Families, eh, who'd have em?
Have missed out on a few posts, so trying to catch up.
Confused - hope the photo collecting is going ok, and that 'S' is recovering from any ill effects following his first chemo session. . It's exciting that you have got your appointment through - surely you must be on Stage 2 or 3 by now! Even if you feel red currently, it makes sense to go and collect more info. You never know when the greens will strike! Or a moment of mis-timed excitement
YTD - hope its's not too long before your results are back.
Suerock - yay on the foxy undies! Im sure they will go down a storm with DH. It's a nice feeling when you wear some great underwear, it always makes me feel more 'put together'.
In answer to your earlier question, I think you have probably guessed my location correctly! Have been t'Other Place many times for conferences and meetings, both are equally beautiful. I have actually got involved in our Women in Science group, it has been useful but sometimes a bit frustrating. For example, I went to a 'Combining children and a career in research' discussion, where the lead speaker was a woman. She had had an extremely successful career to date, and actively put off having children until she was 40, waiting until she got a tenured position. She kept saying 'if I can do it, anyone can do it' but seemed to be missing two critical points 1) She was a young high-achieving Professor on a good (for research) salary, and how many of us get to that stage? and 2) She freely admitted that she was unable to have a much wanted second child because of advancing age but she wouldn't have achieved so much if she had had a child earlier. Awesome. I left feeling disappointed and frustrated rather than inspired. What about all the normal post-docs on a normal salary who dont want to risk infertility by waiting until late 40s to reproduce?? Aaanyway, rant over! I know we try not to reveal too much, but I'd be interested to hear what you do now, I'm always nosey about other peoples career choices!
LST - I bet many people, even baby-obsessed people, have a red wobble when IVF becomes a reality. It's a big deal, physically and emotionally. It's interesting that you are feeling a bit of pressure from the family, that actually a few of you are. I think I've said before, my family have never mentioned anything about it to me, we are all quite a private lot and they wouldn't dream of saying anything. My other siblings have young children though, so that keeps the focus off us. Plus they know how long I've taken to become qualified and probably think I'm too busy to want kids! Now, DH's parents are more keen and have said the odd thing, but both families live over 200 miles away, so wouldnt be any use day-to-day, and indeed wouldn't form a big part of any childs life. Bit sad really.
Interesting discussion regarding the effect of babies on relationships. It is one of my big concerns, but Suerock is right, stats only reveal the larger picture (and are often misrepresented by the media!), they dont reveal the individual stories.
There seems to be a bit of a waft of red over the thread at the mo', aside from YTD . I feel quite amber, really pulled in two directions. I'm having a health issue that coming off the pill may either improve or make worse, so its becoming tempting to make that decision, at least. If I did, I would start taking folic acid, just in case, and then things might spiral out of control. Mainly I'm crapping myself about my contract finishing next year, as I keep doing the maths and have come to the following conclusions:
It's too late to fit a baby into this grant without massively disrupting the work or ending up with no maternity pay and no job when the grant runs out.
If we delay it until after I get a new job, I would be 35 before we could start trying. Mentally I might be more ready, but perhaps time isn't on my side?
Sorry, this has been a post of silly length. Hope you got to the end, at least!! And also hope everyone is having a good weekend.