International Blog Delurking Week
It may or may not be International Blog Delurking Week. The first full week of January is when we’re supposed to slither out of the reading closet and check in with an “I’m here” comment. Which would have been last week since the 1st fell on a Sunday. But since we usually allow everyone’s hangover to pass before we ask them to delurk, I waited until the second week in January to request everyone reading to raise their figurative hand.
Which seems to be what most people have done.
So welcome to International Blog Delurking Week. I make a badge every year to mark the occasion, and I give you full permission to right click and grab it for your very own.
My reward for remembering to do this (when I could have just as easily forgotten) is that you have to delurk for this worldwide holiday (which is just as serious and important as all other worldwide holidays … such as International Harry Potter Reading Day. And International Font Loving Week.
It is fairly easy. Leave a comment in the comment section below admitting that you’re here. You can simply raise your hand and meekly admit that you’re here with a simple, one-word “here” comment; or you can proudly raise your hand and tell us all a bit about yourself (my preferred method); or you can tell me what type of cookie you’d be if you were a lump of cookie dough (see, I’m trying to make it easy for you by even providing a comment prompt). The point is that I want to know about the people who read me, since there is a huge discrepancy between the number of readers in actuality and the number of readers I actually know are reading. Or a tongue-twister like that.
And that’s all you have to do to celebrate.
So (clears throat to nudge you along), who is here?
120 comments
Hi!
I’m here 🙂
And how could I not be, since you were so kind to add me to your ALI blogroll and do LFCA, and ICLW, and Creme de la Creme and write cool books…. ok, enough flattery for one day 😉
And since you want to know a little about your readers, my journey in short: I’m almost 39, German living in Germany; we’ve been trying to conceive since October 2010, and I had one chemical pregnancy since then. We’re no about to start our first round of IVF.
Other than trying to conceive, I’m a project lead for software projects of a large German-international company and I love to read, travel, and play the piano. And I’m something of a compulsive fact-finder regarding TTC and IVF, which leads to me owning about 10 books on the subject…
Thanks! And all the best for 2012!
I’m here!
International Font Loving week? But there some fonts I love and some I hate and I think that goes for most people who are even remotely interested in fonts… (Having said that, I never really paid too much attention to the font of my blog, which is of course unacceptable!) The funny thing is that a Font is called Police in French. Go figure. 😉
Anyway, I have no idea how to describe myself as a lump of cookie dough. You got me thinking though! But for now I stick to the basics: Dutch, been living in France for the past six year after 4.5 years in the US. Struggled with IF for about 6 years before having IVF baby #1. Now pregnant with IVF baby #2, due in two weeks! More details on my blog…
Here! Fairly new to this community.
Recently had surgery to get rid of a large fibroid and endo. Waiting for my period to come back after a 3-month dose of Lupron. Looking forward to an IUI- hopefully next month!
Howdy!
Delurker week doesn’t really apply to me. If I read something, I always have to say something. 🙂
I’m 41 and have been on the ttc train since 2000. In that time I’ve had two miscarriages, one chemical pregnancy, one set of of twins, one daughter, and one giant fibroid delivered by myomectomy named ‘Nessie’. I haven’t done anything remotely interesting besides breastfeeding since my entire department was laid off while I was on maternity leave in 2006.
I love your blog, and your books, and I am impatiently waiting for the sequel to ‘Life from Scratch’. 🙂
I am here! Currently reading “Life from Scratch” for the first time and love it!
I’m here!
Things are going well. P and I are off on vacation to Disn.ey Wor.ld in 2 weeks. We will be starting treatments again after we get back from vacation. My ear surgery was a mixed success. The graft took, but the remaining ear drum keeps getting new holes around it and then healing those slowly. As of right now, it does not look like I’ll need another surgery on the ear because it hasn’t been infected and actually looks healthy again.
I’d be chocolate chip cookie dough. Mostly because it’s my favorite kind of cookie and a good chocolate chip dough is a wonderful thing.
Hello!
My husband and I started TTC in 2006 and are now parents to the 18 month old result of a cancelled IVF cycle. We’re in agreement that we will not use ART again, so any future child(ren) will be the surprise result of non-prevention. Lightning can strike twice, right?
I’m here! I’m relatively new to the community and am so glad I found your blog (and others via the Creme de la Creme list).
I’m 32, have had two miscarriages in the past 6 months, and a little more than a year of trying before that. I’ve also been tentatively diagnosed with PCOS. Looking forward to an upcoming appointment with a new RE and (hopefully) moving past this stage of the journey.
I’m here. I lurk part-time and comment part-time or when the mood strikes me.
