7dp5dt...Happy MD to me (*rolls eyes*)

I guess I could POAS already - especially if my test is supposedly so sensitive to HCG - but why torment myself with a negative on Mother's Day?

Besides, I'd rather pretend to be pregnant today - maybe it's the only real MD I'll ever have. (This isn't a plea for sympathy; again, just bein' realistic.) Pretending is not that hard: the drugs are messing with me. Yesterday I had (the mildest) nausea, abdominal crampiness, sore bbs, and an overheated body. But, really, none of it's anything to get excited over: I double-checked the s/e of Estrace and Prometrium, and everything I have can be blamed on those dang supps.

There is just no way to know for sure until the beta(s).

I hate Mother's Day, incidentally, partly because it's just a big fat commercial grab. I have never made a big deal of MD; instead, I try to be nice to my mom all the time. I do things for her, call her, take her shopping, wash the dishes for her, etc. Isn't that nicer, anyway? So I will phone my mom tonight and talk with her for an hour, and I know she'll like that better than a bouquet of flowers. I'm not cheap, incidentally. I'd just rather spend money and time on people in different ways.

The other reason I hate MD is because, really, our society does not value mothers, and it hasn't for at least the last 2,000 years (e.g., read Adrienne Rich's Of Woman Born). Mothers are among the most overworked and undervalued people around. One day out of the year to 'honour Mother' is not enough.

You want to honour moms? Why not:
a) support teen moms and single moms? E.g., if we want to be pro-life, and encourage women and girls with unexpected pregancies to birth their children and then either raise them themselves or place for adoption, we have to start giving emotional and financial support to this issue. Put the $ where the mouth is. Everyone's got an opinion, but how many people are actually doing anything about it?;
b) have a funded public daycare system, so that women who don't want to be SAHM (or who are feeling extremely overwhelmed) can get out of isolation?;
c) change the public attitude toward 'biological' children and 'adopted' children so that infertility doesn't have to be a big effing secret, and so that adoption could be a first choice for everybody, not just infertiles?;
d) give infertile women a public and ritualized way to grieve failed cycles and miscarried and stillborn children, so that their sorrow is publicly recognized rather than being a big fat dirty secret?
e) realize that it's not just 'birth moms' who are mothers? Where, in the word 'Mom,' are the adoptive moms, the aunts, the sisters, the female cousins, the teachers, the friends, and Mother Earth? We've got to re-broaden the definition of motherhood. You all know as well as I do that in our hearts, which are situated above an empty uterus, we are mothers, too. We've chosen a very long, hard, and heartrending road to get to a child. If that doesn't make a Mom, I don't know what does.

THAT all would show Mom (I'm speaking abstractly here, of course) that we love her and ourselves.

This is my rant, and I'm proud of it. :)

Maybe I'm contradicting myself here, but I do have a most beautiful MD story to share. Remember the hilarious movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding? (If you haven't seen it, what are you waiting for?) The very talented writer and star, Nia Vardalos, struggled for years with infertility. Eventually a three-year-old girl was placed for adoption with her and her husband (Ian Gomez, from Felicity), and they are overjoyed. She wrote a an immensely touching piece about it for People magazine, including a gorgeous story about her priest's blessing of the child. I encourage you to read it, if you're able.

Happy MD to you, today and every day.