Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes: Happy 1-Year Blogoversary

Today marks one year since we began this blog, although it feels honestly like years have passed since we began writing. So much has happened on our trying to conceive (and more importantly, stay conceived) journey, as well as on professional and personal fronts.

We originally conceptualized this blog as a quasi-dialogue between Will and me, where we would each post our takes on various situations and discuss the differences and the similarities in our takes on our situations - hence the title of the first post: If Men are From Mars and Women are from Venus, Maybe Babies are from Pluto?

I miss those days. Will wrote a lot at the beginning, but over the last several months, his posts have trickled off, in part because he never felt like his posts got much comment. (I disagree, but hey, I'm from Venus, so what do I know?) But despite his lack of active participation of late, he and I discuss the blog and he reads all of the posts, contributes to the Hallmark Rejects, and reads every single one of your comments. And more important than any of that, he's still my active partner in all of this infertility madness, going to see the miscarriage wizard and the Colorado wizard, attending ultrasounds and blood draws. He's a champ, really. Everything I could hope for in a life partner.

A year ago, we were about to embark on IVF number three, which seemed like a lot of IVFs to go through at the time, but now looking back seems like really not so many. We were nervous, but hopeful. Although we didn't say it, we were fairly sure that we would succeed and thought we'd just drawn the short end of the statistical stick a few times. Because although everything had turned out so badly with two IVF cycles and three losses in a year, we made bunches of good-looking embryos. We'd have to get our day in the sun, right?

Right?

Of course the way things look now, we are not so sure. Amazing how many things can change in a year, most of all your perspective. It may only have been 365 days, but it's been a much longer journey psychologically.

But here we are, one year later. Still here. Still standing. Still loving each other fiercely.

In honor of today's blogoversary, we've compiled a partial catalog of our past year. Thanks for being there to share these moments with us.

With a nod to DAVs, we thought of the song Seasons of Love from Rent which asks, "In five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes, how do you measure a year in the life?"

We measured this year in

One hundred ninety four blog posts
One decade since cancer
Three IVF cycles
Eleven transferred embryos
Two much desired pregnancies
One doctoral degree
One transcontinental adventure
One heartbeat
Two miscarriages
Two broken hearts
One amazing god-daughter
One post-doctoral grant
One beautiful puppy
Ninety thousand six hundred and eighteen unique visitors (wow)
Countless comments from all of you

So Happy Birthday, blog.

And thank you to all of you. Truly. You've given us so much strength and hope throughout the last year. Your presence - and your comments and thoughts - keep this blog alive.

Mo