First Words
I write this first entry now with baby drool on my hand and one eye on my 11 month old daughter looking for yet another item I WILL have to fish out of her mouth. As her 1 year birthday approaches, I could not help but think of all the obstacles my wife and I have overcome, all the memories we have made, and how difficult it was to start on this wonderful adventure.
I remember the isolation from people who do not understand the LGBTQ experience and the discomfort of answering questions that people would never even think to ask straight couples. I remember the frustration at the lack of resources and information there is for LGBTQ parents or parents-to-be. I wished there had been a place to find others who knew what we were going through so that we knew we weren’t alone; to know that staring up at the ceiling while the night hours ticked by anxiously waiting for your newborn to wake up again was completely normal. Or to laugh with others about the amount of people asking if we were both going to breastfeed our baby (which is totally fine if you go that route but probably not appropriate to ask a complete stranger). We were searching for answers and we were searching for community. And we still are.
First Steps
If you are anything like my wife and I, you found it difficult to find information relating to the unique, but still universal experience of parenting as part of the LGBTQ community. When my wife and I finally decided to take on the exciting but daunting journey of parenthood, we did not know where to start. What steps do we need to take to start a family? How do we find a donor? How much is it going to cost? What was IUI and what was the process like? Is it better to do it at home or go through a fertility clinic? There were so many questions and not many places to find answers.
As lesbians, we obviously could not just try “the old fashion way” and we did not know many other lesbians who had already gone through the process. In fact we are pretty lacking in the LGBTQ friendship department (any takers?). So we had a lot of questions and not many places to easily find answers.
First Hopes
I am hoping that we can provide some of these answers and share some of our personal and hopefully relatable experiences with others like us. This blog will include LGBTQ parenting essentials, favorite baby products, How-to Guides, stories such as when I was in labor and our delivery nurse mistook my wife as my mother (And yes we are the same age) and much much more. I want to take you on our incredible journey into the life of first time LGBTQ parents and I hope you will find something valuable along the way.
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