Today is my birthday! That means that I get to have leftover birthday cake for breakfast tomorrow. (That was the rule in my house when I was growing up. On the day after your birthday, you can always have a piece of cake instead of regular breakfast food. But, only on that day and no one else can have it. They have to eat regular food.) AWESOME!!
I’ve also been getting all sorts of free or discounted things from retailers both IRL and online for my birthday. I’ve gotten a $10 gift card from Ko.hl’s, a coupon to Hall.mark, extra bonus points at AC Mo.ore, free breakfast at Den.ny’s, a free chocolate-covered or.eo from a local candy store, and I’m hoping that B.MW will come through and give me a new car! (It can’t hurt to wish and hope, right?!)
Happy Birthday, Gail!
Um it would have to be hazelnut butter cookie dough made with gluten free flour of course, since I swallowed a few lumps of that this weekend and then of course inhaled just about all of the 26 biscuits I made from it in the space of two days. I mean, what else is there to do with them? When they are just sitting there, staring at you?
I’M HERE.
It’s 1.20am in the morning, so I’ve nothing big to say. But I was here.
XXX
Here!
2011 was the year of diagnosis, IVF, miscarriage and I’m about a week out from my first FET. I come by almost every day and definitely on Fridays to read the Blog Roundup. I don’t know that I would have made it through any of the last year without this community. I guess I should participate more and come out of the closet. I read EVERYTHING that gets recommended in the roundup and am just starting your book that I bought last week. I’m ready for the next batch of Creme blogs (when you have time). It helps me feel less alone.
Happy birthday to Gail! I am here, and it’s MY birthday tomorrow. Suffice to say I am probably older than 99% if not 100% of everyone responding to this post… but who’s counting? lol Living childless/free (more or less happily) after stillbirth & infertility for the past 10+ years, but still feeling the impact & interested in ALI matters — which is why I continue to blog & hang out here. ; )
I’m here.
Single mom to twins after 6+ years TTC. Just started reading your Life from Scratch book – so far fabulous and so many parts absolutely resonate deeplywith me.
Thanks for all you do.
Waving!
I’m a part-time lurker, part-time commenter like Gail (Happy Birthday Gail and loribeth!) I approach commenting in a, “respond to posts that move you,” kind of way. And I like watching and listening. Always have. But when I do have something to say, I pipe up.
About me: I’ve been in the ALI community for a year and a half going on two years. I have all sorts of lovely (annoying) issues that result in miscarriages every time we get pregnant, but we are hoping that our new course of immunology treatment will stop that trend. Oh! And I just moved my blog to wordpress–come check it out!
As to a cookies, I would be a gluten and dairy free, low glycemic index, high protein biscut with berries on the side. Because that’s how my insulin resistant cells insists I must eat if I want a happy body. 🙂
3rd comment on the internet ever, that’s how persuasive you are! Had trouble having kid #1 in 2006, a little less trouble with #2 and #3, but still feel the writing is best on all these blogs you highlight – the stories are powerful and resonant. So while I’m in the horribly lonely phase of parenting (kids can talk, interrupting adult conversations, but cannot HAVE adult conversations) I LOVE having all of your company!
Your blog, and ones I’ve found through you, help me so much. Keep writing! For me: started TTC in summer 2009, m/c #1 July 2010, m/c #2 in February 2011. Started tests with RE, then m/c #3 in June 2011. MTHFR and balanced translocation are the only things that popped up in testing, and no other ideas. Took a break to catch our breath, and then had a friend offer to be a gestational surrogate in the fall. We’re headed back to the RE tomorrow to see if that’s even an option. In the meantime, we’ve been reading (I just finished your *excellent* book last night!) and coming to different conclusions: he’s gung-ho about the possibilities of GS, and I’m terrified of the physical/emotional/financial aspects of IVF and considering child-free as the only way to be done with this nightmare. Feeling very mired down in the dual-edged possibilities/information overload and not sure what’s next.
Hi I made it!!! I just found your blog today. I have had if all my life. I never went through puberty. I am on a journey to have a baby at the age of 39. I have 2 donated embryos and waiting to start a cycle to super charge my lining so I can transfer the embryos.
Delurking is so funny because I don’t feel like a lurker. But I comment so infrequently that I don’t feel like a ‘regular’ either. But I am here and I think Blanche up there may be my twin (I’ve saved her blog so I can check it out more thoroughly when I have a few minutes). Looking forward to checking out many of the above blogs, actually. Feeling like I should use this as added motivation to get to posting on mine.
Present.
