((Hugs)) I've been where you are at with so many pregnancies (only have one child to show for them), but no IVF experience. It is so hard, but I have to say with the only pregnancy that made it almost to term for me it was also the only one that just showed a sac that early in the pregnancy and nothing in it, but my OB at that point said it was early and could go either way. Well a week later we had a heartbeat. Although at that point I couldn't get excited at all still as my previous one had a nice strong heartbeat at that time too and then nothing at 9 weeks. Pregnancy to me was just a huge roller coaster of emotions and constant worries. When is the next US, when are we past the most common point of having losses, 12 weeks to measure the neck fold to check for downs syndrome, when are we at 16 weeks to start progesterone shots and incompetent cervix monitoring, 24 weeks when the baby will be saved if born early, and then weekly onward. Then when the baby was born a whole new set of worries. I was a very high risk pregnancy though. My DH didn't get attached at all to the baby until she was born (he made up for it then) and was very distant during the pregnancy. I think his way of dealing with anything going wrong. You are right though, you will always remember this. I wish the u/s this week will show a little seed or even a heart beat and you can at least get a chance to try to relax and enjoy pregnancy instead of the constant worry I experienced. This post was edited by lyfia on Fri, Apr 25, 14 at 8:39

Parma .. well they are producing eggs yet, other wise I could send you some eggs. Let's see .. I could send you a big bag of Three Cool Chicks Gardening Gold .. otherwise known as a big bag of chicken poop. :D *LOL* Or .. you could hold out for eggs. ;) Most people think Clover is the prettiest. I think my favorite looks wise is Olive, I love her dark head and fuzzy face. I think Hazel has the nicest personality, she's very sweet. Clover just cracks me up, she's a total nut .. she comes out with some of the strangest sounds you've ever heard and is such a drama queen! I'll hear her out there griping about something and I always have to go see .. she makes a huge fuss out of nothing, but it's pretty amusing! Pam .. chickens are fairly easy to raise. When they are babies they have a greater chance of disease and it's not all that uncommon to lose a couple. We started out with four and lost one on Easter morning, not a great way to start the day! Most people feed them medicated feed to start off with to help stave off infection or disease, then switch them over to non-medicated about 8 weeks in once they have a better immune system. Basically when they are small chicks you keep them warm with a heat lamp, feed them good chick grower feed, keep their brooder ( ours was made out of a cardboard box ) very clean and make sure they have fresh water. We started ours out in the house since it was spring and still chilly .. they need to be kept very warm for several weeks until their feathers come in, you decrease the temp by each week as they grow. We moved ours out into their hen house at 10 weeks old with their heat lamp for nights, but we live in NC and it had warmed up a lot by then. You continue to feed them grower feed and baby grit until they start to lay eggs. Grit is ground stone bought at the feed store, since chickens don't have teeth they need this to help digest/grind their food. Then you switch them over to layer formula food and adult grit. The layer formula has more calcium in it and helps them form their eggs. Other than that they can have most fresh fruit and veggies as treat, they also like plain yogurt a lot .. mine love clipping from my herbs garden too. There are guidelines on the internet for how much room the chickens actually need, but most of the time the guidelines run too small. Ideally they need a fair amount of room for their coop, but not huge .. the girls coop ( house ) is 6' x 8' .. that's pretty large by most standards for three chickens. Their run ( yard ) is 8' x 10' and they are pretty comfortable in that. They have the full run of both during the day, at night they go into their coop when it start to get dusky out. I shut the door between the coop and the run when they go to bed, just for extra protection against predators although their run is built like fort knox. *LOL* We have dogs, so we can't let them free range, but if you can .. that's the best for them as long as the are protected from predators. Since we live in NC we don't get into the 20's but a handful of times a year, 10 F is maybe a once a year thing. So at night to start off with I'll leave their heat lamp on, if it's going to dip colder .. I'll probably plug in an electric heater for them, but that will only be a few times a year here. An adult bird fully feathered can do 30's - 40's no problem, but I'll still probably supplment their heat some. In the summer they can over heat in our climate, if it's going to get above 90F .. I plug in a fan for them just to move the air and make sure they have lots of fresh, cold water. I clean their whole coop and run once a week, with a quick, couple second spot scoop under the roost every day ( the poopiest part ). I then put down new wood shavings. Also before putting down new bedding I put down stall dry, which is made out of demetrius earth. It helps keep the fly population down and makes their run and coop fresh .. it doesn't stink out there and chickens poop can be very smelly, the stuff is great. When I clean out their run/coop and bring the wood shaving poop mixture over to my composting bins and chuck it right in. :) All in all it's not very hard to take care of them .. much easier than dogs and cat .. I have five dogs and one cat.

Mine's either done and ready to send out the day after Christmas, or half done and will hopefully be ready to send out the day after Christmas! HUHHH??? Well, I've made one and am in the process of making another. One's for the exchange and one's for my brother. Depends on when I see my brother and when I get the second one done, who gets which! But >I

It helped tremendously. For me, and I suspect for many others, nothing will motivate you as much as presenting your work to others. Reading my work in front of others is both scary and exciting, and hearing it in a radically different context than my own kitchen is more helpful than I could have imagined. On another note, I have had a sad event recently - my brother died at the age of 45 after a sudden short illness. All of you mothers out there will understand that this was devastating to my mom. At the age of 77, she did not expect to experience the death of an adult child. Coming so close after this event, she was absolutely thrilled at this modest happening. I got my love of poetry and literature from her, both in my genes and in my upbringing - she read us poetry and had us memorizing it as soon as we could talk. So I am very, very happy that this gave her a bit of brightness in this sorrowful time.