me through are my amazing DH, my sweet sweet furbabies (and I'm sorry, girls, but they are the cutest EVER ), zoning out watching hours on end of HGTV and Food Network, and all of you lovely ladies on JM.

And I have to say that you are all lucky that it's fall and I can get a hot apple cider, because otherwise you would never catch me at a coffee shop! Ick!

[Delekatala]

Being new, I totally love this thread and getting to know everyone!

My name is Jenny (29) and my husband is Eddy. We have been together for 6 years, married for 4. I am a nerd, I love reading and the internet. I love photos! I am a pro at photoshop, and a hobbyist at photography. I like to do lots of crafts, and crocheting and sewing. I am a diabetic, and work very hard to keep my sugars under control. We already TTC one month with clomid (I do not ovulate), but it was a BFN. Then We took a little break to try to get my sugars a bit better than they were. Our break is done now and we are going to do clomid for our next cycle.

We have 5 kids. My stepdaughters who I help raise after their mother passed away in 2006, Emma is 11 and Teri is almost 9. They couldn't be more opposite, Emma is very anxious and neurotic, and she struggles socially. But she is very smart, she loves to read and play her DS. Teri is a DIVA, she is just full of confidence, and has some self entitlement issues. She loves to have photos taken of her and she adores her baby sister.


My Son Alexander who is 8 on wednesday, he was a one night stand baby (ironic considering all my fertility issues now). I was homeless at the time, and not doing so great. He really turned my life around, I feel I was meant to be a mom. He is high functioning autistic, and a very unique boy. My husband adopted him, and is the only father he has ever known. He loves legos and superheros.


And we have Genevive and Lillian left. They were born in Dec 2008 after a 3 year struggle with fertility. I do not ovulate and we used clomid to conceive. I am a type 2 diabetic which can cause some complications in pregnancy, and around 20 weeks we found out that Lillian wasn't growing properly. Around 23 weeks she started failing her non stress tests and I was admitted to the high risk wing of the hospital. We did Daily BPP (Like and NST and ultrasound in one) and non stress tests 3 times a day, Until at 29 weeks it showed that her cord flow was stopping completely. We did an emergency C-section and my two lovely girls were born. Genevive was Baby A and she was 3lb 1oz. Lillian was Baby B and she was 1lb 13oz.

Stop here for cute photos of my babies!! (Yes I know I am obsessed, just smile and nod)


Genevive Was an awesome feeder, I was afraid she wouldn't leave enough Breastmilk for Lillian! But she had more breathing complications. She was always awake, and very social for a preemie. You could hold her and talk to her for hours, and she would focus her eyes right on you and move her mouth, it was awesome! At 14 days old she got sick with a disease called NEC and at the same time had an infection in her heart. It was to much for her body to handle and she passed away at 16 days old. It was the hardest thing I have ever gone through. She is missed greatly.


Lillian had a lot of feeding issues, but was breathing on her own after two weeks! She was very tiny, but very feisty. She had a bout of meningitis in the NICU, and two weeks later a staph infection, but got through both OK. Her NICU stay was long because she had trouble getting off the feeding tube. But at 67 days old she finally came home at a whopping 4lb 5 oz! She is now 20 months old and 18 pounds. She has a gorgeous personality, but is definitely a little spoiled. She is cute as a button! Here is me, my husband and Lillian.

[missy123]

I love your stories! This is a great thread and one that was long overdue. It is great to "meet" all of you and I am sure that friendships will be developed out of it. There is so much more to our lives than our common bond of loss and TTC.

I am kind of a nerd too and proud of it! At the same time I am very outgoing, talk to everyone on the street. I find people very interesting. I am opinionated and can be a brat when I don't get my own way. Stubborn at times and extremely loyal and loving.

However much I love my career and work, I am secretly jealous of you SAHMoms!

[.:Shortcake:.]

Hi Missy (and everyone else ) My name is Katie and I'm 23. I'm married to the most wonderful husband ever. His name is Matt and he is 25. We met, got engaged within a month and 2 months later were married! We have 6 angel babies and 2 furbabies! I work parttime as a secretary and cant wait till the day I can be a SAHM I am a very outgoing person who loves meeting new people. I recently started my own photography business and can't wait to watch it thrive!

[zkat]

Hey gang! Since I lurk and respond to threads here still, I will add my bio!

My name is Kat and I am 35, DH is 40 and we are expecting our first in Dec. I had a missed M/C last Sept. I am a high risk OB patient due to Celiac (Gluten intolerance), Hashimoto (Auto-immune thyroiditis) and 3 clotting disorders (Protein C/S defciency and Hetro for MTHfR A). I am on Lovenox blood thinners and must go in for NST and BPP every 2 weeks.

DH and I are total nerds and proud of it! We are also big into sports and fitness. I play soccer and run, DH is training for a triathelon. This was my home for a while after the loss because I had complications from the D&C and as most of you all ready know, this is the best group of ladies anywhere in cyberspace. I lurk on other boards and they all lack the compassion that JM has.

Great idea, Missy!

Kat.

