Since today is a Leap Year Day, I thought I would post two posts today to let you know that I finally bought new domain names for my pregnancy over 40 blogs!

If you have the sites bookmarked, could you update with the new domains?

If you have the sites listed on your own website, blog, etc. - could you update the links?

I am happy to exchange links with other sites that deal with pregnancy over 40!

Pregnancy Stories by Age
-- Daily blog of hope and inspiration!
www.pregnancystoriesbyage.com

You Can Get Pregnant in Your 40's
-- Sharing articles, discussing options & suggestions
www.babyafter40.com

Stories of Pregnancy and Birth over 44 years old
-- sharing news stories I find online, for inspiration!
www.pregnancyover44.com

---

◊ Follow us on Twitter, join the conversation on our Facebook page, circle us on Google+.

Brenda Hamilton had been in and out of rehab more than once. “I wanted to get off drugs,” she says, “but I wasn’t ready until I got pregnant.”

At age 43, Hamilton was pregnant for the second time. “I wanted this baby,” she said. "It was my ‘way out.’” She went to Crossroads, in Windham, which she said is a very good program. She was an inpatient at the facility. It was there that she weaned herself off the drugs. “It took me having a baby to turn my life around.”

Mary-Ellen Welch remembers seeing Hamilton wheeling her baby around the neighborhood and says she was always impressed with the obvious care and love that was showered on the child. “She always looked beautiful, clean, and happy,” says Welch. And she had seen too many babies that didn’t fall into that category when she had been a caseworker at DHHS in the Child Protective Division.

Looking back at her former life, Hamilton says, “I’d never want to go back. I like what I have now. Now I got a job, a license, a car, and money in the bank.” And she has her precious daughter, the most important part of her new life.

Read more

---

TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
Moms to Moms: Parenting Wisdom from Moms in Recovery
-- Being a mom is one of the hardest and most important jobs a woman can have. Being a mom in recovery is even more challenging.
In Moms to Moms, counselor Barbara Joy shares the stories, advice, and inspiration from more than 60 mothers in recovery from across the United States who have struggled with addiction. These are women of all ages, races, and religious affiliations who candidly share their experiences: the challenges of being a mom in recovery, the values they want to teach their children, and their fears, struggles, and accomplishments.
This is a book that offers help and hope to busy, stressed out moms in recovery; a book they can turn to again and again to find inspiration, comfort, and advice. Joy offers evaluation tools and strategies for positive parenting, journaling activities for reflections, and affirmations designed to relieve stress and reinforce positive behavior.

---

◊ Follow us on Twitter, join the conversation on our Facebook page, circle us on Google+.

Jerusalem — Beth (not her real name), an American who made aliyah in 1990 at the age of 28, says she always wanted to be a wife and mother.

Beth underwent her first artificial insemination procedure in Israel (treatments are free through the second live birth, till age 45) when she was 42 and the first of 12 cycles of IVF when she was 43. Though she became pregnant three times, she miscarried.

At 45, Beth took some time off to recover from the treatments and applied to adopt a child. A year and a half later, at her doctors’ advice, she tried conceiving with donor eggs. Since almost no egg donations were being carried out in Israel at the time, she flew to Kiev, to an Israeli/Ukrainian egg donor program. It didn’t work.

Still determined to become a mother, Beth flew to Kiev one more time and became pregnant with twins, who were born in 2009.

Read more

Photo credit: resident_a
All rights reserved

---

TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
When You're Expecting Twins, Triplets, or Quads: Proven Guidelines for a Healthy Multiple Pregnancy
-- Like all mothers-to-be, you're experiencing the full spectrum of human emotions: joy, fear, confusion, and excitement—maybe all at once. As a woman pregnant with more than one baby, you're feeling all these things . . . only more so!
In When You're Expecting Twins, Triplets, or Quads, Dr. Barbara Luke, an acknowledged expert on the prenatal care of multiples, outlines a practical, nutrition-based program to keep you and your babies healthy, and she offers a comprehensive tour of what you can expect during your unique pregnancy and childbirth experience. Women who follow this program have significantly fewer complications during pregnancy—and their babies are born weighing 20 to 35 percent more than the average twin, triplet, or quad.

---

◊ Follow us on Twitter, join the conversation on our Facebook page, circle us on Google+.

Frank Skinner has revealed how he is coping with the prospect of becoming a father for the first time at the age of 55.

The host of BBC1’s Room 101 rose to fame on the show Fantasy Football League in the 1990s and has described his stand-up tours as a mix of pub humour and politically dubious sex routines.

But he said he is now taking his responsibilities seriously, putting his beloved soccer to one side to support his six months pregnant partner, comedy agent Cathy Mason, 43.

The comedian has been with Miss Mason since 2003 when she worked as a receptionist at his management company.

Read more

---

TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
Fathers of a Certain Age: The Joys and Problems of Middle-Aged Fatherhood
by Martin Carnoy

-- A father and son interview dozens of men in their 40s and 50s to discover why these men have decided to delay parenting or start over, and how they feel about fathering children in late middle age.

The result is a timely assessment of the challenges and rewards older fathers face, as seen through their own eyes and those of their wives and children.

Men are becoming fathers at 40, 50 or more, but there is very little information on what issues they will have to deal with or how to cope with the new life phase.

Lots of anecdotes of from families with either delayed or remarried fatherhood.

