Love Song for Baby X: How I Stayed (Almost) Sane on the Rocky Road to Parenthood

Winner of the 2008 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize, Cheryl Dumesnil is the author of In Praise of Falling, editor of Hitched! Wedding Stories from San Francisco City Hall, and co-editor, with Kim Addonizio, of Dorothy Parker's Elbow: Tattoos on Writers, Writers on Tattoos. Her poems have appeared in Nimrod, Indiana Review, Calyx, and Many Mountains Moving, among other literary magazines. Her essays have appeared on literarymama.com, hipmama.com, mamazine.com and in Hip Mama Zine. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her wife and their two sons.

A lesbian couple's struggles with infertility as they attempt to become parents, set within the marriage equality movement.

Chapter 1: Prelude Chapter 2: First Comes Love Chapter 3: On Genetic Selection, Nitrogen Tanks, and Defrosting Sperm 20 Chapter 4: The Waiting Game 29Chapter 5: Count Your Blessings Chapter 6: Love Song for Baby X Chapter 7: Every Death Chapter 8: The Pregnant Woman as Tippi Hedren in The Birds Chapter 9: Progesterone Blues Chapter 10: Reprieve Chapter 11: The Worst Possible News Chapter 12: A Two-Woman Funeral Procession Chapter 13: Ex Utero: A Postpartum Notebook Chapter 14: Missing Chapter 15: This Waiting Season Chapter 16: Love Song for Baby #2 Chapter 17: River of Alligators Chapter 18: Natural Selection Chapter 19: Escape Chapter 20: The Girls' Club Chapter 21: The Numbers Game Chapter 22: Love Song for Baby #3 Chapter 23: Nemesis Chapter 24: Runaway Rabbit Chapter 25: Brightly Feathered Wings Chapter 26: Six Reasons to Like Dr. Lee Chapter 27: Now Leaving the Year of Death Chapter 28: The Pregoholic Admits She Has a Problem Chapter 29: Outsourcing Hope Chapter 30: Then Comes Marriage Chapter 31: Lesbians Don't Have Surprise Pregnancies Chapter 32: Hello Maybe Chapter 33: Shotgun Wedding Chapter 34: Because That's What Parents Do Chapter 35: The Flying Leap Chapter 36: Love Song for a Maybe Chapter 37: Ready for My Close-Up Chapter 38: Encore Chapter 39: Love Song for Baby #4 Chapter 40: On Divinity, Shit, and Vomit Chapter 41: Ready, Set, Wait Chapter 42: Crescendo Chapter 43: Coming Home Epilogue: 2007