[.:Stace:.]

Hi guys!!

I'm Stacey an almost 30 year old Wife, Mom and RN. My husband and I just celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. We are blessed with Carter (5) and Hudson (2.5). We were pregnant but my wee Patrck was born sleeping on March 31 2010. We were very happy to get pregnant again in June 2010 but sadly lost the baby early at 8 weeks. We just got the go ahead to TTC again .... time will tell what happens in our future!!!

So happy to learn about everyone and to get to know everyone

[HopefulMommy81]

Hi Missy and everyone else! Great idea for the coffee shop- I'm loving the new fall returning flavors! I'm Jacque, I'm 29, and I've been married to Jason, 30, since June 20, 2009. We started TTC basically right away but it was more like half-hearted NTNP. I got a BFP right away but it quickly went to a BFN. I hadn't joined JM yet and really didn't know what was going on. I joined JM in August and found out about CP and figured that's what happened to us. I started using OPK's and then started charting in September (wow, a year ago!) and again got a BFP but it again went quickly to a BFN. My OB was then nice enough to do the work-up for multiple m/c even though I'd only had two (usually he waits for three). I am homozygous for the MTHFR A1298C mutation (I think the numbers are right) so I was on 81 mg of aspirin and I've been on 4 mg of folic acid since May of 2009 anyway since I have Spina Bifida myself. We got our sticky BFP on February 18, 2010 (yay!) and I was due October 27, 2010, but our little boy, Matthew, was stillborn on July 1st. I had had to be induced due to the likelihood of an intrauterine infection but we had known for about a month that things didn't look good and Matthew wasn't going to make it. I probably broke my water around 17 weeks (low fluid discovered May 28th) for an unknown reason and Matthew didn't have a chance for his lungs to develop and never would It was the worst experience of my life and I think about him all the time and miss him more than I can describe. I just had more bloodwork done on Thursday and will be anxiously awaiting those results. Jason will be getting his chromosomes analyzed as well even though Matthew's came back normal. We will probably be starting to TTC again around November- I want all of my lab results back that I just had drawn, and also, since I was out for 7 weeks when I was pregnant with Matthew, I need to ensure that I have enough hours in at work to qualify for my full leave when I get pregnant again.
Outside of the TTC world, I am a Pediatric Rehab nurse and I love my job! I love taking care of children and I (most of the time) enjoy teaching the parents/families about how to take care of their child after they are released from the hospital. We live in Fresno,CA, but I'm originally from Maryland. I miss my family a lot, but Jason is from here and we are really close to his family and his mom is a single mom and relies on Jason for a lot of things.
OK, so my intro conversation is REALLY long- sorry ladies! I am so grateful though to have you all and I believe we will all have our babies!

[JesSsica]

Hi, I'm Jessica! I mainly lurk because I'm "on hold" and haven't decided if it's permanent or just temporary. I'm 37 and my dh is 46. We've been together for 5 years and married for 16 months. I have two kids, Madison who is 9 1/2 and Cole who is 8 from my first marriage. The kids' father and I divorced when I found out he is a pathological liar and all of my "reality" was a lie. We tried for 2 1/2 years to get our marriage put back together after I found everything out but could never get past it. I didn't want my kids to think that our marriage was the model of everything right so I made the painful decision to get a divorce. Best and hardest decision I ever made. He's a very angry man though and I don't miss his rage. I do however have my heart broken everytime my kids say that "Daddy's mean" because I know what they are talking about....

My dh, Pat, is a great guy. He's a wonderful role model to the kids and a great husband. We have our share of issues but it's good for kids to see that you can disagree and still love each other. We bought a fixer-upper foreclosed on home three months before our wedding and put blood, sweat, and tears into making it something great. I love it. We moved in on our wedding night. It's still in the kids' school district and only 5 blocks from my old house so it wasn't a huge transition for the kids.

We're still trying to sell my old pre-marital home and that's part of the reason we're still "on hold". We weren't TTC when I got pregnant a year ago, it was a huge surprise, and so we were devastated once we got used to the idea of a baby together only to lose the baby. I was on a mission to get pregnant again then, only to lose that one too. The third try was us deciding we needed to put some time between the losses and trying again but a bottle of wine, the kids being at their dad's house, and me ovulating a week early caused our third pregnancy to happen and I wasn't disappointed. Unfortunately after an u/s scare that ended in good news we lost the baby anyway.

Come to find out I tested high on my anti-Lupus coagulant test so that means if/when we try again I need to take an aspirin a day. So sad to think that a teeny tiny little aspirin could potentially have saved my pregnancies... Anyway, we're on hold until I: 1. lose all the baby/emotional weight I put on as a result of the pregnancies 2. we sell my house so we're not burdened with a new baby and two mortgages 3. I get past my 20 year high school reunion which is next summer. After that we'll see. I'm thinking we may decide against it but stranger things have happened I suppose. Sorry that got long winded!!!! LOL

[missy123]

Your stories are NOT too long and I am loving them. I am so sorry for all of your losses and did not even realize what some of you have been though.

I am so glad we are here for each other!