The Two Week Wait Challenge

Trying to conceive is an exciting (read: excruciating) time in women's lives, but there is no more daunting a task during her cycle than the two week wait. It's a time when wanna-be mommas can find themselves anxious and emotionally wrecked. Enter The Two Week Wait Challenge: a handy guide to navigating the time between potential conception and the day you're able to test for pregnancy. Chock-full for easy, inexpensive self-care practices and positive affirmations, the challenge encourages women to take time for themselves (while simultaneously speeding up the 14 days) and allows their partners to be a part of the process in a loving, supportive way. Add a dash of sass and humor to help you survive and you've got a recipe for a successful (less painful) two week wait.

A memorable and moving page-turner about two very different women, each yearning to create a family of her own What if the thing you most longed for was resting on a two week wait? From the author of the international bestselling One Moment, One Morning, comes a moving portrait about what it truly means to be a family. After a health scare, Brighton-based Lou is forced to confront the fact that her time to have a baby is running out. She can't imagine a future without children, but her partner doesn't seem to feel the same way, and she's not sure whether she could go it alone. Meanwhile, in Yorkshire, Cath is longing to start a family with her husband, Rich. No one would be happier to have children than Rich, but Cath is infertile. Could these strangers help one another? With her deft exploration of raw emotions and her celebration of the joy and resilience of friendship, The Two Week Wait is Sarah Rayner at her best.

After a health scare, Brighton-based Lou is forced to confront the fact that her time to have a baby is running out. She can't imagine a future without children, but her partner doesn't seem to feel the same way, and she's not sure whether she could go it alone. Meanwhile, up in Yorkshire, Cath is longing to start a family with her husband, Rich. No one would be happier to have a child than Rich, but Cath is infertile. Could these strangers help one another out? Combining Sarah Rayner's deft exploration of raw emotions with the joy and resilience of friendship, The Two Week Wait is a memorable, moving page-turner about two very different women, each yearning to create a family of her own. Praise for One Moment, One Morning: 'A real page-turner . . . You'll want to inhale it in one breath' Easy Living 'An intimate, thoughtful novel celebrating women's friendship and loyalty' Waterstone's Books Quarterly 'A great, quirky must-read' Red 'Delicious, big-hearted, utterly addictive . . . irresistible' Marie Claire

Dear Sexy AF Intern, I know you don't particularly care that I'm the CEO of this company, and you're just an intern. I also know you're not impressed by my power or my wealth, and that's fine. You think you've got me all figured out from working alongside me for two weeks, but you don't know me. Not really. You don't know that I'm a single dad to twin toddlers, or that those two little girls matter more to me than this entire hotel chain. I'm not interested in starting something deep and meaningful, but what I am interested in is the way your body reacts to mine when we're in the same room. You probably assume the concentration on my face is work-related, when in reality, I'm figuring out which I want more--to nail you against the wall, or to bend you over my desk. While you're too disciplined to act on it, I'm not. And the night you stepped into my limo, all bets were off.

An original graphic novel based on the IVF stories of its husband-and-wife authors and the 1-in-50 couples around the world like them. Conrad and Joanne met in their final year of university and have been virtually inseparable since then. For a while, it felt like they had all the time in the world. Yet now, when they are finally ready to have kids, they find that getting pregnant isn’t always so easy. Ahead of them lies a difficult, expensive, and emotional journey into the world of assisted fertility, where each ‘successful’ implantation is followed by a two-week wait to see if the pregnancy takes. Join Joanne and Conrad, their friends, their family, their coworkers, and a stream of expert medical practitioners as they experience the highs and the lows, the tears and the laughter in this sensitive but unflinching portrayal of the hope and heartbreak offered to so many by modern medicine.

For the last two decades, Jane has been trying for a baby. She knows all about surviving the agonising two-week wait between ovulation and test. Increasingly desperate, Jane opens her laptop, clicks, 'TWW Forum: New Thread', and types. 'Anyone else starting their two-week wait? Shall we wait it out together?'

It's a privilege to be a woman. Gifted with the ability to procreate, she stands apart. Being able to carry a child and become a mother is a dream for most women. When dreams don’t become realities, life seems meaningless. Using her own journey, Neena George in her memoir Just a Miracle – My Tryst with Infertility shares the roller-coaster ride she endured. She aims to bridge the literary gap about the associated stigma, societal pressures and emotional trauma which are hardly talked about. The book provides stress relief, support, hope and even encourages the reader to cling on to life, faith and love, especially when you’re at a cross-road and the end seems too far. Her experiences give an insight not only into the strategies to effectively handle infertility, but also any situation in life across the barriers of age, gender and background. The journey would resonate with many, make them understand how fortunate they are and would highlight the importance of being more empathetic and sensitive to others facing challenges. Rising like a phoenix each time she hit a roadblock, forms an integral part of her narrative. The book concludes with many learnings and takeaways. You’re sure to draw inspiration to pursue your dreams with rock-solid determination and faith despite all odds. It’s all about understanding your potential and empowering yourself to handle situations. After all, everything is just a mind game.

A brilliant exploration of the natural, medical, psychological, and political facets of fertility When Belle Boggs's "The Art of Waiting" was published in Orion in 2012, it went viral, leading to republication in Harper's Magazine, an interview on NPR's The Diane Rehm Show, and a spot at the intersection of "highbrow" and "brilliant" in New York magazine's "Approval Matrix." In that heartbreaking essay, Boggs eloquently recounts her realization that she might never be able to conceive. She searches the apparently fertile world around her--the emergence of thirteen-year cicadas, the birth of eaglets near her rural home, and an unusual gorilla pregnancy at a local zoo--for signs that she is not alone. Boggs also explores other aspects of fertility and infertility: the way longing for a child plays out in the classic Coen brothers film Raising Arizona; the depiction of childlessness in literature, from Macbeth to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; the financial and legal complications that accompany alternative means of family making; the private and public expressions of iconic writers grappling with motherhood and fertility. She reports, with great empathy, complex stories of couples who adopted domestically and from overseas, LGBT couples considering assisted reproduction and surrogacy, and women and men reflecting on childless or child-free lives. In The Art of Waiting, Boggs deftly distills her time of waiting into an expansive contemplation of fertility, choice, and the many possible roads to making a life and making a family.