I had always imagined an age gap of 18 months or two years between my kids, but the struggle to conceive our second baby took years. As the age gap grew wider and wider, I obsessed over it. I couldn?t attend all the third birthday parties for my daughter?s friends, because by then almost every family who wanted another baby either had one already or clearly had one on the way. I just couldn?t be around all those happy, hopeful bumps.
In the nearly three years I spent trying to get and stay pregnant with our youngest, I experienced several miscarriages, followed by IVF with multiple failed transfers. Because the people in my real life seemed to all be blissfully fertile, I spent countless hours online seeking support anywhere else I could find it. I learned that secondary infertility is its own separate beast. In the trying-to-conceive (TTC) and primary infertility online communities, there are strict rules: Posts referencing older kids sometimes aren?t allowed, and mentioning a desire for more than one child (let alone more than two!) could invite some pretty harsh comments. When you wade into a new online group, you may feel like everyone is speaking a different language, especially if conceiving your first didn?t take much more than a ?baby dance.? Here are some helpful acronyms and terminology.
2WW
If you see this on message boards, it means the ?two-week wait? between ovulation and your expected next period. (Also known as the longest two weeks of your life.)
AMA
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