Taking a Break

In August 2016, after our 3^rd IVF failed, we decided to take a break from all things fertility related. This decision was not made lightly.  Taking a break was something we needed for our mental, physical, and emotional health, but it’s hard to walk away from something that is all consuming… something that we want so badly. I reflected on that year for this post; I hadn’t realized at the time all the events that filled that break. It’s amazing what you can do when your time, energy, and money is not being dominated by fertility! 

1. Although my sister had been married at the Royal University Hospital Chapel in January, the plan was to have a formal wedding ceremony and reception. Mary and Morgan had a beautiful fall wedding on September 17^th. They were married in the church our grandparents and Mom grew up in.
2. It was our first Christmas without Mom. Mom was Christmas in our family. She was the one that our traditions revolved around. We decided that year to step away from our Christmas traditions and give ourselves time to heal. Dad, Mary, Morgan, Dustin, and I loaded up our dogs and two trucks full of winter gear and headed to the mountains. We spent Christmas in Fernie at a great little inn that allowed pets and had a games room and hot tubs. We ate, drank, skied, snowboarded, sledded, and had a sleigh ride through the mountains.
3. In February, Dustin and I spent a week in Cancun at an all-inclusive resort. In the spring, we bought a camper and rented a lakefront lot at Blackstrap Lake. We put our acreage up for sale. When we bought the acreage, we imagined raising our family there. It was now a painful reminder of why we purchased a home that was too big for two people. We decided that our next home would be just for us.
4. I applied to the Master of Education program at the University of Saskatchewan and started my courses.
5. In September, we sold our acreage and bought a house in the city. We spent the first three weeks of September packing, and then flew to Las Vegas for a friend’s wedding.
6. Five days after we returned from Vegas, we moved into our new home. Our possession date was September 30^th, which was also my sister’s 30^th birthday. We had a party for her at my Dad’s house, where she announced to everyone that she was pregnant. (Don’t worry, Mary didn’t spring this on me in front of a group of people. She had told me a month before that I was going to be an Auntie. I’ll talk about that in another post.)

On October 31^st, our one-year break was over. We scheduled the transfer of our last two frozen embryos for November 1^st.