Love this story

Nothing to do with making babies, but this story is about a fabulous Parisian hairdresser to the stars, Lucia Iraci, who once a month offers a bit of glamour and pampering to women from poor districts who are often long-term unemployed or victims of abuse and even slavery. 

Just lovely to read. If I am ever lucky enough to visit Paris again, I would love to get my hair done by Lucia - whether I needed a hair cut or not!
 

Lucia Iraci outside her Paris salon.

Image source: Mindfood

All you need is a good dollop of honey

First period completed post IVF and it was a wild hormone ride!  After being pumped full of progesterone and pregnancy hormones the last three months of 2010, I think my poor reproductive system went into withdrawal - sitting in the corner sucking its thumb while rocking and singing to itself.

So I figured the poor old (no not old - quite young!) thing needed a little bit of a helping hand settling back into a normal routine.

Wanting to stay off drugs (do you blame me?) and after speaking to the famed guru - Swami 'Google' - I came up with a few things I'm starting to do to help my poor harassed hormones settle down.

• Drink red raspberry leaf tea and women's balance tea - red raspberry leaf is supposed to be really good for the uterine lining and balancing hormones.
• Take evening primrose oil (first half of cycle) - helps with the quality of the fertile mucus - and the essential fatty acids are of course good for the brain!
• Eat licorice - Licorice is supposed to help with balancing oestrogen.  You're probably supposed to use supplements, but I've liberally interpreted this to include the molasses sweetened licorice from my local fruit shop. Sooo good.
• Up my honey intake - Honey is of course very healthy but sadly I don't really like it. However, it has a good list of properties that help with ovary function and general reproductive health - so I'm going to LEARN to love it.

I'm hoping that all this, plus a healthy lifestyle and a good dose of time will help get me back on track.

It's alright little hormones...you can stop buzzing around like crazy now...I have some honey for you!

Image source: Hushmouse on Etsy

AND here are some links to the type of info I've been finding. 

http://www.babyhopes.com/articles/herbs.html

http://www.nutritional-supplements-health-guide.com/benefits-of-licorice.html

http://www.babyworld.co.uk/information/trying/getting_body_ready/honey_helps_conception.asp

http://www.gynob.com/fertility-foods.html

One of THOSE stories

A friend recently said to me that I would be one of THOSE stories when I said I was having a break from IVF for a while.

You know the ones where you hear that people have been on fertility treatments for years and then they have a break and BAM! they get pregnant. 

And the confession is I would LOVE to be one of THOSE stories.

I think mine should have a bit of a chick lit flavour to it (happy ever after ending including lots of babies with the man I love), a smattering of fantasy (good vs evil with good winning of course), a dollop of family drama (a la Jodi Picoult) and a good bit of travel adventure (Eat, Pray, Love style - without the love angst and finding a new husband side of things - just the travel).

Who knows...stranger things have happened...

 Image source: thelittlefox on Etsy. Am LOVING her art so much.

Clowning around

I've just read an article headlining - Humour clowns linked to IVF success.  Apparently in a study done by a team of Israeli doctors it was found that the odds of success were greater among women who were entertained by a professional "medical clown" just after the embryos were transferred to their wombs. 

This is hilarious! I'm sitting here imagining Bobo in all his clowning, red nosed, big footed glory jumping around the clinic room popping out a joke or two while I'm sitting there with my legs in the air. (Too bad if you're one of those people who have a phobia of clowns...that would send stress levels sky high!)

However, I'm not that surprised to hear that a bit of a comedy routine could be beneficial in terms of lowering stress levels. And I fully believe that low stress levels could have an impact on success. That being said I swear I was super cool the last three rounds...maybe I need to watch more comedy?

So if we ever end up doing IVF again, I'm definitely going to put in a special request for clowns. Or at the very least, spend the afternoon watching reruns of Friends...

 

Image source: lulisplanet on Etsy When I was looking for clown artwork, I came across so many scary clowns it was a little freaky!  Why can't people draw innocent happy clowns?? I liked this picture because of the sparkly balloons and the clown looked so happy :)

No predictions for 2011

Yesterday, while sipping a glass of cleanskin chardonnay (not a bad drop actually), I cleaned up the Christmas tree packing all the decorations away in their special box. And all the while I was thinking that I'd just put everything up.  Where did December disappear to?  No wait...where did the whole of 2010 go?

It's funny how the start of a new year feels so full of possibility and promise. What is it about the month of January that makes it so different from December? Is it holidays? Is it trying to reverse the effects of the Christmas/new year food binge? (Raise your hand if you fit into this boat *hand raised*)

I'm wondering what 2011 holds for us? The last couple of years I've tried to make predictions about what the year will hold (particularly in relation to the baby side of things...) but this year I have no idea and I'm certainly not making any type of predictions (as I've been so wrong in the  past)!!

I think for me, this year is about making the most of every opportunity and looking for open windows where doors have seemingly closed.  Come on 2011 - let's see what you've got!

Image source: thedreamygiraffe on Etsy

A weary yet faithful heart

Well our little snow people melted away over Christmas and my heart has become a little wearier. 

It's been a big year with a lot of effort and we are quite exhausted from it all so I think we've well earned a break (as has our bank account!).  Time to just be us for a while, not 'us doing IVF'.

Maybe the Christmas miracle is that I had a lovely day with family, ate huge amounts of food (i.e.chocolate) and drank expensive french champagne (I highly recommend the real stuff - it's amazing).

Maybe the Christmas miracle is that we are both healthy and well and best of friends.

Maybe the Christmas miracle is that we still have faith that we will get there in the end...

Image source: JCSpock on Etsy

Gingerbread people!

I just have to show you the gingerbread people I made today (I made other shapes too like hearts, a donut and a guitar for my brother).

I can't say I was the neatest artist ever with the icing and some of them have quite scary expressions...but I had a lot of fun.  The recipe I used was from taste.com.au