The Plan

Hot - again. The house just isn't cooling down anymore... But Riss has a pool and we have a key!

So, another super positive post... (I just read over the last one and realised what a ramble that was about the joy of hormones... but, oh well... it really does make me happy!)

I wanted to write about how much love and excitement and happiness we get when we tell people about the prospective baby making. The joy it seems to being people is so lovely... and quite a bit flattering. It's a pretty big compliment that people think its a good idea for us to make a whole new person! Joey's cousin (most recently) and Steph (most ongoingly) are especially generous with their excitement and happiness. It's such a nice feeling, and although I'm sure we will get a few funny comments at some point, this seems to be the nicest start we could hope for.

I am also flattered (and surprised!) by how interested people are by HOW it's all going to work. I never thought that other people would be so interested in us and sperm and precisely how we are thinking Joey will fit in after the baby is born. But it's good... the more I've explained it, the less I feel like the awkwardness of the whole thing is totally insurmountable.

So, this is what we are going to do. Joey and Helen live a good seven hours drive away, so first and foremost, there is going to be a lot of travel involved - unless we get pregnant really quickly (but I'm not silly enough to count on it). I think we will share the travel, sometimes going there, sometimes them coming here. We've considered adding some trashiness to the whole thing by splitting the drive and getting a highway motel at the halfway mark. Imagine... 1970s decor.

The travel will be tricky to schedule because I can't plan to ovulate on a weekend but on the months I go there it'll just have to mean taking a couple of sick days which I'm finally starting to accumulate now that I don't catch every bug the kids bring to school.

Then, Joey will hand over the sperm and I'll put it in the right place with a medicine syringe. God knows how exactly we'll do the handover. That's the most awkward part. I honestly can't visualise that bit yet.

After that, it's all exactly the same process as usual, just wait with all your fingers crossed. Apparently there is no disadvantage to doing it with a syringe in terms of your chances, the little guys don't care about their little time in the jar and they are happy to swim regardless of how they get put in place. One thing to know: I've never seen sperm before in my life.

Then... A baby! Hooray! Anyway, thanks everyone for all you good vibes - it makes me feel pretty special!

K.

Mid-cycle happy

The weather is hot and oppressive feeling. One of my lovely boys at school told me that there was going to be a thunderstorm tonight, he seemed very excited about it. We were watching the ants together, swarming the handball squares in that funny thunderstorm way.

I am pretty much bang in the middle of my cycle and, as usual, feeling ridiculously pleased with myself and amazed at how effortless and robust the hormonal shifts and balances are that happen each month. I am so excited every time to see all the signs of fertility magically unfolding and coming together - it makes me think of acrobatics, or dance, that same sense of swooping glorious timing. I remember feeling exactly the same way when I got my period properly after I started eating again at 18, so pleased to find that my body knew what it was doing despite everything I'd put myself through. What a cool thing to have, this magic cycle happily playing out in my body as I just go about my week!

This would be a good cycle to get pregnant in, if we were trying yet... Ovulation on a weekend is far more convenient than midweek for the 7 hour trip we're going to be doing each time!

Back to school

Day one, Prep 2013! Cool and blustery, with a sunny time in the middle of the day.

First day of Prep was a success, only tears from one child (I'm not sure how the parents went, the Assistant Principal bundled them out once we'd got the kids in and singing Wheels on the Bus) and everyone seemed to have a good time! Five year olds are lovely, lovely creatures, I felt pretty lucky to have my job today, when they asked questions with such serious little faces, or cracked themselves up laughing when they were jumping from square to square on our carpet.

Recently an Australia Party hopeful in Victoria went public with this: "Paedophiles will be next in line to be recognised in the same way as gays and lesbians and get rights... I don't want gays, lesbians to be working in my kindergarten. If you don't like it go to another kindergarten...". Ouch! Welcome back to school everyone!

Thankfully for my injured feelings the paper published this in an opinion piece a couple of days later: "Christ almighty it must be frightening to be homophobic. I have my own issues with anxiety, so I can sympathise with the persistent and inexplicable sense of impending doom that must plague these people. But even with this insight, I can’t begin to imagine what it must be like to hold a worldview in which the gays are forever lurking in a corner, waiting for the opportunity to explode our traditional way of life in a cloud of glitter and amyl before snaffling away our kids like the Pied Piper and marching them over some kind of horrible gay cliff. Being dogged by such thoughts must be utterly exhausting." Ha!

Xox, the lesbian kindergarten teacher.