How I came to love message boards

Last year at this time was pretty miserable for me. I had just lost my second baby and girlfriends both near and far were a) starting to show for their pregnancy that would be due close to my first due date and b) announcing their pregnancies that would be due close to my second due date. It seemed everywhere I turned I was being reminded of what I had lost.

A friend of mine suggested the message boards at babycenter.com. She had had a pretty complicated pregnancy and said she had received good advice and support from the women on there. Hesitantly, i decided to check it out. I have to admit I was skeptical at first. There seemed to be a code they spoke in, a foreign language I had never heard. Acronyms and abbreviations abounded, and I was confused.

Underneath all this lingo, however, I found some amazing women. They helped me to feel less alone in my struggles. They put aside their own issues to offer their condolences and give advice from the other side. Other women who struggled to either get pregnant or stay pregnant or both. They understood what it felt like to watch every one else get what they wanted while they got left behind. I gradually came to rely on my "fix" of babycenter every night...updates from RE appointments, the latest news from a friend, new diagnoses, and the hope that came with every success story BFP. There have been times when babycenter has not been good for me because i was getting too consumed, and i've needed to back off and gain perspective by living in the real world. But overall, I will forever be grateful to the amazing and strong women who have been by my side throughout this whole ordeal.