It's National Infertility Awareness Week

Before this little mister was born in 2013...

...We started trying to have a baby in 2011.

As the months dragged on we eventually had to see a fertility specialist and learned that I have hypothalamic amenorrhea.  This is the hard-to-pronounce way of saying the brain doesn't send the right signals to the ovaries to produce follicles, an egg never ovulates, and there is never a chance to become pregnant.  Or something like that.

The common causes for this are overexercising and/or undereating.  But it seems that for some of us just being "on the thin side" can be enough to keep things from working properly.  As soon as I found out there is an exercise/body fat connection though, I quit running and gained 13 pounds.  Anything for the cause!

I am very lucky for two reasons.  First, this is a very treatable form of infertility.  Second, I responded beautifully to medications when I did start taking them.  We never had to pull out the "big guns" like hormone injections or IVF.  Oral medications were enough to coax my sorry reproductive system into actually doing something.  And it only took three months to get pregnant once I started taking the meds.  In the world of infertility, this is really awesome.

Unfortunately 1 out of 8 couples is diagnosed with infertility.  So chances are you know one.  And if you know you know one, you should give them a hug.

I know many others will not get results as quickly as we did.  But on this week of infertility awareness, here's to wishing everyone their much-deserved happy ending.

Down with Toys

I've had a feeling that toys are overrated.

Consider that Fisher Price didn't exist when Albert Einstein and Marie Curie were born.  How did they ever become famous physicists without loud plastic light-up battery-sucking toys?!

 Too many toys at my place?  Never!

So this article Why Fewer Toys Will Actually Benefit Your Kids really appealed to my simple, frugal, urban-living-in-a-tight-space side.  It says that fewer toys make kids more creative, resourceful, and appreciative of the finer points in life.  And as an added bonus they get to live in a less cluttered home.  Okay, that last one is for me.  But still.

Babies seem to be quite entertained by non-toys anyway.  You want to know what my 7-week-old's favorite "toys" are?  These picture frames.

Pretty exciting, huh?

No really, he loves them.   Check this out.

Tiger Cub can thoroughly amuse himself for up to 30 minutes at a time with these things.  I can get dressed and eat breakfast while he's still pumping his little legs and chatting it up with the picture frames.  We assume it's either the light/dark contrast that gets him going or he really wants to go to Africa.

Either way, it's a cheap space-saving form of entertainment.

On a related note, thanks to Facebook, I now know that for Easter you're supposed to give your child a basket full of candy and soccer balls.  Even if the child is only three days old.

Sorry Tiger Cub, Mommy wasn't in the loop on that one.  Maybe next year.  Big emphasis on maybe.

Tiger Cub did get all Baby Gapified for Easter courtesy of Grandma Gigi.

This is him wearing his first outfit - khaki pants and a sweater - that doesn't fall into the "pajama" category.  Super stylish.