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The New Year is upon us, and I just wanted to talk a bit about resolutions.
Instead of creating your own version of “lose weight; exercise more,” how about making this the year that you think outside the resolution box, and resolve instead to make YOU a priority.
This means that if you’re wishing for a baby, keep your expectations in check, and make your emotional and physical well-being a priority.
One way to do this is to make a list of several things you really enjoy doing for yourself, like getting a pedicure, browsing a bookstore, or taking a morning stroll. Then make a resolution to do at least one of these each week. Keep your eyes opened for new things to add to your list.
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| Okay, I have to say that I don’t speak Bulgarian and I have no idea what this advertisement says about my new book, I Am More Than My Infertility, but I was just excited to see it available on a Bulgarian website and wanted to share it with you. | ||||||||||
цена за доставка
Have you noticed the new map on the left-hand column of our I Am More Than My Infertility blog?
We just added this feature to the blog. Every time a new visitor comes to the blog, her geographic location (general area, not physical address) shows up on the map. Our map has only been in place a few days; and only updates once each day. But we are excited to already see blog readers from all around the world.
Thank you ClustrMaps (r) for this handy and interesting addition to our blog and thank you to all our readers for visiting!
For all of you who hoped to have a baby, or at least be pregnant by now, the holidays can be an especially challenging time. With Christmas and the New Year already here, here are some of holiday plans that my clients have shared:
- Lisa and Mark are accepting an invite to a very casual dinner party on Christmas Eve. The couple who is hosting has really been there for them during their fertility struggles. They feel very supported and safe with them.
- Nadine and Carlos feel compelled to attend the big hoopla of Christmas festivities that his mom hosts annually. But they’ve made an agreement in advance that they are cutting out early, and going to their favorite little cafe to enjoy a drink and some jazz.
- Lucinda and Bernie have decided to grin and bear all the traditional Christmas festivities that their extended family shares each year. For Lucinda, this is truly a bittersweet experience, because she adores her nieces and nephews. Come December 26, though, they’ve booked tickets to a ski lodge in Colorado, where they’ll welcome in the new year.
Whatever it is that you decided to do for the holidays, please just give it some thought and make your own well-being a high priority in your choices. Even if they are not what you dreamed, the holidays are still yours to create, and even celebrate, in your own way.
As you know, Linda and I are celebrating the publication of our new book, I Am More Than My Infertility. It is very exciting to us to see it available in places additional to 
our website www.IAmMore.net.
So we always like to say “thank you” to booksellers, like Amazon and others who help our book reach more women. Today we are saying a very special thank you to Boone Bridge Books for making our book available to their customers.
The founders of Boone Bridge Books are descendants of some of the first pioneers to reach Oregon by wagon train. Today the company carries on this pioneering spirit by offering quality books to their clientèle, whom they describes as, “loves books and the power reading can bring to our lives.”
We are proud that I Am More Than My Infertility is available through Boone Bridge Books.
They call it the “Miracle Chair”
A few days ago, I was channel surfing the morning news, and came across an interesting segment on the CBS Early Show. In Naples, Italy, a phenomenon involving thousands of people is taking place. There, the walls of a small room inside the church are covered in birth announcements; blue for boys and pink for girls, from women who were previously unable to have children.
Pilgrims to the church wait in line until after mass to sit in a chair and be blessed by a cross that they believe is linked to fertility. The chair, which is 200 years old, is said to be the place where a nun, Saint Maria Francesca of the Five Wounds of Jesus, spent the last days of her life. Saint Maria is so named because she is believed to have borne the stigmata, the wounds that Christ suffered on the cross. The cross, a relic containing her bone and hair, is said to promote fertility.
No one knows why this is so, but the first of two miracles attributed to this saint holds a clue. According to the story, one day, while Saint Maria was changing the clothing of an icon of the infant Jesus, the folded arms of the icon opened into an embrace.
Saint Maria Francesca was the first female saint of Naples. She lived in a convent in the Spanish Quarter after fleeing an abusive father and a forced marriage.
There is one little caveat to the blessing, though. Sister Juliana, whose role it is to bless the pilgrims, begins the process by asking each woman a question. “Do you have a husband?” According to Sister Juliana, when it comes to asking for the intercession of a saint, first things first.
Is anyone out there aware of any other sacred places or rituals that are said to promote fertility?
