From the Top

In December 2009 I finally got pregnant and stayed. It was at once the most fantastic and terrifying moment of my life.

After over a year of miscarriages, chemical pregnancies, shots for this pills for that, there was the strong line that tells you, minutes after peeing on it, that you have a life growing inside you. The beauty and wonder of all that entails being discovered from something as basic as going to the bathroom never fails to surprise me. Ah, the power of the pee.

To catch you up. Dr. Z and I had gotten pregnant every time, and lost every time. The buns weren't sticky and the consequences were getting dire for me. September 2009 marked a seriously downward moment for me. I returned to England to try to recuperate and almost stayed there things got so bad.

But, back I came and a couple of very interesting things happened.

The first was the Brenda Strong Yoga 4 Fertility class. Brenda's four-week class not only started me back on a course of healthy living, but enabled me to step back mentally into a head space I hadn't inhabited for a long time. That of being a whole person without having to have given birth. That four week class gave me a lesson I will keep for the rest of my life. I am a person, and I can be a mother whether or not I give birth. And, in order for me to be a good mother to a baby, I had to be a good mother to myself.

The second interesting thing was a course of acupuncture that I undertook with a doctor in Santa Monica. Her ministrations were swift and bloody painful at times, but that amazing buzzing, throbbing, electrifying sensation that comes with acupuncture set my body back into its natural rhythms, something that hadn't happened in a long time.

So, fully yoga-ed and pin pricked up, I got pregnant. We weren't really supposed to try but, impatient as always I decided I wanted to do it. I called doctor #3 who gave me the OK and off we went.

I found out I was pregnant on the day after probably the most stressful moment in my career here in Los Angeles. I was doing major damage control and suddenly found myself at two holiday parties in one day miserable as all heck and in no mood to be there. I was antsy for Sunday to come so I could break open the First Response (my particular favorite - call it superstition) and find out the news.

Next day dawned and out came the stick. One quick pee later and there it was. The line every woman dreads or desires. The line that says more than any words, that is more beautiful than any painting in any gallery, that is more scary than any movie, that gives more hope than a thousand speeches from the most eloquent orators in the world. The line that makes all the difference. And mine was calling to me from deep within. I'm here.