
One of the crazy things that happens when you’re struck with a piece of news that stops your world is that the rest of the world keeps turning. With the approval of my midwives, I kept lifting weights and going on surf trips, joking that Piggy would be born with a love of waves.

I was determined not to let pregnancy stop me from doing the things I loved. At the magazine where I work, two other editors were due within five weeks of me, so we bundled our pregnancy announcements into one grand reveal and shared our news with the rest of the team when I was about 15 weeks along. Our elderly parents were overjoyed, buoyed by the promise of a grandchild. With the negative results in hand and the first trimester behind us, we started telling our families and friends about Piggy. The results came back negative, meaning my pregnancy was not at increased risk for any of the conditions tested – but in a video on the testing company’s website, a cardiganed woman calmly noted the test doesn’t screen for all genetic conditions. Our midwives walked us through a dizzying array of genetic testing options and at around 10 weeks, we opted to pay $99 privately for a non-invasive prenatal screening blood test (known as NIPS) that assessed the fetal DNA for risk of chromosomal abnormalities. My husband and I immediately started referring to our growing spawn as “Piggy.” And, at 36, I felt I’d delayed motherhood pretty much as long as I could, so I decided to go off the Pill and joked with my friends about “letting Jesus take the wheel.” He took it and got me pregnant at the first opportunity. It terrified and intrigued me in equal measure. I had the sense that having a baby would be both painful and deeply healing. “Liver and stomach of baby seen outside abdominal wall.”īut deep down, I did crave a biological family of my own, especially because I’d never grown up with one. When she asked if my husband was with me, it struck me as unnecessary.īut then came strange words that didn’t belong in my life. I wasn’t surprised to hear from her, figuring it was a routine follow up. Just a couple hours later, I was sitting in my fishbowl office when I answered a call from our midwife.
Skip hop diaper bag cracked#
That photo is the last evidence of “before.” Before the hushed voices, before the invasive procedures, before a fault line cracked open, severing me from my previous life. The next morning, I bundled up for a winter bike ride to the office and posted a silly photo on Instagram of me wearing my bike helmet under the hood of a puffy jacket. My husband and I went for Thai food afterward, photos of our yawning little one safely tucked away. When the tech ran her wand over my stomach she found a strong heartbeat and a growing, kicking baby girl. One week later, I was back home on Vancouver Island, lying on a medical exam table, as a technician spread gel on my belly for an anatomy ultrasound. Create an Etsy account (if you don’t already have one), set your shop location and currency, choose a shop name, create a listing, set a payment method (how you want to be paid), and finally set a billing method (how you want to pay your Etsy fees).On a vacation to Mexico, Gilchrist went to a market in Sayulita, shown in a photo by her friend Kathryn Juricic, and bought a blue mobile, shown at her home in Victoria.


Learn more What do I need to do to create a shop? When you open your Etsy shop, you can decide if you want to participate in Etsy’s advertising services. You pay an advertising fee on any sales you make from Offsite Ads.

Listing fees are billed for $0.20 USD, so if your bank's currency is not USD, the amount may differ based on changes in the exchange rate. If you accept payments with PayPal, there is also a payment processing fee based on their fee structure. Once an item sells, there is a 6.5% transaction fee on the sale price (including the shipping price you set). A listing lasts for four months or until the item is sold. It costs USD 0.20 to publish a listing to the marketplace. There are three basic selling fees: a listing fee, a transaction fee, and a payment processing fee. Joining and starting a shop on Etsy is free.