Have you seen this music video? The artist is Jamaican artist Lady Saw (Marion Hall) and is titled, “No Less Than A Woman”. This is from her album that came out in April, 2007, called “Walkout”.
According to Vee, who writes The Sweet Life Blog, Lady Saw wrote this song after her second miscarriage. Visit The Sweet Life Blog, to learn more about this talented Jamaican musician.
My co-author, Linda J. Parker, with whom I wrote my new book, I Am More Than My Infertility, and I want to share a helpful resource with you. Katrina Wilton and Sabrina Holmes, both from Australia, have done an excellent job creating a program designed to help empower all women.
We think you will be as impressed with their six-week online program, called Personal Power for Women, as we were.
If you want to find out more, Click Here!
Aaron and Malky Benedict are a couple from Brooklyn, NY who have had more than their share of infertility heartache.
Married in 1993, it took them 4 years plus medical assistance to become pregnant. Tragically, at 9 months, their daughter was stillborn. Shortly afterward, they became pregnant naturally, and in 2000, their daughter Rivky was born. For the last five years, they have been trying for a second child, only to experience a miscarriage in June of this year.
Yet, this amazing couple have taken their grief and transformed it into a resource for others.
Now in their 30’s and struggling with secondary infertility, their podcast called, “Second Time Around” features news, resources and information for others who are strugggling to create a family. When they asked me to be a guest on their show on November 21 to talk about my new book, I Am More Than My Infertility: 7 Proven Tools for Turning a Life Crisis into a Personal Breakthrough, I was delighted and honored.
Check our their website and podcasts on www.infertilitycast.com or www.benedictfamily.org.
When you’re waiting for a baby, the holidays are an especially difficult time. A couple of years ago, I helped Conceive Magazine come up with some concrete ways to create holidays you can actually enjoy. Here are few tips:
- No matter how busy you get during the holidays, don’t lose sight of your relationship. Make it a point to plan at least one date a week with your husband or partner. The only goal is fun: no talking about work, money OR any attempts to conceive.
- Put a little money aside each week for your gift list: not for other people, but for you. Then, when the holidays get close, pick at least one thing from your list you can buy for yourself. Take the time to gift wrap it beautifully. Then no matter what happens in December, you’ll have at least one gift you’ll love.
- Avoid malls during peak hours, especially the weekend. Steer clear of Santa, and of any shopping fanfare that is difficult for you right now. Consider shopping on line or via catalogs.
If you have any suggestions, or experiences of what has worked for you, please share! Go to the comments section of the I Am More Than My Infertility blog, and post your comments.
Writing this post made me think about some things that my co-author and writing partner, Linda J. Parker, said in our new book. In the final chapter of I Am More Than My Infertility, Linda and I each tell our own very personal stories. In hers, she talks about the experiences of one particular Christmas and how they changed her life. But when you read it, get your tissues, because it is a very touching story.
Experts have long suspected that there is a link between diet and fertility. Now there’s strong scientific proof.In a landmark Harvard Nurses’ Health Study, nurses who ate more of some foods and less of others had a higher risk of ovulatory infertility, meaning they had more difficulty conceiving because of infrequent ovulation. The current issue of Woman’s Day Magazine reported some of the findings of this study, which can also be found in the new book, The Fertility Diet by Jorge Chavarro, MD, and Walter C. Willet MD.
Here are few of their recommendations:
- Choose whole grain products, like brown rice and whole grain bread, over white flour options.
- When eating protein, choose plant sources such as beans, eggs and nuts, or animal sources whenever possible.
- Avoid transfats and choose mono and polyunsaturated fats found in peanut, canola and olive oil, seeds and nuts.
- Include whole milk products in your diet, one or two servings a day.
For everyone who followed the courtship and marriage of TV’s Bachelorette Trista to Ryan Sutter, here’s a great podcast in which Trista talks about her 2-year journey to pregnancy and the birth of her son.
Baby Max, born this past summer, will celebrate his six-month birthday a few days after Christmas. But despite his parent’s storybook romance (or reality TV’s modern-day version of a storybook), Trista’s path to motherhood came with a few challenges.
Set aside some time to enjoy this podcast as Trista and Conceive magazine founder, Kim Hahn, “girl talk” about everything from Max’s nursery decor to Trista’s delivery and her pre-pregnancy use of the OV Watch to help her understand her fertility cycles.
Use this link to take you to the podcast, then kick back and enjoy Trista’s story. You’ll feel like you are getting an update from an old friend.
