For about five years - maybe longer, attempting to make babies has been a regular conversation.
For at least five years, the names 'Liam' and 'Morgan' have been waiting on a mental shelf, picked out for a boy and a girl. For about that same amount of time, it had been decided that, even though their mother and I had both came from two-children families (both of us with an older sister, actually),
just one child was considered the wisest way forward - if only for the economics of raising a child.
However, something wasn't working.
Their mother and I are both pretty healthy people. I'd even consider myself a bit of a jock (or, at least I was until I became a Dad) ...but there was something wrong. That 'something' turned out to be a startlingly common affliction for women called polycystic ovarian syndrome. (We'll go with PCOS, because apparently everything has to be reduced to an acronym to keep people's attention. Brangelina said so.)
Their mother apparently has a mild version of PCOS, and, due to a chemical imbalance - to put it roughly - another way in had to be found.
More than five years later, after many thousands of dollars in prescriptions, a lot of heartache and disappointment, and - for their mother - bouts of feeling less than a 'whole' woman (and let's not forget the in vitro process) these marvelously perfect little gifts now take up almost every one waking moment. Can't imagine life without them, and certainly couldn't imagine having just one of them. They're a perfect pair, and seemed to be putting on a show as these pictures were taken.
I will provide more history later about the journey, especially the harrowing moments as we approached their coming into the world, but - for now - I thought you might just enjoy these latest pictures from their time on the big comfy couch Saturday morning.
And, concerning the 'Tinks' reference in the title - it comes from a stage in the process where the little pre-embryos are transferred back into their Mother. It was a process that I was able to watch (about which the mother of my children was a little jealous, because she couldn't see the monitor from where she was contorted - um - sitting.)
As the little things traveled up the 'straw' through which they are inserted, they glow like little white lights on the monitor screen, and my first thought was - Tinkerbell - that fascinating creature,
(who, up close, looks like Julia Roberts, all depending on which version of the story you're watching) almost invisible to the human eye, who flits about as a speck of white light.
After imparting this comparison on the drive home from the clinic, it was pointed out in question to me, "What if he's a boy?"
...Well, then I guess 'Tinkerbell' would hardly be appropriate, would it? (Thanks for taking the fun out of THAT for me)...but, at that moment, rather than dispense with the whole concept, I shortened the name to its current form, "The Tinks." ...and if 'Tink' implies tiny, then it's more than accurate enough, considering their size when they were born. I'll have some of those pictures for you in the not-too-distant future.
