688th Friday Blog Roundup

We are officially out of baby teeth.  The Wolvog had his final two teeth pulled this week.  That was a special experience.  It kicked off with a sleepless night because he was worried about how this whole thing was going to go down.  It was followed by my alarm going off at 5:45 am. (Don’t worry — we didn’t sleep anyway, so what’s the difference between 5:45 am and a normal wake-up time when you haven’t been to bed yet?)  And a silent drive to the office where we had clearly been slotted before all other appointments because they did not trust us to remain calm and collected.

The dentist, to his credit, listened carefully to the Wolvog’s fears about needles and his gums, and then agreed that they could try to do it without Novocaine.  The Wolvog has a high threshold for pain and a low threshold for needles in his mouth.  He rocked that Novocaine-free double tooth pulling like a boss.

They gave me those final two teeth in a gaudy tooth-shaped holder.  It was bittersweet to know that was it.  No more baby teeth.  No more forgetting about said baby teeth.  That stage of life was over; the door closed.

I would have curled up on the floor in the dentist’s office and cried, but we had already given them enough drama for one day.

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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:

• None… sniff.

Okay, now my choices this week.

No Kidding in NZ has a post about resilience.  They are words you need to hear, especially #5: “Stop being so hard on myself, and show myself some self-compassion – I don’t need to justify my actions to anyone when they are coming from my heart.”  It’s a great post that everyone should internalize.

It’s not a post about infertility–in fact, it’s a post about eating disorders–but it is also about when people lash out without knowing someone else’s story.  Surrender, Dorothy recounts a nasty email she received after she sent a response directing the person to her book where she wrote deeply on the topic of eating disorders.  There is the initial reaction and the deeper reaction, and I love this post because it points out that when we connect with someone new (or, frankly, sometimes someone we know quite well), we don’t know what else the other person is going through.  So be kind.

Jewish IVF has a post about this year’s Pesach, a difficult time on its own made more difficult by her recent loss and an emergency with her niece.  Even though it’s normally one of her favourite holidays, she writes, “I wasn’t in the headspace and didn’t want to participate in general life, let alone prepare a massive holiday.”  Go give her some extra support.

Lastly, The Road Less Travelled has a post about upsetting comments on a post about infertility and depression.  She gently points out that we created this pressure — “we” being society as a whole — and writes about living without children, “Those who deviate from the norm — by choice or circumstance — are objects of curiosity and concern, pity and paternalism, sometimes even derision and scorn.”  But the real reason you should read this post is because of this line: “Deep down, I always felt that I could have a good life without children — because I already did, up to the point we started trying to conceive.”  Such important words for everyone to remember.

The roundup to the Roundup: The last baby teeth.  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 March 30th and April 6th) 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.