Sunday, April 22, 2012

Don't ignore the pain


During NIAW, bloggers around the nation are uniting to bring awareness to this hidden and misunderstood disease.

One of the biggest things we long for when battling infertility, is for those around us to recognize our pain.

Don't belittle our pain. ("Well at least you are still young.")
Don't ignore our pain.
Don't try to sugarcoat our pain. ("Well at least you get to sleep in on Saturdays.")

I go home every night and make dinner for my husband, then think during our down time about how much I would love to have a little one to be playing with, bathing, dressing for bed, singing to, rocking... the list goes on.

I no longer even enjoy sleeping in. Every Saturday when I sleep late, I wake up and look at the clock, then immediately feel that common bang of sadness hit as I think about how most people my age have been up for a couple of hours by now chasing their kids around.

The ugly truth is, infertility hurts in a million ways and can sneak up on us from out of nowhere. One minute I am laughing as I watch America's Funniest Home Videos, the next I am crying because of the adorable pampers commercial that just went off. One week I am hopeful because a new month has arrived, a new shot at this. 2 weeks later an even greater hope comes along. Then, another 2 weeks go by and a negative pregnancy test marks yet another month passing without our dream coming true.

It's hard. It's an emotional roller coaster. And above all, it's lonely. It's lonely because people either a) don't know what to say, so they chose to avoid us and say nothing. Or b) they were great supporters to us for a while and have gotten tired of trying to be there for us month after month. There's also the fact that all of the people we really love spending time with, have their own kids, which on most days it just hurts too much to be around.

So please, stop ignoring our pain.

Just be a listening ear or a shoulder to cry on.

1 comment:

  1. Oh girl... this post hits home for me 100%! After making our struggle public we thought we would be surrounded by love and support. And other than a few close friends and family members we have never felt more lonely! I wish we lived closer together! Keep on keeping on!

    ICLW #1

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