After 5+ years of TTC and no pregnancies or diagnosis, we’re about to adopt from foster care.
Cookie dough: blondie
I’m here! I started reading your blog about a month ago. I was searching for support after losing my son in November. We had struggled with infertility and got pregnant through IVF with twins. I lost one of the twins at seven weeks and our other precious baby developed a fatal condition at 15 weeks and was stillborn at 26 weeks on November 14, 2011.
I found your blog and began reading the stories of so many families, which made me feel less alone in this unbearable journey of grief. I was so moved by the Creme posts I read, I ended up submitting my own (“waiting for winter”) about learning that our William was truly going to die soon and how it felt to face that reality.
Thank you for forming this community where we can share our stories and support one another. You are a wonderful writer and I will continue to follow your blog.
I’m here!!
Just beginning the process of thinking about prepping for a FET for child #2. Feeling nervous and excited. Dreading needles back in my life.
Cookie dough: Oatmeal raisin? Looks healthy, but really isn’t.
I read faithfully but have never commented, mostly because I read on my iPod while breastfeeding my 15 month old baby girl. I have PCOS but was able to conceive naturally, and used Metformin throughout my pregnancy. I also used Progesterone suppositories the first 14 weeks of pregnancy which I believe kept her safe in there during that first trimester. We are now trying for baby #2.
Thank you for all that you do – I love your blog.
Hello!
I feel like I don’t fit the comment mold but its ok to be different right? Technically I had fertility issues but while I understand the world like someone who swims understands the ocean, I am far more engulfed in non fertility related issues.
I found you during the November fiesta and found you to be just my type of writer and keep coming back for more.
I am here!
And glad to be. I am so glad I found this site and all the wonderful resources that are here. I love that there is a blogroll and the creme de la creme is brilliant 🙂
So a little about myself.. I am 23 years old, been married 3 1/2 years to a wonderful man, who is also a firefighter. We have been trying for kids since August of 2009. I am polycystic and we delivered a stillborn daughter April of 2011. Recently I have enjoyed reading other’s blogs and writing my own and trying to find that “new normal” and waiting to feel comfortable trying for kids again. Struggling to know whether having kids will bring that happiness for me, or if I need to find that happiness for myself before I start the children having journey again.
Love this site! 🙂
Hi there, I’m jenny. Been with my husband for almost 16 years, married almost 10. I have a older daughter who is 7 and then I have my ^angel^ Megan, who died from sudden unexplained death in childhood. Toddler sids basically at the age of 18 months. I then went on to have a miscarriage at 12 weeks and then a chemical pregnancy and then I had my rainbow, Amanda who is currently almost 4 months old. We are a army family but currently home with family so were hoping we never get orders to move again lol
I’m here too! But then, I’ve been around awhile.
I found you and the ALI community shortly after my second miscarraige, back in January of 2009. I have found this place, this community that you have worked so hard to help facilitate, to be an integral part of my getting through the ups and downs of my IF journey. After being diagnosed with RPL as caused by a progesterone deficiency, we are now parenting our 13 month old daughter and expecting our Halfling 2.0 in May.
As for cookie dough… I would love to say I am something chocolatey and gooey, but my blood glucose would freak out. So instead I’ll be something with lots of fiber and maybe a bit of Splenda in it.
I’m here. Always, but I have been reading on my Android and find commenting with my sausage fingers trying at best. So, I think I will go back later on my actual computer and sit and write comments, but then I don’t. I do love your blog, and your writing and the way you mobilize the community and just exude love to all who come. xo
I’m here and am definitely a lurker. I think we’ve been ttc for around three years (the trying part of it is not really accurate anymore), and we’re currently figuring out what to do next. We thought we had it figured out (living childfree), but now I am reconsidering and starting to explore adoption. I’m feeling some pressure to make a decision asap because I’m not getting any younger, but I feel like we can’t rush this decision, either. I actually just started posting to my blog again after a 6 month break, but I keep up with most blogs even when I’m not updating mine.
I’m here. Always. Not so much a lurker.
I’m 31, live in Las Vegas, and have PCOS/MTHFR/Type II, and twisted tubes. I have ovulated though, for the last 3 months, and if I can just get the sperm to meet the egg in the right place, I’ll be happy. 😉
Present…
Found your blog because I was expecting to have trouble conceiving (PCOS & thyroid issues). After a year, we were lucky enough to get pregnant, but I still read your blog because I love the writing. 🙂
Chocolate mint chip. Mmmmmm.
I am here! I am the mom to a 5 month old girl conceived by DE after several failed IUIs and IVFs.
Um, hi? I’m here, but it’s a secret!
