Instagram - how I love it!

Instagram. How I love it! When I first signed up, I really just wanted to be able to put filters on photos. I didn't know what else to expect. How could I have ever known the connections I would make through photos and short sentences alone. The inspiration I would get. The recipes I would discover. But mostly, the friends I would make. Real friends, that know just as much (sometimes more!) about me than my 'in real life' friends. Support, advice, ideas - all from just one little photo sharing app.

My first IG picture

I found my chinese herbalist and acupuncturist (Nat at The Pagoda Tree) through Instagram, and my husband and I both stand firm in our belief that her diet and lifestyle advice was ultimately what helped us conceive - I may have used the term 'Instagram got me pregnant' on more than one occasion!

We got ideas for green smoothie recipes

One of my most exciting pregnancy announcements was to my IG friends, and the excitement, joy, love and support I received from them meant the world.

My IG pregnancy announcement - that's Rawkus (now Otis!) at 13 weeks.

Our dog, Molly, has featured more times than I can count, our home, things I've cooked, places we've been, people I love, all shared with my Instagram friends. Who have become real friends. 2 in particular, one in Tasmania and one in the UK. We were already following each other when we all discovered we were pregnant. Our babies were born within weeks of each other. They are my 'other' mothers group, the ones I could 'chat' with during the early morning feeds, who offer me ideas and suggestions when I am struggling with something, and share my excitement when milestones pass.

I've signed my Mum up - she only follows me, but it means she gets regular updates on my life. She even shows the pics to my 95 year old grandmother. Can you imagine what Instagram must be like to someone who has lived the last 95 years? She is fascinated by the comments, wanting to know who the people are, where they live, and how I 'know' them.

In short, it's changed my life. For the better. Do you use Instagram? Find me under the username makinglimecello

Life

It happens that way, life, doesn't it? And mostly, the way it happens is just lovely. I have post, sitting here in my drafts folder, written on New Years Eve, 2011. About the year past, the people we lost, and the people we welcomed into our life. And about our journey.

So we look to 2012. Perhaps their will be less extremes this year. Perhaps their will be more. We have already scheduled 3 weddings and there are 4 new babies expected. We already know we have a journey ahead, down a well worn path, unfamiliar to us, but known to many others. We fear our first steps, the acceptance that this is our path, the road to the conception of our own child. Fertility is assumed. Considered your birthright as a woman. Until one day, you realise it may not be.

I think in the end, 2012 held more extremes. But different ones. Sadness, yes, that was there, especially at the start. Remembering those lost, and those not yet found. Then happiness, like I had never known, at the birth of my most beautiful niece, Harrie. She was, and still is, an absolute delight, and I treasure the time I spend with her. Then hope, in the form of specialists, appointments made with both medical and natural specialists in the field of fertility. Then sickness, so sick, for so long, and worry and fear and joy and delight and excitement, and most of all... Love. Because this is what New Years Eve 2012 looked like.

Our beautiful son was just 3 days old on New Years Eve 2012. Conceived naturally (though we had been following lots of advice from this website, and in fact had our first appointment with them the day before we found out we were pregnant. I continued with acupuncture throughout my pregnancy, and I highly recommend both Nat and Lucy at The Pagoda Tree.)

Otis will be 6 months next week, and all the cliches really are right, time flies when you're having fun.

I hope that blogging might become part of my life now, but hey...no promises!