Updates - A little bit of here and there and in between

So I still haven't seen my bestie's baby. On the day I had planned to visit them, baby A was hospitalised for jaundice. Couldn't find another time to visit after that. I feel like a bad friend urrghh.

Just a day before DH's birthday, we decided to tell my in-laws about DH's problem, about how he has been suffering from ED for all these years and how I have, as a consequence of his ED, suffered too. The reason behind our decision was because I could not stand being blamed by the in-laws for not getting pregnant yet. For the record, I have been continuously tortured mentally by MIL and FIL and also DH's grandmother who keep on coming up with old wives tale and tips for me to combat infertility. They have been happily assuming I was the one who was infertile all this while. On numerous occasions, his grandmother had been telling everyone about how fertile her family is and the only reason why we still have no kids is because of me. Up to a point that she even used the word "mandul" on me. Just a day before we told them, they had been forcing me to drink some weird akar kayu drink with uncalled for advice like "Ada otak kita kena guna dan usaha. Kalau tak macam mana nak lekat?"

I have been trying my best to be the bigger person everytime by considering their level of education and status in life (uneducated kampung folks) but it has never gotten easier. That was why we decided to spill. As expected, they were in total disbelief. I just hope they will realise how absurd they have been all this while one day.

And poor DH, his family's reaction had taken a toll on him too. He now sees himself as a failure. He said how he wished we had remained the way we were and not tell a soul about his problem. I said I cannot do that. I cannot live my whole life absorbing every insult they hurled at me. We got into a terrible fight that went on for days. Luckily my family turned up on Thursday and stayed until Sunday for the CNY holidays so we have been pretending to be happy the whole time they were here. In reality, we are still not ok.

Last night DH told me that he will not be able to make the appointment with the neuro expert for his ED treatment scheduled this 13 March. And my heart shatters into pieces again. I do not know if we're ever going to be ok.

We are in the process of moving house this week. I want to be excited about it but I just can't. This is the shittiest feeling I have felt in years. The only thing I am looking forward to is the TTC Workshop this Saturday. But even that makes me feel depressed as I see this whole TTC thing cannot ever work if DH continues with this reluctant attitude. All I have left is Allah :'(

Mockery

Just when I was about to be all normal and indifferent towards all of my TTC-related problem, a cousin announced the birth of her second daughter in the family Whatsapp on Friday and as you can guess the other cousin-mummies gushed excitedly, "Oh... I know the feeling! You must be over the moon!" 

Of course everyone knows "the feeling" of giving birth, right? Right? Except this one infertile-by-marriage cousin of yours hahaha! *this is my bitterness talking*

To top it all, the birth announcement came in just after the proud grandmother of the new baby forwarded the good-hearted message below (I'm sure the same has been circulating everywhere, not just in my family Whatsapp):

A lot of men think they doing women a favour by asking for her hand in marriage, but lets think about this : she changes her name, changes her home, leaves her family, moves in with you, builds a home with you, gets pregnant for you, pregnancy change her body, she gets fat, almost gives up in the labour room due to the unbearable pains of child birth, even the kids she delivers bear your name. Till the day she dies everything she does benefits you. So who is really doing who a favour? Dear men appreciate your wife today, it is not easy to be a woman.*Being a woman is priceless *

W - Wonderful MOTHER
O - Outstanding Friend
M - Marvelous Daughter
A - Adorable Sister
N - Nicest Gift To Men From God

complete with pesanan penaja : Kalau boleh buat semua tu kerana Allah senang masuk syurga.

So how did that make me feel? Of course, mendidih inside!

Mind you, it's my extended family group chat with 42 participants. I have four cousins who are about the same age as me - all have become mothers except myself. Of course the forwarded message is a general one but at the time of reading it, I could almost see the texts dancing up and down, mocking me. As you would have guessed, I replied:

"Saidatina Aisyah tak pernah melahirkan anak. Masuk syurga juga. Assiyah isteri Firaun, ibu angkat Nabi Musa A.S. juga begitu. Tinggi ketaqwaan kepada Allah. Firaun yang mandul tapi Assiyah tetap bersifat keibuan membela Musa A.S. dan berjaya pujuk Firaun untuk bela Musa A.S. Kalau hari ini, asal mandul je masyarakat akan salahkan perempuan."

