My mother once told me that she was so excited when she was pregnant with me, in part, because it meant she got to buy new clothes. Her budget for clothing was tight but a changing body meant she’d have no choice but to expand her wardrobe. My relationship with clothing and fertility has been a little more complicated.
I knew, long before I started trying to conceive, or received my diagnosis of Luteal Phase Defect, Endometriosis, and Diminished Ovarian Reserve, that when I got pregnant, I was going to show off my growing belly. No flowing tops with empire-waists for me! I was going to wear form fitting dresses, showing off every curve.
Once I went off birth control, I was reluctant to buy new clothes. It was only a matter of time before I wouldn’t be able to fit into them, right? I needed to save my money for trips to Motherhood Maternity and shopping A Pea in the Pod, and the maternity line of stores like GAP online.
Months turned to years and my clothes were getting tattered and faded. It was a stand off of sorts. I refused to give in and buy something new. Eventually, just after beginning a treatment course of inter-uterine inseminations with a hybrid of oral and injectable hormones, I needed a new winter coat.
My mother-in-law, Beverly, and I took a trip to TJ Maxx on a Saturday afternoon. I picked out two. One was Calvin Klein. Long, black, full of down, with faux fur framing my face on the detachable hood. The other, an Anne Klein of bright red wool. Beverly, an excellent shopping partner because of her excitability over a fantastic find, gushed about how cute it was and asked, “Oh! Don’t you hope you don’t get pregnant right away so you can wear it a little while?”
I didn’t care. The coat would fit after my pregnancy, or it wouldn’t, but at least I’d have a baby in my arms.
In the red coat, surrounded by children on a hay ride on our friends’ family farm.
Around that time, I decided to readjust my perspective and started using clothes as my consolation prize for not being pregnant each month. With the arrival of each new cycle, the sure sign that treatment had once again been unsuccessful and the prospect of having to buy maternity clothes was delayed for another month, I would head off to the Limited, or scour the racks at Marshall’s after appointments with the reproductive endocrinologist. I bought sweaters, camisoles, tops, but never bottoms, still holding on to the possibility that it wouldn’t be long before I was pregnant and I would have difficulty zipping and buttoning them.
My dresser drawers started overflowing and I had no choice but to start moving clothes into the dresser in the guest room that was supposed to become a nursery.
At Advocacy Day in 2014 wearing clothes purchased specifically for the occasion.
In March of 2013, we moved on to IVF. I had originally hoped to do it in February, just before 35th birthday. I liked the idea of using 34 year-old eggs to create my embryos. Everyone knows things go downhill after 35, right? Unfortunately, since I now live in the world of infertility, I know that things can go downhill at any age.
Our IVF cycle resulted in three, grade 5AA blastocysts. They were high quality, hatched, and ready to implant and become my children. They were beautiful. We transferred two in May and waited to find out if they’d implanted meaning that I was finally, after four years of dealing with infertility, pregnant.
On the night before my beta, after we’d had dinner and I’d taken the dog for a walk, I tested. I seriously wasn’t expecting anything. The words, “It’s negative” were already coming out of my mouth when I realize it wasn’t. Positive. The line wasn’t very dark but it was there. My husband and I were all smiles and I made some comment about being his pregnant wife. Still, we were cautiously optimistic. We knew the blood test the next day would give us a better indication of what to expect.
The next morning, I saw a rainbow on my way to have my blood drawn. That had to be a good sign. The nurse called with my numbers a bit later. At 30, they weren’t where I wanted to be but I was indeed pregnant. Suddenly, I didn’t hate the pregnant women I passed in the hall at work. I was one of them. It was exciting but also a complete identity crisis. I was fully immersed in the infertility world at that point and the thought of switching gears and becoming a parent were daunting. Still, I smiled when I thought of raising my child alongside my best friend’s daughter who would be just a bit older. Summers at the lake, sleepovers. After years of being left behind by friends as they moved into parenthood, I’d finally be moving forward and joining them.
