It Takes A Village...

So I just found Lori's blog, The Inadequate Conception, recently, and as I was reading through her past posts, one of them really stuck out to me. The post, "It doesn’t take a village to raise a child; it takes a village to create a child" is so true in the cases of couples dealing with infertility. At the time of her post, Lori guessed that it would take 33 people to get her "Nest" (surrogate) pregnant, and ultimately give her a child. This interested me, so I decided to figure out how many people it would take to get me pregnant if this cycle worked out. Mind you, at this time, we're still trying "naturally", ie. no Clomid or other drugs, no IUIs or IVF yet. Of course as more medical intervention is needed, the number will grow.

So as of March 25, 2013, it would take...

• My OB-GYN (not with an RE yet,) and his team. I've really only worked with him, his two nurses and one receptionist even though there are others in the office. Let's just say 4. 
• I also have an ultrasound tech that gets to see my lady bits at least monthly. Add another 1. 
• I have to go to an outside lab to get my blood taken and processed, so there are two phlebotomists that I've dealt with there, plus approximately 2 people to process it. At least 4 people deal with my blood.  
• I get my medications processed at Walgreens. I know there are at least 2 different pharmacists plus the 2 lab techs that I deal with regularly, so that's another 4. 
• I can't forget my family that has been so supportive during all of this. My husband and my parents are the ones most in the "know" but my sister checks in from time to time. Plus my husband needs to be involved for his part in the process. Add another 4. 
• I have one good girlfriend and a cousin-in-law that also check in to see how I'm doing. They're the only friends (besides my friends in the computer) that know what we're going through. +2 
• My boss has been super supportive throughout this. I eventually told her what was going on when I was going to one appointment or another weekly at the beginning of this whole journey. She's super flexible and lets me go to appointments whenever I need. +1 
• And of course, I can't forget you guys! Without your super sweet comments and advice, there is no way I would survive this. I have 7 followers, but I know more of you have read and commented, so there's no real number I can add. I just want to say thank you so much for being there for me!

So if you add 4 doctors/nurses/receptionists, 1 ultrasound tech, 4 people who deal with my blood, 4 people who give me drugs, 4 family members, 2 friends, and one awesome boss, that equals 20 people.

And to think, these are just the people I can actually count! I have no idea how many hands have touched my OPKs from the internet or how many people it actually took to make my medications. It still blows my mind that we need the help of at least 20 people to make a baby. What happened to the "man + woman = baby" equation I was taught in elementary school?

How many people does/did it take for you to get pregnant? Can you beat Lori's number of 33?


P.S. I downloaded Lor's book, "The Inadequate Conception: From Barry White to Blastocytes: What your mom didn't tell you about getting pregnant" for my Kindle recently and I am about to start reading it. Has anyone else read it? Any reviews?