Category: Slow Swimmers & Fried Eggs

How do you feel about attending baby showers? Is it easy to celebrate people’s pregnancies?  Or do you have times where you struggle? What helps you work through your triggers? I have a baby shower in my calendar scheduled for a couple of weeks’ time. Since we are still in a partial lockdown, it’s a… Continue reading Baby Shower Dilemmas During Infertility

Hello again, dear readers. Eric here, with a hat-tip of thanks, and a follow up, to Cathy’s recent post entitled “Numbing out.” Today’s post is about getting through the hard times. Many of ours (Cathy’s and mine, that is) stem from our struggle with infertility and all that has ensued from that difficult time, including… Continue reading Full hands can’t grasp !

Hello everyone, Eric here again.   And I’m having a bad day. I mean, a really lousy day. One of those days where it feels like absolutely everything is going wrong. So in the midst of all this, I cast my mind back to the toughest days on our infertility journey, and I am reminded… Continue reading My Three Pillars – The Very Specific Things that Get Me Through My Worst Days

I’ve been compelled to write this post on letting go all week – it’s been a long, hard week of disappointment, confusion and fear as we head into our 4th embryo transfer and I’m hoping that by the time I come to the end of writing this post, I will be a bit lighter, a… Continue reading Let it go, Let it go! Releasing control during IVF

Cheers, dear readers, I’m poking my head back here at Slow Swimmers and Fried Eggs (SS&FE) after a recent medical scare, which brings me to the main topic of this post: Our mental and emotional health as we traverse this infertility journey. I have been blown away as well as concerned and bursting with empathy… Continue reading Infertility and Suicide: Bravery + Why Rising Tides Lift All Boats

This quote has gotten me through many a dark time and I’m still holding onto it now. Even though I’m pregnant, this isn’t the end, as the end for me will be holding a healthy baby in my arms; or at least that’s the end I’m hoping for.   Before getting pregnant with our final… Continue reading Infertility : Everything will be ok in the end. If it’s not ok, it’s not the end.

There’s nothing like being made redundant to shake up your routine!   Once fear has subsided you have an opportunity to reassess, recalibrate, reprioritise and refocus, which is so precious and valuable and can open up a whole new way of life and way of working that you never thought possible!   This is the… Continue reading Shake it up! Breaking free from infertility habits

Cheers, dear readers, How does one decide when enough is enough? How much emotional and physical trauma can a person or a couple withstand? When is the right time to let go of a dream? These are the types of questions that Eric and I were pondering after our second IVF attempt did not work.… Continue reading Taking advice from Mr. Spock

Hello again Internet! Eric here this week with what may seem like a hard statement to fathom, but I’m going to throw it out there anyway. I’ve been talking to a number of friends and associates who have been through infertility treatment, and I kept hearing something that Cathy and I tried to do, but… Continue reading Carpe Diem! How you can enjoy your time during infertility treatment

Kathleen Guthrie Woods is a full-time writer and editor based in San Francisco, California in the USA. She creates advertising and marketing materials for a broad range of clients and writes feature articles as a freelancer. You may know her as a regular contributor to Life without Baby , where she writes the… “It Got Me Thinking…”… Continue reading SSFE Podcast #1 – Kathleen Guthrie Woods