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I am ICLW No. 104 - Double Delight

I am so proud of myself, I did it, I managed to get myself included despite having some weird mental block when it comes to anything related to this blog (I am usually quite tech savvy honest, I dunno why I struggle here???)

Anyway, enough punctuation abuse, let me introduce myself for those of you kind enough to stop by for the first time.

I am the Villagepig (VP) and just so that you don't think I am being harsh on myself, it is the English translation of our house name. I live in a little village in North Wales, England with my husband (the RO or Respective Other) and twin boys who turn 3 this year.

I am South African born and bred but moved to the UK nearly 6 years ago for a change. Little did I know at the time that the change would arrive in the form of bearded geek from the North East of England. We met 3 months after I arrived and were living together 10 months later. We married after 18 months and the twins arrived (early) 7 months later. I have gone through the details leading up the birth of my boys in an earlier blog which you can find here if you have the time and inclination.

Pregnancy was an awful experience for me which wasn't helped by a particularly complicated twin pregnancy. Full details are in the other blog but the short of it is that anything that could go wrong did and we developed twin to twin transfer syndrome. Tom & Nate were born by c-section on 06 June 2006 (that's 06-06-06 for the observant among you) and we were proud to have reached 31 weeks gestation. They spent 3 weeks in NICU and we were really lucky that we had no complications other than jaundice. I wish someone had told me how physically easy that part was because what followed seriously kicked my 'normally pretty in control' ass!

9 months of weight issues complicated by terrible reflux and shocking sleep deprivation resulted in a diagnosis of post natal depression. Happily the right medication sorted that all out and I am now happily pill free (well except for the ones I take for all those other ailments).

Good crap, this is proving to be a loooong post, I hope that you're following, especially those of you in the back because we're nearly done ;-)...

I disappeared from here for a while last year while I gathered up the reins of my new identity as a full-time mother/wife/employee and have returned because I missed my outlet and because I feel that the time is right because I have at least 7 free minutes a day to spare so why shouldn't I fill them with something? :-)

I have a new passion, one bourne out of the courage and drive that so many of my blogging friends have shown as they struggled with infertility. Before joining the blogging community, my experience of infertility was fairly pedestrian in that I knew people who had experienced it but the realities were hidden behing the social graces. The first story that I read which brought home the true scale of the impact infertility has on lives was from another South African blogger, Tertia and her story literally made me cry for days. There are so many more which have touched me over the years, not the least of which being Trish who has also been my BFOL (best friend on-line) that I realised that it was within my power to do something proactive to support the cause. This step is egg donation and I am about halfway through my first cycle and I have decided to make it my mission to get people talking about what they can do too. I have written about it here and more posts will follow.

I hope that I haven't alienated any of you by now, please come back, I don't usually go on for so long and I will make up for it by being suitably cheeky by back reading all your archives (which I do even if it means I give up precious sleep hours). I shall leave you with a photograph of my lovely boys and please tell me a little about yourself when you leave a comment ;-)

Love
VP