Secondary Infertility: Our Journey
Secondary infertility is just a fancy name for continued infertility, even after a successful pregnancy. Here’s our journey…
IVF
11 Things We’ve Learned From Infertility
We’ve learned a lot about infertility over the last 5 or 6 years. About ourselves, treatment, the community. We put together a list of the most important.
Does Yoga Really Improve Fertility?
Happy New Year! We hope your 2018 is off to a great start. I’ll be honest. Ours was a little rocky at first. You know how it goes – the heat decides to break while you’re out of town and Chicago is -2 outside. Always a great way to ring in the new year. But …
Baby Making 101: A Simple Guide to Getting Pregnant
Guys, let’s level here. Getting pregnant is super easy. I mean, all it takes is sperm meeting the egg, politely introducing itself, and calling it a day. Provided it’s right at the exact time during your partner’s cycle. And the hormones levels are where they need to be, the uterine lining is optimal, and, frankly, …
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Coming Out of the Infertility Closet
We’ve always wondered: why do people not talk about their infertility? We certainly didn’t for a long time. Embarrassment? Shame? It seemed like everyone was able to effortlessly do what we had dreamed of for years. It seemed that way. When we first decided to start Bottles & Banter, it was a way for us …
Newborn Photography: Monthly Ideas + Thinkboard Giveaway
Monthly Newborn Photography Ideas! We’ve all seen them. The monthly newborn photography that is so adorably creative. New ideas and ways of capturing your baby’s first year are popping up all over the place. The major problem is, with all the diaper changes and 3am feedings, how is anyone to remember to take a baby photo …
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Infertility: Observations from a New Grandma
Hi! I’m Melanie and Nick is my oldest child. He asked me if I would consider writing a piece for his and Brittany’s blog, Bottles & Banter, about watching a child struggle with infertility. I’m never one to turn down an opportunity to share my thoughts and opinions, right kids? Ya. Don’t answer that. Please. As …
The Infertility Journey: A Male’s Perspective
There are several things people “know” right off the bat when it comes to family planning, conception, and infertility. It’s a women’s issue, certainly not for men to discuss Infertility is all about the woman Men are along for the ride – when the woman wants a child, the couple wants a child Adopting is apparently …
Navigating the Cost of Infertility
After the initial shock or disappointment or [insert emotion here] wears off, many couples are faced with some very important and often expensive decisions. The cost of infertility is very wide ranging; from just taking Clomid and using timed intercourse ($10 with a prescription) to to full on in vitro fertilization (IVF) running in the $15,000+ …
What is an IVF Cycle Really Like?
As many of our recent posts suggest, we recently went through IVF to give us this little girl who is due in June. I thought it would be nice to talk about what it’s like going through IVF. It’s good information to have not only for those who are thinking about it themselves, but also …