the monday snapshot – My New Normal

My New Normal of Finding My New Normal is going to open up the week for us with her contribution to the The Monday Snapshot – an evolution of the MMM feature, meant to bring the PAIL blogroll to life by giving its members a chance to feature themselves and make new connections. 

If you would like to be featured on The Monday Snapshot, please sign-up here!

*****

My daughter, who I call “Frostina” on my blog is an avid cruiser. She won’t crawl even though she just turned a year, but she loves to cruise. She can only cruise to the right at the moment so I devised this clever “cruising track.” It goes in a circle so I don’t have to keep getting up to put her back at the start like I did before this idea came to me. I worry a lot that she’s not crawling, but I suppose she may just be one of those babies who skips crawling and goes straight to walking. Today, Frostina figured out she can cruise on the outside of the circle which opens up a whole new level of fun. That Frostina is a clever one.

As you can see, in addition to being an expert “cruising track” maker, I am also an excellent housekeeper. No toys laying all over the place at my house (ha ha). I’m still amazed at how much of a mess a semi-mobile, almost-toddler can make. I apologize for the blog logo covering her face but since I blog anonymously, I never post photos of us where you can see our faces. I hardly ever post photos of Frostina on the blog so even with her face covered, this is a pretty big thing for me.

I’m happy to be featured here today in the Monday snapshot If you are the least bit intrigued by what you read here, then why not come visit me at my blog? I’m always looking to make new connections. Especially now that my journey has moved from being lost in my grief to parenting a living child.

*****

Now, get to know a little more about My New Normal with her answers to the Monday Snapshot “5 Questions”:

1) How long have you been blogging and how did you get started?

I have been blogging for just over two years. I started my blog a few months after losing my son at 36 weeks. I was absolutely devastated and didn’t know what to do or where to turn for help. I needed an outlet for my grief but didn’t know exactly what that would look like. At the suggestion of a friend I started this blog just as I was preparing for our first trip home to see the family since our terrible loss. In the beginning I was just writing for me… literally just for me as no one else was reading. But as time went on I found other women and men just like me, who were struggling with their grief and trying to figure out how to live each day. I found solace in a community of people who were living my nightmare. People who knew exactly what I was going through and people who had lived my nightmare and come out the other side. If not for this blog, I’m not sure where I would be today.

2) Tell us a little about your ALI journey and your family (3-4 sentences):

After about a year of trying for a baby, The Hubby and I were diagnosed with unexplained infertility (which in my opinion is no diagnosis at all). We were also told that we were both carriers for Cystic Fibrosis. It took 6 years of off and on fertility treatments to finally get pregnant with our son. It was a very long and difficult road but we thought we were finally having our “miracle baby.” At 36 weeks pregnant I went in for a growth scan only to be told that our son was no longer alive. I had no idea anything was wrong in the pregnancy. This news was earth shattering. Somehow, despite our grief, we decided to take a huge leap of faith and try again. This time around due to my age and also our genetic issues we decided to use an anonymous egg donor. We got pregnant with our rainbow baby on the second attempt. Our beautiful rainbow baby was born in June of 2012. She is the light in our hearts. We are currently trying to decide if we want to try again for a second rainbow baby or just be grateful for the one we have.

3) What makes you unique in the blogging world? (e.g. special talent, rare diagnosis, life experience)?

I’m not so sure that being unique in the blogging world in an ALI capacity is such a good thing. But I suppose what makes me unique is that I have experienced infertility and a full term stillbirth. I am a fully fledged member of the club that no one wants to join,,, that’s for sure. Plus I’m an American living in London so I’ve had to deal with most of these issues far from friends and family.

4) One word to describe yourself: 

Resilient

5) What blog or website (IF or not) would you recommend to others? Why?

It would have to be Count the Kicks.  If I had been more vigilant in my first pregnancy. If only I had known how important it was to pay attention to your babies movements. Then maybe I would have noticed something was wrong sooner. Maybe I could have saved my son.

*****

As always, we want to see your Monday Snapshot as well, so please comment below with a link to your post– and of course, go visit  Finding My New Normal.

If you would like to be featured on The Monday Snapshot, please sign-up here!

Share. Visit. Read. Comment. Support.