Kathleen's Adventures

Many of you knew I froze two rounds of eggs ~4.5 years ago.  A lot has happened since then.  First, a few parts not directly related to those eggs: I met Danny in late July 2018 We got married in May (and September!) 2020 I refused to consider trying to get pregnant until about two weeks before our September wedding...that damn dress had to fit I turned 40...during covid...on Valentines...during an epic winter storm in which everyone was stuck at home for over a week We had two failed IUIs and one failed medicated cycle - the first IUI being on the first snow day in January.  I was certain that was good luck as we slid out of our driveway to get to the dr office.  Now, about those eggs: While we were off snow skiing in March, my first batch of eggs was fertilized.  If you recall, I froze two rounds - the first was 16 eggs and the second was 19 eggs.  Initially, it sounded a bit overkill to even fertilize the whole first batch, but I felt like it was the wa...

I was recently asked to be a speaker at one of my church's Wednesday Lenten services.  Below is the sermon I gave. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ A few years ago, Margot Perez-Greene asked if I would speak about my faith journey at one of these Lenten services.  I told her at the time that I had not gotten there yet – as in I was still on the journey (or perhaps I hadn’t even really started).  She said that was exactly the point but I still felt I just did not have that much to share. Here I am few years later still very much at what feels like the beginning of this journey of faith, yet wanting to acknowledge a notable leg of this lifelong voyage. It’s funny – I had a feeling a second ask to speak at a Lenten service was coming, and I couldn’t say “no” this time. I grew up at First United Methodist Church in Beaumont and have fond memories of my time there.   When I moved here for college, my church-g...

I have been making baked oatmeal for quite a few years now.  It started as one oatmeal banana pancake made in a skillet in the morning and morphed into muffins and finally into the gloriousness that it is today.  Six* days (...or should I say "servings" for those of you cooking for more than one) of breakfast made in one fell swoop.  A breakfast that I still get way too excited about each and every day.   I have never liked oatmeal in its "native" form - runny, weird, sticky, and never seeming to stay uniformly warm.  I am also not one to cook on a daily basis - especially not breakfast!  So while the oatmeal banana "pancake" recommended to me by a nutritionist years ago was a good start towards the non-runny way I'd like to be eating oatmeal, it still required more work than I was willing to do in the kitchen each morning.  Shocker.  The recipe I ultimate ly came up with is way more like bread (or any sort of baked oatmeal goody) and seems real...

In my last post , I discussed in detail my first round of egg freezing, or oocyte cryopreservation.  When I wrote that post, I was on the fence about whether or not to do a second round.  I ended up meeting with my doctor the next week and decided to go ahead and plan for a second round.  I was very at peace with the decision as soon as I walked out of the office, and I'm thankful for that.  Per my doctor, an average round produces 10 eggs and that gives you roughly a 40% chance of having one child.  I have 16 eggs frozen so we could possibly call that a 60-70% chance at one child.  I do not like those odds.  I am risk-adverse by profession, and heavily insured (yet have no problem jumping out of planes or climbing tall things...but that is a different story).  I feel I will be able to rest much easier knowing I have 25-30 eggs sitting there waiting for me vs the 16.  Granted round two is not necessarily guaranteed to go as well as round one,...