the one when we send out announcements

We told our immediate family in person, in special ways for each of them, after that first ultrasound.  Once we had the second one at 9w5d, we ordered announcement cards to tell our extended family and friends.  Some might say this is too early.  There’s a family event coming up that pushed us to tell a little earlier than we would have otherwise, but we talked about it and decided we were comfortable enough to go ahead.

Like many, I’m sure, I have been thinking about how to make this announcement for much longer than we’ve known, and even longer than we were actually trying.  Once we found out about our infertility, I knew I wanted to share our news in a way that acknowledged our infertility, and was sensitive to others who may be suffering.  I found an image on Pinterest from a ‘viral’ announcement that I liked.  And I had never seen it make the rounds, so I just figure most of our people probably haven’t either.  So I made a similar one with our own ‘stuff.’

I think it does a good job of showing something that people don’t talk about.  It’s a peek into what we had to endure.  Here’s the front of our announcement card:

The lighting isn’t the best, sorry.  But as you can see, I used a onesie from Etsy designed for our sort of situation, the picture of our blastocyst before it was transferred (which is framed on our coffee table), the 9 week ultrasound picture, and all of my used syringes.  I included some prescription bottles from my metformin, and some of the empty PIO vials.  I didn’t keep those in the beginning, so that’s not even everything.

And the back:

As you know, we took this picture after our 9 week appointment at the park.  And you know the story behind that tshirt.

We want to be open to others who might be going through infertility, or be close to someone who is.  Even if they don’t reach out to us, maybe it will just make them feel less alone to know someone in real life has been there.

When it comes time to share on facebook, I’ll do something similar.  I might use that same top picture in it.  And I haven’t settled on the wording (has anyone forgotten that I’m a planner?), but I have the basics of what I want to say.  I’ll share that when the time comes as well.

As I was just writing that last paragraph, I got my first all caps, excited text from my cousin who apparently just checked her mail.  That was a pretty great feeling.  I’m hoping DH and I get more of those as the night goes on.