The fabulous Jessie Faryar with her son Clark (4) and daughter Mollie (1). Jessie is married to a lovely woman, Roxanne, so she conceived each of her children non-traditionally. She tried 6 rounds of Clomid before switching to Femara and she conceived on the first round with her 4th IUI attempt. She had a healthy pregnancy and knew right away that Clark was a boy. Her water broke on his due date but labor didn't start. She went into the hospital and 24 hours or so later they wanted to put an internal monitor on his head. Jessie allowed it because she didn't realize and wasn't told that it actually goes into the scalp and never would have allowed it had she known. 12 hours later he was born after about 36 hours of labor and Jessie says it was the best moment of her life. She felt like the world stopped and the two of them were the only ones in it. When he was about 8 months old they learned that he was delayed and while lots of people wanted to treat it with therapy they never wanted to help them find out why. They ran some tests and eventually decided to test for Muscular Dystrophy which was negative and most recently have been trying to verify whether or not he has cerebral palsy. He's been attending a developmental preschool and doing so well.
Jessie was able to conceive Mollie at home without the help of fertility drugs. Roxanne inseminated her and she got pregnant right away. She had a bit of more difficult pregnancy this time and was induced at 41 weeks 2 days. She used midwives this time and had an entirely different experience. Mollie was born in the caul and Roxanne was able to catch her after just 5 hours of labor. Jessie says that immediately after she was born she's had postpartum depression and this year has been incredibly hard. The moment she was placed on her chest she didn't know who she was or who her daughter was and is still haunted by that moment. She's been taking meds and trying to suck it up and do what she has to but feels like she's been a bad mom to Clark this passed year. She pushed him to wean near the end of her pregnancy with Mollie and then tandem nursed for 2 months but felt touched out and needed to stop. She doesn't know if it's the end of his weaning or transitioning from one to two but she's been in a dark place that she feels she's just starting to come out of. Mollie is still nursing wonderfully and Jessie is starting to feel a little better mentally.
Jessie wants to help show other moms that we're all the same in so many ways, she's a beautiful woman and mother and it was an absolute honor to take her picture.