On the day of beta number two, my mom and I were shopping in Metro Detroit. I needed some summer clothes and took care to choose items that, as my mother-in-law had said about the red coat, I’d be able to wear a little while. At Nordstrom, I fell in love with a light-weight tweed skirt that, unfortunately for me, a newly pregnant woman, fit perfectly. There was no give, meaning it wouldn’t fit long enough to make it to the “yes” hook in my fitting room.
I paid for my items, we had some lunch, and made our way to an antique store. It was in the parking lot there that I got the news. My beta had gone down. The pregnancy was not viable. I emailed my husband the message, “No more shots.”
I thought I could hold it together but I couldn’t, we hit the highway to head back to the hotel. All I could think was, “I should have bought the skirt”, like doing so would have guaranteed that my pregnancy would have continued. For a moment I panicked and my mom and I considered turning around and going back to Nordstrom. We didn’t.
With my husband on our “IVF didn’t work so we’re taking a vacation” trip. I bought the hat at the resort gift shop after forgetting mine at home.
After my early miscarriage, that skirt haunted me. I looked for it on repeat trips to the mall and it wasn’t there. Months passed and my husband, Beverly, and I were visiting my nieces in Minnesota for their birthdays. We’d been at the Mall of America for hours with a trip to the aquarium, amusement park, the movie theater, and more. The girls were anxious to get back to the hotel to play with their new birthday toys but I wanted to try to take advantage of Minnesota’s tax-free clothing. I said good bye and I’ll see you soon as the rest of my family boarded the elevator to find the shuttle back to our room. I didn’t have much time, but I headed into Nordstrom Rack.
There it was. The skirt. I needed some closure. I took it to the fitting room, this skirt that I hadn’t been able to get out of my mind since the day of my miscarriage. The skirt that I passed up because I was pregnant, then wasn’t. My heart was racing as I put it on and zipped it up. I looked at myself in the mirror and was surprised to see that it wasn’t as fantastic as I had remembered. Relief rushed over me.
Since then, we unsuccessfully transferred our last embryo. We’ve moved on to trying to regroup. To find ourselves after more than half a decade of the turmoil that comes along with an infertility diagnosis. In addition to regular therapy, I’ve indulged in a little too much retail therapy. My recent splurge (a great deal at Nordstrom Rack, yet still not cheap), a Burberry dress. Not because it’s Burberry but because the fabric feels amazing and it’s in a style that I’ve always wanted, but I’ve never before been able to find in proportions that fit me right. It’s hanging in my closet, with the tags still on. I go back and forth between thinking I should return it and imagining myself wearing it to present about the ART of Infertility at an upcoming medical humanities conference.
The Burberry dress. It’s nowhere near that short on me!
Click here to vote on whether I should return or keep the dress.
I’m not yet sure if my journey will take me to a life living child free or to parenthood. I imagine both scenarios and there’s a wardrobe that goes along with each. In one, there’s shopping without the worry of my newly purchased pants suddenly not fitting, neatly folding clothes and then doing my best to cram them into already over-filled suitcases for more travel with ART of IF, carefully chosen outfits for business meetings, a variety of shoes, belts, and jewelry for accessorizing.
In the other, there are also the shoulders of my sweaters soaked with baby drool, the hem of my skirt being tugged by the tiny hand of a son or daughter, urging my attention to his or her level. There’s me in the stands at a ball game in the rain, wearing a wind resistant parka and, eventually, a trip to a boutique to purchase a mother-of-the-bride, or groom, dress.
I don’t imagine that one wardrobe is better than the other. I believe I can be happy wearing either one. But will one make me happier? Feel more fulfilled? More at peace? I’m not sure yet. So, I’ll take this time to work on re-weaving the fabric of my life that’s been worn thin over the past six and a half years, hoping that I’ll eventually know how to cut it up and stitch it back together into something beautiful and new.