Life List

I have been wanting to post this for a long time, but I couldn't figure out what to call it and kept forgetting to actually write these things down. I was finally inspired by this blogger to get my butt in gear and also to call it a life list. Perfect. I've been keeping a running list in my head of things I really want to do, you know, someday. And my blog is the perfect place to keep the list. If you look at the top of my blog, under the header, you'll see a new page called "life list". There you'll see my life list. Crossed two things off last year! I'm sure I will add more things as I think of them. What's on your list?

I found the blogger linked above through ICLW, which is International Comment-Leaving Week. It's something that happens in the ALI (Adoption, Loss & Infertility) community every month. I have never participated before, and honestly, I am sort of regretting it. It says it's open to everyone in the blogosphere, but in a lot of ways I feel a bit like an infertility community poser. My blog is not an "infertility blog", but I have been frank about my journey to conception here and infertility is what first drew me to the blogging community, searching for others with similar issues and getting captivated by the stories of others. I was diagnosed with PCOS and told that I would need to take Clomid. (This diagnosis later turned out to be wrong.) Instead, I gave a big fat metaphorical middle finger to my MD and started working with a naturopathic doctor. I was able to conceive naturally after getting my thyroid in balance, taking approximately 900 supplements, and eliminating pretty much every thing I liked to eat or drink. But 14 months of TTCing (trying to conceive) is a drop in the bucket compared to most of the infertiles in the blogosphere, and giving up gluten, caffeine, and sugar is small potatoes compared to IVF. Hell, even taking Clomid would have been small potatoes! (And BTW I am in no way advocating that anyone should take the route I took. It was right for me as a first option, and luckily it worked for me and we didn't have to go further, but I think fertility treatments are one of the (maybe the most) mind-blowing and awesome advancements of modern medicine. I have absolutely zero judgment to anyone who took Clomid or did any kind of treatments.) The thing is, when you're in the midst of it, you just don't know how long you'll be TTCing or if it will ever end with a child, and every month, every day is difficult. Honestly, the months of TTCing were the hardest and darkest of my adult life. And technically, infertility is diagnosed after 12 months of TTCing without a pregnancy, so technically I fit the bill, but just barely. I don't know why I feel compelled to be a part of the ALI community, but somehow I am drawn there. And I love to talk about fertility, especially natural fertility boosters, and all of the things that I wish someone had told me before I ever started trying. If any of you readers out there are struggling through TTCing, I definitely recommend talking about it or finding someone else who is going through the same thing, whether that's in real life or online. Keeping it inside was a terrible decision for me, and I think it's part of what made it so difficult.

Anyway, if you're visiting from ICLW, welcome! My daughter is 14 months old. We cloth diaper and do all kinds of other green things. I'm on a journey to be more green, simple, and holistic, which I can pretty much trace right back to my journey towards conception when I realized that many of the choices I was making could potentially be impacting my fertility. Of course once I got the BFP, I ramped it up a few notches, and it's been history from there. And, actually, now that I write that, I realize that that may explain why I feel so drawn to the infertility community, because that is where my green journey started, and that's such a vital part of who I am now. Interesting. Also, I love to sew and make things I find on Pinterest, and we are sort of thinking about #2, but I am trying to last in my baby bubble for as long as possible and trying to be much more zen about the whole thing next time. That pretty much means that I'm in denial that it may take awhile and basically have no urgency about the whole thing. I'm sure I will regret that at some point, but for now, chasing my toddler around is working for me. Thanks for stopping by.