Ugh. Valentine’s Day…another rough day for many infertile couples.

Sure you can have a romantic night alone. But too often, the “alone” part takes the “romantic” part away.

Enough of the alone time. Don’t you want to scream “I love you honey, but I really just want a snotty, crying, feverish baby to keep me up all night instead!”

It doesn’t help when you have to listen to your friends with kids complain how they don’t want to stay home with their little ones and can’t wait til the sitter arrives tonight so they can toast each other over a peaceful candlelight meal. Especially when you’d like nothing more than to have a kid hanging on your neck as you pay the Dominos delivery guy.

You can’t win. You don’t have the kids yet. And the emotional and financial stresses of infertility take the romance out of your time alone. So what do you do?

Well, you can take VD to the extreme and get all silly about it. Over-do it. Do the candy, the flowers, the candles, the rose petals, the satin sheets…the whole, cheesy cliché of it. And then laugh at yourselves. You know the laugh I’m talking about? “Your” laugh. It’s that special thing between you where one can just look at the other and you laugh uncontrollably.

Or you can do the opposite. Anti-Valentine’s Day. Defy it. No card or gift. No succumbing to the pressure of Hallmark’s holiday. Save a rose garden somewhere by rejecting flowers.

I practiced my own version of extreme defiance of all things traditionally Valentine-y today.

First, I ran 80 errands for the benefit of people other than me. Then…are you ready for this one?…I had my annual GYN exam. Oh yeah, baby. I know how to defy pleasure and romance. He hands me the Rx.“Why Doctor, is that a love note for me? Oooo, a mammogram, water sono, and endometrial biopsy?” [I blush] You know just what I need!”

Top it off with a solo run through the golden arches for lunch. Nothing says Valentine’s lunch like a Big Mac meal.

And the big finale for the evening: I invited my mother-in-law for dinner.

True that.

Bet your day’s looking better already. No need to thank me.

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So, what are YOUR Valentine’s Day plans?

Photo credit: http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=5174&picture=valentine-decoration