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It's Really 10 Months - Special Delivery

The Pluses and Minuses of Pregnancy

The Dusty Parachute by Susanne Kerns Books & Entertainment, Career, Family, Parenting & Pets, Memoir-y

Not many people know about the challenges that we had getting pregnant with my son, (who I typically refer to as “The 5 Year Old” in my posts.) In fact, before reading my story, “The Pluses & Minuses of Pregnancy” in the new It’s Really 10 Months – Special Delivery anthology, even many of our friends and family had no idea that we had dealt with secondary infertility and suffered through a series of what our doctor called ‘chemical pregnancies’ before finally getting pregnant with the 5yo.

Unfortunately, the challenges didn’t stop after I got pregnant. Yet we still continued to keep these struggles to ourselves for a variety of reasons.

I didn’t want to worry people.
I didn’t want to make the bad stuff real by saying it out loud.
I didn’t want to sound ungrateful to friends having bigger struggles than mine.
I didn’t want pity.
I didn’t want to jinx anything.

So why did I decide to share our private story with the entire world now?

Because over the years I have learned just how common secondary infertility is and how many women have suffered, or are suffering, the same kind of heartache that we did over our early losses. As I was going through that difficult time, I would have loved to have read a story about someone who had gone through the same struggles that we were going through and to see that a happy ending was possible.

You can find my story and over thirty others by some of my favorite writers in It’s Really 10 Months – Special Delivery.

It's Really 10 Months - Special Delivery

And here’s a little photographic recap of my pregnancy with the 5yo to supplement the story.

The Pluses & Minuses of Pregnancy from It's Really 10 Months - Special Delivery
A couple of days before a scheduled ski trip to Whistler & Vancouver we received the news we had been waiting to hear for a year from our doctor: We’re pregnant! But then, the day before we left, I started bleeding. The doctor’s recommendation: Go on your trip and take your mind off of whatever is going to happen or not happen. (No, I did not ski, I was hesitant to even walk.)

 

The Pluses & Minuses of Pregnancy from It's Really 10 Months - Special Delivery
Even these gorgeous Belugas & my sweet daughter couldn’t ‘take my mind off things.’ After the aquarium we checked into our hotel and 5 minutes after checking in, we checked back out and drove home to Seattle for what would be the first of approximately 8 zillion ultrasounds.

 

The Pluses & Minuses of Pregnancy from It's Really 10 Months - Special Delivery
In the book I talk about the condition(s) that required a pregnancy full of ultrasounds. Seriously, we have dozens and dozens of these. There’s a reason I call my son “the Kim Kardashian of ultrasounds” in my story in It’s Really 10 Months – Special Delivery.

 

The Pluses & Minuses of Pregnancy from It's Really 10 Months - Special Delivery
The fun thing about second babies: by week 12 you look about 6 months pregnant. Or maybe it’s because I was always hanging out in bakeries.

 

The Pluses & Minuses of Pregnancy from It's Really 10 Months - Special Delivery
This photo highlights my least favorite part of both of my pregnancies: Thigh high compression stockings! Look at my right thigh. See the tell-tale dent? I could write an entire post about how crazy, acrobatic, hard it is to get those things on. Plus, despite what people say about ‘cold and rainy’ Seattle, it can get up to 100 degrees….and you have to wear pants & closed toe shoes over those stockings….and there is only one air conditioner in the entire city…..and I had TWO summer babies.

 

The Pluses & Minuses of Pregnancy from It's Really 10 Months - Special Delivery
Click (book) bait: Read my story in It’s Really 10 Months – Special Delivery to find out why under that Mariners shirt I was taped up with various heart monitors connected to a giant recording device clipped to my belt.
PS – You’re probably noticing that I wore that grey Gap cardigan just about every day and you would be right…up until the day that some lady at the Brown Bear car wash in Seattle claimed it as her own. Yes, I’m still bitter.

 

The Pluses & Minuses of Pregnancy from It's Really 10 Months - Special Delivery
One of my 2 friends who knew all about our pregnancy struggles invited us for one final pre-baby weekend of relaxation at her cabin. I’m pretty sure I didn’t move from this position all weekend.
(Note the new cardigan….stupid car wash lady.)

 

The Pluses & Minuses of Pregnancy from It's Really 10 Months - Special Delivery
At last – the big day!  The 5yo when he was a 1do.

 

The Pluses & Minuses of Pregnancy from It's Really 10 Months - Special Delivery
Giving birth to a new life makes you work up an appetite. The first thing I ordered after both of my kids were born: a chocolate milkshake.

 

The Pluses & Minuses of Pregnancy from It's Really 10 Months - Special Delivery
This one is titled: Now that I’ve delivered the baby, can someone help me deliver this hemorrhoid so I can sit down again?

 

The Pluses & Minuses of Pregnancy from It's Really 10 Months - Special Delivery
Fast forward nearly 6 years to the subject of my story holding my story. This goofy little guy is the happiest of endings.

 

The Pluses & Minuses of Pregnancy from It's Really 10 Months - Special Delivery
Buy It’s Really 10 Months – Special Delivery now at Amazon.com or I can deliver signed copies in the Austin area.

It's Really 10 Months - Special Delivery

 

Once upon a time, Susanne Kerns was a Senior Account Director at an advertising agency working for two of the top brands in the world. Nine years ago she traded in her corporate life for a life as a stay at home mom, raising two of the best kids in the world. She started her blog, The Dusty Parachute as a way to dust off her online advertising skills and begin her job search. Instead, she now uses it as a way to spend lots of time on the computer so her kids think that mommy has a job.

Susanne’s essays have been featured in Scary Mommy, BonBon Break and Redbook and she is also a contributor in the books, It’s Really 10 Months, Special Delivery and Martinis & Motherhood – Tales of Wonder Woe & WTF?!

You can follow her on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

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11 thoughts to “The Pluses and Minuses of Pregnancy”

  7. I can totally relate about the compression stockings…they are their own special brand of hell!! Can’t wait to read the book! And FYI, loved this line, “There’s a reason I call my son “the Kim Kardashian of ultrasounds”

    Reply

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