11-11-11

Apparently 2/18 is the perfect day to conceive to have your due date be on a seriously uniform binary day in history.  While yes I think that numbers are really awesome because I am that much of a nerd, and yes I got married on a day that was a combination of squared and cubed numbers in a numeric near-anagram, I believe that if these things just “work out” by the laws of nature then it is cool and meant to be. (As my wedding date did – I certainly didn’t pick because the numbers were all divisible by each other – this was just the day the venue was open and it just turned out kind of neat in the end.)

So the quest for the perfect baby birthday was being reported on cnbc or cnn or whatever “news program” was playing this morning at the gym. (Yes I am now being mentally assaulted and reminded of this all by my morning gym programming – as if hating being on the treadmill wasn’t enough.) They start flashing all sorts of pictures of newborns and then talk about how fertility clinics are getting “flooded with calls” from people who want to have their babies born on 11-11-11.  Needless to say – this got a bit under my skin.

So … To those fertile people who are out bugging REs about getting pregnant on a specific day – I’m trying to say this nicely: Bug off.  Go home, get it on in a few nights, and have your perfect baby with its perfect due date.  Leave the RE doctors alone – they have more important business to attend to.

And to those people for whom it is so darn easy to conceive that they get to just pick a day – let me warn you . . . Babies are usually NOT born on their due date.  Unless one has a scheduled c-section most babies will come whenever they want – and that is rarely when they are expected.  While I understand that maybe people don’t want to have their babies electively on a major holiday (because maybe they don’t want the kid with a costume party or fireworks every year), I don’t believe that by actively choosing 11-11-11 make a child any luckier.  If it works out by luck well than good for you, but honestly, for those people out there described on the news, you should just count your luck when that pee test turns positive and that you get to have a baby after it all.  

This however is lost on the fertile peeps because somehow I am predicting in 10 months I am going to be flooded with stupid non-medically indicated requests for inductions and sections so that people can have their little perfect birthday baby.  When I say “no” because its not medically indicated they will get angry with me because they were “really hoping for” that special birthday.  I wish I could sometimes just tell them that I am “really hoping for” what they are taking for granted.

Even with all the planning of cycles and medications, and call nights and how they line up with insemination days – it never once crossed my mind that I should be aiming 10 months in advance for the perfect day to have a baby.  I of course could have figured this out by looking on a pregnancy wheel (since I look at them 10 times a day anyway), but the truth of the matter is that I don’t really care when I have a baby.  If I am thinking greedily I would like the sooner as opposed to later, if I am thinking honestly I would like it whenever as long as its healthy, but if I am thinking pessimistically I prefer the possible to the impossible variety.

I try to be thankful for what I have and not take it for granted.  This morning I was thinking how much I am thankful to have all body systems functioning appropriately, and this afternoon how wonderfully lucky I am to have my husband and to be spending time with him.  I am not always this focused on what I lack (and when I do think about it I vent here and then feel better and forget about it for a day or two until someone reminds me again), so maybe its my lesson to be thankful today for having you all to vent to and not to take this for granted.  I appreciate the ongoing support. 

Happy Valentine’s Day Everyone – may you all feel love in your hearts that you will share with your families - present and future!