If I were a kitten, I would ride the Roomba.

I am kind of attracted to the idea of being a kitten. I think I'd be a grey tabby. Short-haired.

Also questioning the doctor/clinic who transferred that many embryos, if that is actually the way it happened.

There are too many variables and unknowns to us. We're operating on the assumption that it was indeed IVF (which is spendy and requires lots of doctory intervention) and not other fertility treatments. Since they never disclosed to Kaiser where the treatments occurred, we are also assuming it happened in the US.

And I think lack of disclosure is (1) weird and the fact that Kaiser didn't press was also (2) fucked up.

I guess what I'm saying is that I doubt that it was actually IVF at all. From my recollection and that of others who have had the treatment, to harvest 8 eggs would be unusual.

Why are the kittens riding the Roomba?

Because the dog fell off?

Sometimes I don't know why I watch tennis. Especially when I'm sure my man won't win. As I usually am. And there's no way I even recorded the whole thing, at the rate this is going. It's been an hour and they haven't finished the first set yet.

yeah, my grandfather was one of 12 because his apparently lazy dad (what I've been told, not my opinion) wanted continuous farm labor. I still think it's irresponsible given the amount of kids in the world that need parents, given the overpopulation of the planet, and if you are asking for government assistance.

plays paddy-cake with Amy.

Why are the kittens riding the Roomba?

I'm guessing a human intervened by putting all the kittens on the Roomba first. Note that as each kitten falls off the Roomba, it does not attempt to get back on.

I mean, sure, this is progress, but the world really need more cats who intentionally ride Roombas.

Even if it wasn't IVF, the process is (or should be) monitored. With IUF, they give you a sonogram to determine how many follicals are going to produce an egg before fertilizing. If that many eggs were going to be produced, a doctor could advise to skip that fertility cycle or not fertilize.

I have nothing against big families--I come from one. If a person wants 14 kids, have at it. But having 8 at once is dangerous for everyone and it's just a stupid thing to do.

I'll bring cookies, msbelle!

Even if it wasn't IVF, the process is (or should be) monitored.

No. Of course it should be monitored. But it is not uncommon at all that it isn't. In fact, it's extremely easy to get fertility meds online without a prescription at all and in fact, some of the fertility meds are also commonly used illegal steroids in the sports realm.

I guess, I don't assume that a US reproductive endocrinologist was involved at all.

And I guess I'm also done writing about this. As someone who went through almost half a decade of fertility treatments, I feel like I know some of this stuff authoritatively and I'm interested but it's too close to home. And as someone, at least through legal papers, who looks like a single mom who spent a long time in clinics and didn't have a particularly successful pregnancy possibly due to fertility treatment, I'm all too aware of how the parenting choices of myself and my friends, both here and elsewhere, could just as easily be attacked from people who don't know.

My grandma was one of 12. She was another Irish Catholic farmer's daughter born in 1900, so the fact that 11 of them made it into adulthood was quite a feat (one of her sisters died at age 12).

Apropos of pretty much nothing (well, except "Does that seem right to you?"): I only this year realized that Jubal Early was a real person.

He was the Confederate general in charge of invading Washington DC mid-war. His advance was too late in the day to be effective, though, as it was fought back by reserves who arrived in time to save the day. One of those Union reservists was Elisha Hunt Rhodes, prominently featured in the Ken Burns' documentary, and his diary entry for the day was rather pithy: "Early should have attacked early in the morning. Early was late."

some people really want a large family.

People want all kinds of things. When getting what they want will permanently affect the lives of at least 14 other human beings... I'm not sure their personal self-fulfillment should be the deciding factor.

And if it is, maybe my own self-fulfillment requires me to judge them as incredibly selfish.