Hello! My name is Anne-Marie, and I am 27 years old. My husband and I have decided that we want to get pregnant in 2012. We’d like to add a tiny human to our family of three, which already includes me, him and our Dog, Lewis. Here we are:
And here is the late, great, beautiful Dinah the Cat. She died in November, and I miss her very much.
I used to be an academic, walking a slow, slow path towards a PhD in English lit. When that path hit a brick wall called Unhappy, I realized that caring for children, always my part-time job, was destined to become a career. Here I am, working with little ones! I love my life; it’s not perfect, but it’s mine. Making that life better is my project–our project, really, since I am married to the best friend I could ever have. (You have my permission to gag.)
I started this blog because I couldn’t find much to read on the subject of pregnancy planning with anxiety and depression. I have spent the past five years in intensive psychotherapy and finding just the right combination of medicine to help me feel calm (relatively). But when I went looking for advice about how to go about planning a pregnancy, I just didn’t find much. I found volumes of advice about what to do if you find yourself pregnant and depressed, anxious, medicated, you name it. But anxiety is particularly common in women, so I just can’t be the only woman who wants to know–what do I do if I have anxiety already! I’m sharing what I find out here, so that other women will find just a little bit more information and advice. If the lady in the grocery store can give me advice about having a kid, then I might as well write about the decision on the internet.
Now that we’re officially TTC, I’m also using this blog to keep track of what’s helpful and what’s not. I hope that other women with anxiety can benefit from my records of my experience!
About the title: When Jane Austen was still a teenager, she wrote a hilarious epistolary novel called Love and Friendship. In this quote, Laura describes the (slow) death of her friend both from grief and because she has fainted one too many times:
“My beloved Laura (said she to me a few Hours before she died) take warning from my unhappy End and avoid the imprudent conduct which had occasioned it…. Beware of fainting- fits…. Though at the time they may be refreshing and agreable yet beleive me they will in the end, if too often repeated and at improper seasons, prove destructive to your Constitution. . . My fate will teach you this. . I die a Martyr to my greif for the loss of Augustus. . One fatal swoon has cost me my Life. . Beware of swoons Dear Laura…. A frenzy fit is not one quarter so pernicious; it is an exercise to the Body and if not too violent, is I dare say conducive to Health in its consequences—Run mad as often as you chuse; but do not faint—” These were the last words she ever addressed to me.
I chose the title Do Not Faint because it reminds me to keep my sense of humor. Sometimes, I “run mad” for good, fun reasons. And when my anxiety does get the better of me, that’s ok, as long as I don’t completely lose myself (faint). Dear readers, my fate will teach you this!
Find me any time on Twitter, Facebook or email me at amtonyan (at) gmail (dot) com.
