I am woefully behind on posting here at Meek Manor. I’ve been busy with behind-the-scenes “stuff” over at Pregnancy After Loss Support, including redesigning the website. It’s an exciting time, and some of my personal writing and crafty blogging has had to be set aside for a bit. But, next week I post my new articles at PALS, so I thought maybe I should share July’s before August’s are ready to go!

July’s monthly TTC journal article chronicled March and April’s cycles, “TTC After Loss: Infertility Diagnosis,” which included our fertility work-up and infertility diagnosis. “After a stillbirth, many aspects of the process feel particularly cruel: determining final arrangements for the baby, leaving the hospital with empty arms, postpartum realities like milk production and other body/hormonal changes, holidays, and many more. Twelve months after losing Patrick, we were addressing another cruel reality of our lives after loss: infertility.”

July’s “How I Cope: ‘Just Breathe’” shares a few mindfulness and meditation techniques I’ve learned to help cope with anxiety in general, including a new app I’ve discovered, Stop, Breathe, & Think. “‘Just breathe’ borders on cliché, but sometimes a cliché’s origin is filled with meaning. They become clichés when one speaks the words so frequently, without thought, that those words lose their meaning. When ‘just breathe’ is spoken mindfully, though, and followed by a deep breath through the nose and released through the mouth, the meaning is reinforced and one can experience some relief from tension.”