Infertility: A BIG Part of My Story
My infertility is a huge part of who I am. Infertility caused my husband and me to decide to stop trying to get pregnant and just embrace the childless life that we had. It pushed me to embrace my roles as dog mom and aunt. And because of our infertility, we decided to host an exchange student and found an amazing, extended family through that adventure. But for a long time, I felt alone because I didn’t think there was anyone else like me…
Of course, this simply is not true. There are plenty of us out there who don’t have kids, either by chance or by choice. One morning, my husband said I should start writing a blog about our infertility so I could help others going through the struggle. He told me I should call it “Not So Mommy…” He bought the domain name that day and Not So Mommy…™ was born.
As I started writing my blog, my original intent was to connect with and help those struggling with infertility like we had. An unexpected benefit is that I started making connections of my own. Finally, I truly discovered that I am not alone in my childless not by choice life.
My favorite infertility, childless, canbace blogs
Canbace Diaries – Nicci Fletcher, creator of CANBACE (Creating A New, Beautiful And Courageous Existence), writes thought-provoking blogs which not only give different perspectives about the childless not by choice journey, but also provide practical tools and techniques to help healing and moving forward.
Life without baby– Lisa Manterfield is a self-proclaimed “infertility survivor” and writes insightful blogs about how to live life without children. I’m particularly a fan of “Whiny Wednesdays,” which give childless women a safe place to discuss topics like baby showers, feelings of unworthiness, and how to answer (funny, not funny) questions like, “Do you want my kids?!”
My favorite closed Facebook group
You will be asked to answer a few questions and be approved in order to make sure the group is right for you.
Childless Christians – As a Christian woman, I find freedom to be my authentic self in this group because I am allowed to freely discuss God and my faith. While not all posts are religious, it is nice to be part of a faith-based childless group. (Note: I was asked to become an administrator of this group. As of 15 October 2018, I accepted this role.)
Not So Mommy…™
As for my blogs on Not So Mommy…™, I talk about our diagnosis and our ten year struggle. But more importantly, I try to focus on how I finally embraced (and continue to embrace) my infertility. To do this, I had to redefine momhood for myself. That meant embracing my roles as dog mom, aunt, host mom, and wife.
Although being infertile is a big part of my story, it is only part of my story. Through Not So Mommy…™, I try to show that it is possible to live a joyful, baby-free life– a canbace life. My hope is that my blog inspires and uplifts others to embrace their imperfectly perfect lives, too.
I hope that you’ll Join the Community and embrace this journey with me. Visit and comment often because one thing that makes infertility and a childless life more bearable is knowing that there are others out there just like you…
5 comments
Thank you for sharing your journey. We used donor eggs with treatments and here’s what I wanna say. The following should be taken into account when deciding to use donor eggs: Women over 40 have lower implantation rates, live birth rates, and clinical pregnancy rates. The miscarriage rate is higher. Uterine receptivity declines with advanced maternal age. Hypertension is something that might contribute to reduce the implantation potential. Chances may vary depending on other factors, such as the recipient’s anatomy of the uterus. Using frozen versus fresh eggs. The ages of the donor and the recipient. What is causing infertility on the recipient, etc. Our Dr was so much proffesional to explain all those details to us.
Thank you for your blog. I am finding you at just the right time. I am looking forward to reading through some of your old posts.
Despite the circumstances that brought you here, I am glad that you found Not So Mommy…, too. I truly hope you find the posts helpful. Lots of hugs…
You are not alone! This is wonderful to hear from other people when you do feel very isolated. My husband and I have been dealing with infertility for 15 years. We did have a miscarriage in 2014. We took a 7 year break and pursued adoption. We adopted a sibling group of 3, and just celebrated our 5th year of “forever home” year. We have started trying again. I think we will give it one more year, and be done. Hubby will be 50 and I’ll be 42 almost 43 by then. We know God has a plan we just need to be open to it. Thanks for your blog.
Thank you for reading and for commenting, Jen. How wonderful that you adopted a sibling group! I love to see how God grows families. He grew ours through nieces, nephews, fur babies, and a foreign exchange daughter. It is beautiful to see the different ways family is formed when we are “open to it,” as you said. 🙂