Noelle Dreams & Beyond

Here's an excellent article on the chemical BPA, about which I've posted previously, from Seventh Generation's latest e-newsletter: Bisphenol-A Gets Another “F” in Health *In Infertility Blog Land, TTC = Trying to Conceive.

Lately I've been wondering how long a person can wait for something she wants so desperately without risking her sanity. I was lamenting to Chris that this wait for Noelle is not normal. It's not normal to be on the verge of becoming a mother and to feel like you're a mother in your heart, yet without a child, for years on end. It can't be healthy, and there's no way one can prepare for this. For most people it takes no more than a year to have a child -- a year to learn about becoming a parent, a year to create the nursery and stock up on baby gear, a year to save up and buy the video camera, a year to do all the "last before kids" things, a year to savor the moments of one-on-one time with your spouse, a year to dream about everything that's to come in so little time....But not for us. Sometimes I'm OK with this. I imagine there's a bigger plan that perhaps I can't comprehend, but that I can trust. And then sometimes I feel like I...

We had our follow-up appointment yesterday with the reproductive endocrinologist to discuss the test results from last month, and we got really good news overall. One of my hormone levels is a little high, but all the other tests came back normal. We are really lucky. Both my dear doctor friend Meghan and my doctor are optimistic about our chances of conceiving again. We are of course quite relieved to hear this, especially in light of our growing timeline for Noelle (it's looking like fall of 2009 at this point) and the seemingly impossible task of obtaining our fostering license. The latest news in foster land is that I got an email from our licensing worker last week, one week after she said I'd have the license (glad I didn't hold my breath!), and she had figured out that our paperwork was now being held up because the old background check form was used instead of the new one. "Excuse me?" I wanted to say - "You're preventing a child from having ...

This is not the easiest post, so please bear with me. I'm explaining this as best I can as a non-scientist. I urge you to read on. Recently, I emailed friends and family members about the dangers of plastics, both to the environment and to physical health (which are ultimately one in the same, though that's another topic). The main message I wanted to share in this recent email is that there is a substance in some plastics of the #7 variety, (i.e. polycarbonate, the "good" hard stuff of which many water bottles are made) called BPA, short for Bisphenol A, that is harmful to the body. (Note: Others to avoid are #'s 3 and 6, but for this post I want to discuss BPA.) What is most alarming is that the majority of baby bottles on the market are made of the BPA-laden polycarbonate plastic. (For safe alternatives, see Born Free .) I first learned about BPA several years ago following my first miscarriage and a subsequent surgery. This surgery involved removing my...

I've got that uneasy feeling again. It tends to show up when least expected. I found out from Chris upon returning from my weekend with family that he has to have his fingerprints redone for our foster parent certification. They must have gotten lost, the licensing worker has informed us -- it's been two months since we had them done and a month since our paperwork should have gone to the state for approval. What the heck??!??!? Did it really take two months to figure this out??? And how did they get lost anyway??? We literally got them done 2 minutes apart, and somehow mine showed up within days at our licensing worker's office, and Chris' never arrived, yet no one thought to check into this until we basically forced the issue. GEEEZZZZ!!!!!! I realize it's not such a big deal for Chris to go downtown and be fingerprinted again, but it's just ONE MORE THING in an ever-growing mountain of delays to parenthood. Couldn't we get a break just once? Afte...