• MudSkipperKisser@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        7 months ago

        I think a big part of living with gratitude, at least for me, means not living with any regrets. I mean sure there are things I’d like to do and places I’d like to go but I really wouldn’t regret anything. I think I mostly have my priorities in order as it is, I’d just be really fucking sad to have to leave this world…but so happy for everything I’ve had in it

    • EssentialNPC@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      7 months ago

      Nope! My wife was enjoying a chemically-induced nap in one room when my kids were conceived. I was in another room with broken DVDs and suspiciously easy to clean chairs. The kids were conceived in a third room by a lab worker and incredibly complex equipment.

      The traditional way is much more fun. Try that first.

      • OK, yeah. “All” was wrong. Aside from IVF, 98% of us (in the US).

        Your kids are waaaay more expensive than most. This is a fact they can use against their peers in school to assert dominance. Also, I blinked at the plural; did you just get lucky, or are you well-heeled enough to have gone through this more than once? Also also, my regards to your wife for the hellish pre-op chemical routine she probably had to endure. Yeah, your kids were hard-won. Kudos.

        • EssentialNPC@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          7 months ago

          We happened to live in the U.S. state with the best reproductive rights laws and have the best health insurer for IVF in that state. It did cost thousands of dollars, but it was still 4 digits overall. We were getting by on a single income at the time, but it was really the health insurance and state laws that made it doable.

          We needed two cycles because the first failed completely, but the second cycle (ICSI for those who care) produced multiple embryos. They only implanted one at a time, so my second kid is a freezer baby.

          But yeah, my wife has a true, diagnosed needle phobia and did it anyway. She is a God damn trooper.

          • It wasn’t is, but my SIL went through this; same process: 2 tries, second was a success, and a third is waiting. But she’s at the age where it’s getting to be a real concern for viability, so the third will probably forever remain an unrealized possibility.

            That injection routine sounded hellish, though.

            • EssentialNPC@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              7 months ago

              Yeah, it is. The injections suck, and the hormone shifts are awful. One of my friends is a general practitioner in the Navy, and every time he prescribes any fertility hormone, he also gives a referral for couples counseling. “I know you believe you won’t need it, and you might be right, but in my experience by the time you realize you need it, you need it RIGHT NOW.” The IVF hormones are around then the ones he can prescribe, and it was a wild ride.

              Of course I don’t know your SIL, but please extend my best to her and her family at some point. As one stranger on the Internet who knows roughly the path she walked, I am very happy it went well for her in the end.

              Also, real talk, you sound like a great in-law to her for being so aware of everything. Kudos to you.

      • intensely_human@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        7 months ago

        The kids were conceived in a third room by a lab worker and incredibly complex equipment.

        Is that what they’re calling it these days?

        Congrats on your family!

  • Kolli
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    7 months ago

    Hey, not cool coming here and flexing with your happiness to us poor poor terminally-online free thinkers. /s