I’m here! I’m KeAnne, 34. I have a 2.5 year old son via gestational surrogacy (unicornuate uterus, stage 4 endo). I’ve been around since 2005 off and on but am trying to be a more active member of the community. I have your book on my iPad but haven’t read it yet. Can’t wait to do so!
I don’t eat chocolate, so I’d be a peppermint-white chocolate cookie, lemon cookie or butterscotch cookie. Or maybe a white-chocolate cranberry cookie.
I am here and mostly a lurker! I am here as both an IF warrior as well as a woman who just adopted her first child!
The cookie question is hard. It would have to be either whole wheat chocolate chip because the dough and the cookies are so very different from each other or a lemon cookie because lemon is yummy!
Here… started reading since my miscarriage 3 years ago. Both my SiLs proceeded to have one son, then another. I’ve picked up my bassoon again, changed my job, failed an IUI, had a known egg donor fail her screening. Now recharging for foreign DE (and carrying on to step-mother every other weekend. Because even my partner has two sons)
I’m here! (Raises hand…) I love the de-lurking idea, there’s something freeing about it; it has been for me over the last few months.
My husband and I have been ttc since July of 2007. One pregnancy through ivf #1 but we suffered a miscarriage February 2011. Moving forward with ivf #2 now, lupron starts on the 27th.
Thank you for all that you do for this community. You and your work really do make a difference for a lot of us out here. xoxo
I’m here! And hopefully this will be the time I actually hit submit because I have written so many comments on your posts in the past, and for some reason never hit that button. I owe you some major comments though as I’ve been a long time reader, I talk about you to my friends, and you helped me find my way into this community, for which I am ever so grateful. I also, have finally started reading your book and I’m so into it! I haven’t had a book that’s kept me up late reading before bed in awhile and it’s nice to be back there again (although it has increased the amount of coffee I’m drinking).
A little about me. I’m 31 now, the mama of a beautiful and hard won little girl who will be two this spring. There’s a box full of fertility meds up in my guest room just waiting for my period to show it’s face so that we can start this process all over again with the hopes of giving our little Bean a sibling. I’m totally in denial about all of it and am trying to convince myself it’s not a big deal this time around, which is pretty much a load of crap. Hopefully it will be better though because I am just now finding all the bits and pieces of myself that I lost the first time around and I’m not quite ready to go through all that again.
Thanks for encouraging everyone to make themselves known. I should have done it long ago.
I’m here. 36, female, single, not part of the ALI community, not even a parent, not planning to be one. I got here via Lindsay a few years ago and I like your take on a lot of things…
Lurking for a long time now. 32 yo with secondary infertility. TTC for 4 yrs, 3 miscarriages, the latest one over Christmas after our 3rd IUI. Waiting for AF to return and enjoying our 5 yr old in the meantime.
Love the blog, especially the Friday roundup. Thank you so much for your hard work.
I’m here! I sometimes lurk and sometimes comment. I’ve been reading your blog and those I’ve found through the blogroll and LFCA for about a year now. After 3 IUIs in 2011, my husband and I are expecting twins in May. I’m holding my breath until I can hold them in my arms – after witnessing losses by several close friends IRL and of course many in the blogosphere, I still don’t feel like we’re out of the woods. But, am praying and doing my best to take care of these babies in anticipation of day I get to bring them home.
I’m here!
38, live in Minneapolis. Had three miscarriages…then my daughter who is now 4, then another miscarriage…then my son now 13 months. I work full time, read 4 or 5 blogs regularly, always have 3 or 4 books going at once and let my much more capable husband handle most of the shopping and cooking.
Hey hey! I’m here! Just had my first ART consult to start IVF at the end of February. Loving this blog and all the great people/resources I’ve found through it! THANK YOU!
I’m here! I always read, and sometimes comment. Usually by the time I read, there’s so many comments that I know mine will get lost so I don’t bother. 🙂
For those who DO read this: I am a 34-year-old parent of a 9-month-old boy who was conceived after 6 years of trying. I’m a SAHM because I’m also a full-time student.
Long-time reader, infrequent poster. I’m the mother of a 10 month old girl. We tried for over 4 years to TTC, and finally had her after surgery for ovarian cysts, 1 miscarriage, 1 ectopic pregnancy, 3 clomid cycles, and 3 IVF cycles.
In addition to still being sleep-deprived, I work full-time in software design. I would want to be shortbread cookie dough!
Pssst…..I’m here.
Never knew such a thing as National Blog Delurking Week existed. Glad to know it does. Anonymity is such a burden….
Happy new year, Mel!!!
-Marci