Scrapbooking

Cayenne · 10-06-2007, 12:05 PM

I hoped I'd never have to come to this board but sadly, here I am.

After 1-1/2 year TTC, I finally got a BFP last Sunday. The line got darker Monday but then got much, much lighter on Tuesday and Tuesday night, AF came. I had a chemical pregnancy. At first, I was disappointed but not devastated. This means that at least, I CAN get pregnant, which is a huge development for us. I only need 50 mg of clomid to O and it seems like my tubes and everything's OK so no need for an HSG or a laparoscopy. Then, Thursday night, it finally hit me: I had been pregnant but I wasn't anymore. I felt so miserable that night. Now, I feel better but it's still a bit awkward.

I'm into scrapbooking, and I had bought the cutest little album that I wanted to start to bring out the positive in all our fertility treatments and everything we had to go through during the last 17 months. Now, I think I'll just start it right now and include the m/c in it. What do you think? Has any of you done that? Did it help?

lovepotato · 10-06-2007, 02:40 PM

I'm sorry for your loss.
I really really want to make a scrapbook for the baby we lost. I'll probably make pages for the struggles we had getting pregnant too. I want to put it all down on paper. I have a TON of stuff for Eric's album, but I still have to start it. i'm procrastinating, I know.
Have you ever been to twopeasinabucket.com? I just searched for "infertility" and I've done "miscarriage" in the past. You can find ideas or quotes and poems. Its a good website.

Cayenne · 10-06-2007, 04:46 PM

I think it would help make it a bit less hard if I was able to create something beautiful out of all this.

I'll definitely go take a look at twopeasinabuket.com. I'm French Canadian so I scrap in French but I can translate. Thanks for the idea!

hela · 10-06-2007, 04:47 PM

I'm sorry for your loss Cayenne

It doesn't make a difference if you're 5 minutes pregnant or 5 months it still hurts and you've still lost your baby

I bought a scrapbook to do for the first time while I was pregnant, now I don't know whether to carry on and do it or not.

big hugs helen xx

lachicarubia · 10-06-2007, 05:03 PM

I am so sorry for your loss.
I am a scrap booking wannabe. I have all the stuff, but need a bit of motivation to get started.
Some day, I will make some scrap book pages to remember the babies that I lost. To announce the PG to my DH, I gave him a bouquet of flowers and a card with baby confetti in it. I saved the card and the confetti, and I pressed the flowers. I also have the pics I took when I told him.
My babies passed at 9 weeks, a missed m/c we discovered at 14 weeks, so I have the U/S pics from when we discovered that there were twins, but no heartbeats. I plan to put all these things together in a scrapbook some day.
I think that it is a wonderful way to remember our angels.
Finding some poems or quotes to go with the memories is a wonderful idea.

PJC · 10-06-2007, 10:58 PM

Hi Ladies...

Just wanted to say that making a scrapbook is very healing. I made one for each baby and even though I cried while I was working on them sometimes, it gave me something "to do" for them. They aren't completely finished, either one, but I think they will always be a work in progress. I will always add more poems and such to them. It's also something to look at when you're having those moments of thinking about your babies. I do that a lot...I get to thinking about them and I open up their books or start going through their little memory boxes. And sometimes I have a good cry...but I need one every now and again.

I think it's a great idea to put in all about your efforts on ttc'ing. With us, the first baby wasn't exactly planned...but I did write in all about how surprised we were because we thought we'd need medical intervention to ever get pregnant. When I finally have a healthy baby, there will definitely be a section in his/her book about our struggles having babies and the ones that came before him/her.

SheriKCMO · 10-07-2007, 11:48 PM

If it were my own scrapbook, I would get a small one just for the ttc journey and for this little one's honor. I would do a separate one for each kid, kwim? I sure am sorry you are going through this!!

StormsDreams · 10-08-2007, 05:54 PM

I am big into scapbooking, if you are comfortable then please use that as a way to honor and preserve your memories.
I have a hard time because i have pictures of my son, that I know people would not like to look at. I dont know what to do, i have the stuff and its been a year i just havent put it together. He looks perfect to me, but I am his mother.

kerr · 10-08-2007, 06:02 PM

I am a big scrapbooker. I scrapbooked both of my pregnancies I lost. The scrapbook actually started out as a infertility journey scrapbook. It is small, I think an 8x8. I have poems, pictures of me giving myself injections, all my medications spread out on the counter, pictures of the front of the doctors office, cycle dates and my feelings on the hope of becoming pregnant. Then I finally got pg in april 06 (a chemical pregnancy) I put all the beta numbers( I asked the RE for a copy of the beta labwork, because it does say pregnant on the report), no sono was available so I put in a pregnancy loss poem. The following month I did my first IVF cycle, again the same pictures, well my pregnancy was ectopic so I found a ectopic pregnancy loss poem, pressed flowers from a bouquet I recieved this all in the same scrapbook. A few months later we decided to try to do IVF again. I did the same pictures, an infertility poem, beta's, sono's and once I was halfway through my second trimester I took out the pages from IVF number 2 and made a pregnancy album.

If you need any help with your album let me know. I can post the poems I used or if you need any other ideas. I always felt since I did not have any pictures or momentos from my babies, I can always go to my scrapbook and "visit them." Making the scrapbook made me feel so good. I keep it in my nightstand and only my husband has seen it.

I also did not use baby themed paper to scrapbook. I made the album using floral themes. I did put a footprint charm on the front page and put the footprints poem next to it.

Please try not to give up in your infertility journey. A chemical pregnancy is still a pregnancy. I am sorry for your loss. I hope all your dreams come true!

lovepotato · 10-08-2007, 10:55 PM

I'm making my scrapbook for Eric with pictures in it. I'll only let people who I know want to see pictures of him look at it. I have 2 rolls that I'm waiting to do something with. You could make it just for you, and put it in a special place. Don't let what others think stop you from making an album. And your angel is beautiful, and the album you make for him will be too.

Cayenne · 10-09-2007, 11:52 PM

Thank you so much for your comments. I started my scrapbook this weekend. I only have the title page completed but I'm looking forward to being able to make more pages. I feel this is going to contribute to the healing process.