That was when I think the aunt, along with several cousins got the message. However, as non-TTCians they advised me to be patient and believe in Allah's plan etc. Hahahaha as if we do not know any better.

I told them off back that it is not in their place to tell me what to do. As someone who has been in this battle for over three years, of course I know what to do. All I did was pointing out to them that it is not right to be over-glorifying the joy of motherhood when not everyone has the chance to experience it. I told them what to do on their part instead, that is to be more aware of infertility issues, as that is what is lacking in the society at the moment. As someone who is experiencing it, whether biologically or by marriage, of course we know what it takes to face the test, right? What we need is family support and not continuous isolation. No one replied after that LOL.

I have yet to visit my cousin's baby. Not intending to, not anytime soon. I told my mother the same. She told me to reconsider and visit them anyway but bring DH along. We'll see.

From this entry I think you can tell that I have been going on an emotional roller coaster ride. Not proud of myself. So I decided to just go on living as normal. Went to a friend's wedding on Saturday evening, spring cleaned the house, called my mother to have a chat, just tried my best to be normal but of course there is still that bugging feeling I do not know how to get rid of.

It is not helping that our blood test / semen analysis results from the Health Clinic have not been out yet. They asked us to call again sometime next week.

In the meantime, I have signed up to attend the TTC Breakthrough Programme organised by Jay and friends. Hopefully I can gather my spirit back with it. A soul tuning is going to do me some good. Aamiin.

Sister-in-Law (DH's sister) is pregnant

She announced it in the family whatsapp group chat a couple of weeks ago. Honestly both DH and I were crushed that night. I did not immediately read the message as soon as it came in because I was just about to solat Isya' but DH did and he came to me and hugged me. I had no idea what was going on then. I thought it was just a normal hug so I just excused myself so I could pray. 

Finished praying and just like my everyday routine, I checked my phone one last time before going to bed. That was when I saw THE announcement in the form of positive UPT photo captioned "Alhamdulillah rezeki kami tahun ini."

I was confused with my own feeling at that time. I wanted to feel happy, I mean I felt happy at that time but I also felt sad with myself. I texted my congratulations and buried my face in my pillow. DH went around to hug me tight and said that, that was why he came to hug before. He knew how I would feel and it pains him too to see the pregnancy announcement by her sister and to see me all sad. I sobbed uncontrollably in his arms that everything he said after that was blur. I did not know what time I actually slept last night but I remember waking up with my pillow and DH's arms drenched in tears. Allahuakbar! How heartbroken I was.

I tried to go about my days like normal. I mean, I have my day job that needs my full attention, I also have my running hobby which I do enjoy doing with my friends, basically I just try to put all of my sorrows behind. I even reasoned it out. It was silly for me to feel down and jealous of my SIL just because she is pregnant for the second time and I am not even close to seeing my first BFP. So I left it at that and went about my life.

I thought I was doing okay until, the SIL decides to be on her oh-Im-pregnant-and-I-deserve-all-the-attention-in-this-world mode. The group chat is now full of her woes and whinings of how tired she is, how easily she becomes hungry, how her old clothes won't fit her, her cravings, etc you get it right? She became the most annoying person to me all of a sudden. It is not helping that the MIL is encouraging her. One night, the SIL said she was craving for satay so the MIL asked everyone to make time for dinner so we can take her out for satay as one happy family. According to MIL, we must support her since she is pregnant and all. I said no thanks but I have something more important to attend to. I hope they get the message. DH was not too keen of me joining them either. He was away at that time for a meeting so he managed to escape, himself hehe.

After the incident, you might think she has stopped with the whinings, right? Nope, it is getting worse by the day. Not wanting to torture myself, I have muted the group chat for one year. Yay! I also haven't seen her at all although Kajang is just a short distance from where I live (Putrajaya). No, I don't feel bad at all. At this point in time, I believe it is important for me to think of myself and how I feel first. And this has given me peace :)

I have also deactivated all of my social media accounts to avoid seeing her gloating about her pregnancy there. Trust me, I feel sooooooo much better now!