It offers glimpses of societal changes as we are all living longer and healthier and as a result, may have children later.

Discusses step-kids, May-December marriages, adoption, fathers-at-home, and more.

Paperback: 192 pages
Click to order/for more info: Fathers of a Certain Age

---

A family is preparing to welcome a new addition later this month after a woman offered to become a surrogate for her son and his wife.

Sandy Lawrence, 48 of Myrtle, Missouri said she is pregnant with her son's child. Sandy, who became pregnant in June of last year, said she wanted to do this for her son and his wife Mindy.

Mindy, Jake and Sandy visited the Sher Institute for Reproductive Medicine in St. Louis in early 2011. At the time, the family wanted to address concerns about having a 48-year old woman bear her son's child. All three learned surrogacy was possible.

"We asked the doctor all these questions and he was just like it was no big deal. Technology is so amazing and I feel like God has given us this opportunity that there's no words. It's just like, wow," said Mindy.

Read more

---

TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:

A Matter of Trust: The Guide to Gestational Surrogacy
by Gail Dutton

-- Published in 1997, this book is a step-by-step guide to surrogate parenting.

It discusses finding and working with a surrogate, what a surrogate program provides, what to include in the contracts, recommended testing for potential surrogates, detailed costs for each item related to surrogacy, the medical procedure, medications and their side effects, embryo cryo-preservation, demographics of surrogates and surrogate couples and the effects of surrogacy upon children.

One chapter outlines the laws in U.S. states and in Israel, South Africa, Canada, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Germany, France, Switzerland, New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan and Russia. Jewish law also is discussed, along with the views of several Christian denominations and other religions regarding surrogacy.

Paperback: 239 pages
Click to order/for more info: A Matter of Trust

---

Sue and Mike Reed learned about the deformity [Trisomy 18] when Sue was 44 years old and pregnant with her second child. Since older mothers carry a greater risk of genetic deformities, Sue’s doctors scheduled genetic testing. When results showed they had a girl, they named her Gabriella Grace — or “Gi-Gi” for short.

The night before the birth, Sue wrote a letter to Gi-Gi telling her, “Some people only dream of angels, but I get to actually give birth to one and then hold her in my arms. I am so very blessed. See you tomorrow, sweet girl.”

“I expected a deformed baby,” Sue admitted, “but she was beautiful. It was like a visitor from heaven. It was like God showing me that what we did was the ‘faith thing.’ I remember feeling like my heart was exploding so joyfully. It was like seeing God on Earth."

Read more

Photo Credit: Catherine McDiarmid-Watt
All Rights Reserved

---

TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
I Will Carry You: The Sacred Dance of Grief and Joy
-- In 2008, Angie Smith and her husband Todd (lead singer of the group Selah) learned through ultrasound that their fourth daughter had conditions making her “incompatible with life.” Advised to terminate the pregnancy, the Smiths chose instead to carry this child and allow room for a miracle. That miracle came the day they met Audrey Caroline and got the chance to love her for the precious two-and-a-half hours she lived on earth.
Upon receiving the original diagnosis, Angie started a blog (Bring the Rain) to keep family and friends informed of their journey. Soon, the site exploded in popularity, connecting with thousands who were either experiencing their own heartbreaking situations or simply curious about how God could carry someone through something so tragic. I Will Carry You tells the powerful story of a parent losing her child, interwoven with the biblical story of Lazarus to help those who mourn to still have hope—to find grace and peace in the sacred dance of grief and joy.

---

◊ Follow us on Twitter, join the conversation on our Facebook page, circle us on Google+.

Karen McLaren and her husband Gary went through seven gruelling cycles of IVF treatment before daughter Alice was finally born seven weeks before Christmas.

But the couple say their eight-year battle to have a baby has been worth every penny after the safe arrival of their daughter Alice.

The couple first started trying for a family at the beginning of 2003, but after a couple of years Mrs McLaren still hadn’t fallen pregnant.

Mrs McLaren, 43, a medical secretary, said: ‘I had thought I would fall pregnant straight away as I was young and healthy.

‘But after nearly three years nothing had happened. So we went to see our GP who referred us for tests.’

Read more

---

TODAY'S BOOK SUGGESTION:
You Can Get Pregnant Over 40, Naturally II: Overcoming infertility and recurrent loss in your late 30s and 40s naturally
by Sandy Robertson

-- After years of infertility and failed fertility treatments, Sandy Robertson developed an all-natural pregnancy protocol leading to the birth of her daughter at the age of 44.

In this new expanded edition, she shares her research including over 100 references.

She explains how she:
- Overcame recurrent miscarriage
- Conceived multiple times of the age of 40 with one Fallopian tube
- Balanced hormones
- Increased pelvic circulation

Paperback: 248 pages
Click to order/for more info: You Can Get Pregnant Over 40, Naturally

---

[Note - not all stories are good stories]

A 43-year-old teacher is pregnant by a 16-year-old pupil. She first started an affair with the boy when he was just 13.

Now, three years on, the couple are married and have announced they are expecting their first child in June.

Other sources report the woman as saying the pregnancy was planned, and that they are 'over the moon.'

Read rest of article

Photo credit: Rex Stock image
All rights reserved

---

◊ Follow us on Twitter, join the conversation on our Facebook page, circle us on Google+.