Like most mommy’s, I wear my title proudly. I try to remind
myself to enjoy every precious fleeting moment, because becoming “Mommy” wasn't easy.
We tried for 3 years to conceive and finally after 36 months
of tears, we decided it was time to get some professional guidance. I was quickly
approaching that certain age where woman are classified high risk and I just
didn’t want to waste any more time! Lucky for us, one of Kerem's basketball
buddies, Dr.
Aykut Bayrak, just happened to be a leading fertility specialist, so off we
went!
I’ll save you all the gory details, but after months of
tests & exploratory surgery we finally got a diagnosis: A unicornuate uterus. I
was born with only half of a uterus. HUH?! My first response was to completely
melt down into a blubbering idiot, then I wiped the snot from
my nose and ask the doctor, “When do we get started?”
For us, getting pregnant was, popping pills, needling myself
in the stomach and ‘making love’ to a turkey baster on a cold pleather medical
table with a virtual stranger between my legs. Not really my idea of romantic,
but it worked! On the first try!! Then came BEDREST. Well, technically it was
called limited mobility restriction, so not full on bedrest, but I wasn't
allowed to be on my feet for longer than 30 minutes at a time. No exercise at
all. Worst of all, no hiking! Boo!
I had always had this vision of my pregnant self, as I’m
sure most people do, hiking up until my water broke! Yeah, well, I was going to
have to get over that pretty quickly. I decided to look at this as my baby’s
gift to me. Me time. 9 months of it. I started reading, meditating, cooking and just
focused on keeping that little peanut safe inside. I did.
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| Photo by Kerem Hanci |
On March 3, 2011 at 4:28 a.m. my grandmother died. She was my heart. At 10:10 a.m. Vivienne
Emine Hanci was ushered into the world under the watchful eye of her new
guardian angel. I wouldn't have been able to handle it any other way.
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| Hanci-Fontaine Family Photo |
Even before her first breath, much to the dismay of my
mother, we had already planned Vivienne’s first camping trip! Four months
later, our new family unit was nestled together in a lush, green glen in BigSur listening to the lullabies of a babbling brook. We had found bliss.
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| Hiking in Big Sur |
Stay tuned! Next week’s blog will be all about Big Sur, one
of our most favorite places on the planet!
Love it! Keep it up Jen!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Marci!!
DeleteThank you Megan!
ReplyDeleteWow that's really beautiful, thanks for sharing. And unicornuate is an interesting word!
ReplyDeleteThank you Jamie! haha yes, very interesting word! After I was diagnosed, I walked around calling myself a unicorn! :)
DeleteI totally get where you're coming from Jess! I'm 38 and kicking around the idea of having a second baby. The things that keep coming up in my mind are, can we be so lucky the second time around and do I want to be a 40 year old new mommy?
ReplyDeleteMy sister-in-law knows she doesn't want to have kids and I know she feels judged sometimes by her 'breeding' girlfriends. It can be a difficult thing to surmount, but if they are truly your friends, you would think they would understand who you choose to be, with or without offspring!