Antenatal class catch-up

Yesterday four of us Mums from our antenatal class met up. There are actually more of us around from our original class, but it is hard to find a time that suits everytime. But I preferred meeting up in a smaller group for selfish reasons - I just didn't want to face another roomful of MOTs. So in the end there were two of us MOOs and two MOTs. The other Mum is a MOO for tragic reasons - she lost her husband to cancer two years ago.

I hadn't seen the two MOTs in over a year, so their second children had grown from babies to toddlers. It was hard, but I still enjoyed catching up with everyone. Probably the hardest thing to see everytime I see a couple of siblings together is the family likeness. It just seems as though having two children is the most natural thing in the world when they come out with similar features - all part of nature and the cycle of life and all that.

One of the MOTs revealed to me that it took her a couple of years to conceive her first child. She passed on the name of some fertility specialists - Fertility Associates that helped her. I googled them. At first glance they seem to have done all that my gyno has, but she reckoned in her case they were on to it and did lots of blood tests to determine that she was ovulating a week later than the norm. Something her gyno missed. I know I have erratic cycles and am sure I've ovulated very late in the past. The trouble with the day 21 progesterone test is it only works if you ovulate around day 14, otherwise ovulation won't be picked up.

I always think you are given information when you are meant to receive it. So I will phone this MOT to get the phone number for the fertility specialists as she suggested. There wasn't a local phone number (as in South Island) listed on the web site.

The same MOT also said when she was TTC in the long-term she had to find a Plan B that was just as good. It is hard for me to think of something that could replace another biological child right now. But I do know that kind of thinking helps. I have applied it to my life before. So I guess I am in the process of finding my own Plan B.

I have been thinking a lot about returning to work full-time and becoming the breadwinner. The idea appeals in some ways yet thinking about it only highlights all the things I would miss as an at-home Mum. But I will continue to keep an open mind. It doesn't have to be for the long-term - perhaps just for a year.