649th Friday Blog Roundup

The Roundup is back.

There seems to be a lot of podcasts recently about infertility or loss.  I don’t know if going to listen to them.  While I love hearing other people’s personal stories, I don’t love reading or listening to a reporter talk about something they’ve never experienced.  To that end, one of them seems one-sided based on the description, and I don’t like my thoughts pre-chewed for me.  I prefer my reporting to be simply reporting, with conclusions drawn and not handed to the listener.  The other is probably well done.

In case you are interested in listening, the first is Reveal, which has an episode about IVF.  The second (which I’m more inclined to lend my ears) is IVFML, which is a miniseries on infertility, told by people who have experienced infertility.

Let me know how they are if you listen.

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Stop procrastinating.  Go make your backups.  Don’t have regrets.

Seriously.  Stop what you’re doing for a moment.  It will take you fifteen minutes, tops.  But you will have peace of mind for days and days.  It’s the gift to yourself that keeps on giving.

As always, add any new thoughts to the Friday Backup post and peruse new comments in order to find out about methods, plug-ins, and devices that help you quickly back up your data and accounts.

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And now the blogs…

But first, second helpings of the posts that appeared in the open comment thread last week.  In order to read the description before clicking over, please return to the open thread:

• “Adoption, Sex, and the Pursuit of Love: Why Adoptive Parents Need to Talk to Their Kids About Sex” (Diary of a Not-So-Angry Asian Adoptee)
• “Running the Race with One Leg” (Anne Heffron)

Okay, now my choices this week.

My Path to Mommyhood talks about the final moments of her family building journey, giving away the things they had amassed in preparation for a baby.  It’s a bittersweet post, but that’s what makes it an important read.  It’s about the parts of infertility no one thinks about when they scroll past a story about IVF in the newspaper or suggest that people should “just adopt.”  (Y’all know how I feel about that phrase.)  She writes, “It was overwhelming. The giant pile of things, of hope, of all the love and support, everything we had for a baby so very wanted and so very hoped for … gone.”  Abiding with her through this step, and I promise if you read it that it has a peaceful ending.

On the lesser discussed aspects of infertility front, ANDMom has a post about how infertility is still haunting her, even though she’s finished building her family.  It is a constant reminder of her own journey as people around her get pregnant naturally.  It never ends.

Lastly, Our Misconception has a post written from two points of view — husband and wife — about IVF during their surrogacy journey.  It’s funny and eye-opening (well, at least for the general public) and difficult, and it captures that world of hope and hurt well.

The roundup to the Roundup: Podcasts about infertility.  Your weekly backup nudge.  And lots of great posts to read.  So what did you find this week?  Please use a permalink to the blog post (written between June 2nd and 9th) and not the blog’s main url. Not understanding why I’m asking you what you found this week?  Read the original open thread post here.